Can Inadequate Sleep as a Preschooler Cause ADHD?

A recent study led by author Erika Gaylor, senior researcher for SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif., claims her research suggests that children who do not get enough sleep as preschoolers are more likely than other children to show signs of ADHD by the time they’re in kindergarten.

The study was based on parental accounts of amount of sleep their preschoolers received, as well as reports of ADHD symptoms (hyperactivity, impulsivity, etc.) their kindergarteners exhibited. The preliminary findings suggest that children who do not get enough sleep as preschoolers, are more likely to show signs of ADHD as kindergarteners.

Now, I’m no scientist, researcher, psychiatrist, or other expert in the field of ADHD, but I do have two sons who have been diagnosed with ADHD. And I think it’s much more likely that kids with ADHD simply sleep less. My sons weren’t diagnosed with ADHD until after they were in kindergarten, however, the symptoms started much, much earlier.

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Barney -- and a cheerful teacher -- kept kids calm as violence erupts outside the preschool classroom. VIDEO

A preschool teacher in Monterrey, a city in northern Mexico, is being called a hero for keeping her classroom calm while a gun battle raged outside her classroom.

After the first shots were fired, she quickly and calmly gets the kids to lay down on the ground. In a video, posted after the jump, you can hear her order the kids “faces on the floor.” Then one of them asks what’s going on. Continue reading »

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School uniforms creeping younger

Today in the Wall Street Journal, Sue Shellenbarger talks about the growing trend of preschools and even daycares requiring their little attendees to wear uniforms.

The benefits: even three-year-olds are comparing dresses and judging each others’ fashion choices. The interest in clothes detracts from kids being able to focus on work.

“Children come in comfortable and prepared to focus. They’re not worried about what their neighbor is wearing or what their mom didn’t let them wear today,”…Uniforms reinforce feeling part of a group for children. Even in preschool, “if you put a blue shirt on a child, he or she knows ‘I’m getting ready for school.’ ”

I may complain sometimes about negotiating the day’s attire with my three-year-old, but there’e something kind of depressing about the idea of sending him out the door in a blue polo shirt and khakis every day: Continue reading »

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Tell us your preschool admissions horror story for a chance to win the ultimate documentary on the subject

I moved to Colorado from Manhattan seven years ago, and while there are many things I miss about New York, now that I have a kid, I can’t remember what most of them were. Especially now that my toddler is starting preschool in just a few months.

On the advice of people who know about these things, when I was six weeks pregnant I got on the waiting lists of a few preschools in the area. At the time I was horrified, thinking that was such a New York-type thing to do. But it was no sweat off my back and it has ultimately meant that my husband and I will be sending our daughter to the preschool of our choice. Which is why when I hear stories of nursery school nightmares in places like New York City — particularly this time of year when the acceptance and rejections letters are in the mail — I am reminded that one of the main reasons I left the East Coast was in search of a simpler, less competitive life.

Last month I wrote about a mom who sued her daughter’s tony nursery school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for not properly preparing her for the rigors of a kindergarten entrance exam (within the first few weeks of the school year), which, she said, meant her child was then at a disadvantage for admittance into an Ivy League college. While that mom has been greatly ridiculed in the press for her lawsuit, her sentiments are shared by countless others nonetheless. Getting into the right preschool is big business and more families than not believe the implications are far-reaching.

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The best preschool learning

Last week in an essay for Slate, developmental psychologist Allison Gopnik discusses two findings coming out in the journal Cognition that might make you think twice about enrolling your little one in an academically-focused preschool.

Gopnik, known for her books “The Philosophical Baby” and “The Scientist in the Crib” breaks down to the question of what little kids learn (and don’t learn) from direct instruction.

The basic point is that when kids are taught, they absorb information — and quick. But while they’re busy learning facts or processes, a whole set of arguably more important skills are falling by the wayside. Here’s why you may want to visit that exploration-based preschool program in your neighborhood: Continue reading »

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Separate! You're disempowering the little lady.

Hard to believe that in crunchy progressive Santa Cruz, Calif., someone had the nerve — or is it the delicate and nurturing disposition? — to open a preschool just for girls.

This school isn’t just some little-women-hear-them-roar misguided attempt of “empowerment” and closing the math and science gender gap in math and science. Rather, it’s a school with the tagline, as Double X’s KJ Dell’Antonia reports, is “It’s pink, it’s girly, and it’s all about them!”

Ohmygodnoway! Continue reading »

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A mom in New York is suing her daughter's preschool for preparing her insufficiently for Harvard (more or less)

If I were paying close to 20K annually for my kid’s preschool education (if that’s what we’re calling finger paints, nap time and juice and cookies these day), I would expect her to come home daily with a gilded brain and diamond encrusted paper mâché while alternating between Swahili and Russian as she recites the Declaration of Independence in full. You know, to ensure the curriculum at her school isn’t too provincial.

Apparently one New York City mother feels the same way. Nicole Imprescia is suing her 4-year-old daughter Lucia’s $19,000-a-year Manhattan preschool, claiming it wasn’t sophisticated enough to properly prepare her for the city’s elite private schools.

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