MAY - JUNE 2012

HOW ARE KIDS USING TECHNOLOGY?FOODS THAT HELP WITH STUDIES

+ The Great Communication Divide

MAY - JUNE 2012

Hot NewsAdd coffee and rosemary to your diet but cut out the fatty foods and don’t sleep too much.

Kids, Computers and the Parent’s DilemmaSmart phones and pads mean we’re “always on”, but what will it mean for this generation of kids?

The Parent Trap ~ CommunicationIf you have children your attention is always divided, but don’t forget to take time out for each other.

Smart Food for StudentsExams are on the way. Could the right foods give students an edge?

Back PageCelebrate the people you love most in your life

with BRAND’S® Bird’s Nest.

CONTENTS

Cerebos Pacific Limited18 Cross Street,#12-01/08China Square Central, S048423

Careline: 1800 732 4748(Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm, excluding Public Holidays)customercare@cerebos.com.sg

With Mother’s Day on May 13 and Father’s Day on

June 17, we’re celebrating parenting this issue.

Being a parent is perhaps the most important

job we’ll ever do, and of course it’s always been

challenging. But, with the world seemingly moving

faster and becoming more competitive every day,

there’s definitely a lot more on parent’s minds these

days.

On page 4 we take a look at technology, how kids

are using it and what it means for parents. With

computing power in our palm wherever we are, it’s

become a bigger issue than just controlling screen-

time in the home, especially with schools requiring

kids to be familiar with new technologies from a

young age.

With exams on the horizon, we also talk to

nutritionist and dietitian Derrick Ong on page 7

about choosing the right foods for students to

enhance their focus and concentration.

Effective communication requires our full attention,

and that can be difficult for parents, when there

always seem to be distractions. On page 6 we look

at why it’s a good idea for Mums and Dads to take

a little “us” time sometimes to talk together. Good

communication isn’t a given, it’s something we all

need to practice.

Our back page this issue is devoted to BRAND’S®

Bird’s Nest, a great gift anytime for anyone special

in your heart.

Please do write in if you have any feedback or

suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. I hope you

enjoy this issue!

Isabella TanGeneral ManagerSingapore/Philippines/Brunei

© 2012 Cerebos Pacific Limited.

CONTACT US

www.facebook.com/blurornotwww.facebook.com/BrandsInnerShineSGwww.facebook.com/brandsbirdsnest

Recent research from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China have some good news about coffee. A study in a recent issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reaffirmed previous study results that show that people who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a 50 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They found that caffeine is effective in inhibiting hIAPP, a toxin found in the pancreases of those with the disease. But, don’t overdo it. Scientists still warn that too much caffeine can adversely affect your health.

BRANDS®WorldMay-June 20123

Want kids? You may want to hold the bacon. Research conducted on 100 men and published in the journal Human Reproduction found that those with the highest saturated fat intake had lower semen counts and concentrations, while polyunsaturated (Omega 3) fatty acids found in some fish and flax actually increased the amount of healthy sperm. The results are quite dramatic. The top 33%, in terms of saturated fat consumption, had 43% fewer sperm and 38% lower sperm concentration than those in the lowest fat-intake group. The researchers conclude that “there are a few clearly identifiable lifestyle modifications that can be made to optimise natural fertility, especially for males”.

Rosemary has long been used in aromatherapy to ease pain and relieve congestion, but scientists from the University of Northumbria have recently discovered that it improves both speed and accuracy in cognitive tests. They have isolated the cause to a chemical component called 1,8-cineole, and the study found that not only did it seem to lift mental performance, it improved the mood too.

Good news for parents of very young children and overscheduled go-getters. If you catch only six hours of shut-eye a night you may actually outlive those snoozers who rack up eight or more. A recent study of 500 people by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, published in Sleep Medicine, found that those who sleep more than seven hours a night have a higher mortality rate than those who clock fewer hours. The catch? Your six hours need to be deep, solid slumber, so the usual wisdom about sleep still applies. Avoid caffeine at night, keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool, maintain a consistent bedtime and wake-up time and keep electronics like TVs and computers out of the room.

Do You Really Need 8 Hours Of Sleep?

The Perks of Coffee

Guys... Fatty Foods May Be Harming Your Chances of Fatherhood

MORE GOOD NEWS FOR COFFEE LOVERSAccording to research, coffee drinkers experience reduced risk of the following ailments:Dementia 65%Gallstones 50%Heart Disease in women 25%Liver Cirrhosis 80%Parkinson’s Disease 80%Prostate Cancer 20%

Beth Little was one of thousands of parents who bought their children iPads for Christmas last year, but when the subject comes up in conversation her friends are often shocked. Her oldest daughter, Melanie, will be 6 this year, while her youngest, Christine, is just 3.

“Sometimes my daughters get disapproving looks when they use them in public, but I know they’re loaded with educational apps. The iPads are like a portable babysitter and the girls love them. I think they make learning entertaining, and how can that be bad? The apps combine games and education incredibly well. They’re very clever.”

Pediatrician, Dr Phuah Huan Kee, says that children learn better through fun activities.

“They can assimilate information and knowledge at their own pace, without additional pressure from an adult. They are also less intimidated when engaging in fun activities.”

While computers require a certain dexterity, and can be cumbersome for children, Melanie and Christine are the first of a new generation of kids discovering that controlling a touch screen is… well… child’s play.

Although preschoolers probably weren’t the target market that tech companies had in mind when they designed their tablets, it seems that it’s taken off, and kids owning one of their own is just a natural progression from parents handing

Parents’ DilemmaWith easy-to-use new technologies, some children are starting to use computers even before they’re in pre-school.

them their phones while they’re out to keep them amused.

Joanne Orlando, a lecturer and specialist in children’s learning and tablet or smartphone applications at the University of Western Sydney, observes that “Along with maths, speaking, reading and writing, being able to use the new technologies is a new basic in our children’s learning.”

Mei Yi Goh, mother of two boys aged 7 and 17 months, agrees, but feels that children do still need to be taught moderation. Her oldest son, Jonathon, has computer lessons in his primary school where they learn to log in and do simple typing. Some of his classmates, she says, type very well, and they encourage Jonathon to type his assignments at home to improve his skills.

“He uses the computer at home, and my phone when we’re out, but he’s always supervised and we have rules about when he can use them and for how long. It’s restricted access”.

Although the kids in Jonathon’s class don’t have phones yet, Mei Yi expects that by the time they’re ten they probably all will.

“Jonathon doesn’t have co-curricular activities yet, but when he does, schedules will get more complex and there’s coordination for pick-ups and drop-offs and changes in timing. I expect the kids in his class will start carrying phones then.”

With companies such as Samsung, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE announcing that they will be rolling out smartphones priced at less than $130 next year, it seems that Telcos are also starting to notice younger users and offer prices that parents may find hard to resist.

Jia Xing Chew says that by her age, 15, having access to the internet is essential for study. Her class has a Facebook page where announcements are made and her school has resources online if she misses a lesson.

“I don’t use Facebook all that much anymore. Maybe three times a day for ten minutes. Mainly it’s Twitter now. About half my class is on Twitter and I’m in constant contact with everyone by SMS. I send about 1,000 SMSes a month.”

She’s one of a new generation that doesn’t see the need for computers anymore, because her iPhone does everything.

“I borrow my Dad’s laptop if I need it for school work, but mostly the phone does everything I need, and

Kids, Computers and the

BRANDS®WorldMay-June 20124

I can be comfortable on the couch using it. The size of the screen can be a bit annoying, but I’m used to it.”

Although phones have to be switched off in Jia Xing’s classes, her classmates do sometimes get caught using them under the desk.

“If you get caught the teacher will take it off you until the end of class. I’ve seen kids cry when they’ve had their phones confiscated.”

Julie Low, an art teacher at Bartley Secondary School, keeps phones for a week if she discovers them being used in her class. Even then, a parent has to see her to pick it up. She suspects that may change soon though.

“At the moment kids can’t bring their own laptops to school. We have computer labs, and there are school laptops they can borrow if they need to. But we’re starting to use a system called MC Online, where quite a lot of class information and work will be online. That will affect all students from 11 years old up to graduation. There will be instant messaging, profiles and bulletin boards, and assignments could be set there or upcoming events posted. There’s already some element of computing in all classes, even subjects like Art and Home Economics, and we have an annual e-Learning day where lessons are posted on the internet. We do that to prepare for an emergency, in case schools need to be shut down.”

With 40 years experience teaching Art and English, Julie has noticed changes in the work of her students,

first with the internet and now with mobile technology, and she feels there are some positive and negative effects.

“On the one hand, kids are more open and outspoken now, and it has also made research a lot easier for them. These are good things. We don’t have a very good art collection in our school library, so students do need to go outside of school resources.

“On the other hand, there’s a temptation for them to rely too much on the internet and not use their own brains. They don’t always have good filters for knowing when something they see or read is good or bad.

“We’re very focused now on trying to teach them to think and not just passively consume information. They need to ask “why?” and “how?” for everything. In our assessments we no longer want to just see the final product, we want to see the research, sketches and changes they’ve made during the

development. For a while we were seeing the internet stifling creativity, but we’re getting better at teaching how to use technology and thought hand in hand.”

Mei Yi Goh expects that she’ll continue to tightly control screen time for Jonathon, and for her 17 month old son Isaac, who now points at the TV whenever they come home but can’t yet use the remote control. Although she sees potential danger in too much time being spent on the computer, she thinks these are skills kids now have to have from a young age and there are many learning benefits.

Dr Lim Choon Guan, from Singapore’s Institute of Mental Health, agrees, saying that there should be some rules and limits on computer use.

“The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends not more than one hour per day of total media screen time, including TV and games, for children in primary school, and not more than two hours for secondary school.”

As children younger and younger get online, and it becomes integral in the school work of children all the way from their first year of primary school, that guideline may need to be revised. In the meantime, experts and mothers seem to agree, there are potential benefits and pitfalls. The best advice for a positive future seems to be: moderation and supervision, and teaching young people to use technology creatively rather than passively.

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1. Men talk more than women.

2. Men are more likely to interrupt women than they are to interrupt other men.

3. Men talk more about themselves and their accomplishments than women.

4. During conversations, women spend more time gazing at their partner than men do.

5. Nonverbal messages carry more weight than verbal messages.

6. Female managers communicate with more emotional openness and drama than male managers.

7. Men not only control the content of conversations, but they also work harder in keeping conversations going.

8. When people hear generic words such as “mankind” and “he” they respond inclusively, indicating that the terms apply to both sexes.

9. Women are more likely to touch others than men are.

10. In conversations, women bring up more topics than men.

11. Women are more likely than men to disclose information on intimate personal concerns.

12. Female speakers are more animated in their conversational style than are male speakers.

13. Women use less personal space than men.

14. When a male speaks, he is listened to more carefully than a female speaker, even when she makes the identical presentation.

15. In general, women speak in a more tentative style than do men.

16. Women are more likely to answer questions that are not addressed to them.

17. Women provide more feedback through facial expressions than men.

18. Female managers are seen by both male and female subordinates as better communicators than male managers.

19. Women are more likely to ask for help than men.

20. In general, men smile more often than women.

1. T; 2. T; 3. F; 4. T; 5. T; 6–9. F; 10-15. T; 16. F; 17. T; 18. T; 19 & 20. F

How much do you really know about communicating with the other gender? Take our quiz and find out!

Driving home from a day out shopping. The kids are in the back and he’s at the wheel. She’s in the passenger seat gazing at the scenery. Suddenly she turns to him and cries, “Talk to me!”

She’s not going crazy and he’s not ignoring her. It’s just the classic divide in communication between women and men. She communicates through dialogue, discussing emotions, choices and problems, and he’s focused on activities rather than communication.

It’s a classic scenario that we all will have found ourselves in at one time or another, made all the more powerful by parenthood. It takes a lot of focus to bridge the gap between men and women when it comes to communicating. You’ve got to keep an eye on nonverbal communication, listen carefully to what’s being said and think carefully about what you are going to say.

When you’ve got kids, your attention is divided and it’s easy to fall into arguments. That’s a problem because (surprise, surprise) men also argue differently to women. For men, winning a competitive situation produces a testosterone high, which feels good. Women, on the other hand, tend to ask many types of questions during arguments: defiant, informational and rhetorical. This frustrates men.

Studies have shown that communication patterns are not ingrained though. Men can learn to chat about their feelings and women can become more action oriented. You can bridge the divide. You just need to remember to keep making time alone to talk together. Practice really does make perfect.

BRANDS®WorldMay-June 20126

We all know that professional athletes eat specific foods to enhance their performance. Could these dietary secrets help give students an edge in their studies? Accredited dietitian and nutritionist Derrick Ong certainly thinks so.

Derrick is probably best known as one of the experts in the Health Promotion Board’s Lose To Win (3) programme, but he says it’s a common misconception that a dietitian only focuses on weight loss.

“Food is medicine”, says Derrick, “but it’s more preventative than curative. By the time you’re sick it’s often a bit too late to help.”

He advises parents and young people to think of food in the same way an athlete does if they want to harness its power to help with focus and concentration.

“I’m a big advocate of understanding and using Glycemic Index (GI) in your diet. We know that high GI foods, which are the highly processed and sugary ones like white bread, cakes and breakfast cereals, cause blood sugar to swing up and crash down. For students, that’s going to lead to problems with concentration and focus.

“A little sucrose can be beneficial, but in our modern diets we’re getting far too much. You’d be surprised that some foods we think are healthy have more sugar in them than a can of soft drink.

“To help to sustain the release of

glucose into the bloodstream we need to focus on eating low GI foods, or bringing the GI of our foods down. That will release energy slowly and gently.

“We know that low GI diets work for high-skill sports like golf, archery and shooting, where performance is related to concentration and focus. So, this is what is really going to help with study and in an exam situation.

“In Singapore our diet is very carbohydrate heavy and quite often in a hawker or fast food situation it’s the high GI processed type of carbs.

“What we can do about that is bring the GI of our food down. We know that protein will do that. We can’t get away from eating white rice and white bread, but by combining it with a good dose of protein we can lower the GI. That includes meat, eggs, tofu and any kind of beans but especially soya beans. Plain milk and yoghurt are also protein-rich, but flavoured versions can be sugar-traps.

For parents, the best advice I can give for them to help their kids is to think of exams like sports nutrition:• an empty stomach is not good for energy levels or focus• two hours before an exam is probably the ideal time to eat• the best meal will have carbohydrate and protein• aim for a low GI to keep blood sugars nice and controlled

That’s likely to be the optimum fuel for concentration and performance.

Smart FoodFor many students, exams are just around the corner. Dietitian and nutritionist Derrick Ong has some hints for parents on choosing foods that could help your child perform better.

Derrick Ong runs Eat Right, which provides practical dietary advice for clients and evidence-based nutrition advice through educational talks, pamphlets and corporate workplace health and wellness programmes. He works one-to-one with clients, as well as groups. For more information, visit www.eatright.sg

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BRANDS®WorldMay-June 20127

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1. This contest is open to all BRAND’S®World members except employees of Cerebos Pacific Limited, its advertising agencies and their immediate families. 2. Purchases must be made through BRAND’S® Customer Care Line in order to qualify for this contest. 3. Qualifying period: 1st May 2012 – 31st May 2012 4. The draw will be held on 1st June 2012, and winners will be notified via post by 15th June 2012. All winners will be randomly picked. 5. Prizes are not exchangeable for cash in part or in full. 6. Cerebos Pacific Limited reserves the right to amend the contest (and prizes) at any time without prior notice.

For more information, please call our Customer Care Line at 1800 732 4748 (Mon-Fri, 9am – 5pm)