By LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press Writer
Feb 12th, 2009 | WASHINGTON — Don’t just talk to your toddler — gesture, too. Pointing, waving bye-bye and other natural gestures seem to boost a budding vocabulary.
Scientists found those tots who could convey more meaning with gestures at age 14 months went on to have a richer vocabulary as they prepared to start kindergarten. And intriguingly, whether a family is poor or middle class plays a role, the researchers report Friday.
Anyone who’s ever watched a tot perform the arms-raised “pick me up now” demand knows that youngsters figure out how to communicate well before they can talk. Gesturing also seems to be an important precursor to forming sentences, as children start combining one word plus a gesture for a second word.
Category: News (Page 4 of 13)
A new .. old.. and repeated story..its heroes are the children and youth of the village of Dest El-Ashraf, Kom Hamada province, Beheira governorate.
Scene one: children and youth in the age of flowers come out every day to work in the farms in Nubaria. They are shipped in pickup trucks to the large farms yearning to manpower to plant and harvest them. The children are the tool which irrigates the land of the farms. The land drinks from their childhood, their fragile bodies, and their innocent eyes.
Scene two: children at the age of growth, starting from the age of seven, kneeling on the ground removing grass, harvesting crop or sowing seeds over the long working hours, which are no less than 10 hours, that might or might not, be divided by a half hour to rest and eat poor food (cheese, tomato, or mashed potatoes in the best of cases). During the long work day under the harsh hot sun or bitter cold, these (working) children are not allowed to speak, look around or be lazy at work. A child who is lazy is beaten by a hose and humiliated and insulted with the most brutal words, particularly the girls, who are subjected to humiliation and obscene words. It seems as if we are back to the era of slaves, and children have become slaves to the landlord, forced to work with every drop of blood in his land in exchange for a handful of pounds which are not enough for the misery and hardship of the long day. There is no place here to talk about employment contracts, health and social insurance, a meal, a certain number of working hours, or definite wages.
Here is a frightening article about an Italian law that mandates the registration of any publication. Recently, a judged rule that as blogs have headlines, they are online newspapers and the author of one such blog is guilty of publishing a clandestine newspaper.
Now, this law is likely unconstitutional and in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights – but it seems this is a battle that will need to be fought in court.
I just found out, by reading The Week magazine, that last month a woman in Nashville was detained for being an illegal immigrant. She was 9 months pregnant and about to give birth, she was taken to a hospital where she was made to labor in shackles. Once she gave birth, the baby was immediately taken from her, so that she could not breastfeed him. A few hours later, while she was still recuperating, they shackled her again.
You can read more about this in this blog entry.
After you do, please call Sheriff Hall at (615) 862-8170 and complain about it. Also call your congressman and ask that they sponsor a bill (they’d have to write it) that would say that nobody detained by a federal agency, or any agency working in conjunction with the federal government, can be made to labor while restrained. And that no newborn or breastfeeding baby shall be taken away from a mother under those conditions.
Personally, I feel it’s beyond unconscionable to make a woman labor while shackled. And there is no reason, it’s not like you are going to escape between contractions.
Please, please, please call. Perhaps it’ll make them rethink their policy.
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