Digital Commons Network^™

Preschool Parent-Pediatrician Consultations And Predictive Referral Patterns For Problematic Behaviors, John Fanton, Brittany Macdonald, Elizabeth Harvey

Elizabeth (Lisa) Harvey

Objective—The present study examined parents’ reports of the frequency, nature, and outcome of pediatrician consultation and interventions about significant preschool behavior problems. Method—Parents were asked whether they consulted or not with their pediatric providers about disruptive behavioral problems during a longitudinal study of preschool children. Results—Eighty 4-year-old children had parents who had consulted with their pediatricians versus 90 children whose parents did not. Children who eventually met criteria for Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) two years later, received different pediatric interventions at age 4 than children who did not have a diagnosis, χ2 (2) = …

Characteristics Of A Spina Bifida Population Including North American Caucasian And Hispanic Individuals, Kit Sing Au, Phong X Tran, Chester C Tsai, Michelle R O'Byrne, Jone-Ing Lin, Alanna C Morrison, Amy W Hampson, Paul Cirino, Jack M Fletcher, Kathryn K Ostermaier, Gayle H Tyerman, Sabine Doebel, Hope Northrup

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Meningomyelocele (MM) is a common human birth defect. MM is a disorder of neural development caused by contributions from genes and environmental factors that result in the NTD and lead to a spectrum of physical and neurocognitive phenotypes.

METHODS: A multidisciplinary approach has been taken to develop a comprehensive understanding of MM through collaborative efforts from investigators specializing in genetics, development, brain imaging, and neurocognitive outcome. Patients have been recruited from five different sites: Houston and the Texas-Mexico border area; Toronto, Canada; Los Angeles, California; and Lexington, Kentucky. Genetic risk factors for MM have been assessed by genotyping and …

Economic Development Benefits Of Preschool Expansion In Kalamazoo County, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper examines the effects of preschool expansion in Kalamazoo County on the county's economic development. Effects on the county's economic development are defined as effects on the employment and earnings of county residents. The estimated effects are found to be large relative to the costs. In addition to their relevance to Kalamazoo County, these simulations illustrate how the analysis presented in two previous papers (Bartik 2006, 2008) can be done for an individual county or metropolitan area. Such simulations may be of interest to other counties or metropolitan areas that are considering expansions in early childhood programs.

Meeting The Professional Development Needs Of Early Childhood Teachers With Child Development Associate Training, Mary J. Heisner

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

This study examined the impact of Child Development Associate (CDA) training on the beliefs and self-reported practices of early childhood teachers (N = 126) using a pre-post mixed-methods research design. Preschool teachers who were enrolled in CDA classes (n=76) and a comparison group of teachers (n = 50) completed two surveys of beliefs and self-reported practices: the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey: 3- to 5-Year-Olds (TBPS) (Burts, Buchanan, & Benedict, 2001) and the Early Childhood Survey of Beliefs and Practices (ECSBP) (Marcon, 1988, 1999). Repeated measures Multiple Analyses of Variance indicated teachers who had completed CDA training became significantly more …

Investigation Of The Association Between Attendance In Preschool Programs And Achievement Of Elementary School Students In Greeneville, Tennessee., Anita Marie Conner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a difference in achievement test scores exists between students who attended preschool and those who did not as measured by standardized achievement test scores of students in the 3rd and 4th grades. The variables of grade level and gender were also considered. The population consisted of students who attended 4th and 5th grades during the 2007-2008 school year in the Greeneville City Schools. Data gathered were from Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program achievement test scores obtained from the 2006-2007 school year. Analysis of variance was used to identify any relationship between variables. …

Changing The Rules At The Drop Of A Hat: An Erp Study Of Preschoolers' Set-Shifting Ability, Sandra A. Wiebe, Daniel J. Carroll, Megan Herrington, Sari Raber, Kimberly A. Espy

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory: Faculty and Staff Publications

We examined the neural correlates of set-shifting in 5-year-old children and examined whether the ease of switching was affected by varying the number of non-switch trials preceding a switch.

Supporting Teachers And Children During In-Class Transitions: The Power Of Prevention, Sarah M. Mele

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In early childhood classrooms, transitions are often targeted as times of the day during which teachers encounter problems with deficiencies in child engagement, as well as frequent occurrences of challenging behavior. Studies to date on improving child behavior during in-class transitions have focused on providing supports for individual children, as well as on reducing transition duration. The present study evaluated the effects of systematic transition strategies, as applied to three Head Start preschool classrooms during targeted in-class transitions. Strategies encompassed an accumulation of antecedent and consequent manipulations and were selected on the basis of environmental fit with individual classroom environments. …

Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis To Understand Executive Control In Preschool Children: I. Latent Structure, Sandra A. Wiebe, Kimberly A. Espy, David Charak

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory: Faculty and Staff Publications

*This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. http://content.apa.org/journals/0012-1649 Although many tasks have been developed recently to study executive control in the preschool years, the constructs that underlie performance on these tasks are poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear whether executive control is comprised of multiple, separable cognitive abilities (e.g., inhibition and working memory) or whether it is unitary in nature. A sample of 243 normally developing children between 2.25 and 6 years of age completed a battery of ageappropriate executive control tasks. Confirmatory factor analysis …

The Economic Development Effects Of Early Childhood Programs, Timothy J. Bartik

Reports

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Social Skills Training Approaches On Preschool Teacher And Child Behaviors, Keith J Hyatt

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The first purpose of this study was to determine whether instruction to teachers resulted in differences in their performance. The second purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two social skill training methods, a proactive approach and a reactive approach, on increasing the "positive initiations" and/or "positive responses" of preschool children toward their peers during small group art activities. The proactive approach consisted of the teacher providing children with 5 minutes of instruction in specific social skills prior to the art activities, while the reactive approach consisted of the teacher providing verbal praise for "positive initiations" and …

Exploring Preschoolers' Personal Epistemologies Using Focus Groups, Denise Lynne Winsor

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This is a qualitative study designed to use focus groups as a means of identifying the personal epistemologies of preschool children in an authentic learning environment. Personal epistemology is generally defined as the theory about the nature of knowledge and the process of knowing. Investigations of young children are scarce in this field, and little is known about the early onset of epistemological development. However, recent research suggests a possible connection between epistemic development and theory of mind; This study explores very young children and how their cognitive ability and interactions with peers may reveal information regarding epistemological development. The …

Efficacy Of A Direct Instruction Approach To Promote Early Learning, Jennifer Lee Salaway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effectiveness of Direct Instruction (DI) as an enhancement to a Developmentally Appropriate Preschool (DAP) curriculum in the form of increased pre-academic, language, and early literacy competencies for high-risk preschool children. Sixty-one preschool children were randomly assigned to either a DI-Add-On group or DAP-Only group. The children were administered the Kaufman Survey of Early Academic and Language Skills (K-SEALS; Kaufman and Kaufman, 1993) and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good and Kaminski, 2002) prior to receiving the intervention and upon completion of the study. All of the children were also administered the DIBELS throughout …

Will The Stork Return To Europe And Japan? Understanding Fertility Within Developed Nations, James Feyrer, Bruce Sacerdote, Ariel Dora Stern

Dartmouth Scholarship

We seek to explain the differences in fertility rates across high-income countries by focusing on the interaction between the increasing status of women in the workforce and their status in the household, particularly with regards to child care and home production. We observe three distinct phases in women's status generated by the gradual increase in women's workforce opportunities. In the earliest phase, characteristic of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, women earn low wages relative to men and are expected to shoulder all of the child care at home. As a result, most women specialize in home production …

Preschool Children's Counterfactual Inferences: The Causal Length Effect Revisited, Amy Y. Chan, Jessica C. Scott

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Research into young childrens counterfactual thinking is equivocal about how childrens counterfactual responses to causal events may be affected by the length of the causal inference required. This study examined the causal length effect in 3- and 4-year-old children (N=87). Children participated in two counterfactual inference tasks involving causally-related sequences of events. One task entailed counterfactual emotional judgements about the experience of characters in stories, whereas the other task entailed a counterfactual inference about a potential alternative outcome to a physical event. Children at each age level were randomly assigned to answer test questions that required a long, medium, or …

Getting Ready: Promoting School Readiness Through A Relationship-Based Partnership Model, Susan M. Sheridan, Christine Marvin, Lisa Knoche, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

School readiness is determined by the life experiences of young children between birth and enrollment in formal education programs. Early intervention and education programs designed to promote school readiness often focus on skills a child fails to demonstrate that are believed to be of importance to social and academic success. The Getting Ready model of early childhood intervention (Sheridan, Edwards, & Knoche, 2003) recognizes the transactional nature of young children’s development and the important role parents play in pre-school readiness and school-age success. In the Getting Ready model, collaborative partnerships between parents and professionals are encouraged to promote parent’s competence …

A Model School In Massachusetts: Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade, Robin Nichols

Architecture Theses

This school will provide students with a healthy learning environment that enforces proactive learning. It will allow for a variety of learning activities and play, a variety of spaces for independent and group activities, and overall freedom for the students. Also, the school will be flexible for whatever changes occur in the users and activities in the spaces over the life of the school. The building will be planned to maximize the amount of fresh air and sunlight to lessen the dependence on artificial light and HVAC systems.

Early Childhood Classroom Quality And Preschool Learning Behaviors, Steven Placid Kachmar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intelligence quotient (IQ) continues to dominate educational decision-making although it lacks descriptive quality indicative of how children learn best and precisely what contributes to learning differences among children. Researchers have advocated for the use of alternative assessment methods to describe differences in children's learning. Limited research has been conducted in this area yet is supportive of learning behavior as an influential factor associated with scholastic achievement. Unfortunately, little research has been conducted on preschool learning behaviors, despite their link to positive child outcomes. Early childhood environments have similarly been linked to children's scholastic success and positive outcomes.

This study …

Continuous Source Of Care Among Young Underserved Children: Associated Characteristics And Use Of Recommended Parenting Practices., Esther K Chung, Leny Mathew, Kelly F Mccollum, Irma T Elo, Jennifer F Culhane

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to 1) assess sociodemographic and health characteristics associated with having a continuous source of care (CSOC) among young children and 2) determine the relationship between having a CSOC and use of parenting practices.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective, community-based survey of women receiving prenatal care at Philadelphia community health centers. We conducted surveys at the first prenatal visit and at a mean age +/- standard deviation of 3 +/-1, 11 +/- 1, and 24 +/- 2 months postpartum, obtaining information on sociodemographic and health characteristics, child's health care provider, and 6 parenting practices. …

The Abc's Of The Future : For The Community Members Of Red Bluff, April R. Havens

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Western community of Red Bluff needs a preschool. In 1917 a one-roomed school house, also known as the Little Red School House, was built to educate children. From 1965 until 2003 it was used as a preschool. When it closed, the community lost a historical building as well as the resources to empower preschoolers for its future generations. Ten Surveys were delivered to the community members of the West side of Red Bluff inquiring about their concerns regarding the closure. From the surveys three apparent themes emerged. From those three themes an action was put into place. A letter …

Understanding Children's Mathematical Learning: The Relationship To Instruction In Preschool Classrooms, Renee B. Whelan

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

The Impact Of The 101s: A Guide To Positive Discipline Training On Teacher Interaction Practices, Attitudes, And Prosocial Skill Outcomes In Preschool Classrooms, Marie Louise Talayco Masterson

Theses and Dissertations in Early Childhood Education

This study investigated the impact of The 101s: A Guide to Positive Discipline on teachers of preschool Title 1 children. Current research supports the impact of responsive social emotional support and positive teacher-child interactions on both short and long term social and academic outcomes, with specific remediating benefits for children most at risk of school failure. The 101s training and materials evaluated in this study included ten principles/skills to support respectful, responsive interactions hypothesized to support positive prosocial skill responding. Training was provided to 34 teachers with control and experimental groups. Analysis of quantitative pre and post observation data found …

Recommended Practice In Preschool Instruction: Increasing Child Attention During Whole Group, Mauree Elizabeth Harris

LSU Master's Theses

In a teacher-directed activity, such as whole group, children can learn new skills by following the teacher’s directions and/or model the teacher’s behaviors. The National Association for the Education of Young Children Developmentally Appropriate Practices provides several recommended practices for creating a community of learners. When teachers follow these strategies they are providing multiple opportunities to engage children (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). When used appropriately, whole group instruction can be very effective when teaching and can be used at various times of the day. Whole group instruction builds a sense of community among the classroom. The purpose of this study …