Tag: childhood
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Normal head shape and size
Ateret HaselkornBay Area, California, United States My son is flying a rainbowKite. The streamers frameThe beach like a wedding canopy.He runs.His three-year old legsDon’t know the meaning of “stroll.” I recollect, years ago, the prenatal ultrasound.The border of his skull,The tiniest of incubators,Stamped “HEAD,” measured,Appraised as normal. From where did this all emerge:A love of…
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Ludwig van Beethoven: music and medicine
Michael YafiChaden YafiHouston, Texas, United States December 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. The causes of the composer’s deafness and his death at the age of fifty-six have remained unknown, even after an autopsy carried out soon after his death. Beethoven was also known to have mood swings, which…
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Self-esteem and skin diseases
Bebeyi AbiodunNigeria When I was a little girl, I looked for angular objects to help me scratch my legs. The itch and disgust encroached on my everyday life. I always wore my socks pulled up even though it meant I did not look like the cool kids at school. In time, I started wearing long…
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Edvard Munch: The child who never grew up
Michael YafiHouston, Texas The paintings of Edvard Munch are often used as an example of the association between creativity and mental illness. Can we, however, analyze them from the perspective of the feelings of a child? Traumatized by the death of his mother when he was only five years old1 as portrayed in The Dead…
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Child’s play and art
Bojana CokícZajecar, Serbia Childhood is an important time of learning and development. Play is the work of childhood, affecting sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional, moral, and social development.1 Children have always played.3 Throughout history, children’s games have changed with the social environment. In past centuries, children’s play began in the evening, on the street, after girls had helped…