Haugen’s Tech Tips Blog

As shared in Exchange Every Day, from Child Care Information Exchange, a new study reports a link between consuming food dyes and sodium benzoate, and hyperactivity in children.

A UK study reported in Work & Family Life (November 2007; www.workandfamilylife.com)
demonstrates the impact of food additives on children’s behavior.
Researchers at the University of Southampton served 300 children in two
age groups (3’s and 8-9’s) three different fruit drinks daily.
One-third of the children were served a drink that contained the amount
of food dye and sodium benzoate typically found in a British child’s
diet. The second drink contained a lower concentration of those food
additives, and the third was free of additives.
Over three
seven-day periods, teachers, parents, and graduate students used
standardized evaluation tools to measure the children’s concentration,
restfulness, fidgeting, and talking or interrupting too much. Those
doing the testing did not know which children received which drinks.
The children in both age groups were found to be significantly more
hyperactive when drinking the beverage with higher levels of additives.
The greatest impact was observed in the three-year-olds! In response,
the British Food Standards Agency issued an advisory to limit
children’s intake of additives if parents noticed an effect on behavior.

Reprinted with permission from ExchangeEveryDay. To sign up for a free subscription to this daily newsbrief, go to www.ChildCareExchange.com.

TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) has released its 2008 Toy Action Guide, just in time for the holidays.

In their own words,

This guide is intended to help adults promote children’s creative and constructive play by making informed choices about toys, and by working with others at home, school, and in the community to promote positive play and toys.

The guide includes indispensable  tips for  how to shop for toys, what to look out for in terms of toys that promote violence or stereotyping, and ideas for toy alternatives, including their wonderful “shoebox gift” ideas.  The guide may be freely downloaded and shared.  While on the site, be sure to check out their other resources.

Steve Jacobs has created One Stop for Free Assistive Technology, a clearing house of free assistive technology tools available for a variety of needs. It is organized alphabetically, but if you choose a few handy keywords, you can usually jump to the products that would be of interest to you.
Steve is also open to submissions of additional resources not yet on the site.

Check out the Q-Charm for a down-to-earth, convenient low-tech communication and cuing system. Q-Charms are silicone wrist bands with interchangeable half-inch square charms. The charms have different icons to help an individual communicate, anticipate daily events, etc.

http://www.qcharm.com/index.html

ASL Pro
is a web site that offers a free American Sign Language video dictionary and quiz tool for teachers and others who want to teach or learn sign language. Words and phrases are organized into a Main Dictionary, Religious Dictionary, Conversational Dictionary (including idioms), and ASL for Babies Dictionary. The quiz and learning tools include finger spelling quizzes and customizable quizzes.