[ FAMILY ]
STAYING SOCIAL v
Twelve million seniors (some 26 percent of the elderly population) in the U.S. live alone—a sobering stat considering how important communication is for mental and physical health. Love A Senior Day—a traveling informational event—aims to bring awareness to the capabilities of the elderly and shine a light on the social networks available to them. Locally, the event is celebrated on October 26 at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds, where geriatric medicine doctor Bill Thomas will discuss the cultural stereotype that damage perceptions about elders. 10 AM. u — CASEY CRAIG
Time for Bed
The importance of getting little ones to go to sleep BY KATIE MCPHERSON
THE KIDS ARE BATHED AND IN PAJAMAS, BUT BEDTIME SEEMS FAR, FAR AWAY. They’re jumping back and forth on the furniture, asking for snacks and water, and squealing with delight at not being in bed yet. You may be ready to yank your hair out, but take heart—most sleep difficulties in children have a simple solution. Sleep is vital for everyone’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. It supports the immune system, resets the brain for the next day, and so much more. Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to childhood obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. But because children’s brains are constantly growing and changing, sleep is even more crucial. “Children’s brains are in development and need adequate sleep to do so in a way that maximizes potential,” says Michelle McDonald, child psychologist at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. “Adequate sleep enables learning, memory, and emotional and physical
health. Consistent sleep deprivation can imitate symptoms of significant mental health concerns, including difficulties with attention, hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, irritability, and difficulties with learning.” It can be difficult to tell when your child isn’t getting enough sleep. Children don’t show their tiredness in the same way as adults; in fact, their symptoms of sleepiness can look like, well, the opposite. This, too, is tied to development of the frontal lobe, which regulates behavior. “With adults we know what it looks like: we’re nodding off, we’re yawning,” says Erick Viorritto, board-certified pediatric neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Nemours Children’s Specialty Care. “The signs can be more subtle with kids. It could be difficulty with staying on task, with attention, with impulse control. In children, the signs can be identical to things like
Movin’ On Up Junior Achievement of North Florida—the local branch of a global organization dedicated to educating students about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy—is making huge strides nationally. The national statistics recently released now place JA of North Florida at number 21 out of 108 Junior Achievement organizations in student reach for the 2018-2019 school year, up two spots from the previous year. “We hit many milestones this past school year, which was the most productive in our 57-year history,” says Steve St. Amand, president of JA of North Florida. “We reached 62,355 students last school year, up 2,916 from the previous year and the most we have ever reached in a single year. u
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JACKSONVILLEMAG.COM / OCTOBER 2019
