Television can help children with language, researchers find

The following article was published by by: Natasha Bita, Consumer Editor, in the The Australian on November 12, 201112:00AM. The heading implies that TV helps children, which is a simplistic view. The study actually reinforces what educators already know--parental involvement is the key to success. I have highlighted the key points of the research. So let the children watch TV, but watch with them, discuss what they see and read to them so they will have a better chance at school and life.

TOO much TV does not "dumb down" young children but can improve their language, researchers have concluded in a landmark study of the first generation of "digital natives".

The research, based on data from the federal government's longitudinal study of Australian children, questions the conventional wisdom that TV hinders children's learning.

While it links console games to "lower linguistic abilities,” the study concludes that computer usage improves children's literacy skills as they grow older.

The first generation of children immersed in new media -- known as "digital natives" -- benefit as much from using computers as they do from reading books.

"Computers seem to aid literacy, especially as children get older," lead author Michael Bittman, of the University of New England's school of behavioural, cognitive and social sciences, said yesterday.

Professor Bittman said the research conflicted with conventional advice to keep toddlers away from the TV. "All the literature indicated that, and the American Paediatrics Association advice is, don't use any television when the child is under two," he said.

"It was regarded a bit like sunlight and skin cancer -- they said that if you get a lot of TV it inhibits your print literacy.

"But what comes out of our study is that it's the parenting that makes the difference."

The researchers discovered that toddlers with a TV in their bedroom had a poorer vocabulary by the age of four. "Co-viewing, in contrast, is associated with better vocabulary," they conclude in their paper, prepared for the Journal of Education and due to be presented at the Growing Up in Australia conference in Melbourne next week. "Our findings indicate that among preschoolers, perhaps, any dose of media is safe provided the protective factors . . . are all in place."

Those "protective factors" included a stimulating home environment, sufficient family income and parental conversation and supervision.

"The children most at risk of delayed language acquisition are those from low socioeconomic backgrounds whose parents are not involved in their child's use of media," the paper says.

The researchers found that children with a computer in the home had a "better mastery of vocabulary" at the age of eight.

But the old-fashioned bedtime story still has the most influence over a child's success at school.

"Our results suggest that attention should be paid to encouraging the child's use of the oldest media of all -- print -- as this is closely associated with receptive vocabulary at age four years," the study says.

Professor Bittman said the research found that TV inhibited language and literacy development if children had a TV in their bedroom. "There is no support for the electronic babysitter," he said.

UK must rethink its unfailing support for Canada's fossil fuels

Steven Harper continues to reshape Canadas image in the world.

The Canadian government's desperate responses to tar sands opposition should be a cue for Britain to stop doing its bidding in Europe. This waspPosted on  16 January 2012 16.46 GM in the Guardian written by Kelly Rigg

If it's true that desperate times call for desperate measures, the Canadian government is acting like a junkie in need of a fix.

As public hearings on the proposed Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline proposal got underway in British Columbia last week, natural resources minister, Joe Oliver, lashed out at "environmental and other radical groups" and "jet-setting celebrities." In an open letter, he accused them of being the stooges of foreign special-interest groups, opposing tar sands development in order to undermine Canada's national economic interest.

The letter was so far off the mark, one can only conclude that the government is becoming unhinged over the growing opposition to tar sands development. This should be a cue for Britain to reconsider its unfailing support for Canada on this issue in the European context.

To read more go here\

I find it difficult to believe that people believe that Enbridge will be in a position to safegurard the lands they pass through. On Monday morning on CBC Rafe Mair raised the fact that there is an oil spill on average every two years along the BC coast, and that is without the new tankers that will come as a result of thenew pipeline.  The following story about how Enbridg has worked with the First Nations in the north bears some reading.

How Enbridge Sawed Off Good Relations with BC First Nations ()for the full story click on the link)

Killing Haisla's sacred trees just one way firm has undercut dealings with aboriginals on Pacific Gateway route.

By Geoff Dembicki, Today, TheTyee.ca posted Monday January 16th

More than five years ago, in a patch of coastal rainforest not far from the mouth of the Kitimat River, what was supposed to have been a quiet land survey turned into a public relations nightmare. 

The purpose of the survey was to scout locations for an upland terminal and tank farm site, part of the infrastructure needed to stretch a 1,172 kilometre steel pipeline from Alberta's booming oil sands to B.C.'s ragged north coast.

The Calgary-based pipeline company Enbridge had contracted the job to an international engineering and consulting firm named AMEC, which, in 2006, sent survey members into old-growth forest dense with Sitka spruce and Western red cedar.

Covered by thick moss and ferns, this area, about 700 kilometres north of Vancouver, is literally a living museum of First Nations history.

Scattered throughout the forest are deeply notched tree trunks where Haisla peoples once stripped bark for their baskets, or took planks to build their homes.

Carbon-date these culturally modified trees, Haisla leaders say, and you can establish native land claims dating back hundreds, even thousands, of years.

 

Sometime during their expedition, AMEC workers chopped down 14 of these trees, irreplaceable artefacts in a culture largely built on oral histories. (A company spokesperson declined to explain why.).....

What followed over the next five years was a blueprint for how not to engage with native communities, an incident that to this day remains unresolved.

The picture that emerges, and from several milestones like it, is a decade-long First Nations consultation process fraught with errors and missteps. 

And with historic public hearings on the $5.5 billion Northern Gateway pipeline just begun last week on Haisla territory, some observers think Enbridge may be in a much more precarious legal position than most people are aware.  

Boomer Health: Less red meat is healthier

A study of 200,000 men and women ages 25 to 75 found that replacing just one serving of red meat a day with either nuts, grains or low-fat dairy lowered the risk of type 2 diabetes by about 20 percent. Conversely, eating just one hot dog or sausage or two strips of bacon daily increased the risk for diabetes by 51 percent.

 Source  AARP

Creekside: Six Degrees of Separation

 In an earlier post I pointe out how the Harper government is using the rules of disinformation to cloud the issues around the pipeline debate. There is a great post over at
Creekside: Six Degrees of Separation, which shows the connections between some of the main players and  how the forces of evil are connected and how they are tryng to mislead the Canadian public. Well worth a look.