Posts filed under ‘Parents’
Pregnant and Parenting Teen Conference, Indianapolis
The Young Families of Indiana Network sponsored a state-wide conference in June 2012: The 2012 Pregnant and Parenting Teen Conference – Stepping Stones to the Future, Promising a World of Possibilities.
BrdsNBz National Text Line Director, Kennon Jackson, spoke on “What Are They Really Asking: Adolescents’ Questions About Pregnancy”.
The Future Promises Program of Marion County includes a teen father’s program, a formal partnership with Indianapolis Healthy Start, and a regional/state resource for teen parents, their parents, and professionals. To reflect their expanded mission, they changed their name in 2012 and are now known as the Young Families of Indiana Network (YFIN). The Future Promises Program is one program within YFIN. The name change reflects their intent to be a service leader for this special population. Organizationally YFIN will remain a division of the External Affairs Department of Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.
iPhone Mom Reviews PlumbBrain Guardian
Heather Leister, better known as the iPhone Mom, reviews iPhone apps for other moms. She is also an expert contributor on Momtastic.com, a site that provides answers, support, ideas and inspiration for moms. Her 2010 Top 50 iPhone Apps for Mom’s was a hit on Babble.com, a website for the new generation parent.
Needless to say, we were ecstatic when the iPhone Mom chose to review PlumbBrain Guardian last week.
In her review, she stated that she was impressed with PlumbBrain Guardian’s key features of storing information about your child in their profile and simplifying the process of alerting emergency personnel should your child go missing.
But, she went on to say…..”This is all extremely helpful and important but the next feature is what made me think PlumbBrain Guardian is really onto something. If you’re like me you would install this app on your phone, add the photographs and then forget about it. Hoping I’d never need to use it and so never going back to update the information. Should something happen years later the only picture I would have of my fifteen year old daughter would be a photo from when she was eleven.”
“PlumbBrain has thought about people like me and they have built alerts into their app. When you setup your account you may schedule alerts that will remind you to update your children’s photos. Reminders can be set as frequently as weekdays, weekly, monthly or annually. This is a fantastic feature!”
How could we have asked for more than to be in the IPhone Mom’s “Hope I Never Have To Use Them” category??!! “I have several apps on my iPhone that fall into the category of “Hope I NEVER have to use them but I’m VERY glad I have them” and PlumbBrain Guardian is solidly in that category. This is a free and useful app you should definitely get your hands on.”
Learn more about the PlumbBrain Guardian and download a free copy in the iTunes Store.
PlumbBrain Guardian: First iOS Mobile Application Launched
Ok, I know I’m a little late sharing my excitement but I just had to share anyway how much fun it is to continue to learn new things and explore new frontiers.
On April 29, 2011, we launched a new child safety mobile application for the iPod, iPad and iPhone! PlumbBrain Guardian was created by parents for parents. The app helps you keep a current photo of your child or grandchild (or a child in your care) in case they wander off unexpectedly.
One of our advisors with AMBER Alert™ says one of the key features of the PlumbBrain Guardian app is it’s reminder feature telling you to update your child’s photo. A current photo is critical to finding a lost child quickly. The AMBER Alert™ Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.
Please check it out for yourself. Maybe you don’t have children in the 2-13 age range but I bet you know someone who does (OK, we’re assuming once our children reach 13 they won’t wander off!). Click here to download the app from the App Store in iTunes to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad – it’s free!
Please leave us your feedback in the comments section or contact us at mobile [at] oneseventeenmedia.com or twitter @bcarls.
Can You Hear Me Now?: Earbuds, high volume music cause teen hearing loss
When we see a car drive up next with the bass and volume turned up so much that the cars around us are bouncing, we smirk, because we know that those folks are going to have hearing loss later in life. But while we consider hearing loss among adults who ought to know better something we can smirk at, a study released on Tuesday (as show on CBS News) is just plain alarming: 30 percent more of today’s teens have some sort of hearing loss, as opposed to their peers in the last decade.
So maybe teenagers aren’t necessarily tuning out adults; they simply might not be able to hear them.
This hearing loss can affect learning, speech perception, social skills development and self-image. This recent research asserts that one in every five teens has at least a slight hearing loss, with one in every 20 teens showing a more severe loss in their hearing. The study did not identify a cause for the increased hearing loss specifically, and the teenagers did not identify any significant changes in their exposure to loud noises. (The study’s authors say teenagers often underestimate their noise exposure.) Many experts suspect the primary cause is the use of using earbuds or headphones to listen to portable music.
The authors of the report in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. eliminated ear infections and exposure to loud noises in the 
environment as causes for the hearing loss: could it be those headphones teens are always wearing?
A recent Australian study also found a 70% increased risk of hearing loss associated with the use of headphones to listen to portable music. As a sound hits the ear/inner ear, nerves are triggered by hairs in the ear canal. With high and prolonged exposure, teens maybe destroying these triggers and their ability to discern certain decibels of sound. Think about it: a normal conversation is about 60 decibels, whereas the music from an ipod or MP3 player can range 100 to 120 decibels. OSHA notes that exposure to noise levels of 110 decibels for more than 30 minutes requires ear protection in workplaces, so this earbud/headphone theory has some merit.
Researchers say the results are cause for concern because hearing problems worsen with age and can have a significant impact on a teenagers ability to learn, so turn it down teens. Save your hearing and pay attention to your volume.
Want more info: Check out The Los Angeles Times
Spread the Word to End the Word
Across the United States and around the globe, young people have joined a movement of mutual respect and human dignity called Spread the Word to End the Word. The goal: get people to stop and think about their hurtful and disparaging use of the word “retard” and pledge to stop using it.
Spread the Word to End the Word was created by youth with and without intellectual disabilities who participated in the Special Olympics Global Youth Activation Summit at the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. The motivation for the campaign was driven by a united passion to promote the positive contributions people with intellectual disabilities make to communities around the world combined with a simple call to action – a pledge to stop using a word – that also symbolizes positive attitude change and a commitment to make the world a more accepting place for all people.
We found that almost all youth have heard the r-word and most have heard it used by a friend or a student at school. We also found that youth react differently to the r-word if it is directed at a person with a disability or if a friend says the word.
Half of youth (51%) said that they felt bad or sorry for the person being picked. Some responded that they either laughed or didn’t care when they heard the r-word and many (39%) said that they did nothing. Some youth (33%) took a stand and told the person it was wrong to say the r-word.
What YOU Can Do
Join he cause and the Spread the Word to End the Word’s Project UNIFY movement in schools around the U.S. Motivate your friends to get involved with a variety of fun youth activities. You can even contribute five minutes to take the Spread the Word to End the Word pledge.
Get in the game by joining Special Olympics Unified Sports®, where people with and without intellectual disabilities train and compete together on the same team.
Know someone with an intellectual disability? Refer them to a Special Olympics program nearby, and for more information, go to http://www.specialolympics.org/.
Today’s Kids: Expensive, But Not Worse Behaving
A Canadian study reports that today’s kids behave no worse than their parents;
“The conventional vices such as smoking, drinking and occasional marijuana use are all down from Bibby’s earlier Teen Project Canada studies dating back to the 1980s. So are the teen problems of the sort highlighted by the media such as depression, suicide and bullying, according to his 2008 survey of 5,200 teens from coast to coast.”
While it might be mildly reassuring that this generation of teens and tweens are no worse off than their parents, the expansive media coverage on youth issues should make us aware of many individuals were previously falling through the cracks unnoticed. Twenty-first century tweens and teens are often criticized for their over-sharing, but when kids are willing to open up through new media tools, there’s a unique opportunity for us to provide support and resources to help navigate their struggles. At OneSeventeen Media, we’re motivated around using social media to connect kids with the tools for success that weren’t readily accessible a generation ago.
Another (expensive) sign of the times: the average family will spend $221,000 to raise a child born in 2008 to age 17, according to a USDA report that’s been widely covered the last few days. This is no small chunk of change, but as Joanne Jacobs points out, the figure could be quite inaccurate. On Jacobs’ blog, there are some interesting comments where a single mom explains the number sounds low:
“Overestimates? If anything, it underestimates. I’m a single parent in Southern California, living in a middle-class neighborhood. It costs me $500 MORE a month to rent a 2-bedroom apt. than a 1-bedroom. If I rented a house for optimal “family raising” conditions, it would cost even more. So already, we’re talking $108,000 just for him not to share a room with his mom. Even with extra-cheap child care until he turns 12, we’re talking $40,000 more. It would cost more than that for a parent to stay home for 12 years. That’s $148,000, and we haven’t even gotten to health insurance, medical expenses, food, or clothing yet.”
(Image found here)
Tweens = $43 Billion in Spending Power
This tidbit stuck out to me from The Washington Times article, “Retailers lure parents of powerful tweens:”
“Tweens wield $43 billion in spending power annually and influence the spending of billions more on everything from cell phones to vacations to automobiles,” New York consumer behavior and marketing firm EPM Communications Inc. said in a 2008 report.”
That’s a-whole-lot-of money, and the figure doesn’t even include teen spending power. As we seek out responsible advertisers and sponsors for PlumbBrain, this study is a great reminder of the missed opportunity for retailers who do not to engage the tween market.
(Image found here)
This “Social Nitwitting” Stuff is a Hoot!
My mom joined me on vacation last week, and her one goal from our time together was to learn how to “Facebook better.” She sent me this cartoon via snail mail today, and as she notes, it’s indicative of our attempted Facebook lessons. I’m incredibly proud of her for wanting to keep up with technology and working to utilize Facebook. Susan knows it has lots to offer her, but lots of what? The day before she left, Susan asked me, “but why would I want to look at Facebook every day?” and knew that I had failed as her personal ‘net instructor. Our contrasting perspectives on social networking’s value and relevance mirror many parent/child and teacher/student approaches to social media tools: the young folks want it and the old folks don’t quite get it. [Disclaimer: this is a sweeping generalization, but not totally off target.]
At OneSeventeen Media, we’re excited to build the bridge in homes, classrooms and youth organizations between tech savvy kids and the important adults in their lives. We know that our interactive tools can improve the lives of kids and their relationships and communications with adult role models.
(Imaged clipped from the San Antonio Express News)
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Making Social Media Relevant to Learning
From ReadWriteWeb:
“Teachers are always trying to combat student apathy and University of Texas at Dallas History Professor, Monica Rankin, has found an interesting way to do it using Twitter in the classroom. Rankin uses a weekly hashtag to organize comments, questions and feedback posted by students to Twitter during class.”
(Be sure to watch the video to get a feel for how this works.)
I applaud Rankin for her visionary thinking and willingness to dive into social media! Her experiment exemplifies not only her willingness to innovate, but her understanding that lesson delivery must be relevant and engaging for 21st century kids. Twitter is a tool that many educators wrestle with to make useful in classroom settings, and Rankin has worked out a way to make Twitter applicable to academic life.
Through our PlumbBrain Micro-Communities we’re excited about the many ways we can social networking and other social media tools relevant and useful to schools — students, teachers and parents.
Teens Eager for Better Parental Relationships
“GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan – Asia Johnson is an academic achiever, star athlete and a social butterfly.
On the surface, it looks like she has it all.
In reality, there’s nothing the 13-year-old wants more than a relationship with her father.
She says so in a new book, “Listen To Me,” which she co-wrote with a dozen other Flint-area students. In touching and heartfelt prose, the young people offer insight into the most personal experiences, along with their hopes, dreams and problems. It’s aimed at getting their parents to better understand them.”
This poetry project, organized by Recco Richardson, is an excellent example that kids are hungry to share more about their lives to improve relationships with their parents, but they often need tools and guidance to get their messages across. Written prose is one of the many ways PlumbBrain can help facilitate communication between kids and parents, improving their relationships and interactions.
(Image found here)
