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University of Central Florida

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Early Childhood Education

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Full-Text Articles in Education

An Exploration Of Florida Public School Districts' Language Development Programs For Children Before They Enter Kindergarten, Sharon Ochotorena Jan 2019

An Exploration Of Florida Public School Districts' Language Development Programs For Children Before They Enter Kindergarten, Sharon Ochotorena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which preschool programs and the 10 research-based components that develop language are present in Florida public school districts. Based on qualitative methods of analysis, the study utilized two primary sources of data collection to answer the two research questions that follow: 1. Of the 67 traditional public school districts in Florida, which have language development programs for children under the age of 5, excluding those subsidized by Part B of the IDEA? 2. How do components of the programs in the sample of school districts that have language development …


Water Consumption Of Children In Head Start Classrooms, Bingbing Zhang Jan 2018

Water Consumption Of Children In Head Start Classrooms, Bingbing Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) identifies the importance of water consumption and suggested that children need to consume water each day (IOM, 2011). Head Start Performance Standards requires that the children have free access to drinking water throughout the program day (DHHS, 2016a). The first goal of this study was to identify the quantity of water consumed by children during the program day (8am-2pm). This study employed a person-centered approach to explore the water consumption of the children through observations and direct measurement to identify the amount of the water consumed during a program day. Four classrooms from a Head …


An Exploratory Analysis Of A Five Minute Speech Sample Of Mothers Of Children With Selective Mutism, Lisa Kovac Jan 2018

An Exploratory Analysis Of A Five Minute Speech Sample Of Mothers Of Children With Selective Mutism, Lisa Kovac

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Selective mutism (SM), an anxiety disorder wherein children have difficulty speaking or communicating when they are uncomfortable, is relevant for the early childhood population as symptoms often manifest upon school entry (Steinhausen & Juzi, 1996) and early treatment leads to better treatment prognosis (Oerbeck, Stein, Wentzel-Larsen, Langsrud & Kristensen, 2014). Bergman, Gonzalez, Piacentini and Keller, (2013) utilized an integrative behavioral treatment for children (ages 4-8) with SM and reported a 75% treatment responder status after 24 weeks of therapy. Their mothers are the focus of this study. This exploratory study examined the content of Five Minute Speech Samples at baseline …


Do Variations In Service Delivery Models Influence Parents' Perspectives In The Early Intervention Program?, Andrasne Weiszhaupt Jan 2018

Do Variations In Service Delivery Models Influence Parents' Perspectives In The Early Intervention Program?, Andrasne Weiszhaupt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study has multiple purposes. The first purpose is to investigate whether variations in the Early Intervention (EI) service delivery model influence parents' perceptions of the quality of their EI services. The second purpose is to compare parents' satisfaction level with the early intervention program in the selected counties from Pennsylvania and Florida. The third purpose is to reveal whether families' residency determines the level of access to services. The study subjects were parents and caregivers whose children received services through the Part C early intervention program between January 2013 and January 2017. The targeted population for the study were …


Stem Academic Engagement In Young Children With Autism: A Single Case Design Study, Yixuan Ji Jan 2018

Stem Academic Engagement In Young Children With Autism: A Single Case Design Study, Yixuan Ji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The researcher examined the academic engagement in Circle Time activities and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities for three young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who attended a large Orange County Public School, enrolled in an ASD preschool classroom. Given the increasing number of children diagnosed with ASD each year and many STEM job opportunities for individuals with ASD, it is becoming important to know how young children with ASD learn and engage in STEM activities. Strengths of individuals with ASD in the STEM field have been reported in several research studies (Chen & Weko, 2009; Kirchner, Ruch …


The Relationship Between Comprehension Of Descriptive And Sequential Expository Texts And Reader Characteristics In Typically Developing Kindergarten Children, Cheran Zadroga Jan 2016

The Relationship Between Comprehension Of Descriptive And Sequential Expository Texts And Reader Characteristics In Typically Developing Kindergarten Children, Cheran Zadroga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found that children need to be proficient in reading and writing expository text to succeed academically as well as in their future careers. More than ever before, children in primary grade classrooms are being exposed to and expected to comprehend a variety expository text types. However, empirical evidence to support the use of expository texts in kindergarten classrooms, in particular, is sorely lacking. To begin to fill this gap, this study was conducted to investigate kindergarten children's comprehension of two types of expository text structures (i.e., descriptive and sequential) commonly found in kindergarten classrooms. Specifically, the aims of …