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Parents: are we being too hard on ourselves?
28 January 2019 by David Kinnane
My oldest son starts high school tomorrow. Yikes!
Like most parents, I'm proud of my kids. But I also worry. Have I done enough – am I doing enough – to help raise my sons to be good, responsible, happy, curious, adventurous, young men who are prepared take on the world and to chase their dreams? Are they ready to handle adversity and failure, as well as success? Am I too involved: a helicopter or lawnmower parent? Or am I not involved enough, like a distant 19th century father sitting in a den with my pipe?
One thing that hasn't helped me is the conflicting parenting advice I've read over the years. At the turn of the 20th century, experts told parents in Australia to take care not to "spoil" their kids with two much attention or affection, and to discipline kids firmly when they broke rules. At the turn of the 21st century, many experts' advice was the exact opposite – that we needed to take special care not to damage our children's self-esteem; that we needed to shower our kids with unconditional affection, praise, and support.
Who's right? Are kids these days turning out OK? Are they happier or better adjusted, or less aggressive, or less anxious than kids of our generation?
Recently, I've been pondering a more provocative idea from the realm of behavioural genetics: What if parenting itself doesn't have as much as influence on a child's outcomes as we might believe?
Both nature and nurture affect outcomes
150 years ago, Francis Galton coined the phrase "nature and nurture", which triggered a debate between psychologists about influences on personality and behaviours that continues today (Galton, 1869). One reason the question is so hard to answer is that it is almost impossible to separate out genetic and environmental factors when studying kids growing up with their parents (the gene-givers) at home (a key environment).
During the last century, the pendulum of expert opinion has swung from favouring nature (genetics) to nurture (environment). Arguably, it's is now swinging back towards nature as more large twin studies are published in peer-reviewed journals.
Many behavioural geneticists think that both genetics and environment contribute substantially to people's differences in traits (e.g. Plomin et al., 2015). For example:
a multivariate genetic analysis of intelligence, reading, maths and language in over 5000 pairs of 12 year-old twins showed that genetic factors consistently accounted for more than half of the phenotypic correlations (correlation between two traits in a person) (Davis et al., 2009).
Over the last 20 years, some researchers have begun to take a closer look at what we mean by a child's "environment". There is growing evidence that at least some children's behaviours may be context-specific: i.e. that a child's behaviour at home with parents and siblings is often very different to a child's behaviour in other settings (e.g. at school, while working a summer job, or hanging out with friends) (e.g. Rich Harris, 2000).
Babies are not blank slates
When babies enter the world, their minds are pre-programmed for learning. Interestingly, babies seem to know from a very young age that what they learn in one situation might not work in another, something shown in ground-breaking studies by developmental psychologist Professor Carolyn Rovee-Collier.
Babies are also primed to categorise. By the time they are one-year-old, babies can divide up the people around them into basic social categories such as age and gender: they can distinguish adults from children; and men from women.
Evolutionary biology: Parents then playgroups
In many traditional cultures, babies were coddled for two or three years (often by their mothers), and then, when the next baby came along, sent off to play with other kids in mixed age "play groups", often under the eye of an older brother or sister (Eibl-Eibesfeltd, 1989). In these playgroups, the older kids explained and enforced the rules.
As we've written before, by playing freely with peers, young kids learn which rules they must obey to be part of the group. These rules are often very different to the rules used when playing with parents at home.
Young children in many cultures show an early preference for members of their own "social category". For example, many young kids are attracted to other kids (even strangers), but are wary of strange adults. Many (but not all) two year-olds show a preference for hanging out with other members of their own sex. When they have a choice of playmates, many (but not all) kids, across many cultures, show a tendency to divide into "boy" and "girl" groups.
When kids are divided (or divide themselves) into two groups, the groups can sometimes become hostile to each other, something that was seen very dramatically when Muzafer Sherif and his colleagues divided 22, 11 year-old boys into two groups ("The Rattlers" and "The Eagles") and sent them to "Robber's Cave" summer camp out in the wilderness in Oklahoma in 1954. (You can read more about this amazing experiment here.) A second tendency – also seen in the Robber's Cave study – is for each group to see the other group as different in an unfavourable way, which in turn makes members of the group want to be as different as possible from the other group. This is called the "group contrast effect".
A harsh truth: many young kids and teenagers aren't trying to be like us
Freud proposed that kids grow up by trying to be like their parents, and that children learn how to behave by imitating their parents. But parents in all cultures do all sorts of things that kids aren't allowed to do! And, in many cultures, kids who act too much like grownups are considered precocious and impertinent. While kids do sometimes pretend to be adults, they also pretend to be monsters and dinosaurs and babies.
Learning how to behave properly in a big society is complicated because it depends on which social category you are in. Children have to figure out the social categories that are relevant in their society, then decide which category they belong to, and then tailor their behaviour to other members of that category.
The "group-contrast effect" can be seen in full glory during the late pre-school and teenage years. Many of the things we associate with four year-olds and teenagers – risk-taking, joke-making, rule-breaking, hyperactivity – are in stark contrast to behaviours kids see modelled by their mostly law-abiding, rule-making, sometimes sedentary, often serious, laundry-folding, parents.
So are there limits to what we parents can do to help their kids?
The worrying, but also kind of liberating, answer to this question might be "yes".
Some researchers think that, over time, culture acts on kids, not through their parents, but principally through their peers (Rich Harris, 1999). If this is true, there may be a limit to what parents can do to shape their kids' success past a certain point:
As noted above, the major contribution of parents may be genetic (Davis, et al., 2009).
A child's first job is to learn how to get along with her parents and siblings, and to do the things expected at home. Parents have a big role to play in helping their kids to do this.
A child's second job – which becomes more important the older she becomes – is to learn how to get along with her peers and to do the things expected of her outside the home in her social groups (e.g. at school, outside school with friends, at work, team sports, etc.).
In other words, most children learn separately how to act at home, and outside the home; and they learn to behave differently in different settings because different behaviours are required by different groups. This might be one reason why some kids are angels at school, and difficult to manage at home (or the other way around); and why sometimes teachers have very different views on a child than the child's parents.
Parents play a big role in determining how their children behave at home. They can make lots of decisions about the environment in which their children will grow up, how they will interact with their kids, and – at least in the early years – who they will hang out with. But, as a child grows up, his or her social groups outside the home become a bigger influence.
As individuals, parents may not have much power to influence the culture of a child's peer group(s) outside the home. But, if groups of parents act together and play an active role in what their kids do outside the home (e.g. sports or musical instruments they play, hobbies they enjoy, media they consume, games they play), parents can have a great deal of influence to work with their kids to set expectations and to shape norms and values across different environments.
Principal sources:
Rich Harris, J. (1999). How to succeed in childhood. The Wilson Quarterly, 23.1, 30-37.
Rich Harris, J. (2000). Context-specific Learning, Personality, and Birth Order, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol 9(5), 174-177.
Plomin, R., DeFries, J.C., Knopik, V.S., & Neiderhiser, J.M. (2016). Top 10 Replicated Findings from Behavioral Genetics, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(1), 3-23.
Image: https://tinyurl.com/yd7oas87
Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Concord West, North Strathfield, Rhodes, and Strathfield, and all other suburbs of Sydney.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean's Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney's Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia's Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.
Filed Under: Play Tagged With: behavioural genetics, nature and nuture
Get out there! Being social and kind to others makes kids happier, better-liked, and less likely to be bullied
15 May 2018 by David Kinnane Leave a Comment
We all want our kids to be happy, well-behaved and well-liked by peers. But, sometimes – despite our best hopes – they struggle. And few things in life are as stressful as seeing your child suffer as they withdraw from their friends and avoid activities they used to enjoy.
So what can we do as parents to help our kids to be happy?
Kristin Loyous and colleagues studied this question back in 2012. After reviewing peer-reviewed research, they observed that:
happiness, being social and popular were compatible goals: they often occur together; and
students who are well-liked also tend to be helpful, cooperative and emotionally well-adjusted.
Based on these observations, the researchers conducted an experiment involving 19 classes of 9-11 year-olds in Canada:
one group were asked to perform three small acts of kindness a week for four weeks; and
a second group were asked to visit three places per week for four weeks.
At the end of the study, students in both groups were happier. But the students who performed acts of kindness experienced greater increases in their acceptance by their peers than the students who simply visited places.
Why being kind and social matters
Being well-liked by classmates makes kids more likely to participate actively in academic and social activities at school, and less likely to be bullied. Encouraging pro-social activities may therefore have ripple effects for the community beyond increasing happiness and popularity of the kids involved.
Clinical bottom line and practical example
To help kids to be happy and well-adjusted, consider increasing the number of times per week they are expected to engage in pro-social activities. It doesn't take much time or effort to apply the research outlined above.
For example, in my household, we (the parents!) have decided to set minimum targets for each of our boys, namely to:
do small acts of good for others three times a week (e.g. giving mum a hug, sharing a toy with a sibling without squabbling, or completing chores without being asked); and
get out of the house, and do more social activities three times a week (e.g. visiting grandparents, playing team sports, or going for a long walk or bike ride as a family or with others).
To track progress, the boys will keep a simple diary summarising how they've met the targets.
(As an aside, there's nothing to stop many of us parents from applying these tips to our own social lives! It might be time for us to put down our smart phones, turn off the Netflix, and sign up to our local trivia competition with fellow time-poor parents!)
We hope these tips help your kids and your families become happier! Let us know how you get on!
Principal source: Layous, K., Nelson, S.K., Oberle, E., Schonert-Rechl, K.A. & , Lyubomirsky, S. (2012). Kindness Counts: Prompting Social Behaviour in Preadolescents Boosts Peer Acceptance and Well-Being. PLOS One, 7(2), e51380
Image: https://tinyurl.com/male9lu
Filed Under: Family Activities, Play, Social Skills Tagged With: acts of kindness, happy kids, social kids
"Why should I let my late-talker play with other kids?" Because play promotes learning: here's why and how
30 October 2017 by David Kinnane 1 Comment
Yesterday morning, while sunburning myself to a crisp, I watched my sons muck around at Austinmer beach. They were out of earshot, but appeared to be playing a game where Son 1 would "defend" Son 2 from oncoming waves by diving dramatically in front of him, like a bodyguard shielding a President. After protracted negotiations, the boys switched roles. Not for the first time, I pondered how odd kids' play can be – and how creative, even without props!
Play is weird
When you think about it, the whole idea of play is riddled with contradictions:
It's not serious, but it can seem deadly serious – as anyone who's played Monopoly with my sister knows.
It's trivial, but its effects on learning are profound.
It takes place in a make-believe world, but it helps kids learn to cope in the real world.
It's childish, but it's the foundation for many of humanity's greatest achievements.
Unlike language, play is not unique to humans: many animals do it too. So why do we play?
Survival of the playful
After studying animal play, Karl Groos proposed an answer from the Charles Darwin play-book:
"Play came about by natural selection as a means to ensure that animals will practice the skills they need in order to survive and reproduce."
Groos and his colleagues called this idea the "practice theory of play". It explains why:
young animals play more than older animals;
animal species that have the most to learn, play the most; and
animals play at skills they need most to survive.
lion cubs play at stalking and pouncing; and
young gazelles play at fleeing and dodging (Gomendio, 1988).
Why do humans play?
Humans have a lot more to learn than lion cubs or gazelles. And we have to learn skills not just to survive, but to fit in with the culture(s) we live in. Groos thinks this is why human kids have a strong drive to watch adults and to incorporate their daily activities into play. For example, anthropologists have found that:
kids in hunter-gatherer cultures often play at hunting and gathering;
kids in farming cultures often play at farming; and
children in many urban cultures today play at computers (e.g. Gray, 2012, Lancy, 2015).
The theory suggests that kids are biologically designed to learn what they need to be successful adults in whatever culture they are born into.
How do kids play – and what does this have to do with language and social skills development
When free to do so, children everywhere play in the following ways:
Physical/locomotor play, e.g. running, leaping, climbing, swinging, chasing and fighting. All ways to develop fit bodies, coordination, and courage (control of mind and body while taking risks and experiencing fear) (Gray, 2011, Sandseter, 2011). This explains the popularity of party hot-spots like Jungle Buddies and Inflatable World;
Constructive play, e.g. building tools, cubby houses, and go-carts. Extensions of these skills include art and music play (building sights and sounds);
Language play, e.g.:
cooing, babbling and first words (e.g. Bloom & Lahey, 1978). These are playful in that they are produced for their own sake, and not necessarily to get something;
"crib talk" when kids have monologues and pretend dialogues when alone, e.g. in bed at night (e.g. Kuczaj, 1985);
word play – funny phrases, puns, rhymes, funny grammatical constructions, idioms, metaphors, similes and allusions, all of which help consolidate kids' growing understanding of their native language; and
advanced word play, e.g. poetry;
Shared fantasy play, e.g. princesses, superheroes, ninja warriors, school teacher and class.
Pretend play is the foundation of our inventiveness – our ability to think of things that are not actually there – our ability to think of new possibilities, to create hypotheses, to reason deductively, or even think about the weather tomorrow.
Pretend play feeds language development because it exercises kids' ability to symbolise. For example, a child might decide that, in a game, a stick is a sword or a horse or a magic wand. This is analogous to a kid learning that a stick is called a stick – an arbitrary label used in the language they are exposed to.
Developing pretend play skills is often correlated with similar developments in language skills – one reason so much of our early language intervention is play-based. (We're going to cover this in more detail in a separate article soon.)
The language used by preschoolers in shared pretend play is far more complex than the language used by kids in structured, adult-led activities or when sitting at a table together eating (Fekonja et al., 2005).
"Games": All play has hidden rules. But some games have formal rules and many of them are competitive, e.g. cricket, soccer, chess, and dominoes. When kids play games like these, they are practising their ability to agree to rules and follow them: rules that are essential to all human societies.
Social play: Kids everywhere are naturally drawn to play with other kids. Historically, social play is far more common that solo play (e.g. Lancy, 2015). Some researchers are concerned that this has changed recently, with many kids nowadays playing mostly alone at home (e.g. Grey, 2017).
So what's the recipe for effective playing?
So knowing that play boosts learning, how do we help kids play more?
First, we need to identify what true play actually is (and what it isn't).
(a) Play is self-chosen and self-directed
Play is voluntary. Kids choose to play. They choose what and how to play. They choose when they quit.
If adults step in and direct the action, it's not true play. As soon as an adult sticks his or her head in, the kids lose their responsibility to come up with their own rules. (When I'm looking to assess or kick-start language in a late-talker, I usually scatter several age-appropriate toys around the room and then watch the kids go. It's up to them whether they decide to play with anything and, if so, what they choose to play with and how. My key job is to follow their interests and to add language to what they're doing, without interference.)
In social play – when there are two or more kids in the space – the kids have to make up their own rules and keep it fun (or the others might quit). Often, kids spend more time agreeing the rules than playing the game! This means kids pay attention to what the others are doing and saying, and even their non-verbal expressions. Some researchers think this helps kids to realise that they are not the centre of the universe and that they can fulfil their desires while also helping others meet theirs (e.g. Gray, 2011).
(b) Play is done for its own sake (not for a trophy or reward)
Think about a game to make a sandcastle. Most kids know that the sandcastle is temporary – that the sea will wash it away. But the fun is in making it.
If kids are motivated by a trophy or praise or status, they are not really playing. True play in animals and humans is not a contest to dominate, but instead to be cooperative and done for its own sake. Play is not directed toward a serious real world goal. But here's the brilliant paradox:
"The enormous educational power of play lies in its triviality." (Gray, 2017)
Read that statement again. What it means to me is this:
True play has no real-world consequence.
True play is safe and fun.
Nobody is judging, no trophy is on the line.
True play is not done for food, money, praise or a nice line on a resume.
No team-mate will be let down in true play.
Players are free to fail: free to practice a skill for the real world without consequence.
With freedom to fail, comes freedom to experiment and to learn.
Interestingly, research shows that kids (and adults!) are more creative when they are truly playing around, than when they are trying to impress a judge or win a reward (Amabile, 1996).
Another feature of true play – especially in young kids – is how repetitive it is. Kids do the same thing over and over, perhaps making small changes every time. Repetition and systematic variation are part of practising a skill. Think, for example, of motor skills like learning to climb, or learning to speak.
(c) Play – like language – has rules, but with room for creativity and negotiation
In social play, the rules have to be shared by all the players. But the rules always leave room for negotiation. Different play types have different rules, e.g.:
in constructive play, everyone must work with the materials agreed to make a specific thing, e.g. a sandcastle;
in shared fantasy play, players must stick with their roles – they must stay in character; and
in play fighting, players must mimic real fighting but not hurt each other – no kicking or biting – it's an exercise in self-restraint.
As a speech pathologist, I'm interested in the similarity here between play and language. Like play, language is based on rules – e.g. phonology, morphology, and syntax – even though we are free to say what we like using those rules. Like play, speaking is a creative, but rule-based activity. In play, as with language, kids practice creating something new that nonetheless follows a set of rules (e.g. Lewis, 2003).
(d) Play is imaginative
In play, kids remove themselves from the "real world" and enter an imaginary world. For example:
in shared fantasy play, kids create characters and plot;
in rough and tumble physical play, the fight is pretend – not real;
in constructive play, kids are building imaginary things, e.g. a castle from sand, or a house from sticks and leaves; and
in games, players accept an established fictional world, e.g. a world where you need to hit a cricket ball then run quickly to the other end of the pitch to be "safe".
A human ability – not shared by other animals – is our ability to imagine ways that are not random, but structured by rules, which allows us to produce potentially useful new products. This is perhaps one reason why so many entrepreneurs and innovators – most notably Google – extol their cultures of play and experimenting safely.
In this sense, play is sometimes been described as an "engine for cultural innovations" (e.g. Huizinga, 1955).
Is true play in decline? If so, why does it matter?
In the last 50-60 years, researchers in the USA have documented a steep decline in children's opportunities and freedom to play without adult interference (e.g. Gray, 2011, 2013; Chudacoff, 2007; Hofferth, 2009; Clements, 2004).
Here are some candidates:
A rise in parent fears about the risks of free play away from adults, fueled by often terrifying media reports of abused and abducted children.
An increase in children's time spent in school and at homework.
An increased tendency for kids to be enrolled in adult-led activities out of school, rather than free play.
A decline in the degree to which neighbours know each other, resulting in a decline in neighbourhood play.
A decline in family size and the number of kids in many neighbourhoods, resulting in fewer potential playmates (Gray, 2013).
An increase in non-interactive screen time.
A decline in age-mixed groups and an increase in kids playing only with kids of the same age. This means young kids don't get a "play boost" from watching and learning from older kids, and older kids don't get a chance to practice caring, protecting and leading the younger kids – i.e. to learn by teaching (e.g. Gray, 2011).
Some researchers think there may be a link between the decline of true play, and the decline in mental and social well-being among young people (e.g. Twenge et al., 2010). Some argue that, with reduced freedom to play, children fail to develop a strong sense of control over their own lives (because play is where kids do control their own activities) which, in turn, increases their risk of depression and anxiety (e.g. Gray, 2017).
Other research has revealed some disturbing trends over the last several decades in kids like:
increased narcissism (e.g. Twenge & Foster, 2010);
decreased empathy (Konrath et al., 2011); and
decreased creativity (Kim, 2011).
Leading play researchers, like Professor Peter Gray, suggest that these changes would be predicted if play is in decline because:
play is a major vehicle for kids to overcome narcissism, attend to others' needs, and learn to create their own activities; and
play promotes self-control and creative thinking (e.g. Barker et al., 2014).
Clinical bottom line
In a competitive world, play may seem frivolous and trivial to many parents who of course want the best for their kids. But play promotes learning, often more effectively than structured, adult-led activities.
True play is self-chosen and self-directed by kids, motivated by fun (rather than trophies), ruled-based but creative, and imaginative.
For humans – as with other animals – play has an important evolutionary function. Through no-stakes, imaginary world practice, kids learn vital life skills through self-directed play, including many language and social skills essential for life success.
Arguably, kids have fewer opportunities to play freely with each other than kids 50 years ago. There are some good reasons for this. But deprivation of play may have serious implications for language and social skills development, and mental health – especially for kids at risk or with language and other learning disorders.
As a parent and a speech pathologist in Sydney, I know how hard it is to find opportunities for kids to play freely but safely. But the language, social and other cognitive benefits of free play make it worth the work (and the odd sunburned nose!).
Principal source: Gray, P. (2017). What Exactly Is Play, and Why Is It Such a Powerful Vehicle for Learning? Topics in Language Disorders, 37(3), 217-229. (A highly recommended read.)
Image: http://tinyurl.com/yckdlbyy
Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Language, Play


The smaller the child, the more a birthday party needs to stick to the rule of three S's - short, simple and stimulating. For toddlers, the party will need to be held around sleep times, either early morning or late afternoon.
Keep guest numbers down - the general rule of thumb is that the amount of children invited should correspond to your birthday child's age e.g two guests for a two year old.
Of course, a first birthday party isn't much fun with one guest, but consider where you will host the party and how well your child gets on with other kids before inviting the whole world. Stick to three or four little friends as guests for your child and insist that a parent remains with the invited child for the duration of the party.
Wherever you host the party, make sure the entry and exits are secured as toddlers can turn into mini Houdini's in the over-excitement of a party and no-one wants a missing guest to spoil the day. Make sure the grandparents or some good friends will be on hand to help you during the day!
The weather isn't always kind when it comes to birthday parties, so even though you may want to host it outside, make sure you have an indoor option as a back up.
Children under the age of two have no concept of structured party games, so don't even bother setting up a-pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. You could try playing musical cushions but the real fun will be playing some great kids' music and watching them dance around.
Teddy bears picnic: Who hasn't at one stage or another been besotted by a teddy bear? Ask each guest to BYO teddy and then hold the party outside sitting on the lawn on a picnic rug (where all mess and food scraps can stay outside!).
Colour themes: Choose your child's favourite colour and base the theme around that. You just need to devise the menu, invitations and decorations around a colour and off you go for some fun that will colour their world. Think pink, get some yellow fever or go true blue!
Balloons - up, up and away: Littlies love a balloon and adorning a party with plenty of colourful balloons can make it fun - try and choose balloons that come in a variety of shapes and colours. Be warned though! Smaller kids often hate the sound of a balloon popping.
Sandpit fun: Sand play is fun and so is the beach. When it comes to tiny tots and a party, a sandpit party is perfect for those with a backyard that comes fitted with one. Otherwise see if there is a local park with a sandpit where you can set up a party picnic. Give each guest their own bucket and spade, and let them have fun.
Hat party: Most little kids hate wearing hats when they go out to play, but how about some crazy sparkly hats? A mad hatter's tea party theme can work well - you can beg borrow or steal as many hats as possible for each child to choose and play with.


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text:
Sridhar Kota
Founding Executive Director (2015-present) of MForesight: Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight, a federally-funded (2015-2020) independent national consortium (think-and-do tank) focused on enhancing U.S. manufacturing consortium.
MForesight taps the collective wisdom of the national manufacturing community, including researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, to:
Identify emerging technologies and cross-cutting challenges important to U.S. manufacturing competitiveness
Determine barriers to broad implementation of these technologies
Develop recommendations to overcome the barriers, and
Secure U.S. leadership in these technologies.
Last year alone, MForesight engaged over 2,000 experts in various workshops and meetings; its reports were downloaded by over 20,000 community members.
Senator Gary Peters gives keynote address at 2019 MForesight National Summit
Senator Marco Rubio discusses "Made in China 2025" at 2019 Mforesight National Summit
Its findings and recommendations have been regularly presented to policy/decision makers at numerous federal agencies (by design and through the National Science and Technology Council) and on Capitol Hill (by invitation).
MForesight has addressed critical issues such as biomanufacturing, cybersecurity, advanced materials, next-generation supply chains, workforce development, and multiple grand challenges facing U.S. industry.
Projects have supported the missions of multiple federal agencies, including Energy, Commerce, NSF, and the Army. MForesight's scope of work has been determined by a combination of agency requests and high-priority topics identified by the MForesight Leadership Council.
Manufacturing Prosperity: A Bold Strategy for National Wealth and Security (2018) and Reclaiming America's Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing (2019) presented specific recommendations to rebuild the U.S. industrial commons and to create national wealth and security from America's large R&D investments.
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2009-2012)
Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing
In this role, Kota developed policy recommendations and implementation strategies to enhance U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and foster innovation-based manufacturing of emerging technologies.
Kota's signature contribution was his proposal (in 2010) to establish President Obama's Manufacturing Innovation Institutes to close the innovation gap between science and manufacturing.
He also played an instrumental role in launching several initiatives, including:
National Manufacturing Innovation Institutes
National Robotics Initiative
National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium.
The following testimonials describe Dr. Kota's instrumental role in defining and shaping the President's innovation policy and helped the President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) develop a set of recommendations.
"Professor Kota has brought clear vision around advanced manufacturing and played a key role in shaping the nation's program to revitalize this critical sector of our economy. He's been a great asset and resource." – Dr. Eric Lander, PCAST co-chair and Director of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
"The Advanced Manufacturing Initiative is a direct outgrowth of the intellectual leadership Professor Kota provided to the PCAST. The nation owes him a debt of gratitude for his dedication and hard work" – Professor Rosina Bierbaum, PCAST member.
Orchestrated (2009-11) the establishment of a National Robotics Initiative by leading multi-agency (NSF, NIH, USDA and NASA) teams towards a common vision. Launched with $70 million funding in June 2011.
Proposed and helped EDA establish a pilot program to democratize the use of modeling and simulation tools by small and medium sized manufacturers in the Midwest by lowering the barriers to entry. Established the National Design Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium (NDEMC) in March 2011.
Defined the charter for and coordinated the Interagency Working Group on Advanced Manufacturing. Released our National Strategy for Advanced Manufacturing report in February 2012.
Orchestrated development of an online market place to connect American manufacturers, Connecting American Manufacturing (CAM) with the needs of the Department of Defense.
Created the Manufacturing.data.gov community in 2012—a one-stop web portal to transform ideas into products made in the U.S.—connecting researchers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and universities with data, tools, applications and challenges.
Clinton Global Initiative
Kota served as the Advisor to Clinton Global Initiative (CGI-America) on Advanced Manufacturing, 2011-13.
He convened leaders from industry, government and academia who made specific commitments to promote advanced manufacturing including image campaign, online networking (National Supply Chain Network Initiative), skills development, regional clusters, export strategies and technology tools for training.
Institute for Manufacturing Leadership
After returning to University of Michigan in 2013, Kota established Institute for Manufacturing Leadership, focusing on policy, education and outreach.
Organized a public private stakeholders symposium series in Washington with an inaugural symposium on Shale Gas: A Game Changer for American Manufacturing.
Reports and Articles
Reinventing Competitiveness, American Affairs Journal, Fall 2019, Volume 3, Number 3
Reclaiming America's Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing
Manufacturing Prosperity: A Bold Strategy for National Wealth and Security
For a complete listing of various reports and articles, visit Mforesight.
© 2023 Sridhar Kota • Privacy Policy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Free Associations
How Academia Left Me Dr Nassir Ghaemi on his decision to partially step away from the academic life to accept an industry position.
Experts And Viewpoints, June 2018
Antidepressants Work! Not so Fast A recent meta-analysis was greeted as exciting new proof of antidepressants' efficacy. Dr Nassir Ghaemi explains why it's more of the same.
Choose Something You'll Love Doing at 3 in the Morning Dr Nassir Ghaemi's advice to a medical student drew many opinions from Medscape readers. Here he follows up with some additional thoughts.
Lithium: The Gift That Keeps on Giving in Psychiatry Dr Nassir Ghaemi reviews recent data on the classic compound's neuroprotective and mood-balancing benefits.
The Goldwater Rule and Presidential Mental Health: Pros and Cons With President Trump's mental health continually in the news, Dr Nassir Ghaemi explores the pros and cons of a rule barring doctors from diagnosing from a distance.
8 Controversies in Bipolar Disorder Addressed Drs Ghaemi and Strakowski discuss eight controversies surrounding the diagnosis and management of bipolar disorder.


text:
Q: Write permission for Guest Session What permissions should I set to a directory to make it accessible in read-write mode for Guest Session? I don't want to make it writable for everyone, just only for Guest Session, so simple:
chmod o+rwx
does not satisfy me. Is there a group for Guest Session permissions, that I can use?

A: Create a group for the purpose:
sudo addgroup --system guests

Make the temporary guest users be added to that group by editing or creating the file /etc/guest-session/prefs.sh and adding this line:
adduser $USER guests

Create the directory /var/guest-data like this:
sudo mkdir -m 2775 /var/guest-data
sudo chgrp guests /var/guest-data

See also the general guidance on how to customizing the guest session feature.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


James Earl Jones has been named Screen Actors Guild's 45th Annual Life Achievement Award recipient.
Okay. I want to thank my fellow actors for this great honor. A few years ago, my beloved Richard Harris and I played two fathers on a little movie based on Alan Payton's "Cry, the Beloved Country." And we were quite proud of that work. And the recognition we got that year was from you, the Screen Actors Guild, and I just want to express my appreciation for that.
Mainly, I want to thank all of you for the work that you do. We read in the Book of Genesis, "Then the Lord God shaked man from the dust of the ground. And into his nostrils He breathed the breath of life, and man became a living being." Now, I don't mean to embarrass anybody, by comparing the actor to God. But once we've taken a role, we have a similar responsibility to breathe life into that character. And only the actor can do that.


text:
Huang Guanyin tea (; pronounced ) is a Wuyi oolong with a creamy taste. It can be either tightly rolled like Anxi Oolongs or in strips like conventional Wuyi Oolong.

In China, Guanyin leaves are harvested fresh and green, then soaked, beaten, milled, and the sieved puree set up to make GuanYin LiangFen grass jelly.

See also
 List of Chinese teas

References

Wuyi tea
Oolong tea
Chinese teas
Chinese tea grown in Fujian

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


meeting with them, so that you can celebrate their achievement.
Your role as a parent is the secret to a successful Cub Scouting program!
The den and the pack also rely on parent participation to run a successful program.
an opportunity to be a positive influence in their life and the lives of their friends.
Plans and carries out the pack program with the help of the pack committee.
Leads the monthly pack meeting and all pack activities throughout the program year.
Attends the monthly pack committee meeting and district roundtable meetings.
Leads the den at weekly den meetings.
Attends the monthly pack committee meeting.
Pack committee members perform administrative functions of the pack and meet on a monthly basis.
Presides at all pack committee meetings.
Helps recruit adult leaders and coordinates the pack re-charter with the council.
Attends the monthly pack meeting and pack committee meeting.
Maintains advancement records for the pack.
Orders and obtains all badges and insignia.
Keeps all records for the pack, including pack bank account, financial records, etc.
Maintains all cub account information.
Coordinates all pack fundraising activities throughout the year.
Welcome to Cub Scout Pack 368, chartered by Charlton United Methodist Church. As with any volunteer based organization, in order to be a vibrant and growing Pack we need YOUR help. Pack 368 has a benefits and voucher program in place to recognize and reward those individuals who give of their time and talents to support our Scouts. The volunteer does not have to be the parent of the Scout, Grandparents, Aunt, and Uncles may help support Cub Scouting too!
All Waivers are for the current Scout year.


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This pen and ink drawing, painted with Dr. Martin's watercolours on a watercolour block, was done as an experimental illustration. By that I mean that it appears to be part of a story but there was no story that went with it. At the time, I was considering illustrating children's stories but hadn't written much - hence the illustration without a story.


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Q: QUDP socket how to check if data not recived for specific time in qt I Appling QUDP socket in qt .. I was able to send and receive data however I am thinking on how to check if data is data not received for specific time for example 5 second which mean there is an issue with communication so I can send a command to notify the user ..
any suggestion ?!

A: Just use a QTimer...
QTimer timer;
timer.setSingleShot(true);
timer.setInterval(5000);
QObject::connect(&timer, &QTimer::timeout,
                 []()
                 {

                   /*
                    * Your notification code goes here.
                    */
                 });

Then, every time you receive data via the QUdpSocket just restart the timer...
timer.stop();
timer.start();

Of course, how effective/useful this is depends to a large extent on the rate at which you're receiving data.