'Add a list or dict of children to this parameter. This method calls
addChild once for each value in *children*.'

def addChildren(self, children):

    if isinstance(children, dict):
        ch2 = []
        for (name, opts) in children.items():
            if (isinstance(opts, dict) and ('name' not in opts)):
                opts = opts.copy()
                opts['name'] = name
            ch2.append(opts)
        children = ch2
    for chOpts in children:
        self.addChild(chOpts)
