Good Sportsmanship?

Let's start with the good part of this story. I bought an UNO deck at the grocery store the other day and we sat down as a family to play. I always enjoyed UNO, so unlike certain other children's games (Candyland), I was looking forward to playing.

We had never played a card game before. I introduced the terms dealer, dealt, hand, deck, and shuffle. They loved watching me shuffle the cards and had a blast helping me count as the cards were dealt until we all had seven cards. Since it was their first time we just all played with our hands face up and focused on learning the mechanics of the game. Everyone had fun. They easily caught on to matching either color or number and enjoyed learning about reverse, skip, and wildcards. Michael and his dad even joked and laughed when Michael was skipped about three times in a row.

However, things ended on a sour note when I won the game. They seem so young to be upset that they didn't win. However, even at the ages of two and four, I got crossed arms, pouting faces, turned backs, and the complaint, "But I wanted to win!" All of this was followed by a refusal to play a second time.

Obviously this is something we need to address. I think I'm going to start playing games with them often. I'll play at least once with them during the day, and we'll play as an entire family a few times a week. Before we even begin I'll say that we're going to play at least twice no matter who wins. I'll discuss (briefly and age appropriately) that we play together because it is fun and model nice things to say to the winner and nice things for a winner to say.

Does anyone have any other ideas about how to teach good sportsmanship to preschoolers?

Research Article: Toddlers Don't Modify Speech Production Based on the Auditory Feedback of Their Own Voice

Research of the Week

I read this research summary and thought the findings were interesting. I got my hands on the original journal article and thought the research methodology and conclusions were well thought out and seemed sound.

Essentially, research shows that adults and preschoolers listen to the sound of their own voice and modify their speech based upon what they hear. If you put headphones on an adult or 4 year old child and feed a slightly modified version of their own voice back to them, the speech they produce changes as they try to "fix" the productions they are hearing.

If you do the same thing to a two year old, they do not modify their productions. Toddlers do not appear to monitor the sound of their own voices and adjust their speech production according to the auditory feedback provided by their own voice.

This has rather significant implications for therapy with toddlers. If you're expecting them to hear the difference between their own correct and incorrect productions that probably won't happen without some sort of additional feedback.

This study was done with typically developing two and four year old children and showed that adjusting speech due to auditory feedback develops between the ages of two and four. I wonder if you took a group of speech delayed children and conducted the same experiment, would you find that it takes even longer for self-monitoring to develop in these children? And further, would you find a difference between articulation, phonological, and apraxic children?

Pure Magic: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Review: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - short film and interactive iPad storybook

Watching this short film, and to a lesser extent, experiencing the iPad animated book version was magical. It captivated me, spoke to me, and even made me cry a little. My husband, my two-year old, and my four-year old were captivated as well.

I hesitate to tell you too much about the story. On the website I read that the story was inspired by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books. The animation was done using miniatures, computer animation, and 2D animation creating a very unique and completely engaging look.

The storybook app has an interactive element on every page. Some are simple - a swipe of a finger creates wind, or colors the sky. Other pages have simple activities like drawing on a blank page in a book, spelling with letters in a bowl of cereal, or changing the seasons. A few pages have simple, yet beautifully done mini-games including playing "Pop Goes the Weasel" on a piano, putting together puzzles, or my favorite of dressing characters up as characters from famous novels (pirate, Frankenstein, the Queen of Hearts, Ebenezer Scrooge).

My children laughed with delight at the look on Morris' face when a book came thudding to the ground. They competed to touch the screen on so many pages finally falling into a rhythm of taking turns on each page until we were all ready to turn the page to hear the next part of the story. Now, we read-played-experienced the animated book version first and watched the animated short second. I would actually recommend doing things the other way around. Watch the short first. Enjoy the experience with no preconceived expectations. Next, thoroughly enjoy the animated book. Then, if your children are old enough, enjoy discussing the similarities and differences between the two media.

Every time I watch it I appreciate the story on another level or catch something I missed the first time. For anyone with a love of books, animation, New Orleans, or simply a wonderful magical story I cannot recommend this enough.

Here is a great trailer for the animated short (but don't watch it if I've already convinced you - watch the short with a blank slate):

This is a trailer for the iPad app:

I also very much enjoyed the "making of" videos on their website and watched every one.

You can purchase the animated film from iTunes separately for $2.99, or you can purchase the iPad app for $4.99 which includes the film and an animated, interactive book version of the story.