How to learn a language like a baby

Kateřina Chládková, Charles University; Šárka Šimáčková, Palacky University Olomouc, and Václav Jonáš Podlipský, Palacky University Olomouc

Learning a new language later in life can be a frustrating, almost paradoxical experience. On paper, our more mature and experienced adult brains should make learning easier, yet it is illiterate toddlers who acquire languages with apparent ease, not adults.

Babies start their language-learning journey in the womb. Once their ears and brains allow it, they tune into the rhythm and melody of speech audible through the belly. Within months of birth, they start parsing continuous speech into chunks and learning how words sound. By the time they crawl, they realise that many speech chunks label things around them. It takes over a year of listening and observing before children say their first words, with reading and writing coming much later.

However, for adults learning a foreign language, the process is typically reversed. They start by learning words, often from print, and try to pronounce them before grasping the language’s overall sound.

Tuning in to a new language

Our new study shows that adults can quickly pick up on the melodic and rhythmic patterns of a completely novel language. It confirms that the relevant native-language acquisition mechanism remains intact in the adult brain.

In our experiment, 174 Czech adults listened to 5 minutes of Māori, a language they had never heard. They were then tested on new audio clips from either Māori or Malay – another unfamiliar but similar language – and asked to say if they were hearing the same language as before or not.

The test phrases were acoustically filtered to mimic speech heard in the womb. This preserved melody and rhythm, but removed the frequencies higher than 900 Hz which contain consonant and vowel detail.

Listeners correctly distinguished the languages more often than not, showing that even very brief exposure was enough for them to implicitly grasp a language’s melodic and rhythmic patterns, much like babies do.

However, during the exposure phase, only one group of participants simply listened – three other groups listened while reading subtitles. The subtitles were either in the original Māori spelling where speech sounds consistently map onto specific letters (similar to Spanish), altered to reduce sound-letter correspondence (like in English, for example “sight”, “site”, “cite”), or they were transliterated to a script unknown to any of the participants (Hebrew).

The results showed that reading alphabetic spellings actually hampered the adults’ sensitisation to the overall melody and rhythm of the novel language, reducing their test performance. As complete beginners, the participants were able to learn more Māori without textual aids of any kind.

Initial illiteracy helps learning

Our research builds on previous studies, which have found that spelling can interfere with how learners pronounce individual vowels and consonants of a non-native language. Examples among learners of English include Italian learners lengthening double letters, or Spaniards confusing words like “sheep” and “ship” due to how “i” and “e” are read in Spanish.

Our study shows that spelling can even hinder our natural ability to listen to speech melody and rhythm. Experts looking for ways to reawaken adults’ language-learning capabilities should therefore consider the potentially negative impact of premature exposure to alphabetic spelling in a foreign language.

Early studies have proposed that a putative “sensitive period” for acquiring the sound patterns of a language ends around age 6. Not coincidentally, this is the age when many children learn to read. There is also research on infants that shows that starting with the global features of speech, such as its melody and rhythm, serves as a gateway to other levels of the native language.

A reversed approach to language learning – one that begins with written forms – may indeed undercut adults’ sensitisation to the melody and rhythm of a foreign language. It affects their ability to perceive and produce speech fluently and, by extension, other linguistic competences like grammar and vocabulary usage.

A study with first- and third-graders confirms that illiterate children learn a new language differently from literate children. Non-readers were much better at learning which article went with which noun (like in the Italian “il bambino” or “la bambina”) than at learning individual nouns. In contrast, readers’ learning was influenced by the written form, which puts a space between articles and nouns.

Learn like a baby

Listening without reading letters may help us to stop focusing on individual vowels, consonants and separate words, and instead absorb the overall flow of a language much like infants do. Our research suggests that adult learners might benefit from adopting a more auditory-focused approach – engaging with spoken language first before introducing reading and writing.

The implications for language teaching are significant. Traditional methods often place a heavy emphasis on reading and writing early on, but a shift toward immersive listening experiences could accelerate spoken proficiency.

Language learners and educators alike should therefore consider adjusting their methods. This means tuning in to conversations, podcasts, and native speech from the earliest stage of language learning, and not immediately seeking out the written word.

Kateřina Chládková, Assistant professor, Charles University; Šárka Šimáčková, assistant professor, Palacky University Olomouc, and Václav Jonáš Podlipský, Assistant Professor of English Phonetics, Palacky University Olomouc

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Children in need of ‘rescuing’: challenging the myths at the heart of the global adoption industry

Samara Kim, Southern Cross University; Kathomi Gatwiri, Southern Cross University, and Lynne McPherson, Southern Cross University

Korean adoptees worldwide are grappling with a devastating possibility: they were not truly orphans, but may have been made into orphans.

For decades, adoptees were told they were “abandoned”, “rescued” or “unwanted”. Many were told their Korean families were too “poor” or “incapable” to raise them – and they should only ever feel grateful for being adopted.

But these long-held stories are now under scrutiny.

Our recent research interrogates the narratives that have obscured the darker realities of intercountry adoption. Rather than viewing adoption solely through the lens of “rescue”, our work examines the broader power structures that facilitated the mass migration of Korean children to western countries, including Australia.

South Korea’s reckoning with its adoption history

In March, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its preliminary findings after collecting records and testimony from a coalition of overseas Korean adoptee-led organisations (including the Australia–US Korean Rights Group).

The preliminary report revealed a disturbing pattern of human rights violations in the country’s adoption industry, including:

• forced relinquishments
• falsified records
• babies switched at adoption
• inadequate screening processes, and
• deep-rooted institutional corruption.
  

The commission’s chair described finding

serious violations of the rights of adoptees, their biological parents – particularly Korean single mothers – and others involved. These violations should never have occurred.

The commission is expected to release its final report soon, but due to the upcoming presidential election and political uncertainty in South Korea, the timeline remains unclear.

Chilling cases

This is not the first time intercountry adoption has made headlines for irregularities, human rights abuses, or illicit and illegal practices.

While Australia was expanding the number of children for intercountry adoption from South Korea in the 1980s, Park In-keun – director of South Korea’s infamous Brothers Home, an illegal detention facility that sent children overseas for adoption – was arrested for embezzlement and illegal confinement.

He was ultimately acquitted of the most serious charges in South Korea before escaping to Australia. He was then charged again in 2014 for embezzlement, including government subsidies and wages of inmates forced into slave labour in South Korea. He died two years later.

Other allegations of human rights violations and abuses came to light around the same time with the arrest of Julie Chu.

She was accused of facilitating a “baby export” syndicate. Children were believed to have been kidnapped from Taiwan to send to Western countries, including Australia, in the 1970s and 80s. She was convicted of forgery, but denied being involved in trafficking.

Since then, other cases have continued to emerge involving countries such as Chile, Sri Lanka, India, Ethiopia and Guatemala.

What is the adoption industrial complex?

Intercountry adoption is not just a social practice. It’s also an economic and political system sometimes known as the transnational adoption industrial complex.

This network of organisations, institutions, government policies and financial systems created a globalised adoption economy worth billions of dollars. According to numerous investigations, Western nations, as “receiving” countries, drove the demand for the continuous sourcing of children.

As Park Geon-Tae, a senior investigator with South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said:

To put it simply, there was supply because there was demand.

Australia received an estimated 3,600 Korean children from the 1970s to the present, as part of more than 10,000 intercountry adoptions.

Prospective parents typically paid between US$4,500 and $5,000 to facilitate acquiring a child in Australia in the 1980s, equivalent to A$21,000 today.

Since colonisation, Australia has had a long and painful history of child removal. From the Stolen Generations involving First Nations children to the forced adoption of children born to unwed mothers, child separation has been deeply embedded in the nation’s social policy.

While national apologies have acknowledged the irreparable harms caused by these policies, the same ideologies and structures were repurposed as the blueprint for intercountry adoption.

In recent years, other western nations, such as Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, have begun to investigate their own roles in the intercountry adoption industry. These nations have either suspended their adoption programs, issued formal apologies or launched formal investigations.

Thus far, Australia and the United States have not.

Challenging the ‘rescue’ myth

Intercountry adoption has long been framed as a humanitarian act. The central idea was that children needed “rescuing” and any life in a Western country would be “better” than one with their families in their home country.

Many adoptees and their original families were expected to just move on or be grateful for being “saved”.

However, research shows this gratitude narrative disregards the deep trauma caused by forced separation.

Studies have reported that adoptees experience lifelong ruptures due to cultural, familial and ancestral displacement. Forced assimilation makes reconnection with family and culture complex or nearly impossible.

Many intercountry adoptees have also voiced concerns about abuse, violence and mistreatment in adoptive homes.

Questioning the ‘orphan crisis’ myth

The myth of a global orphan crisis has also been a powerful driver of intercountry adoption.

Adoption groups often reference outdated UNICEF estimates that there are 150 million orphans globally. However, this figure obscures the fact most of the children classified as “orphans” are children of single parents, or children currently living in homes with extended family or other caregivers.

This was the case in South Korea. Most children sent for adoption were not true orphans, but children who had at least one parent or extended family they could have stayed with if they were adequately supported.

The belief that millions of children of single parents were “orphans” in need of “rescue” was used to justify calls for faster, less regulated adoptions.

Labelling these children as “orphans” also helped attract millions of dollars in philanthropic donations. However, donors were rarely interested in supporting children to stay with their families and communities in their home countries.

Instead, the focus was often on removing and migrating them for the purpose of intercountry adoption.

The question then emerges: was this about finding families for babies or finding babies for Western families?

Samara Kim, PhD Candidate & Researcher, Southern Cross University; Kathomi Gatwiri, Associate Professor, Southern Cross University, and Lynne McPherson, Associate Professor, Southern Cross University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Girl Joins Mensa at 13 After Scoring Higher Than Albert Einstein–Even with No Exam Prep

SWNS

A 13-year-old girl has been invited to join the Mensa society after getting the maximum score on the IQ test—higher than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Sofia Kot Arcuri has been accepted into the club after achieving 162, the highest possible score for a girl of her age.

Proud mom Cecylia Kot Arcuri said she always knew Sofia was smart, but didn’t expect her to ace the test without any preparatory work.

“She just walks around throwing random facts at you,” Mrs. Arcuri said, adding that she has been top of her class from the moment she started school. “When you think of someone of high intelligence, you’d think they’d be quite geeky, but really, she’s a normal girl.”

“She’s got loads of friends, is bubbly, and loved by everyone.”

The Mensa High-IQ Society has been around for over 100 years, and focuses on welcoming those extremely gifted minds among us into a space of collaboration and camaraderie. The American chapter of Mensa boasts 50,000 members of the over 150,000, located in 90+ countries worldwide.

Isaac Asimov, Commander Chris Hadfield, Steve Martin, and John McAfee were all members of Mensa, along with the inventor of the mobile phone and author of The Clan of the Cave Bear novels.

Due to Sofia’s intense workload from school, she “didn’t have time to prepare” for the Mensa test in January, and hadn’t practiced any Mensa tests prior to the big day.

Her mother said she was over the moon after receiving her results on March 14th.

Sofia is top of her class in computer science and wants to pursue a career in coding when she grows up.

“She came home one day and said, ‘there was a bug the teacher didn’t even know how to solve, and I did it,” said the understandably proud Cecylia.

SWNS

“She’s also a ballet dancer and performs in shows with her dance school. She loves musical theatre and is always playing the piano.”

Cecylia’s father and Sophia’s grandfather, Antoni Kot, was a head teacher and mathematician who was very well known in his homeland of Poland, tutoring students until age 86 when he died.“His brain was sharp even in his last minutes, and we believe Sofia inherited her love of math and coding from him,” she said. Girl Joins Mensa at 13 After Scoring Higher Than Albert Einstein–Even with No Exam Prep

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10-Year-old Paramedic Teaches Adults Lifesaving Skills and CPR as ‘The Mini Medic’

10-yo paramedic Jack Dawson teaches lifesaving skills – SWNS

Meet the 10-year-old paramedic who teaches adults life-saving procedures as an in-demand mini-medic.

Jack Dawson was just two-years-old when it became obvious he was interested in becoming a paramedic.

His grandfather owns a first response company in Staffordshire, England, and Jack would ride along in his ambulances with the flashing blue lights. By age three, he would start “randomly performing CPR on his teddies, pumping the bear’s chest”.

“So, at the same time he was learning to speak, my husband and I decided to teach him first aid,” said his mother, Danielle. “He was like a sponge. He just picked everything up so quickly.”

Jack, quickly grasped the act of CPR, understanding the different recovery positions, and learned how to use a defibrillator.

Then, at age seven, the youngster started to lead workshop sessions of his own, overseen by his father and other trainers for their charity, Tamworth Have A Heart, which aims to make automatic defibrillators publicly accessible and train people to use them confidently.

Jack teaches both children and adults how to perform CPR and use defibrillators, while also patrolling his town centre and checking that the public defibrillators’ pads and batteries are up to date and fit for use. (Watch a demonstration at the end of the article…)

“His motto was ‘if I can save a life, then you can’,” says Danielle.

The sessions often draw 20-40 people and sometimes Jack gives presentations teaching in front of 100 people.

10-yo mini-medic Jack Dawson teaches lifesaving skills to adults – SWNS

He does step-by-step walkthroughs on how to perform CPR with practice dummies laid on the floor, informing people about the dangers—including “looking into patients airways before pumping, in case of vomit or blood”. He gives tutorials on how to operate defibrillators which are used to revive someone from sudden cardiac arrest.

“He absolutely loves teaching,” Danielle told SWNS news agency. “I’ve never seen him so confident before and the fact he’s helping people to save a life determines him even more.”

“People are very surprised. He gets a lot of positive feedback and even special requests to teach people.

“I think people appreciate the information coming from a child, as it makes them think that if a 10-year-old can do it, then they can.”

Under the name ‘Mini Medic’, Jack has a YouTube channel and a page on TikTok posting medical tutorials and training nights for those unable to attend.

As a result of his community work, the 10-year-old is a finalist for Children of Courage Birmingham Awards.

Looking forward, Danielle said he’s enthusiastic about going to university and being a paramedic. “It’s all he thinks about!”WATCH the video below from the news agency SWNS.com… 10-Year-old Paramedic Teaches Adults Lifesaving Skills and CPR as ‘The Mini Medic’

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How to watch a scary movie with your child

Carol Newall, Macquarie University

On Halloween, the cinemas and TV channels are filled with horror movies. But what should you do if you have a young child who wants to watch too?

Many of us have a childhood memory of a movie that gave us nightmares and took us to a new level of fear. Maybe this happened by accident. Or maybe it happened because an adult guardian didn’t choose the right movie for your age.

For me it was The Exorcist. It was also the movie that frightened my mum when she was a youngster. She had warned me not to watch it. But I did. I then slept outside my parents’ room for months for fear of demonic possession.

Parents often ask about the right age for “scary” movies. A useful resource is The Australian Council of Children and the Media, which provides colour-coded age guides for movies rated by child development professionals.

Let’s suppose, though, that you have made the decision to view a scary movie with your child. What are some good rules of thumb in managing this milestone in your child’s life?

Watch with a parent or a friend

Research into indirect experiences can help us understand what happens when a child watches a scary movie. Indirect fear experiences can involve watching someone else look afraid or hurt in a situation or verbal threats (such as “the bogeyman with sharp teeth will come at midnight for children and eat them”).

Children depend very much on indirect experiences for information about danger in the world. Scary movies are the perfect example of these experiences. Fortunately, research also shows that indirectly acquired fears can be reduced by two very powerful sources of information: parents and peers.

In one of our recent studies, we showed that when we paired happy adult faces with a scary situation, children showed greater fear reduction than if they experienced that situation on their own. This suggests that by modelling calm and unfazed behaviour, or potentially even expressing enjoyment about being scared during a movie (notice how people burst into laughter after a jump scare at theatres?), parents may help children be less fearful.

There is also some evidence that discussions with friends can help reduce fear. That said, it’s important to remember that children tend to become more similar to each other in threat evaluation after discussing a scary or ambiguous event with a close friend. So it might be helpful to discuss a scary movie with a good friend who enjoys such movies and can help the child discuss their worries in a positive manner.

Get the facts

How a parent discusses the movie with their child is also important. Children do not have enough experience to understand the statistical probability of dangerous events occurring in the world depicted on screen. For example, after watching Jaws, a child might assume that shark attacks are frequent and occur on every beach.

Children need help to contextualise the things they see in movies. One way of discussing shark fears after viewing Jaws might be to help your child investigate the statistics around shark attacks (the risk of being attacked is around 1 in 3.7 million) and to acquire facts about shark behaviours (such as that they generally do not hunt humans).

These techniques are the basis of cognitive restructuring, which encourages fact-finding rather than catastrophic thoughts to inform our fears. It is also an evidence-based technique for managing excessive anxiety in children and adults.

Exposure therapy

If your child is distressed by a movie, a natural reaction is to prevent them watching it again. I had this unfortunate experience when my seven-year-old daughter accidentally viewed Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, which featured a monster with knives for limbs who ate children’s eyeballs for recreation.

My first instinct was to prevent my daughter watching the movie again. However, one of the most effective ways of reducing excessive and unrealistic fear is to confront it again and again until that fear diminishes into boredom. This is called exposure therapy.

To that end, we subjected her and ourselves to the same movie repeatedly while modelling calm and some hilarity - until she was bored. We muted the sound and did silly voice-overs and fart noises for the monster. We drew pictures of him with a moustache and in a pair of undies. Thankfully, she no longer identifies this movie as one that traumatised her.

This strategy is difficult to execute because it requires tolerating your child’s distress. In fact, it is a technique that is the least used by mental health professionals because of this.

However, when done well and with adequate support (you may need an experienced psychologist if you are not confident), it is one of the most effective techniques for reducing fear following a scary event like an accidental horror movie.

Fear is normal

Did I ever overcome my fear of The Exorcist? It took my mother checking my bed, laughing with me about the movie, and re-affirming that being scared is okay and normal for me to do so (well done mum!)

Fear is a normal and adaptive human response. Some people, including children, love being scared. There is evidence that volunteering to be scared can lead to a heightened sense of accomplishment for some of us, because it provides us with a cognitive break from our daily stress and worries.

Hopefully, you can help ensure that your child’s first scary movie experience is a memorable, enjoyable one.

Carol Newall, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood, Macquarie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Three Children Receive ‘the Best Christmas Present Ever’ – Bionic Arms

Colette Baker, Finley Jarvis, and Zoey Pidgeon-Hampton with their new Open Bionics arms – credit: SWNS

Three children were overjoyed after receiving ‘the best Christmas present in the world’—bionic arms.

Zoey Hampton-Pigeon, Finley Jarvis, and Colette Baker were given their new ‘life-changing’ Hero Arms on December 12th thanks to the fundraising work of a woman whose own child needed a prosthetic years ago.

Sarah Lockey saw her daughter Tilly lose both hands to meningitis. Today though, Tilly is a confident young woman who wears two Hero Arms daily, who hosts, together with her mom, a fundraising campaign every year called the Big Hero 3, which selects three random children across the UK to receive a prosthetic made by the Open Bionics Foundation.

Advanced, intuitive, robust, and light, the Hero Arm is “the world’s most affordable advanced multi-grip prosthetic arm,” according to the Foundation. The Hero Arm is available in over 801 locations across the US for below-elbow amputee adults and children aged 8 and above, and all throughout the UK where it is manufactured.

This year, the Big Hero 3 campaign raised £20,000. Two other charitable foundations, along with an anonymous donor, made up the rest of the £40,000 required, allowing Finley, Colette, and Zoey to have what will probably be the best Christmas ever.

To wit, Colette’s mom Alyse said her daughter ‘screamed’ when she found out she was not only receiving a Hero Arm, but would get one before Christmas.

“For Ettie, she’s excited about being able to do things like handstands, ride her bike without an adaption, and tying her shoes,” she said. “As parents, we are excited about these things too, but also all the other ways the Hero Arm will change Ettie’s life.”

Zoey was born with a missing limb, which the family discovered during an ultrasound in the 20th week.

“When Zoey was born she saw several specialists but there are no answers about why this happened to Zoey, it’s just one of those things,” said her father Thomas.

His daughter is an active young girl and member of a gymnastics club. She goes to swimming lessons and loves trampolining, but she’s most looking forward to being able to use a jump rope.

“A Hero Arm will make such a massive difference to her independence enabling her to do all these tasks, as well as her beloved skipping, without relying on help from others.”

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The last child is Finley Jarvis—born with no hand due to his mom being involved in a serious car accident whilst carrying him.

“Finn is a happy-go-lucky boy—he is kind, fearless, and extremely switched on,” said his father Ben. “He is now 11 and about to attend Brymore Academy secondary school—an agricultural school. With this opportunity of a Big Hero Arm the possibilities for him to excel are endless.”

MORE HERO ARM RECIPIENTS:

Lockey said she and Tilly are hoping to do another campaign next year if any donors who want to get involved to help are interested.“It is just incredible for three children to benefit and for their families all to meet and fundraise together,” Lockey said. Three Children Receive ‘the Best Christmas Present Ever’ – Bionic Arms

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Anonymous $3.5 Million Gift to Milwaukee Art Museum Provides Free Admission for Children

The Milwaukee Art Museum’s Art:Forward Gala in 2024 – Credit: Front Room Studios and courtesy of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Thanks to the kindness of a generous donor, children 12 and under will now be able to visit the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) for free.

The gift of $3.5 million was given anonymously but with instructions to establish an endowment supporting child attendance at the museum.

The donor “shared fond memories of visiting the museum with their family throughout their life” and “expressed their wish for the endowment to foster similar experiences for future generations of families,” according to the museum’s Tuesday announcement.

“This wonderful gift is a celebration of the way that philanthropy can have a significant and lasting impact for generations,” MAM chief development officer André Allaire said in the news release.

“Every day, our youngest museum visitors will be able to access, engage with, and learn from world-class exhibitions and programs free of charge thanks to the generosity of an individual who believes in the power of art to strengthen our community.”

Children ages 12 and under will have free access not only to the museum’s collections, but also its exhibitions and youth and family programs.

At the moment, MAM’s exhibitions include a collection of photography, images, and videos from American image artist Robert Longo, entitled Acceleration of History, and a collection of woodblock prints from the Baltimore-based artist, wife, mother, and educator LaToya M. Hobbs.

“Since our earliest days as an institution, the Milwaukee Art Museum has provided free educational experiences for children,” said Marcelle Polednik, the MAM director. “The endowment established from this inspirational donation will keep that tradition alive for future generations of the communities we serve.” Anonymous $3.5 Million Gift to Milwaukee Art Museum Provides Free Admission for Children

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Torn Between Volunteering and Dream of Adopting a Cat, 6-year-old Starts Poop Scooping Business

credit – @poopa.scoopa.luca

This is Luca Arpin, better known to his neighbors as “Poopa Scoopa Luca.“

His moniker is well-earned, as the 6-year-old styled himself the neighborhood’s #1 number to call for cleaning up after dogs and cats.

“People hate picking up dog poop,” said the first-grader from Warwick, Mass. Speaking with WJAR, Arpin said he has an appreciation for all things tidy, and prefers cleaning up above other activities.

His rate is $15 for one dog, or $20 for multiple dogs. He even has his own business card.

His mother says that volunteering is one of their family’s core values. She and Luca have an enduring love for animals and together have fostered 98 four-legged friends through her work at a local animal shelter.

First to fold laundry or mop a floor, Luca’s mother said that his tendencies to offer his help pro bono at the shelter slowly landed him in a predicament where he wanted to afford to permanently adopt a cat, but couldn’t afford to do so.

Asking mom how he could earn money, the two settled on that poo patrol, which he says is work he doesn’t mind at all.

“I have the coolest kid in the entire world,” said his mother proudly.

It didn’t take long for Luca to save enough money to bring ‘Pebble’ a little female kitten he decided he couldn’t live without, into the busy embrace of their home. Luca continues to work, raising money which he hopes can go to help other animals. Torn Between Volunteering and Dream of Adopting a Cat, 6-year-old Starts Poop Scooping Business

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Woman Gives Birth in Lobby of Welsh Cinema and the Daughter Now Has Free Movies for Life

Father Gareth, son Liam, mother Sarah, and their newborn Lowri wrapped in a blanket at Cinema World

Welsh news media described it as a “blockbuster” arrival at a local movie theater—no not Deadpool 2—a beautiful baby girl whose mom gave birth in the lobby.

Sarah Vincent was 39 weeks-pregnant when she went to the Cinema World in her hometown, near the capital city of Cardiff, with her 3-year-old son Liam and her parents when, 20 minutes into the screening of Sing 2, she began to feel discomfort.

Adjourning to the restroom, the discomfort grew until she had to lay down in the lobby and that’s when her water broke. The cinema staff were quickly there to help, and help they did—calling an ambulance and assembling screens to block the sight of passersby.

On the instructions of the paramedic who picked up the phone, cinemagoer Amy Screen, and the manager on duty at the cinema Jacey Howcroft, arrived to help should the baby be unwilling to wait for the ambulance.

And it’s all a good thing too, because Lowri, the newborn baby girl, did not in fact wait for the ambulance.

With Screen and Howcroft’s assistance, Lowri Miles was born 7 pounds just 10 minutes from the point at which Vincent had gone into labor.

Missing the momentous occasion, father Gareth Miles was working in Cardiff when he got a call from Vincent’s dad explaining what was happening. He rushed down to the cinema to find his baby girl waiting for him.

“The staff were great,” he said. “Jacey was the staff member who went to get Sarah’s parents from the cinema and helped with delivery, Andrew at Cineworld rang the ambulance and talked with paramedics on phone to help with the birth, the rest of the staff were great at putting up screens, also one member of the public, Amy, helped with delivery as well.”

He told Wales Online that Liam, their son, was also born extremely quickly but in a car rather than a movie theater.

“It’s one we’re never going to forget. I thought the car was bad enough, and we’ve got the cinema story to tell as well now!”Mo Williams, the General Manager of the Cinema World, said his staff were understandly proud of their teamwork during the unexpected emergency. He added that little Lowri is now an honorary Cinema World Member for life, and will never have to pay for a movie ticket as long as she lives. Woman Gives Birth in Lobby of Welsh Cinema and the Daughter Now Has Free Movies for Life

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Shortsightedness is on the rise in children. There’s more we can do than limit screen time

Asada Nami/Shutterstock Flora Hui, The University of Melbourne

Myopia in children is on the rise. The condition – also known as shortsightedness – already affects up to 35% of children across the world, according to a recent review of global data. The researchers predict this number will increase to 40%, exceeding 740 million children living with myopia by 2050.

So why does this matter? Many people may be unaware that treating myopia (through interventions such as glasses) is about more than just comfort or blurry vision. If left unchecked, myopia can rapidly progress, increasing the risk of serious and irreversible eye conditions. Diagnosing and treating myopia is therefore crucial for your child’s lifetime eye health.

Here is how myopia develops, the role screen time plays – and what you can do if think your child might be shortsighted.

What is myopia?

Myopia is commonly known as nearsightedness or shortsightedness. It is a type of refractive error, meaning a vision problem that stops you seeing clearly – in this case, seeing objects that are far away.

A person usually has myopia because their eyeball is longer than average. This can happen if eyes grow too quickly or longer than normal.

A longer eyeball means when light enters the eye, it’s not focused properly on the retina (the light-sensing tissue lining the back of the eye). As a result, the image they see is blurry. Controlling eye growth is the most important factor for achieving normal vision.

Myopia is a common vision problem. Alexander_P/Shutterstock

Myopia is on the rise in children

The study published earlier this year looked at how the rate of myopia has changed over the last 30 years. It reviewed 276 studies, which included 5.4 million people between the ages of 5–19 years, from 50 countries, across six continents.

Based on this data, the researchers concluded up to one in three children are already living with shortsightedness – and this will only increase. They predict a particular rise for adolescents: myopia is expected to affect more than 50% of those aged 13-19 by 2050.

Their results are similar to a previous Australian study from 2015. It predicted 36% of children in Australia and New Zealand would have myopia by 2020, and more than half by 2050.

The new review is the most comprehensive of its kind, giving us the closest look at how childhood myopia is progressing across the globe. It suggests rates of myopia are increasing worldwide – and this includes “high myopia”, or severe shortsightedness.

What causes myopia?

Myopia develops partly due to genetics. Parents who have myopia – and especially high myopia – are more likely to have kids who develop myopia as well.

But environmental factors can also play a role.

One culprit is the amount of time we spend looking at screens. As screens have shrunk, we tend to hold them closer. This kind of prolonged focusing at short range has long been associated with developing myopia.

Reducing screen time may help reduce eye strain and slow myopia’s development. However for many of us – including children – this can be difficult, given how deeply screens are embedded in our day-to-day lives.

Green time over screen time

Higher rates of myopia may also be linked to kids spending less time outside, rather than screens themselves. Studies have shown boosting time outdoors by one to two hours per day may reduce the onset of myopia over a two to three year period.

We are still unsure how this works. It may be that the greater intensity of sunlight – compared to indoor light – promotes the release of dopamine. This crucial molecule can slow eye growth and help prevent myopia developing.

However current research suggests once you have myopia, time outdoors may only have a small effect on how it worsens.

Sunlight may play a role in slowing myopia progression. Allan Mas/Pexels

What can we do about it?

Research is rapidly developing in myopia control. In addition to glasses, optometrists have a range of tools to slow eye growth and with it, the progression of myopia. The most effective methods are:

• orthokeratology (“ortho-K”) uses hard contact lenses temporarily reshape the eye to improve vision. They are convenient as they are only worn while sleeping. However parents need to make sure lenses are cleaned and stored properly to reduce the chance of eye infections

• atropine eyedrops have been shown to successfully slow myopia progression. Eyedrops can be simple to administer, have minimal side effects and don’t carry the risk of infection associated with contact lenses.

You can monitor your child’s eye health and vision with regular eye tests. 4 PM production/Shutterstock

What are the risks with myopia?

Myopia is easily corrected by wearing glasses or contact lenses. But if you have “high myopia” (meaning you are severely shortsighted) you have a higher risk of developing other eye conditions across your lifetime, and these could permanently damage your vision.

These conditions include:

• retinal detachment, where the retina tears and peels away from the back of the eye

• glaucoma, where nerve cells in the retina and optic nerve are progressively damaged and lost

• myopic maculopathy, where the longer eyeball means the macula (part of the retina) is stretched and thinned, and can lead to tissue degeneration, breaks and bleeds.

What can parents do?

It’s important to diagnose and treat myopia early – especially high myopia – to stop it progressing and lower the risk of permanent damage.

Uncorrected myopia can also affect a child’s ability to learn, simply because they can’t see clearly. Signs your child might need to be tested can include squinting to see into the distance, or moving things closer such as a screen or book to see.

Regular eye tests with the optometrist are the best way to understand your child’s eye health and eyesight. Each child is different – an optometrist can help you work out tailored methods to track and manage myopia, if it is diagnosed.

Flora Hui, Honorary Fellow, Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Melbourne School of Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Dad Who Wanted to be a Pilot Builds Incredible Real-Life Simulator at Home–Now his Daughter’s Obsessed (Watch)

An Englishman who was told he “wasn’t clever enough” to become a pilot has built an incredible $25,000 flight simulator in his home using spare parts—and now he and his daughter can ‘fly’ every day.

Craig Cullingworth spent two years building his accurate model of a Boeing 737-800NG cockpit with mostly second-hand parts he sourced online.

Now, using a computer program, he takes to the skies with his “obsessed” daughter, Sophie, from the comfort of their home in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

The 40-year-old’s plan to create the replica came after his wife gifted him a simulator experience at a local flight center as a Christmas present.

He then bought a cockpit shell – with all the dials and levers found on the real twin-engine aircraft, and painstakingly turned it into a fully working model (seen in the video below).

He took his maiden voyage about three months ago, saying, “I always wanted to be a pilot, but at school I was told I wasn’t clever enough.”

“My wife got me a Boeing 737 experience because she knew how much I wanted to do it. It was the best experience of my life—and on my way home, I was searching how to build one.

“I found bits and bobs all over the country and started building it in my spare room after work, in a bid that one day I could get it flying.SWNS

“About three months ago, we did our first flight which I shared a video of on social media and gained lots of positive feedback.”

“My eight-year-old daughter is now obsessed. She takes it in very quickly.”

Craig said his flight simulator teacher, who is also a first officer at Ryanair, thought he was a “natural” after their first lesson together in 2021. And Craig later earned his wings on the lifelike computer model, which professional pilots from carriers like Virgin and Jet2 often use to improve their skills.

Now he likes to fly on his simulator through the skies over Britain so he can have fun navigating tricky regional runways. He’ll take off from Leeds-Bradford and land at Manchester, then go over to the East Midlands airport, and down to Heathrow, needing about three hours to fly to a local airport, land, and then prepare for taking off again to go to the next airport.

“I usually do Leeds-Bradford for the fact that it’s one of the top ten worst airports to land in, and it’s usually quite tricky. It is usually a two-man crew effort, and you share the duties between each other.”

The cost of buying a new Boeing 737 flight simulator is around $70,000 (£55,000), but Craig spent less than half that on his model by using second-hand parts.

Flight simulator experiences cost well over $100 for 30 to 90 minutes of time ‘in the air’, so Craig is thinking about creating a business that offers the unique experience to more aspiring pilots.

“I’ve met people all over the country who have built their own flight sims but you tend to find they are retired pilots, and not people my age. The experience is so hands-on that you won’t know if you’re any good at it until you actually give it a go.” (Watch them in action below…)Craig, who paints cars for a living, said he may now offer other interested flyers the chance to use his simulator—or others that he builds in the future—as part of a business venture.

“My body shop is expanding so we will have more space for me to set up two or three simulators for people to use, (especially) targeting pilots because they can do their training on these simulators.”

Meanwhile, Sophie may be the first in her family to become an actual pilot, thanks to her father’s dreams. Source: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/dad-who-wanted-to-be-a-pilot-builds-incredible-real-life-simulator-in-his-house/

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Quick-thinking 4-year-old Girl Uses Alexa to Call for Help as Mom Suffers Epileptic Seizure

Leah Biggs with daughter Lyla Leathem – credit SWNS

When Lyla Leathem saw her mom collapse into an epileptic seizure, she remained calm and knew just what to do.

She knew she was supposed to call her great-grandmother—but her mom’s phone was locked. The four-year-old ran upstairs and asked Amazon Alexa to make the call instead.

Her mother, Leah Bigg, had fallen unwell at her home in Somerset on August 25th. Family members had previously shown Lyla how to use Alexa for phone calls as her mom often suffers from seizures at night which can be life-threatening. But they had no idea the youngster had listened—until she was called into action.

The women in Lyla’s family tree don’t wait around, so to speak, and the spry great-grandmother, only 54 years of age, rushed over and helped Leah recover at home.

“I had had a call from Leah in the morning. She said she had had a big fit in the night and bitten her tongue,” the 54-year-old told the British news media outlet, SWNS.

“Then we texted a few hours later and she said she didn’t need me to come over and was just resting. It wasn’t long after that that I had a call come through from Leah’s number—not a video call as usual, and when I answered it, it was Lyla saying ‘Nana, Mummy’s having a fit.'”

“I told her ‘Go to Mummy and stroke her hair and tell her it’s all going to be ok. I’m on my way.'”

‘Nana’ said that they had put Alexa in Leah’s bedroom because of the frequency with which the young mother suffered from nocturnal seizures. She then added that Lyla showed tremendous deductive reasoning to override her instructions of not leaving her mother’s side and using her phone to call for help, and then to run upstairs to use the Alexa unit instead.

“I’m so proud of her. That must have been such a difficult decision for a four-year-old.”

Lyla’s great-gran was so proud of her that she posted on a local Facebook group for help finding a ‘well done’ certificate.

Lyla Leathem with trophy and certificate for helping her mother – SWNS

Her request was met with dozens of offers of help, messages praising her for her “incredible bravery,” and even a corner story in the local gazette. 

With their help, Lyla got a certificate and a trophy for her quick thinking and bravery.“I’ve been carrying around the newspaper from the County Gazette showing everyone I bump into about how amazing my little Lyla is,” said the understandably proud mother LeahQuick-thinking 4-year-old Girl Uses Alexa to Call for Help as Mom Suffers Epileptic Seizure

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How Confident Are Parents in Giving Good Financial Advice to Their Kids?

SWNS / Talkers Research

American parents offer their kids lots of financial advice per year, according to a new poll—but they admit their guidance isn’t always implemented.

Indeed, respondents said their child listens only about half the time.

The survey of 5,000 parents over age 30, split evenly across all 50 states, asked about the type of financial advice they give their children and which areas parents feel knowledgable.

On average, kids are asking for financial advice multiple times per month, but parents are often giving unsolicited advice about five times a month, adding up to over 100 tips shared per year.

In the survey conducted by Talker Research on behalf of the international money app Wise, the findings showed that parents’ confidence levels vary widely.

When asked for financial advice, 36% said they feel “very” confident, while 34% said they are “somewhat” confident in the suggestions they provide.

From a list of 14 different financial areas, parents had the lowest confidence in assisting their child with currency conversion (11%), taking out/refinancing loans (13%), and sending money abroad (14%).

On the other hand, a majority of parents noted higher confidence in helping their child with budgeting their money (55%), managing savings options (52%) and navigating credit cards (41%), as well as understanding debt (32%) and credit scores (32%).

“Parents have to manage countless complex conversations as they prepare a child for adulthood,” said Ankita D’Mello, a Manager at Wise. “Finances are certainly top of the list, and international finance is one area where more education is essential.”

“As our lives become increasingly global, whether that’s a child studying abroad or sending money to family and friends in another country, the importance of managing money across borders is becoming more of a mainstay for parents and kids.”

40% of parents surveyed shared concerns their kids will “outgrow” the advice they are equipped to give. It’s why most of those surveyed (72%) want to further their financial knowledge.

This may be due to the changing nature of how we manage our finances, as nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents believe it’s become more complicated since they were a child.

When asked why they believe financial management has become more complicated, 48% of these respondents noted the internet makes it easy to search for financial information, but it’s hard to know what to trust.

The vast majority (79%) of parents said they’re open to new tools and resources to help them improve their financial knowledge, and nearly a quarter (22%) actively look for new services to use.

“With more financial information available now than ever before, it’s essential to work with providers that are established, affordable, convenient and transparent, especially when looking to move money internationally,” said D’Mello.

HOW CONFIDENT ARE PARENTS HELPING THEIR CHILD IN 14 FINANCIAL AREAS?

● Budgeting — 55%

● Savings options — 52%

● Credit cards — 41%

● Managing debt — 32%

● Managing credit score — 32%

● Insurance — 29%

● Financing a car — 29%

● Investments — 21%

● Mortgages — 16%

● Retirement planning (Roth vs. traditional IRAs, etc.) — 16%

● High-yield savings accounts — 15%

● Sending money abroad (i.e., sending money to friends or family internationally) — 14%

● Taking out/refinancing loans — 13%

● Currency conversions (i.e., exchanging money when traveling) — 11%How Confident Are Parents in Giving Good Financial Advice to Their Kids?

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Dad Interviews Daughter on First Day of School Every Year–And the Final Video Has Gone Viral (Watch)

Photos by Ray Petelin

A dad who interviewed his daughter on the first day of school every year has now shared the final video, as she starts her final year of high school before heading off to college.

Ray Petelin came up with the idea to ask his little girl, Elizabeth, a series of questions at the start of each new school year to see how their daughter’s ambitions would change as she grows.

In 2012, while Elizabeth waited for the bus to take her to kindergarten at five-years-old, Ray sat her down and asked what she wanted to be when she grows up.

In the new compilation video, the little girl’s answer evolves over the years from doctor to teacher, magician to waitress, and from heart surgeon to physical therapist.

“She did say magician one year, but I knew that wasn’t going to last.”

Now, after the bittersweet moment of finishing their thirteenth interview, the 47-year-old TV meteorologist shared the the final video.

“I put this together late at night so no one would be around,” Ray admitted. “Because I was just bawling the whole time.”

Ray Petelin’s daughter through the years

“I looked back at the first video, and it still feels like it was yesterday.

“I wanted to show her (the video) when she is a senior—and as she is now a senior, this will be the last one—but I will certainly get one when she moves into her own place.”

Ray’s video below, was posted on Facebook and Twitter/X where it tallied over 50 million views and led to multiple TV interviews broadcast on major networks and on his own station, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

He’s also received many supportive comments from people all over the world, especially moms and dads.

“Parents have commented on the video saying that I should be ‘Dad of the Year’.”The idea has also inspired many parents to start doing same thing with their own school children. Dad Interviews Daughter on First Day of School Every Year–And the Final Video Has Gone Viral (Watch)

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Mpox in the DRC: children are at high risk – health expert explains why

Nadia Adjoa Sam-Agudu, University of Minnesota

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that children, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems are at higher risk from the mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reports confirm that children under five account for 39% of all cases in the country, and babies as young as two weeks are being diagnosed with this viral illness.

Nadia Adjoa Sam-Agudu, an expert in paediatric infectious diseases, explains how mpox can be dangerous for children and what must be done to protect them.

Why is the DRC outbreak affecting children so badly?

Because of conflict, political instability and insecurity, large parts of the DRC have not had stable, consistent, sustained health responses or health prevention. As a result, it’s hard to control infectious diseases like mpox.

In addition, children in any outbreak setting are already vulnerable given their immature and still-developing immune systems, especially under the age of five.

In a paper on paediatric mpox, my colleagues and I reported that children in Africa were much more vulnerable to monkeypox virus infection than children elsewhere. About 2% of those infected globally were under the age of 18 years, while children in Africa constituted nearly 40% of cases.

These statistics are due to a combination of things: living in a country where mpox is consistently present (endemic), exposure through contact with animals, and not having the benefit of a vaccine. Smallpox vaccine is effective against mpox, but this was discontinued in 1980 after smallpox was eradicated, so anyone born after that in DRC or other African countries has not been vaccinated against mpox. This is still true, even after the global outbreak.

The new variant circulating in the DRC – Clade Ib – has genetic changes that have been linked to sustained human-to-human transmission, which is thought to be driving the current outbreaks in the DRC and east Africa. Furthermore, current WHO reports indicate that Clade Ib is also linked to sexual contact and is affecting mostly adults, especially men who have sex with men and sex workers.

It is Clade Ia, the previously known circulating virus, which is significantly affecting children. Of course, adolescents (those between 10 and 19 years) may be caught in the middle and represented in the case numbers for both Clade Ia and Ib.

But it’s important to note that children have been susceptible to mpox since the first ever reported case in the DRC in 1970. That particular case was a nine-month-old boy.

In those days, animal-to-human contact was a more common means of mpox transmission – after all, it is a zoonotic disease. Studies and reports suggest that, historically, children were more susceptible to mpox because of higher exposure to wild animals, for example different species of monkeys and rodents in rural and forest areas.

Is this unusual? Are there other diseases that children are more susceptible to?

No, it’s not unusual.

Children are born with immune systems that are still developing.

It’s when they get to around five years of age that they have had enough time and disease exposure (or vaccines) to make their immune systems more robust and build adequate immune protection.

Children in the DRC are particularly vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases because the country has quite low child vaccination rates. In 2021, approximately 19.1% of children in the DRC between 12 and 23 months had never been vaccinated for diseases such as pertussis (whooping cough); the ideal vaccine coverage is 95%.

This also means that children in the DRC are more susceptible to highly contagious and dangerous diseases, like measles. An outbreak or rise in cases of measles infection is an early indicator that a health system is broken. This is because measles control needs a very high level of herd immunity – when enough people in a population are immune to a disease, making it harder for the disease to spread to those who aren’t immune. Once immunisation levels drop – like in the setting of conflict or other humanitarian emergency – measles infections start popping up. Containing them requires immense catch-up vaccination efforts.

Chickenpox and malaria are other diseases that children are more susceptible to on account of their immature and still-developing immune systems.

What are the priorities to protect children in this outbreak?

First, children must be specifically targeted for protection. This is because they are a primary population of concern that can develop severe and fatal disease.

Second, the health system and healthcare workers must make it as easy as possible to get parents or caregivers to bring children in. This includes addressing the inconveniences of leaving their communities to seek care.

Third, the stigma connected to mpox must be addressed. Parents and caregivers may be reluctant to seek care because of the stigma and negative treatment they may receive. The skin lesions are quite noticeable for mpox and unfortunately draw negative attention and treatment by society and health workers. The media, including international media, have been feeding into this – especially for African people with mpox – and it needs to stop.

Finally, a vaccination programme focused on children needs to be rolled out to stem transmission. But there are major challenges.

First, the mpox vaccine approved for use by the WHO and in most countries with access during the global 2022 outbreak and to date is the MVA-BN vaccine (Jynneos), which is not approved for children under 18 years. MVA-BN makes up the vast majority of ongoing vaccine donations to African countries. Japan’s LC16 vaccine has been used for children as young as 1-7 years, but it may require approvals for use or trials among children outside Japan.

In addition, children urgently need routine vaccines to protect them from other diseases such as measles, chickenpox, meningitis or polio. This will ensure that they aren’t struck by multiple illnesses while they are still highly vulnerable. It gives their immune system a better chance at fighting mpox.

What steps should be taken if a child is infected with mpox?

This may be hard to do, especially in the home, but the child should be isolated to minimise human to human transmission. There has been some promise of drugs that directly treat mpox infection, but recent results from tecovirimat and Clade I mpox have been disappointing.

The next step is to treat the symptoms and prevent complications. The most common manifestations in paediatric mpox are rash, fever and enlarged lymph nodes, and the most common cause of complications is secondary bacterial infection.
It’s particularly important that skin lesions are managed to prevent secondary infection. The danger is in mpox lesion infection. If left unmanaged, the infection can develop into sepsis. This is a potentially fatal bloodstream infection that can affect the function of one or more organs. The reports of mortality among children in the DRC are usually sepsis. Proper wound care and antibiotics are important preventive tools.

In parallel to this, steps must be taken to help improve the overall health and well-being of the child. For instance, if the child is malnourished, they need age-appropriate therapeutic nutrition so that they are better able to fight mpox and other infections.

Children in mpox-endemic African countries are facing outbreaks with little to no access to paediatric vaccines and effective antiviral treatments. In this context, the most important things are nutrition, completion of routine immunisations, and prevention of secondary infection. This requires convenient access to stigma-free, evidence-based care and support to the children and their parents or caregivers.

Nadia Adjoa Sam-Agudu, Professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Director, Global Pediatrics Program global health, University of Minnesota

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How Parents Plan to Make Back-to-School ‘Magical’ For Their Kids

Four out of five parents are working to make the back-to-school season “magical” for their elementary school kids, according to a new poll.

A survey of 2,000 parents with children aged 12 and under found 86% are trying to bring the “magic” back to school and, for many, their goal is getting their child excited about returning to the classroom.

In order to do so, parents are allowing their child to choose their clothing and outfits (62%), purchase school supplies they liked best (62%), and help support their child’s passions and interests (56%).

19% of parents admitted they disliked school when they were their child’s age, and 96% are hoping to create more positive memories for their little ones.

Results found that 40% of kids are typically “very excited” to return to school after their summer break, which means parents are working overtime to make it match expectations.

How do parents get their kids excited about learning? 63% use hands-on learning (like teaching fractions through baking a cake). 43% said they use food or snack activities, and 25% exercise their imagination and learning with experiences, such as fantasy costume play.

Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Keebler snacks, the survey looked into more ways parents are making the school year “magic” for their kids.

Over four in ten like to surprise their kids with their favorite snacks, three in ten slip notes into their lunchbox, and 19% have given their child a “lucky charm” to take to school for good luck. And, 70% of parents believe an after-school snack is a “magic” fix when their child has had a rough day.

According to the results, parents generally ‘keep magic alive’ by encouraging their child to use their imagination (70%), encourage a belief in the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus (53%), teach them to always see the best in people and their experiences (50%) and encourage them to look for the unexpected (46%).

“There’s plenty of small ways to make a new routine ‘magical’ and help instill that love of learning and school in your child,” said Alicia Mosley, Vice President of Marketing for the Keebler Brand. “Whether you’re putting notes in your child’s lunch box or surprising them with their favorite snack.”

“It’s encouraging to see parents working so hard to keep magic alive for their children and it’s those little moments of magic that their children are going to remember and cherish for the rest of their lives, How Parents Plan to Make Back-to-School ‘Magical’ For Their Kids

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