Stuttering In Children

Stuttering is a problem that affects three million Americans. Most people begin to stutter when they are children. Stuttering in children will begin to stutter between the ages of three and five years old. For many children, stuttering will be a very short-lived thing. Children will often stutter as they begin to develop their language skills. Most children will just grow out of it after a short season of stuttering. It is estimated that between five and seven percent of children will stutter when they are developing their language skills. However, 1% or less of adults struggle with stuttering.

Stuttering in children will most likely begin when the child is between 18 and 24 months old. It will start out with them having a harder time putting sentences together. For most children these struggles will be short-lived and will only last for a few weeks and at most several months. Children will have mostly outgrown stuttering by the time that they are five years old. If a child continues to have trouble speaking after several months, then a parent should consider seeking out a speech pathologist.

Most parents are encouraged to not try to interrupt their child or to try to help their child out when they are going through this phase. Parents should be very supportive of their children at this time in their lives and not get upset if their child begins to stutter on a few words.

A parent should not have his child repeat words or try to have him slow down when the child is talking. The parent's job should be to let the child work out the stuttering for himself. The more the parent tries to correct the stuttering or bring a lot of attention to the stuttering the greater the risk that the child will of continue to struggle with stuttering when he needs not to. It is best to ignore the stuttering and let it work its own self out.

Stuttering in children will affect twice as many boys and girls. Girls are less apt to go through a stage early in life when they struggle with stuttering.

Many children who are at a greater risk of continued stuttering after they face the typical period in life when most children stutter are those that have a family history of stuttering. Other factors of children who continue to stutter after this time in their lives is that they will be highly sensitive and could have some very strong and pronounced traits of a perfectionist. This child could also very easily get upset at the smallest things. Stuttering in children is common thing and most will outgrow it.

Family and parental counseling can in some cases pull the plug on a child's stuttering problem. For more information please visit Stuttering in Children.

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Drawing Cartoon Children Using Correct Proportions

When drawing cartoon children, rather than adults, the big differentiator is the proportion of the body to head size ratios. Ok, when drawing real life you need to get these ratios close on, but when drawing cartoons you can exaggerate the differences so the viewer really 'gets it'.

This may sound a bit difficult if you are not familiar with the standard proportions of the human body - and that's true of most budding cartoonists. So, to start with, it helps to understand what the ratios are, and then learn them, so that you can apply an appropriate amount of exaggeration to suit your drawing objective. In this article I'll describe how to measure the proportions and what the different values are for the range of people from babies of one year old thru to full adult.

The ratio measurement starts from the size of the head. That is the distance from the top of the skull to the bottom of the chin with the head held level. This is your basic measurement of a 'head'.

Remember that these are all approximations. We all have seen people with what are called 'long faces' whose heads seem too long for their body. Sometimes you see the opposite, someone with a small head for their size and age, though that is rarer. So what follows describes the average situation.

Also, because you are cartooning, you have a greater freedom to exaggerate; I'll come back to this later.

So, starting from our 'head' size a fully grown adult will be eight heads tall. That dimension, as for all the ones that follow, includes the character's real head!

For a baby the figure is quite different. The figure is around four heads tall overall. Babies are born with heads that are larger in relation to their body. That's because brains grow much less compared to the body as a child grows from a baby to an adult. So, the ratio is an indicator to an observer of the child's age. The closer to the ration of 8:1 then the closer to an adult will be assumed by your viewer.

The following list gives you the realistic proportions for a child as it grows into an adult.

Baby of 1 year of age - Four heads
Confident toddler of three years - Five heads
School starter of five years - Six heads
Senior school starter of eleven years - Seven heads
Adult, say 18 plus, eight heads.

For ages in between just make an estimate based on these landmark figures.

When you are drawing cartoons it helps to exaggerate these differences. So it is quite common and acceptable for a cartoon baby to have an overall height of 2½ 'heads' rather than the official ration of 4. This is quite acceptable as it is the head and face that are normally the more important elements of your cartoon.

Making the cartoon children's heads larger in proportion to the body allows facial expressions to be drawn more clearly and the larger size draws the viewer's attention to those key expressions that can make or break your cartoon.

Claim your free tips about learning to draw cartoon children. The resources Tony provides there have been helping budding cartoonists get up and running for over five years. http://www.draw-a-cartoon.com

Children's Education: On the Benefits of Games and Educational Toys

There are a lot of factors that can greatly affect the development of children. Some people might think that games and toys don't have anything to do with this but it actually has some purpose. There should always be a balance between study and play. Both should not be deprived to a child. Toys and games can be a way for kids to be developed and learn other than providing entertainment. Actually, letting kids play with the right type of toys and games can provide them with a foundation in their education. At their early age, you can give them a good start.

The values toys and games provide are almost similar with other. This is even though there are a lot of play things that are available for your child in the market. By nature many children are curious. When parents are able to provide them with the right toys to play with, the kids can keep their interest the whole day. If this is not done so, on the other hand, they may likely look for a way to amuse their self thus they may end up cluttering or even destroying some important things at home. They may even be subject to accidents, so it is always good to keep things that might cause this.

One of the best ways to keep children from doing this is to provide them with toys to play with. Educational toys are some of the items that can be given to children. Here are some of the benefits that can be acquired from it.

The common benefit is that kids can enjoy and have fun from playing. When a child enjoys a toy or a game, he will keep playing with it. As parents, you should remember that in choosing a toy for your child, the enjoyment the kid may get should be considered. Also, you might consider toys that get his interest.

Motor and cognitive skills are likely to be developed. Puzzles and number games are some of the toys that have the ability to provide this. A kid's cognitive skills can be developed because of the fact that he will find ways on how to complete a puzzle. As for the motor skills, it can be developed because the coordination of the eyes and hands will be needed in solving a jigsaw puzzle.

Kids can also develop their creativity through the right type of toys. Their reasoning and perception can likely be developed. Toys like LEGO can develop their creativity for they can be able to come up with a certain image in their mind. This is a good thing to provide kids at an early age. Because of this, they can be ready to face the common things to meet when they start to study.

Social and emotional development is also likely to be developed through toys and games. This is true especially for group games. Kids will be able to meet new people and as they interact with them, they can create new friends. When they win or lose, their emotional aspects are affected.

These are just some of the benefits that can be acquired from toys and games.

Melody Andes enjoys writing for Sensoryedge.com which sells classroom rugs and kids sleeping bags as well as a host of additional products.