Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 Right Now | A Work in Progress The Teen Brain by Debra Bradley Ruder September-October 2008 Courtesy of Paul Thompson / UCLA School Of Medicine Your teenage daughter gets top marks in school, captains the debate team, and volunteers at a shelter for homeless people. But while driving the family car, she text-messages her best friend and rear-ends another […]
Caleb was in the sixth grade and struggled with reading and writing assignments. He had great difficulty sitting still, paying attention during instruction, and completing work within defined deadlines… Dr. Bose Ravenel recommended sharp restrictions in Caleb’s exposure to television and video games along with dietary modifications that included virtually eliminating refined carbohydrates, increasing protein consumption, and omega-3 fatty acid supplements. Two months later, his parents noted that […]
Daniel Carlat on The Trouble With Psychiatry
We speak with research psychologists and a language teacher about how kids acquire second, third or fourth languages and how it helps.
About fifteen years ago, Harvard researcher Howard Gardner wrote a book called Frames of Mind that challenged the common belief that people are born with a fixed intelligence that can only be discovered through IQ tests. Instead, Gardner said, there are at least seven distinct ways of being smart, and one can discover these ways by examining how people solve real problems and create meaningful products. These intelligences […]
A recent study suggests that kids with hyperactive or aggressive traits may improve their behaviors if they engage in regular vigorous physical education. Hugh Stevenson, track and cross country coach at U.S. International University in San Diego, reported on efforts to improve physical education programs for children: ” We’re already seeing effects, especially on hyperactive, aggressive kids…Students who ran and participated in jumping or field excercises, for forthy […]
Millions of parents and teachers have been enchanted into believing in the existence of a discrete psychiatric illness called “attention deficit disorder” that supposedly afflicts millions of American children…[In fact] these children are not disordered and A.D.D. does not exist. They may have a different style of thinking, attending, and behaving, but it’s the broader social and educational influences that create the disorder, not the children. These children […]
The collision between short-attention-span kids and life-in-the-slow-lane adults is particularly evident in our schools. Here, students must often sit at desks for hours at a time, listening to monotone lectures, and going over textbook and worksheet material that is presented – not like MTV – but like MTB (Material That’s Boring). Kids who are labeled A.D.D. have a particularly rough time in such environments. Studies suggest that “A.D.D. […]
It’s well-known among researchers of the gifted, talented and creative that these individuals exhibit greater intensity and increased levels of emotional, imaginational, intellectual, sensual and psycho-motor excitability and that this is a normal pattern of development. These characteristics, however, are frequently perceived by psychotherapists and others as evidence of a mental disturbance….ADHD and ADD are a few of the diagnostic labels mistakenly used… When working with the gifted, […]
