in my life coach task it ask to choose a positive role models. Don’t know who though. any suggestion and why?

Someone successful.

Someone who knows they’re "hot" and feels good about who they are as a person.

Someone who can walk confidently.

Someone who has or is in the process of fulfilling their ambitions.

In society today and the business world, the more you use your mind, the better your success will be. When you have outstanding mind and brain skills and IQ confidence usually follows. Employers hire and promote often the person who masters these characteristics better then a very competitive workforce today.

A great way to keep your brain in shape is mind puzzles and brainteasers. These fun mind games are found everywhere. They are in magazines and store check out counters, they are even in newspapers across the country. They not only give you a break from a stressful day, they actually stimulate your mind.

Playing a mind game such as a cryptogram, you are increasing your reasoning skills. When you figure out which letter should be replaced with another, you are strengthening a skill that you need in everyday life.

Another skill that is developed by playing mind puzzles is your powers of deduction. When you play a puzzle that is filled with bizarre twists, using the process of elimination will no doubt assist you in solving the puzzle.

When you use mind puzzles and brainteasers, you also increasing your ability to use powers of logic to solve an otherwise impossible puzzle. These games may seem like a pleasant diversion in an otherwise chaotic life, but in reality, they actually keep your mind stimulated into drawing a legitimate conclusion.

You can gain mental stability when you play mind puzzles for a certain amount of time each day. When you use different types of games, it is assured that you will acquire the correct mental skills.

Using mind puzzles such as crossword puzzles can increase your vocabulary over and over again. With a crossword puzzle, you are not only learning a new word, you are learning the definition and how to use it in a sentence.

Once you are experienced at playing mind puzzles and brainteasers, you can step it up a bit to make it more exciting. If you start timing your games, you can add a whole new level of excitement and test your limits even further.

When you play mind puzzles, you are increasing your ability to think fast. When you complete a mind puzzle a day, you will notice you have gained a sense of security and you will also see the difference in your problem solving skills in a relatively short amount of time.

Mind puzzles provide you with the tools to improve your skills in specific areas. Problem solving is the number one skill that many people do not use to its fullest potential. When you have honed your skills, many of the problems that seem insurmountable in the past will be a breeze to solve.

The skills that mind puzzles develop are the skills that employers are looking for to fill to level positions. When you have the skills, confidence usually follows and employers notice all of these qualities.

Leon Edward
http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/enhancing-brain-power-through-mind-puzzles-for-career-success-83846.html

Parents and carers can use a range of strategies to encourage children’s language development. We thought of the following:

Talking to the child – even before a child can speak it is important for the adults and children around him to talk to him, for instance, by explaining what you are doing together (‘It’s time for Adam’s lunch, isn’t it?’), or what is happening (‘It’s lovely and sunny out here’, ‘Mummy will be here soon’). Remember to leave pauses so the child has chance to respond.

Using facial expression to convey meaning – children may not understand the words but they will usually understand the meaning if clear expression is used. For instance, if a child picks up a piece of soil in the garden and is about to eat it you might take it off him saying ‘yuck’ or ‘nasty’. He may not know what ‘yuck’ or ‘nasty’ mean. If, at the same time, you also scrunch up your face and stick out your tongue to indicate a horrible taste, the child will understand your meaning quite clearly. Most adults do this quite naturally when speaking to young children.

Reading and story-telling.

Social interaction. Including the child in experiences that give him the opportunity to hear conversations and meet new people.

Language and Other Areas of Development

The child’s ability to communicate and use language effectively is of key importance to many other areas of their development.

Language has particularly close links with intellectual development and is the main tool by which we are able to develop our thought processes. For example, we use words to help us store and recall memories and other information.

Think about the word ‘sunshine’ – what memories and thoughts does this bring up for you?

Everyone’s memories and thoughts will be a little bit different. When we asked a group of students this question, their answers included:

- warmth

- light

- my holiday in Cyprus

- summer

- a t-shirt I have with a sun motif

- flowers.

This is a good example of the way in which words act as tools to help us organise and recall our thoughts and memories.

We also tend to use words mentally to direct and plan our actions, for example: “I’ll drop these off at the library first and then call into the supermarket.”

It follows that children whose communication skills are impaired in some way, or who have limited vocabularies, may also find it more difficult to develop reasoning skills and acquire new concepts.

Communication skills are essential if children are to express themselves clearly and understand others. It follows that there are close links between language and communication skills and the development of social skills. Poor communicators tend to find social situations difficult, and also find it more difficult to build relationships with other people.

Becoming a Communicator

Effective use of language involves far more than simply learning words – the child also needs to learn a whole range of skills around speech and communication, such as understanding how a conversation works. These are known as pragmatic skills.

Pragmatic skills begin to develop in the early weeks of life, with tiny babies ‘turn taking’, initiating communicative interchanges, and ‘talking’ non-verbally to their carers.

Pragmatic skills include:

1. knowing that you have to answer when a question has been asked;

2. being able to participate in a conversation by taking it in turns with the other speaker;

3. the ability to notice and respond to the non-verbal aspects of language;

4. awareness that you have to introduce a topic of conversation in order for the listener to fully understand;

5. knowing which words or what sort of sentence-type to use when initiating a conversation or responding to something someone has said;

6. the ability to maintain a topic;

7. the ability to maintain appropriate eye-contact (not too much staring, and not too much looking away) during a conversation;

8. the ability to distinguish how to talk and behave towards different people and in different situations.

Many everyday activities can be used to encourage children’s language development, for example during mealtimes or group work. Parents and carers should look for opportunities to help children develop their language. This would include opportunities to:

- use questions

- listen

- learn new vocabulary

- speak.

Handling Mistakes

Young children make many mistakes in their speech. They often use grammar incorrectly and they may mispronounce words because they have difficulty in making the correct sounds. They substitute the difficult sound for an easier one, for instance ‘th’ for ‘s’, as in ‘yeth’ for ‘yes’. Such difficulties usually resolve themselves by 5 or 6 years of age.

It is very important to tackle such errors in a positive way if you are to boost the child’s confidence. Avoid direct correction of errors. Show the child that you have understood what he is trying to tell you and also teach him how to say the word correctly. For example:

Child: ‘mook.’

It is better to respond with ‘Yes! Book, book.’ than ‘No, not mook, book.’

With older children too, it often helps to echo back mistakes correctly. They get the message but they do not feel criticised. This can be the key to good communication between the two of you.

Child: ‘I have to do vis homework for tomorrow.’

Adult: ‘You have to do this for tomorrow? OK.’

Some children are so keen to get the words out, or have so much to say, that they stumble over their words. Parents may worry that the child is beginning to develop a stutter but this is just a temporary stage that many children go through. It is not a true stutter. It is only likely to become a problem if parents or carers make a fuss and try to correct the child’s speech. The child then becomes self-conscious and a real stutter may develop, at which stage the help of a speech therapist may be required.

Delayed Language Development

Children may be slow in learning to talk for several reasons, including:

- genetics – it may be that the child’s parents were late talkers too.

- he or she may have been concentrating on other aspects of development, such as learning to walk.

- not enough individual attention from adults – children learn to talk from adults rather than children. This can be a problem in large families or where there are twins or young children who are very close in age.

- lack of encouragement.

deafness – A child cannot learn to speak if he or she cannot hear the words spoken by other people. They also needs to able to hear themselves so that they can improve their own attempts at words. Interestingly, during the first year, profoundly deaf babies often babble at the same time as other babies, but they stop after a few months. This may be because they cannot hear themselves and so can’t reinforce their babbling.

It is extremely important to recognise deafness in children at an early age, as the earlier the child receives treatment the better the outcome. Parents and carers are ideally placed to notice that something is wrong with a child’s hearing. Such problems are also often picked up at the routine developmental checks carried out by health visitors during the first year or so.

To learn more about Child Psychology try a free short home study course from Learning Curve.

Learning Curve also offer full length and short, specialised courses in Child Psychology.

Linda Pollitt
http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/encouraging-childrens-language-development-177673.html

We may not be aware of it; but the words we utter daily may have
different interpretations, even if you think that they mean the
same thing.

Here’s an example.

Would you rather have someone tell you that you are “slim,” or
would you like to hear that you are “thin?” Being slim has a
slightly positive effect because it is attributed to health and
fitness.

Rather than saying you have failed, just mention that you have
not yet achieved success. Get the picture? Always try to speak
words in the most positive manner you can think of.

Here’s another important advice.

Never compare the negative qualities of one person with another.

A former boss of mine has this to say to me when I made an error
in my previous day job, “James (not real name) is doing a much
better job than you are. He’s not committing any mistake like
you do.”

That crushed my heart. My boss thought this would motivate me to
do better. Nope, it just hurt my feelings and lowered my
self-esteem. Of course, I would never make the same mistake
again after her harsh scolding. I’ve learned my lesson well. But
she could have said it nicely.

Experiences arising from discouragement and condemnation will
have a negative effect on the recipient.

Some parents might believe that instilling fear on their
children would improve their performance. They would say,
“You’re always failing. Why can’t you be like your brother?
You’re such a disgrace to this family.”

Now that’s not the proper way to do it. They should inspire,
encourage, and motivate their children; not belittle them even
further.

They should tell their children that they have the capacity to
achieve great things, if they would only put a little more
effort. Teach them values that would make them feel important
and loved.

You may even go as far as giving them qualities that they do not
yet possess. By giving them confidence and by making them
believe that they have such characteristics, they will
eventually acquire such traits. Tell them how bright you think
they are, and you will soon be surprised at the results. They
will significantly improve if you firmly made them believe that
they have the capacity to do so.

So if you ever wanted to persuade or encourage someone to do
better, make sure that he or she is motivated out of
inspiration, and not out of fear. Give advice that cares, and
not offensive words borne out of hatred or anger. Think first
before you speak. Many relationships have been ruined by the
wrong choice of words. Some people voice out anything that comes
to their mind, without first filtering the good words from the
bad ones. This might result in misunderstandings and arguments,
which could have easily been prevented if we speak out in a way
that is neutral and non-offensive. Words are very powerful
indeed. Use them responsibly for the benefit of al

Zaak Oconan
http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/building-solid-relationships-using-the-power-of-words-721.html