Baby's First Words Children are exposed to human speech patterns before they are even born. By the time they are a year old, their baby babble becomes more distinguishable as simple words, like “mama” and “dada”; by the second year they are able to string together two-word sentences.  By age three they are able to make most consonant sounds and be understood most of the time; by age four, children are quite talkative and able to be understood.  By the time a child turns five, he or she is capable of making all vowel and consonant sounds, complex sentences, proper...

Toddlers learn by doing It’s difficult as a parent to watch your youngster struggle with a problem, whether it’s putting together a jigsaw puzzle or figuring out how to work a contraption. You want so much to just tell them the answer or show them how to do it, but you know that solving one’s own problems is the best way to learn.  Doing the puzzle or working the contraption for them doesn’t help them learn how to be patient, try different methods or figure out a solution on their own, and developing problem-solving skills is vital to childhood development....

On the Holiday Road The travel plans are made, the suitcases are packed, and the old family bus is packed to the brim with all the essentials. You’re all set for a Clark Griswold, National Lampoon-style road trip, complete with maps, sodas and bored teenagers. Suddenly you hear a voice from the back seat say, “I don’t feel so good”. Uh-oh. Carsickness has struck again and you realize your fun family vacation is going to involve a whole lot of cleaning the interior of the car. There are several things you can do for those that are susceptible to motion...

Hi-Ho! It's off to work we go!  We all have those days – days when the to-do pile is taller than the desk and all we want to do is just stare out of the window and imagine we are somewhere else; days where we feel busy all day long, but at the end of the day, nothing’s actually been accomplished; days that seem like an endless line of distractions; days of procrastination followed by days of scrambling to get work done. Do you sometimes feel distracted and unable to stay on task at work? Do you have trouble concentrating...

Do you get enough sleep? Sleep is the one thing we spend about one-third of our lives doing, but rarely think about- unless you can’t sleep. The Centers of Disease Control recommend the average adult get around 8 hours of sleep per night, but about 30% of adults report getting less than 6 hours.  Sleep is essential to life.  Not only does getting a good night’s sleep help you feel more alert and energized, but it is also the time when your body does its “routine maintenance” of hormone release and cell repair. In fact, a person can actually die...

  A Gift for Grandpa He’s a part of “The Greatest Generation”, the ones who fought on foreign shores in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam; the ones who survived The Great Depression and the Cold War; the ones who put a man on the moon and saw the rise and crumble of the Berlin Wall. His generation was raised to be patriotic, hardworking, honest and courageous; to work for what they earned, be true to their word and be loyal to their country.  The Greatest Generation were the ones who stayed at a job for decades, married their high...