Self-regulation is the ability to monitor and manage one’s attention, thinking, feelings, and behaviours to accomplish goals. Important skills such as coping with setback or frustration, following rules, or problem-solving all involve self-regulation, and such ability is closely associated with those cognitive processes collectively known as executive functions in the brain. Children are not born with this ability but with the potential to develop them. It emerges in the first year of life and has an extended course of development into adolescence and early adulthood .

Hong Kong has entered influenza season. The latest surveillance data showed that the overall local seasonal influenza activity has continued to increase. As Hong Kong continues to face the challenge of COVID-19 pandemic, influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2 virus may both spread at the same time. To protect the healthcare system from being overwhelmed, getting influenza vaccination is therefore important.

Figures provided by the Department of Health show that, in 2018-2020, there were over a hundred still births and close to 15,000 abortions each year. To address the difficulties faced by parents of abortuses, in the 2018 Policy Address, the Government has proposed to examine the provision of burial facilities to aborted foetuses while additional facilities were introduced in 2019. Apart from improving burial facilities, the needs of families experiencing miscarriages, especially the emotional state of expectant parents facing pregnancy loss, deserve more attention. Therefore, we have invited Ms. Agnes Tin, who has been involved in life and death education and grief counselling training for many years, to share her extensive professional knowledge and clinical experience with us. Some relevant community resources are listed at the end of this article for medical and other professionals to introduce to families in need of professional intervention.

Infants seek to emotionally bond with an adult figure since birth. When caregivers respond to their needs in a loving and caring way, for example, when a mother reads her baby's hunger cues and breastfeeds promptly, their connection is also deepened. The emotional connection built upon caregivers' close attention, empathic understanding, and responsive care paves the way for a healthy start of children's social-emotional development. Through supportive relationships, children build their confidence and sense of security to explore the world.

Whether one is a first-time parent or not, the immediate postnatal period is often challenging. The local prevalence rate of postnatal depression is around 10% for mothers and 5% for fathers.A meta-analysis also showed that paternal postnatal depression was positively and moderately associated with maternal depression. Without appropriate intervention, parental postnatal depression can adversely impact the parents themselves, the healthy development of their infants, and the family relationship. Therefore, on top of enhancing parenting competency, addressing the psychological needs of parents is equally important to facilitate the health and growth of the newborns. This issue aims to offer tips to professionals in supporting parents presenting with postnatal mood problems.

Electronic products have become an integral part of our daily lives. It has become one of the usual media for children's learning. Children are exposed to different types of digital products for various reasons, whether to meet educational needs, to stay connected with friends and family through video chats, or as pastime, ‘screen time' is becoming an inevitable part of their life. International research has confirmed that these so-called ‘screen time' activities are mostly sedentary and excessive amount will have negative impacts on children. Health organisations from around the world recommend limiting the time children spend on screen. The Department of Health of Hong Kong follows the guideline of the World Health Organization and advises parents that there should be no more than 1 hour of sedentary screen time per day for children aged 2 to 5. For those of age 2 or below, avoid letting them in contact with any electronic screen products except having interactive video-chat under parental guidance.

Dealing with stresses is part of our everyday life in a fast-paced city. These stressors may affect young children albeit they might not yet fully understand what is happening around them. Adults can help to reduce the negative impacts of stress on children by minimising their exposure to stressful circumstances. Nonetheless, it is more challenging to shield children from the latest social unrest in the past few months. For example, children may inadvertently witness media images or overhear conversations, if not arguments, about various incidents among their family members, relatives or even passers-by; their daily routines may also be affected. Their mood and behaviours may also be affected when their caregivers are emotionally disturbed by the social movement. Caregivers often feel concerned and uncertain about how to respond when their children ask about the news, express fear or worry, or re-enact scenes related to the social incidents in play. As a child-related professional, parents may turn to you for advice on how to help young children cope with stressful social incidents.

Formula milk is one of the fastest growing food commodities nowadays. In Hong Kong, according to a local advertising database, the trade spent $2.8 billion on advertising formula milk for young children under 36 months of age in 2015. In spite of breastfeeding and nutritious foods being the gold standard of infant and young child feeding, these formula milk products compete with and undermine their status.

The baby-led weaning (BLW) approach to introducing solids to infants has become popular in recent years in UK, New Zealand and Australia. It has also been adopted by some parents in Hong Kong.

From time to time, healthcare professionals may encounter expectant or new parents who are pondering how best to arrange their baby's sleep. Should the baby sleep in his own cot or with the parent(s)? What are the benefits and risks? What should healthcare professionals advise with reference to the latest scientific evidence while taking into account the needs of parents?

There has been extensive research on the science of “Early Brain and Child Development” that supports the critical impact of children's early experience upon their learning, health and life course trajectory. More specifically, reading with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development and strengthens parent-child relationships, which in turn builds life-long skills in different aspects - language, literacy and social-emotional skills. In response to the rapid increase in knowledge of neuroscience in the recent decades, programmes to enhance ‘emergent literacy' were developed with promising positive outcomes in language development, parent-child bonding, as well as later success in reading and academic achievement.

Emotional development includes the ability to identify and understand own feelings, to accurately read and comprehend emotions in others, to develop empathy for others, to express and manage emotions, to self-regulate behaviour and to form social relationships. At this stage, the tasks of parents and professionals working with children are to build up children's emotion management and self-regulation skills and to encourage them to connect with others. At the same time, it is still important to strengthen their empathy as well as their abilities to comprehend, read and express emotions.

The development of emotions and feelings begins early since infancy. Healthy emotional development relies on biological make-up and social environmental factors, in particular, the quality of relationship with carers. Professionals working with children and families need to be sensitive to children's emotional needs and alert to risks on their emotional development.

Application of Mindfulness is rapidly gaining attention in the medical and mental health field. It's application is extensive including parenting practice. What is mindfulness? How is it applied in clinical practices? Does it have any scientific foundation? What is the brain mechanism behind practising mindfulness? How to have a taste of mindfulness?

Speech is the production of sounds by speech organs. It is a verbal expression of language. Language is a set of socially shared rules in forming the symbolic communication system, e.g. English, Cantonese. Children who have speech sound disorder are characterized by inappropriate errors in speech production, while those with language impairment have deficit in receptive or/and expressive language ability. Articulation problem is one of the developmental problems commonly found in children. Many parents question about if the speech sound errors of their children will be self-corrected with time, and when should they receive speech therapy. Before answering these questions, we have to understand the normal speech sound development.

As a health care professional, social worker, parenting educator or early childhood educator, it is common for parents or carers to share with us the eating habit of their preschoolers. How can we, as professionals, advise parents on establishing healthy eating habit in their children? This article will guide you through some credible and practical healthy eating tips for preschoolers to share with parents and carers.

The World Health Organization recommends exclusively breastfeeding babies up to about six months of age and gradually introducing appropriate complementary food while continuing breastfeeding until two years old or beyond.

Food Allergy occurs when our body has mistaken a component of normal foods as a foreign pathogen, and mounts an immune response leading to a number of symptoms1external link. The hypersensitivity reactions (allergy) can cause harm and danger to us. Allergen is the substance present in food that causes a hypersensitivity reaction in a sensitised person.

Parents may put a lot of attention in building up positive parent-child relationship as they understand that it is important for the development of their children. However, a positive relationship between a couple is equally, or even more important. Research findings indicated that a healthy couple relationship is essential for healthy growing up of children, right from their early childhood.

As mentioned in Part I, our brain develops from bottom up and involves the ongoing interplay between genetic and environmental inputs. The “serve and return” interaction between the caregivers and their children has been supported by scientific research for brain-building.

Studies from neuroscience, genetics as well as developmental and behavioural researches have established that early childhood development, in particular the early brain development from conception to preschool age, lays the foundation for the individual's future development. It affects not only an individual's learning and school achievement, but also his physical and mental health, economic productivity and societal responsibility throughout the life course.....

Screen-media use has become part of our life. From TV, videos, video games, computer, internet, to smartphone and tablet computer, children can access these technology products easily through adults. Many consider screen-media learning an inevitable trend for children. However, have we thought about the impact on children?

Why do infants and young children wake so often in the night time? Is night waking a problem? Why some of them can't go back to sleep on their own and rely on caregivers to help them fall back to sleep? What is sleep association and its role in perpetuating night wakings? What can be done to deal with bedtime problems and night wakings?

Screen-media use has become part of our life. From TV, videos, video games, computer, internet, to smartphone and tablet computer, children can access these technology products easily through adults. Many consider screen-media learning an inevitable trend for children. However, have we thought about the impact on children?

Accident is one of the major causes of injury, disability or death in children. The Child Fatality Review Panel Report (2013) found that, among the 238 child death coroner's cases reviewed in 2008-09, 9.7% of children died of accidents with 40% occurred at home setting and 30% of them being five years old or under. The causes of their deaths include fall, poisoning and hanging....

After turning two, children will start preschool or kindergarten where they will learn and interact with other children. They will have to adapt to a new environment in the classroom and to face challenges in learning. Individual differences in the pace of development among children may also arouse concerns in parents and teachers. This issue of the Newsletter will bring you some relevant information that may help.

As babies transit from a milk-only diet to an adult diet (from 6 to 24 months), they also develop skills in feeding themselves. Children at this stage would demand more autonomy on many aspects, including their feeding. It is important for parents and caregivers to understand children's eating behaviour in order to foster good eating habits as well as to ensure good nutrition during early years of life.

After 6 months of age, feeding on breastmilk alone cannot meet the nutritional requirements of young children. At around 6 months, babies will be physiologically and developmentally ready to take in solid food. Parents should introduce complementary foods to babies at this time. This can help the infants gradually transit from a milk only diet to eating an adult diet by 24 months old.

Breast milk is the most natural food for babies. The longer babies are fed on breast milk, the greater the benefits for the health of mothers and babies.

By now the young kids have probably started nursery / kindergarten. A lot of parents will start to get nervous about their kids learning, and hope they can learn everything. Indeed, it's not an easy task to achieve all-round development in a kid. While genetic predispositions are important in determining a child's potential, a nurturing family and school environment is also important for their development and learning. A better understanding of children's development not only enhance child care workers' knowledge on children's characteristics, it also helps them better support the parents. In the end, we all hope to let children grow up happily and bring out their potential.

Child development is a continuous process and progresses in a certain sequence. However, each child is unique and develops at his/her own pace. While biological factors determine a child's capability and temperament, environmental factors do play an important role in a child's learning, social and emotional development.

Proper baby care is important especially for young infants who are more vulnerable beings. This issue will take you through common topics on baby care. Hope you find it informative and practical!