Children's Stories that Scare any Parent - Part I

Parents start cognitive "sparks" when it comes to learning and loving reading for their kids.

Building a love to read requires a foundation, time, and patience from the very beginning. There are many "stories" that ignite success, but far too many more that provide an illusion of failure. 

Third graders who don't read as well as their counterparts begin a lifelong journey in which most increasingly lag further and further behind their friends. Research shows they need a growing amount of outside support to help them catch up, which becomes a never-ending story by itself--and a spooky tale to any parent who isn't quite sure what to do.

Here are 5 basic tips--with many more to come!

1. Read, Read, Read--Just not to yourself! Read to, and with, your child beginning at birth. Early reading is important for babies because they pick up sounds, tones, and rhythm. When coupled with a warm embrace, Dr. Pamela High (2000) found it to also promote bonding. "Reading aloud itself promotes language development," she wrote in a study at Brown University. Furthermore, basic vocabulary has been found to develop faster if tied to the visual elements associated with those words. The more you say "milk" when pointing to milk, the more likely it becomes one of your child's first words. 

In the beginning, choose books with only a little text and lots of texture and pictures. It keeps them connected to both literacy and you! 

2. If kids seem uninterested, don't give up...just yet. Try picking portions of the book, sing the text, play hide and seek with it, get books in which the child has to lift the flaps -- "touch and feel books." One of these books will grab their attention. Cause and effect is what interests the baby and most of these books do it. Also, remember to pick a time you know will work well for you both on a regular basis. 

"When you read is just as important as what you read when trying to garner a child's attention."  

3. After kids are old enough and enjoy listening, which can be as early as nine months, let the child choose between two books. He or she will begin to interact with the book by trying to turn pages, feel the texture on the pages, or try to lift pockets on pages. This is a time kids may try and mimic sounds they hear.

4. When they reach about 10 months old, have your children point to different objects. If they have trouble, it's OK to give them the answer. See if they remember the next time you point to it.

5. As kids near the age of two, they should be singing some words with you from familiar nursery rhymes. Add a dance move too. Again, have fun! If you are, so is your child. 

Author Linda Nathan Reads from her book, Too Mad to Trust

More tips to come! In the meantime, why don't you tell me how these tactics are working out for you and I'll be happy to answer all comments! 

References

Effects of an animated book reading intervention on emergency literacy skill development:
   An early pilot study. (2015). Journal of Early Intervention, 37(2), 155-171.
   doi:10.1177/1053815115598842

Josh Nathan Addresses Scholars and Filmmakers

Reading at an Evening Reception

Author Josh Nathan just finished sharing Too Mad to Trust with those at America's first international conference on Celebrity Culture in Manhattan. Discussing the theories behind a book aimed at stemming the growing tide of speech and language disorders like stuttering or selective mutism, Josh was one of only four authors to read from a new release at a conference organized by the Centre for Media & Celebrity Studies (CMCS). 

CMCS Director Dr. Samita Nandy initially invited Josh to serve as a media strategy expert in a professional development workshop there. The two posed for photos with each other's books. Josh was honored to be one of the first to receive a copy of Dr. Nandy's Fame in Hollywood North: A Theoretical Guide to Celebrity Cultures in Canada and she is one of the first to receive a copy of Too Mad to Trust. 

Posing with Each Other's New Releases

     

Serving with Josh on the panel is Dr. Louis Massey, Managing Editor of WaterHill Publishing, and Dr. Samita Nandy. The goal of "Scholars as Critics: A Professional Development Workshop for Academics" was to help those attending understand how the media operates, how to best answer reporter questions, brand yourself, and garner the news coverage you want. The conference's goal centered on "bridging gaps" between academics, those in media, and everyday folks trying to position, and successfully promote, themselves in the market.

Josh Nathan answers questions from conference attendees with Dr. Louis Massey (left) and Dr. Samita Nandy (right) at Club Quarters Hotel, opposite Rockefeller Center, in New York, New York, at Bridging Gaps: Where is the Persona in Celebrity and Journalism?

Josh Presents New Academic Research

NBC News Headquarters

Earlier in the conference, Josh was the first speaker and presented findings from a new academic paper, Implications of Journalism's Tall Tales on a Telling Public. When discussing NBC's Brian Williams, theories collide to explain what happened to one of the nation's most watched news anchors after revealing that he exaggerated stories about his coverage of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. As Williams returns to the air on MSNBC, Josh explains why Williams may still likely have a place in the hearts and minds of viewers.

Filmmaker Veronica Grey

Those at the conference also had an opportunity to screen and discuss the new short documentary Worst Shark Attack Ever featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and filmmaker Veronica Grey. Exploring the carnage humans inflict upon sharks to make shark fin soup, DiCaprio and Grey have been working to shine light on an environmental issue close to their hearts. 

"This conference was rare in that it engendered a genuinely cohesive, collaborative, and supportive group that kept the program running long after the actual event itself ended," Josh told conference co-chairs Dr. Nandy and Dr. Jackie Raphael when making plans to have some of the attendees speak in his courses as "Skype Guests."

You can see more highlights from the conference on Storify and you can follow Josh's tweets through our website, Too Mad to Trust, or by typing in his Twitter Handle @ProfJDN.

As always, if you ever have any questions about Too Mad to Trust--or for one of its authors--we are eager to hear from you and always return emails. You may reach us directly at toomadtotrust@gmail.com and can learn more about Josh, with his recent debut, through AUTHORSdb:

Twitter: Josh Nathan debuts on this week's Top10 Author List

 

   

Author Josh Nathan Speaks at Event Featuring Film Intro by Leonardo DiCaprio

NannyNoz Books™
www.TooMadtoTrust.com

The Owl's Blog - NannyNoz Books™ is proud to highlight Too Mad to Trust author Josh Nathan who will serve as an expert at the upcoming panel, "Scholars as Critics: A Professional Development Workshop for Academics" http://cmc-centre.com/workshops/nyc2015

Josh is humbled to have been invited by the Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) to serve multiple roles during the conference. Another highlight at this international event is Leonardo DiCaprio's introduction to a new award-winning documentary by filmmaker Veronica Grey: http://cmc-centre.com/pr/nycpr2015/

A CMCS International Conference Series, Bridging Gaps: Where is the Persona in Celebrity and Journalism? starts September 2, 2015, at New York City's Terrace Club. Also featured in the program are Shetal Shah, +Shannon Skinner, Dr. Samita Nandy, and Dr. Jackie Raphael.

Josh also has heads turning when it comes to his latest academic paper, which he will present at the conference.

Implications of Journalism's Tall Tales on a Telling Public tunes into NBC’s former star Managing Editor and Anchor Brian Williams, who returns after six month’s suspension when his credibility came under attack in early 2015. Like dominoes, a host of tall tales told to the American public in his broadcasts seemingly fell one-by-one starting from when he worked as a reporter covering the war in Iraq. The damage to his profession is done. However, Williams’ fate, and future, may still be bright when viewed through the sheer inertia of Maurice Halbwachs’ theory of collective memory. While the  majority of Americans think journalism’s role is more important in society than ever before, the perception that the news is not accurate or fair hit a 30-year low (Pew Research Center, 2013). Unless press tactics change without a public outcry, errors, lies, and biases reported remain rooted in the collective unconscious leading all parties away from any semblance of accuracy as history becomes the exclusive realm for mythic narratives.

Josh Nathan to read
from Too Mad to Trust

Moving away from such a heady subject, but no less important, is that Josh is one of three new authors featured in the conference program when he reads from Too Mad to Trust!

http://cmc-centre.com/pr/nyc-readings/

If you're in the NYC area and don't want to pass up this opportunity, please email celeb.studies@gmail.com. If you want to contact Josh, you can contact him directly via: toomadtotrust@gmail.com or through the book's website, www.toomadtotrust.com.

All of us at NannyNoz Books are quite proud of Josh and this opportunity for him to "wear many hats" at the CMCS conference. WaterHill Publishing, Celebrity Chat, and the Centre for Ecological, Social and Informatics Cognitive Research (ESI.CORE) are also associated with this conference.

BUT WHY BUY?? What's different about this new book that will help me?

You can now buy Too Mad to Trust as a paperback, for Kindle, or on iBooks. If you know of a child having trouble facing fears, you've come to the right place for the right book!

This book works to do a couple of things for parents, kids, teachers, students, educators, and researchers (I fit into several of those categories and often feel like a kid too!): 

1. Grabs Attention Through Vibrant Watercolor Illustrations

    -We designed these specifically to strengthen shrinking attention spans. This year, according to The National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average attention span in the U.S. is 8.25 seconds. You may have heard that the attention span for a goldfish is longer at 9 seconds! ACM Transactions on the Web studied the average number of words folks read on a single website before moving on; about 55 words, with 17 percent of browsers only looking at a website for less than 4 seconds. 

MAKING A QUICK, POWERFUL IMPACT IS CRITICAL IN LENGTHENING ATTENTION SPANS.

   -The National Education Association quotes expert, and Too Mad to Trust co-author, Linda Nathan, in a February 2015 article targeting how to help children focus in a bid to lengthen these attention spans.

2. Launches a Discussion Sparking Self-Directed Initiatives

   -If your son or daughter doesn't like to ask others to play, you'll see a change in their attitudes after reading the book and discussing some of the suggested questions at the end. Allow the message to become naturally interpreted by your children and read the book several times on different days, dealing with only one discussion topic at a time. Don’t forget to make sure your kids are reading the book on their own too! This way, kids internalize the message differently. They'll take the initiative to change a behavior when they're ready, so you want to suggest that they ask someone else to play only after some time has passed since you read and discussed the book for the third or forth time. Often, you'll discover that they'll volunteer to ask...if you don't push them. You merely wait for your son or daughter to naturally request to take that initiative, which is how this book was designed from a social psychology perspective.

3. Addresses Questions About Who to Trust (and Why)

   -In this first book in a series about the types of folks you want kids to trust and those you want them to be skeptical about, you’ll find a special focus on trusting friends. What does it mean to be a friend and why should you trust them? This topical theme is the heart and soul of our book.

4. Helps Adults Sense When to Address a Child’s Fears Directly

   -It’s challenging to know when to step in and guide your children and when to let them figure out things on their own. With 80-93 percent of all communication nonverbal, from our vocal inflections to our gestures and facial expressions, we say so much without ever speaking a word! This book helps parents, educators, and teachers better tune in to nonverbal cues children provide that tell us whether we should intervene. But you have to watch your son or daughter, listening more with your “eyes” than your ears. It’s a different way of thinking, so it will take some time to adjust just like anything else. Once you know what to look for, you know when to jump in or stay away—all of which is crucial in your child’s mental development.

   -Stay tuned for more posts on nonverbal communication cues, as we make this forum into more of a “reference library” for you to access tools and tips easily. Or subscribe by giving us your information so we can notify you each time a new tip emerges on our blog, our website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and a free content website I post articles on that’s more research oriented called Academia. We’ll also have YouTube videos coming soon!

5. Stops a Speech & Language Disorder Before it’s a Lifelong Plague

   -When kids are deeply afraid of something, it’s usually not about the things they discuss with anyone. Fear of the dark, fear about going to a new school, fear about making friends—all of these are fears your child will tell you about. It’s the fears your child only tells you about through their nonverbal cues that require attention to avoid some speech and language disorders that grow worse with age. Stuttering can be one example that can stem from anxiety rooted in fears. Selective mutism is another, which is kind of like “selective hearing” only on a scale that requires treatment with a certified clinical Speech-Language Pathologist like my Mom, Linda Nathan.

   -This book is designed to flesh out those nonverbal cues so you can more visibly notice the link between your kid’s fear of one thing and the related beginnings of a potential speech and language problem. It takes time to learn how to recognize these links, which is why I’ll continue to add tips on our blog throughout the next year as we read to elementary school students while studying the book’s effectiveness. Don’t beat yourself up just yet if you have trouble discerning the signs or seeing the link between unchecked fears and related disorders. Reading this book with kids and working with it by yourself are the best first steps you can take to help children!

You may also want to head to some of the other social media sites I discussed, with links above and throughout this website. They have articles that aren’t necessarily on here, especially my work on LinkedIn and Academia. You can also use those resources to see the work of other scholars studying the relationship between emotions in children and speech-language disorders, although there is a dearth of articles on the subject right now. That’s why we feel it’s critical to study this book’s effectiveness. It expands and builds on a, currently, very limited crop of research in the field.

        Have a question?? Make sure to ask us and we’ll get right back to you!

Josh Nathan, MA

Linda Nathan, MA CCC-SLP

We’re here to help more than we’re here to sell books.

 In fact, this book is our way of starting a conversation and beginning to shine additional light on a growing problem in America. As a university professor, I want you to feel you learn something every time you come to our website, read an article or paper I wrote, or catch a speech I give. I’m also always open to talking directly with you, coming into a school to help, or scheduling an event in which we’ll work on these concepts together. I’m here to help you. That’s what I do every day as an educator…and I love it!