ATTN: iPad users! If this post doesn’t display properly, with all its nifty graphic and text links, try here. Stuart’s workshop on Visual Learning and Story Telling in Early Childhood Education will take place on Friday, January 27, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., in Room 192C, West Building, McCormick Place. Hope to see you there!
Archive for the ‘Health and Safety’ Category
Children’s Books and Teaching Ethics: A Conversation with Janet Wong, Betsy Bird and Stuart J. Murphy at NYPL, January 7, 2 p.m.
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011Triclosan: Why Killing “99.99%” of Germs May Not Be Such a Good Thing
Monday, October 3rd, 2011
by J.A. Ginsburg
antimicrobial linked to allergies, antibiotic resistance, hormone havoc and aquatic ecosystem disruption
Triclosan. Add it to the ever-growing list of ingredients you don’t want to see on a label. Banned in Europe, Japan and Canada, under review in the US and literally in just about every child’s product you can imagine, antimicrobial Triclosan has been linked to allergies, superbugs, messed up hormones and the demise of diatoms, microscopic aquatic algae critical both to the food chain and the generation of the planet’s oxygen.
That is a whole lot of bad for something marketed as an “added value” product—and a product that actually can do some good in very specific cases.
Triclosan isn’t a typical “vizlearning” topic, but growing evidence that it could represent a significant health risk to young children tipped the balance.
Recently, I attended ICAAC, an infectious disease conference (pronounced “ick ack”) sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (I wear a few different hats, including that of science geek…) Dr. Stuart Levy, the director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University, spoke about Triclosan (webcast time code 41:30). “There is no evidence it improves health… It captures the imagination, but it’s a real mistake,” Levy noted, a point he has been making for well over a decade.
The problems arise from triclosan’s ubiquity. It is in everything from hand sanitizers, antibacterial soaps and toothpaste, to shampoos, plastic toys, cosmetics and paint. It is also, apparently, in 75% of us. More specifically, it is in 75% of the urine samples tested by the CDC. Although it swirls through our bodies rather than accumulates, there is a constant circulation, so constant exposure.
Triclosan is sturdy enough to survive sewage treatment. Once released into a stream or lake , it continues to kill microbes, including diatoms, affecting the balance of entire ecosystems. Exposed to sunlight, it breaks down into dioxins, which then settle in sediments.
In commercial products, triclosan is used at low dilutions, which, ironically, only makes it more harmful. Antibiotic resistance is almost inevitable because enough microbes survive to evolve and thrive. Even if 99.99% of germs are, in fact, killed (a claim that has been disputed), that effectively clears the playing field for the 0.01% that are naturally resistant, such as Pseudomonas and Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Since antibacterial resistance genes are routinely shared among bacteria though a process called horizontal transfer, simply hanging out with resistant microbes can turn other microbes into “superbugs.” That’s something to consider the next time your child has an ear ache or other infection, first line antibiotics don’t work and the only drugs that do are really expensive.
One way to help bring down health care costs is to make sure older, cheaper antibiotics remain effective.
Soap and water do a fine job, according to Dr. Levy. Alcohol-based hand disinfectants work, too (the alcohol dissipates, so doesn’t stick around long enough to generate resistance).
So let’s lose the triclosan, wash those hands and stay healthy!
RELATED:
- Is the Soap Lobby Right That Anti-Bacterials Are Safe? by Keira Butler, Mother Jones
- Triclosan in Waterways Harmful to Important Microorganisms, Beyond Pesticides
- FDA says studies on triclosan, used in sanitizers and soaps, raise concerns, by Lindsey Layton, Washington Post
- Triclosan, Wikipedia overview
- Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (another major source of antibiotic resistance)
Yay! Freda is Found!
Thursday, August 18th, 2011on getting help when lost: important tips for children, parents, teachers & caregivers
by J. A. Ginsburg
An "I See I Learn" story about how to get help when you are lost, an important Health and Safety skill
Being lost is scary. So is that awful feeling someone in your charge has gone missing. Freda Is Found focuses on skills that can:
- help keep a child from getting lost
- make being lost a little less frightening
- help a child get found
Freda—the Hermione Granger of the I See I Learn set—is the last child you would expect to get lost. Freda follows directions! Freda loves directions! But anyone can get lost, which is important to remember. It takes only a moment to let go of a hand and become separated from the group. Suddenly, nothing looks familiar. Everybody is a stranger. And… it’s…scary!
Still, this is Freda we are talking about. How did this happen? The day started out so brilliantly. During the morning “circle time” at Ready Set Pre-K, Miss Cathy told the class they were going on a field trip to the fire station. Freda loves fire trucks! She could barely contain her excitement as she held hands with Percy, her safety partner, walking with the class over to the station.
Then she saw a toy fire truck in the window of her favorite toy shop. Freda let go of Percy’s hand, thinking he would follow her to get a better look. But she darted away too fast. By the time she turned around, Percy was nowhere to be seen. All her friends had disappeared. Miss Cathy and Mr. D., her assistant, were gone, too!
Uh oh.
Freda knew she had made a serious mistake by letting go of Percy’s hand, but she remembered what she had been taught about how to get found.
While Freda was trying to get help, so was Percy, who immediately told Miss Cathy what had happened.
Mr. D. and Percy went back to look for Freda and boy, was she ever happy to be found! And really REALLY happy when then let her ring the bell at the fire station.
Getting found is way more fun than being lost!
Teachers! Parents! Librarians! Caregivers! Each "I See I Learn" book includes a two-page spread called “A Closer Look," designed to review key points. Also available as FREE pdf posters, perfect for classroom walls & refrigerator doors!
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MISS CATHY RECOMMENDS:
- Keeping Kids from Getting Lost (and What to Do If They Do) by Alyssa Dver / babyzone: Lots of great tips, such as dressing children in eye-catching clothing to make them easier to spot in a crowd. H’mmm. Maybe Mr. D. will help me design some special Ready Set Pre-K t-shirts for field trip days. So you think we should we include a picture of Pickle, Emma’s green bulldog?
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: According to government statistics, nearly 800,000 children are reported missing annually. Most children are reunited with their families quickly, but some find themselves is frightening and dangerous situations. The NCMEC site has lots information and helpful links.
- AMBER Alert Program: This is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, and transportation agencies to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.
- Boy Scout Jared Ropelato Found in Utah Wilderness / ABC News (print & video): Look at how happy Jared—and his mom—are when he’s found.Freda knows exactly how that feels! Don’t wander off alone! (Really, “an encounter with a moose”?!)
Be sure to check out all of Stuart J. Murphy’s I See I Learn books, including titles in Spanish! Stuart’s Level 1 MathStart books are perfect for Pre-K. You can follow us on twitter and Facebook. Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter, too! (sample)
Japan: 100,000 Children Affected & How to Help
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Japan earthquake / tsunami, March 11, 2011 (click to link to full graphic
An infant plucked from the rubble. An image of a baby swaddled in pink, shocks of dark hair, dark eyes, sweet precious cheeks. A collective “awww” sighed around the world.
The tiny unnamed girl defied the odds to survive days beneath the tsunami wreckage in Japan. Alone, literally buried alive in near-freezing weather, she managed—in that amazing way of babies everywhere—to send out a cry that cut through it all. Rescue workers couldn’t believe their ears, and when they found her, it was rare moment of pure joy in a landscape of gray desolation.
According to officials, children account for 20% of the estimated half million people directly affected by the one-two-three punch of a massive earthquake (now officially upgraded from an 8.9 to 9.0), tsunami (tsunami: from the Japanese words tsu, meaning port, and nami, meaning wave) and a still-unfolding nuclear catastrophe. That’s 100,000 children “displaced.” Some, inevitably, now orphans.
In a tragedy so unfathomable, theirs is a story especially full of heartbreak and hope. Children are the ones most vulnerable, yet on whom the future depends. Inherently resilient, they risk life-long scars from the trauma.
Many now face at least three months in shelters, and boredom has started to settle in. They want to be in school. They want to be busy. They need to have a sense of purpose.
NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) posted an interview with Save the Children’s Jeanne-Aimee DeMarrais about helping helping children through disasters and what we can do to help the kids in Japan:
It’s important to get children back to a regular schedule as soon as possible even when they are living in temporary shelter. It’s also important to establish a child-friendly space. Child-friendly spaces are safe, supported environments for children where children can play with other children and be children themselves. These are not schools but over time they do become informal school settings until regular school is reestablished. They are safe places, clear from debris. And they are staffed with supportive adults who can provide children with caring support and opportunities to interact and play with their peers.
Establishing emergency childcare is also a priority so parents can secure supplies or go back to the disaster area if possible to secure their homes without having to take infants and toddlers with them.
Notably, most child care costs in Japan are covered by the government, which has requested time to assess what sorts of outside assistance would be most helpful.
In the meantime, NAEYC recommends supporting UNICEF and Save the Children, both organizations with long track records of working specifically with the youngest victims of disaster all over the world. The NAEYC article also includes several links useful for parents, teachers and caregivers on emergency preparedness and coping with trauma in the aftermath of a crisis
Even children an ocean and more away from Japan here in the US can be affected by the non-stop media coverage, according to psychologist Michele Borba. Young children especially are attuned to the stress levels of parents and care-givers.”If you stay calm, so, too, will your children,” she advises. Talk through concerns, research answers if don’t have them and help children express their feelings.
For a list of more organizations involved in the Japan relief effort (along with advice on how to spot and avoid scams), check out Charity Navigator, a well-respected philanthropy vetting site.
And for a child-friendly introduction to Japanese culture, visit Kids Web Japan to learn about everything from holidays to Manga comic books.
Along with the rest of the world, our hearts are saddened by the tragedies in Japan and our thoughts are with everyone struggling to rebuild their homes and their lives.
— Stuart J. Murphy / J.A. Ginsburg
A Puppy Named Pickle
Thursday, December 16th, 2010by Stuart J. Murphy
On happier, healthier, more confident children, being inspired by children, imaginary dogs, fancy doghouses, map games and the wonderful Pre-K class at Snyder-Girotti Elementary!
What would you name your puppy if he happened to be green? “Why he looks just like a pickle!” said Emma’s grandfather. So Pickle he became.
Pickle is Emma’s oldest friend. When she was very little and just learning how to walk, Pickle was right there, wagging his tail, cheering her on. When they moved to See-and-Learn City, he stayed by her side, helping her unpack and settle into their new room. My story, “Emma’s Friendwich,” is about how they learn to make new friends. After a while, Emma had lots of friends. Pickle did, too.
In “Freda Plans a Picnic,” Pickle get to tag along with Emma and play with Percy and Ajay, some of her schoolmates from Ready Set Pre-K. They even bring him a special treat!
These are two of the first books in the I See I Learn ® series (Charlesbridge). Each book focuses on a different skill—for example, how to make a friend, or planning and sequencing— which are important not only for school, but as life skills. “For happier, healthier, more confident children” is our tagline, and our mission.
ON PETS, PROPS, GRANDCHILDREN & INSPIRATION
Children (and I count myself among them) love to read about pets and make up stories about pets. This past summer, our two granddaughters, Maddie and Camille, took pet storytelling to a whole new level. They really really want a dog, and had even picked out a name: Clementine!
Camille and Maddie and Clemetine's dog house
One day, Maddie and Camille saw me unpack a large dehumidifier. Maddie immediately asked, “Can I have the box, Grandpa? It would make a nice house for Clementine.” A few days later, the house had windows with a window box for flowers, a door and a sign over the door that read “Clementine.” The walls were painted beautiful colors and there was a mailbox on the side.
Over the next few weeks, Clementine received mail almost every day. She had letters from neighborhood dogs telling her how they couldn’t wait to meet her. She even received a postcard from a dog on vacation. There was also an invitation to a doggy birthday party! Maybe one day the tale of Clementine will become a book.
I get most of my story ideas from children. While watching one of my grandson Jack’s baseball games, I noticed some younger children nearby trying to learn how to throw a ball. That’s how I got the idea to write “Good Job, Ajay!,” a story about a boy who learns about confidence as he tries and tries again to throw a ball well.
Children also like to read about playing—at the beach, at school, at the park—anywhere!. It is really important, though, that they learn how to play safely, so no one gets hurt accidentally. That’s why I wrote “Percy Plays It Safe.”
VISUAL LEARNING
Each of the first four titles in the I See I Learn ® series focuses on different learning domain—Social, Emotional, Health and Safety and Cognitive— but they all use visual learning strategies to help teach specific skills. Most of the young children for whom the books are intended are pre-readers, but they are accomplished visual learners.
I have spent my entire career working in the field of visual learning and education, studying how information is effectively conveyed and received using charts, graphs, models, and pictures. The visual learning strategies used in I See I Learn™ include symbolic icons, picture diagrams, visual sequences, and graphic models. Each book also includes a special two-page section at the end of the story called “A Closer Look,” which features a graphic recap of the story’s key point and a series of “higher order” questions to reinforce the learning (no simple “yes” or “no” answers!).
Camille, Ajay, Pickle, Emma, Carlos, Freda & Percy
THE GANG’S ALL HERE
In addition to Freda, Percy, Ajay and Emma, and, of course, Pickle, Carlos and Camille round out the Ready Set Pre-K friends.
Yes, this Camille is named after my youngest granddaughter! My older grandchildren have books “starring” a namesake character from my first series, MathStart: “Jack the Builder” and “Mighty Maddie.” Then along came Camille… Sometimes being last has its perks. Camille doesn’t just have one book, but is part of a whole series. Lucky Camille!
All of the I See I Learn ® children live in See-and-Learn-City. The love to play at Stay and Play Park and build sand castles at Friendly Waves Beach. Story time at Read-a-lot library is so much fun! And they adore Miss Cathy, their wonderful teacher.
See-and-Learn City: Each book includes a map, which is lots of fun for games: Where does Freda live? Can you find Duck Duck Goose Pond? Who lives just up the street from Carlos? Where's Ready Set Pre-K?
Now, back to Pickle! I was thinking that maybe Pickle should send a note to Clementine. But Maddie and Camille now have a real dog…named Bella! I bet Pickle would share some picnic treats.
Reading "I See I Learn" books to Pre-K class at Snyder-Girotti Elementary in Pennsylvania - Fun!
*An earlier version of this post first appeared on Charlesbridge Publishers’ “Unabridged” blog
