Boardash: Parents for Friday October 2, 2009

Friday, October 2, 2009

Parents for Friday October 2, 2009

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Parents
For You
Friday October 2, 2009

Unused language not lost to memory
Bubbles minimize flu shot fussing
Low-income parents prone to depression
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Unused language not lost to memory

BRISTOL, England (UPI) -- Vestiges of unused foreign languages learned as children may be deeply embedded in people's memory banks, British researchers say.

Many children who learn a foreign language may believe they have no recollection of the neglected language.

However, researchers at the University of Bristol say study participants who had learned Hindi and Zulu as children living abroad could remember phonemes -- the smallest sounds in a language.

The study participants did not recognize vocabulary words, but they were able to quickly relearn and correctly identify vocabulary tests phonemes the researchers say would have been difficult for native English speakers to recognize.

The findings, published in Psychological Science, suggest being exposed as young children to foreign languages, even if they do not continue to speak them, can have a lasting impact on speech perception.

"Even if the language is forgotten -- or feels this way -- after many years of disuse, leftover traces of the early exposure can manifest themselves as an improved ability to relearn the language," the study authors said in a statement.

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Bubbles minimize flu shot fussing

LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Bringing soap bubbles is a way parents can help minimize flu shot fussing, a U.S. child pain expert advises.

The parents blow bubbles during the injections, suggesting they are "blowing away the hurt." With a crying infant, if the parent places the plastic bubble maker in front of the child's mouth, as the children cry out they will make bubbles.

"I have seen babies stop crying mid-cry because they were distracted by the bubbles," Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer, director of the Pediatric Pain Program at Mattel Children's Hospital, University of California, Los Angeles, says in a statement.

Parents can help an older child relax and breathe out by asking them to pretend they are blowing up a balloon or using their imagination to experience being somewhere else, such as at the park or the beach. Other distraction ideas include jokes, video games, stories and music.

"Finally, do not lie to your child about getting an injection," says Zeltzer. "No one likes to get poked with a needle, but if you reassure your child that there are ways to make the hurt go away, then you can help them achieve a successful, less painful experience."

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Low-income parents prone to depression

MINNEAPOLIS (UPI) -- Parents in low-income environments, especially in rural regions, are more prone to depression if they lack social support, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Kansas State University and University of Wisconsin in Madison examined the relationships among family income, social support, parental depression and parenting in 290 predominantly rural families with children at risk for disruptive or socially withdrawn behaviors.

Structural equation modeling and multiple regression were used, and the results showed that low-family income was related to high levels of parental depression, which in turn were associated with disruptive parenting.

The findings, published in the journal Family Relations, also showed that social support mediated the adverse relationship between low-family income and parental depression. Social support was directly related to positive parenting and indirectly related to parent-child relational frustration through parental depression, the study says.

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