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In the Journal of Neuroscience I found information about the functioning of the brain with young children compared to adults. The front part of the brain is the part where learning takes place. Children and adults were asked to answer questions while they were inside a brain scanner. The brain activity with young children was much higher when they got positive feedback. With adults this was opposite. Their brain activity was stimulated with negative feedback. The turning point is at the age of twelve. This means that children under 12 do not change their behaviour rapidly telling them that something is wrong. Saying ‘no’, of ‘that’s wrong’ does not have an immediate effect. Positive stimulation on the other hand works much better. Teachers and parents can profit from this by showing children how to find the right answer and the right behaviour.
For a lot of adolescents being addicted to something has become their way of showing their independence. The use of mobile phones is extremely high. More and more teenagers drink alcohol at a young age. We read and see regularly documentaries on coma drinking. Smoking, using drugs, excessive use of Internet, chatting and playing games online and offline. Teenagers are looking for thrills and do not know the limits. Psychiatrist Patrice Huerre concludes that this attitude is more likely to be seen with adolescents who were spoilt during childhood. They got everything they requested and have not learned sufficiently how to long and dream for something. They always had instant satisfaction. These children are bored quickly because they never learned how to play and be creative on their own. It is important for our children to rediscover dreaming and playing with nothing. If they are not stimulated all the time, they have the chance for finding their own talents and passions.
6.000 boxes were distributed to sick children in America.
By Springer science-business media
To make children happier, we may need to encourage them to develop a strong sense of personal worth, according to Dr. Mark Holder from the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues Dr. Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace. Their research shows that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships - both measures of spirituality - are happier. It would appear, however, that their religious practices have little effect on their happiness. These findings have been published in the online edition of Springer’s Journal of Happiness Studies.
Both spirituality (an inner belief system that a person relies on for strength and comfort) and religiousness (institutional religious rituals, practices and beliefs) have been linked to increased happiness in adults and adolescents. In contrast, very little work has been done on younger children. In an effort to identify strategies to increase children’s happiness, Holder and colleagues set out to better understand the nature of the relationship between spirituality, religiousness and happiness in children aged 8 to 12 years. A total of 320 children, from four public schools and two faith-based schools, completed six different questionnaires to rate their happiness, their spirituality, their religiousness and their temperament. Parents were also asked to rate their child’s happiness and temperament.
The authors found that those children who said they were more spiritual were happier. In particular, the personal (i.e. meaning and value in one’s own life) and communal (i.e. quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) aspects of spirituality were strong predictors of children’s happiness. Spirituality explained up to 27 percent of the differences in happiness levels amongst children.
A child’s temperament was also an important predictor of happiness. In particular, happier children were more sociable and less shy. The relationship between spirituality and happiness remained strong, even when the authors took temperament into account. However, counter intuitively, religious practices - including attending church, praying and meditating - had little effect on a child’s happiness.
According to the authors, “enhancing personal meaning may be a key factor in the relation between spirituality and happiness.” They suggest that strategies aimed at increasing personal meaning in children - such as expressing kindness towards others and recording these acts of kindness, as well as acts of altruism and volunteering - may help to make children happier.
It was my intention to write something about the children in the warzone in Gaza. But I can’t. It is all too awful and sad. Instead I found this quote.
“Even under the very worst conditions, happiness is not only something that is achievable but it’s what drives us to want to experience the next day. ” -Hector Gabriel Ramos Samanez
