Learning with Sherry

09/06/2021

⏳دايما مستعجل/ة؟ مفيش وقت للطبخ؟ بناكل اي حاجة عشان نعيش؟ تحضير الاكل هم كبير بالنسبالك؟
بسمة والي هتشاركنا بأكلات عملية و صحية نقدر نعملها و نحضرها فالتلاجة او الفريزر للوقت الزحمة. دي اكتر حاجة بتريحني فالأيام اللي انا مشغولة فيها بصراحة.. اني اطلع حاجة محضراها من قبل كده عالتسخين او التسوية علاطول!
مين فيكو بيعمل كده فعلا؟
شاركونا بأفكاركوا و أسئلتكم. مستنينكم السبت الجاي ان شاء الله الساعة ٨ بالليل! 🤗
#طبخ

02/06/2021

18/05/2021

⚠️ With increasing levels of stress and pressure because of what's happening, 4 of us have come together to provide an online open access meeting to all those affected.
We will practice stress management exercises together and answer your questions with regards to dealing with stress, sleep, appetite, and supporting children emotionally during this crisis.
⬆️ Please register through the form to receive your meeting invitation. Link in bio.
❓Send us your questions through our question boxes in our stories.

therapist

15/05/2021

💔 متفهمة صعوبة الموقف الحالي على الأهل و على الأطفال كمان. اتصرف ازاي مع طفلي فالموقف ده؟ اتمنى و لو نصيحة واحدة تكون مفيدة لعيلة واحدة. صلواتي و افكاري و قلبي لكل شخص معرض لهذا الكم من الأذى النفسي و الجسدي و العاطفي. دي قضية انسانية مش ساسية!

14/05/2021

I don't want to start playing the blame game because that will never end, but for now, I blame all social media platforms for trying to silence the voices crying for justice. I blame the agendas behind every interview with a Palestinian where interviewers are trying to blame the victims AGAIN! I blame those living with power and privilege enabling this injustice to continue. I feel drained and unable to focus or think of anything else. I tried doing what Yasmine mentioned in her post but I failed for today so I'll try again tomorrow.
That's what we all need to do. No matter how hopeless we feel. Let's feel that today, and try again tomorrow with some new hope that I pray comes breaking through very soon.
This post is not an answer, or a solution to the effects of war on child development. This is a depiction of the facts and the truth of what this conflict does to the very future of Palestine.
God have mercy.

21/04/2021

"Play is the work of the child." - Maria Montessori

𝐀𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲!!!

During play, children are investigators, explorers, scientists, and researchers.
We need to provide our children with child-led, open-ended, and engaging opportunities to play.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭?
1️⃣ Play with your child by following their lead. You need to make sure you're not the one trying to always teach them. Let THEM teach you how they would like to play.
2️⃣ Provide your child with open-ended toys that they can be creative with and use in many ways.
3️⃣ Make sure to not have too many toys available for your child by rotating their toys every once in a while. (Follow .eg 's tips on that and play tips in general!)
4️⃣ Everything can be a game! Turn challenging times in your daily routine into a challenge or a game. You will be amazed by how cooperative your child will be! :)
5️⃣ Engage in pretend-play with your child. Get down to their level, join in their make-believe conversations, and get to know them more deeply.
6️⃣ HAVE FUN yourself! We all need to be a lot more playful and a lot less serious! 😉😝

19/04/2021

The development of empathy and theory of mind is one of the most researched topics in psychology and philosophy!

In this video, I talk about what those two concepts mean and how they develop.
Empathy is the ability to infer emotional experiences of others and share those emotions with them. It develops through neuron-mirroring as soon as a baby is born. But a more mature development of the concept of empathy is evident in children between 3 to 6 years of age.

Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states (beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and desires) to others.
Prerequisite skills from birth to 4-5 years old for ToM development: paying attention to others, joint attention, understanding intentionality, and imitation.

Between 4-5 years of age, children start showing that they're thinking about others' thoughts and feelings and their theory of mind develops in the following stages:
1. Understanding "wanting"
2. Understanding "thinking"
3. Understanding that "seeing leads to knowing"
4. Understanding "false-beliefs"
5. Understanding "hidden feelings"

The most famous experiment testing children's development of Tom is the Sally-Anne experiment which I've replicated in this video as the "Tarek-3abdo experiment".
It revealed that
85% of typically developing children or children with Down syndrome (ages between 4-5) seem to understand the false-belief aspect of ToM. While 80% of children younger than 4 or those who have Autism Spectrum disorders didn't seem to understand this concept.

What can we do to promote our children's development in those two skills?
1. Role-playing/acting
2. Sharing and talking about our emotions with them
3. Validating their emotions whenever they share things with us
4. Reading books about feelings, empathy, kindness, and perspective-taking.

I hope you found this helpful!

References:
Goldstein, T. R., & Winner, E. (2012). Enhancing empathy and theory of mind. Journal of cognition and development, 13(1), 19-37.
Dvash, J., & Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2014). Theory of mind and empathy as multidimensional constructs: Neurological foundations. Topics in Language Disorders, 34(4), 282-295.
Cadinu, M. R., & Kiesner, J. (2000). Children’s development of a theory of mind. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 15(2), 93-111.
Stietz, J., Jauk, E., Krach, S., & Kanske, P. (2019). Dissociating empathy from perspective-taking: Evidence from intra-and inter-individual differences research. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 126.
Baillargeon, R., Scott, R. M., & He, Z. (2010). False-belief understanding in infants. Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(3), 110-118.
Völlm, B. A., Taylor, A. N., Richardson, P., Corcoran, R., Stirling, J., McKie, S., ... & Elliott, R. (2006). Neuronal correlates of theory of mind and empathy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a nonverbal task. Neuroimage, 29(1), 90-98.
Poulin-Dubois, D., Hastings, P. D., Chiarella, S. S., Geangu, E., Hauf, P., Ruel, A., & Johnson, A. (2018). The eyes know it: Toddlers' visual scanning of sad faces is predicted by their theory of mind skills. PloS one, 13(12), e0208524.
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”. Cognition, 21(1), 37-46.
McDonald, N. M., & Messinger, D. S. (2011). The development of empathy: How, when, and why. Free will, emotions, and moral actions: Philosophy and neuroscience in dialogue, 23, 333-359.
Tholen, M. G., Trautwein, F. M., Böckler, A., Singer, T., & Kanske, P. (2020). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) item analysis of empathy and theory of mind. Human brain mapping, 41(10), 2611-2628.

16/04/2021

Would you say you are a kind and compassionate person? ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʙᴇʟᴏᴡ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱʜᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ!

❌ 𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 confuse being kind and compassionate with "being nice". Being kind is about the actions coming from personal values and beliefs in helping others and loving them. Being nice is about wanting to please others which is coming from a belief that this is the only way they will accept you. Being nice makes you live your life trying to please people and getting manipluated by them in the process. Just thought it was important to mention that as a recovering people pleaser myself before you read further.

❤️ 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱?
At its core, researchers suggest that kindness is a gesture or action motivated by genuine, warm feelings for others.

💜 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲?
Among emotion researchers, having compassion is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

🤟 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 is similar to 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 in that it involves feeling empathy and a desire to help, but specifically in the context of the suffering, hardship or distress of others and so acts of kindness in difficult times may often come from a place of compassion.

Being 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 and 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 people can be one of the most important goals humans live towards. And it goes without saying that kindness positively impacts those we are kind to.
𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 BEING kind is also linked to increased wellbeing and life satisfaction for people of all ages.

It is our job to raise kind and compassionate children in an age of entitlement and a me-first culture. We want them to be considerate of others, to understand the impact of their words and actions, to see other people's persepctives, and to be accepting and respectful to all people with all their abilities and differences.

How do you teach kindness and compassion to your kids?

𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒖𝒔!

15/04/2021

"Almost everything we do involves speech, language and/or communication. Everyday tasks, learning, sorting out problems, having a conversation, getting a job, making friends and having fun all rely on our ability to communicate.

Being able to say what you want to say and to understand what other people are saying is the most important skill we need in life. Yet many people take communication for granted. Some children and young people have difficulty communicating with others; they have speech, language and communication needs - often referred to as ‘SLCN’." - Misunderstood by The Communication Trust

12/04/2021

رمضان كريم 🌟🌟🌟🌙🌙🌙

08/04/2021

A video for parents interested to know more about therapies based on the science of Applied Behavior Analysis and how it could be useful for their children, ...