Digital Commons Network^™

Kidspell: A Child-Oriented, Rule-Based, Phonetic Spellchecker, Brody Downs, Oghenemaro Anuyah, Aprajita Shukla, Jerry Alan Fails, Maria Soledad Pera, Katherine Wright, Casey Kennington

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

For help with their spelling errors, children often turn to spellcheckers integrated in software applications like word processors and search engines. However, existing spellcheckers are usually tuned to the needs of traditional users (i.e., adults) and generally prove unsatisfactory for children. Motivated by this issue, we introduce KidSpell, an English spellchecker oriented to the spelling needs of children. KidSpell applies (i) an encoding strategy for mapping both misspelled words and spelling suggestions to their phonetic keys and (ii) a selection process that prioritizes candidate spelling suggestions that closely align with the misspelled word based on their respective keys. To assess …

Evaluation Of Psychometric Properties And Factorial Structure Of Adhd Module Of K-Sads-Pl In Children From Rural Kenya, Symon M. Kariuki, Charles R. J. C. Newton, Amina Abubakar, Mary A. Bitta, Rachael Odhiambo, Jacqueline Phillips Owen

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Objective: We determined the reliability of The Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children–Present and Lifetime (K-SADS-PL) for screening and diagnosing ADHD in children.

Method: K-SADS-PL was administered to 2,074 children in the community. Psychometric properties, factorial structure, and clinical validity of K-SADS-PL in screening or diagnosis of ADHD were examined.

Results: Internal consistency was excellent for items in the screening interview (Macdonald’s Omega [ω] = 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.87, 0.94]) and diagnostic supplement (ω = 0.95; 95% CI [0.92, 0.99]). The standardized coefficients for items in the screening interview were acceptable (0.59-0.85), while fit indices …

The Validity And Reliability Of The Turkish Version Of The Body Esteem Scale Foradolescents And Adults (Besaa) For Children, Umut Ece Arslan, Lütfi̇ye Hi̇lal Özcebe, Hande Konşuk Ünlü, Sarp Üner, Mahmut Saadi̇ Yardim, Ozgur Araz, Terry T-K Huang

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: Body esteem (BE) is defined as the self-evaluation of one's own body or appearance. The Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA) consists of three subscales: BE-appearance, BE-weight, and BE-attribution. Though initially developed for adolescents and adults, the use of the scale has recently increased in health-related research on children. This study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the BESAA for children. Materials and methods: The participants in the study were 4th grade children (aged 9-10 years) in Ankara, Turkey. The validity of the scale was evaluated through exploratory and confirmatory factor …

Changes In P1 Latencies Of Children With Normal Hearing And Those With Cochlear Implants, Emre Eski̇ci̇oğlu, Günay Kirkim, Selhan Gürkan, Serpi̇l Mungan Durankaya, Tahsi̇n Oğuz Başokçu, Eni̇s Alpi̇n Güneri̇

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: The aim of this study was to determine the age-related latency interval of P1 latencies of children with normal hearing, and to evaluate the P1 latency changes after surgery in children who underwent cochlear implantation. Materials and methods: We evaluated 60 children with normal hearing and 16 children with cochlear implants aged 0-6 years using cortical auditory evoked potentials. P1 latencies were measured only once in the children with normal hearing, and on the postoperative first day, and the first, third, and sixth postoperative months in the children with cochlear implants. Results: There was a statistically significant decrease in …

Does Resilience Moderate The Impact Of Children’S Experiences Of Racial And Ethnic Discrimination On Internalizing Problems?, Dahlia Abbas

Dissertations and Theses

This study’s objectives were to investigate how children’s experiences of discrimination impact the severity of their internalizing symptoms, and whether the relation between discrimination and internalizing symptom severity is moderated by resilience. It was predicted that children who had experienced more discrimination would have more severe internalizing symptoms, especially when they have low levels of resilience. Children [N=20; Mean (SD) age= 11.83 (2.50)] receiving low-cost music lessons in northern Manhattan were recruited into a larger study examining how learning music affects cognitive and emotional development. Children were interviewed in-person about experiences of discrimination because of their race/ethnicity using the Perceptions …

Bilingual Children's L1 And L2 Word Frequency Effects: The Role Of Individual Differences, Astrid Michelle Portillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bilingualism continues to grow among the world's population. Nevertheless, most research studies on language processing have focused on monolingual individuals, leaving questions about how language processing unfolds in bilingual individuals. Here, we investigated how individual differences in bilingual experience, indexed by current L2 exposure, impact eye movement measures of reading fluency, indexed by word frequency effects, in an understudied population: bilingual children. Prior eye movement research involving bilingual younger adults (aged 18 to 30) has reported a trade-off in L1 and L2 word frequency effects with greater levels of current L2 exposure (Whitford & Titone, 2012, 2017). We wanted to …

Morphological Production Accuracy Patterns In Younger And Older Spanish-English Bilingual Children, Isabel Angelica Cano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Clinicians require a model of typical bilingual language development. Morphological production accuracy patterns vary in Spanish-English (S-E) bilingual children considering differences in the exposure and use of their two languages compared to their monolingual peers. The purpose of the current study was to examine morphological production accuracy patterns in thirty younger (3- to 4-years old) and older (5- to 6-years old) S-E bilingual children utilizing English and Spanish Morphosyntax subtests from a bilingual language screener. Across development, older bilingual children were more accurate on all forms in both English and Spanish than younger bilingual children. Across languages, all S-E bilingual …

Effects Of Interviewer Familiarity And Supportiveness On Children's Recall Across Repeated Interviews, Sonja P. Brubacher, Debra A. Poole, Jason J. Dickinson, David La Rooy, Zsófia A. Szojka, Martine B. Powell

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Objectives: Child witnesses often describe their experiences across multiple interviews. It is unknown whether talking with a familiar interviewer increases disclosures, however, or whether any benefits of a familiar interviewer could be achieved by ensuring that interviewers (regardless of familiarity) behave in socially supportive ways. This study tested the effects of interviewer familiarity and social support on children's reports of an adult's transgressions. Hypotheses: We predicted that familiarity and supportiveness would increase transgression reports at a second interview and that children who spoke with familiar, supportive interviewers would disclose the most transgressions. Method: Children (N = 160, 5 to 9 …

Investigating How Play Is Used To Develop Oral Language In A Pre- Primary School In Taita Taveta County, Edita Wanyika Mghendi

Master of Education

Children have been known to have a natural desire for play. Curriculum designers have borrowed this idea and they have recommended learning of children through play. Oral language development is paramount in the early childhood curriculum stage. Scholars advocate the use of play in the development of oral language for young children. This is because play stimulates children to use oral language. It is in this pursuit that I developed an interest to learn how play is used to develop oral language in a pre-primary school in Taita Taveta County. The study adopted a qualitative case study design. Data was …

Auditory, Cognitive, And Linguistic Factors Predict Speech Recognition In Adverse Listening Conditions For Children With Hearing Loss, Ryan W. Mccreery, Elizabeth A. Walker, Meredith Spratford, Dawna Lewis, Marc A. Brennan

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Children with hearing loss listen and learn in environments with noise and reverberation, but perform more poorly in noise and reverberation than children with normal hearing. Even with amplification, individual differences in speech recognition are observed among children with hearing loss. Few studies have examined the factors that support speech understanding in noise and reverberation for this population. This study applied the theoretical framework of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model to examine the influence of auditory, cognitive, and linguistic factors on speech recognition in noise and reverberation for children with hearing loss.

Design: Fifty-six children with hearing …

Children's Books As Cultural Products: A Qualitative Study Of Cultural Representation In Hmong And Non-Hmong American Books, Malina Her

Master's Theses

This study examined the type of cultural practices and values depicted within Hmong American children’s books in comparison to non-Hmong American children’s books from the United States. The purpose was to explore if prior Hmong traditional practices and values reflective of American individualism would extend to Hmong children’s books. Thirty best-seller children’s books were coded using two checklists, one focused on Hmong traditional practices and the other on American values. Results showed that Hmong traditional practices underscored by Hmong adolescents in prior research somewhat extended to Hmong children’s books. Moreover, in some respects Hmong children’s books displayed similar numbers of …

Children See Race; Teachers Should Too: Challenging Bias, Stereotypes, And Prejudice Through Children's Literature, Alexandra J. Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the impacts of antibias culturally responsive literature on kindergarten children and teachers through qualitative action research conducted in one classroom over the course of twelve weeks. It examines how young children in this kindergarten classroom use what they have learned from and about antibias culturally responsive literature in their daily play, writing, conversations, and interactions. I clarify the process through which kindergarteners transform in relation to the understanding of their and others' cultures. In the research, two types of strategies were used: (1) critical research and (2) narrative inquiry. Data was collected from whole group discussions set …

Kids Count The State Of The Child In Tennessee 2018 Policy And Issue Guide, Tennessee. Commission On Children & Youth.

The State of the Child in Tennessee

No abstract provided.

Project Reach: Implementation Of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Within Integrated Healthcare For Hurricane Harvey Affected Individuals, Lynn M. Hana B.S., Sandra L. Cepeda B.S., Catherine C. Christian B.E., Sophie C. Schneider Ph.D., Ashley M. Shaw Ph.D., Jill Ehrenreich-May Ph.D., Alison Salloum Ph.D., Laurel Williams D.O., Asim A. Shah M.D., Eric A. Storch Ph.D.

Journal of Family Strengths

Project Reach was established to deliver evidence-based mental healthcare services to children and adults affected by Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. Through Project Reach, an innovative multi-component assessment and treatment service is utilized to identify and treat in integrated healthcare settings both children and adults exhibiting significant behavioral health concerns in Houston. The aim is to provide sustainable, integrated mental health services through primary care and school-based settings to post-Harvey affected individuals whose emotional needs remain unmet. This paper describes the design and implementation of Project Reach as well as special considerations for implementation. The overall goal of Project Reach …

Social And Emotional Support For Children And Their Caregivers Post-Disasters, Anjana Dayal De Prewitt, Tony Jose Richards

Journal of Family Strengths

The purpose of this paper is to share Save the Children’s responses to Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and Hurricane Irma in Florida in 2017. Save the Children’s response and recovery efforts in the aftermath of these disasters consisted of a wide range of services for the affected children and their caregivers, including assistance to childcare centers and organizations, and providing child-focused services, such as psychosocial support. This paper will particularly focus on the psychosocial support element of the responses.

Book Review: Placemaking With Children And Youth: Participatory Strategies For Planning Sustainable Communities, Brandy C. Judkins

eJournal of Public Affairs

This review discusses Derr, Chawla, and Mintzer's Placemaking with children and youth: Participatory strategies for planning sustainable communities. The text sheds light into a gap in urban and community planning---inclusion of children and youths in the design of their built environment. The text seeks to change discourse by instructing current and future city planners, architects, industrial and interior designers, interior decorators, landscape architects, contractors, government officials, and educators in engaging the children and youths of their communities in design, decision-making, and development to create truly sustainable communities that meet the needs of all who live within them. Divided into twelve …

Wilgus, Donald Knight (Fa 1203), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1203. Student folk studies projects collected by Professor Donald Knight “D. K.” Wilgus while teaching folk studies classes at Western Kentucky University. Most of the items collected are from south central Kentucky, but also includes items from Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee.

Key Expressions Of Posttraumatic Distress In Cambodian Children: A Step Toward Culturally-Sensitive Trauma Assessment And Intervention, Caleb J. Figge

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

More than half of all children in Cambodia experience direct abuse and over 70% other traumatic events, which significantly increase risk for a range of physical and mental health problems. Additionally, Cambodian children face longstanding sociopolitical, intergenerational, and cultural factors that compound the impact of direct victimization. As a result, rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms among Cambodian youth are high. However, care providers often rely on Western-based nosology that does not account for culturally specific expressions of trauma. Lack of knowledge surrounding the expressions of distress that best represent the experience of traumatized Cambodian children hinders diagnostic accuracy and treatment …

Involvement Of Adults Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing In Ehdi Programs, Elizabeth Shuler-Krause, Karl R. White

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Consistent with a position statement of the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH, 2007), several key organizations and groups have supported involving deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) adults in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) systems, including providing families of children who are DHH with opportunities to interact with adults who are DHH. This article reviews the available data on the involvement of adults who are DHH in EHDI systems to determine the availability of opportunities for families who have children who are DHH to interact with adults who are DHH, how families feel about these experiences, and to …

The Paradoxical Implications Of Deported American Students, Edmund T. Hamann, Jessica Mitchell-Mccollough

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This book chapter (which has no formal abstract) uses the case of two children who had to leave the United States because their father was deported to raise questions about how US schooling does or does not anticipate and support students who will need to negotiate schooling in two countries.

Principals and teachers throughout the United States (and world) have students with transnational ties. Sometimes students were born in another country. More commonly, one or both parents were. Sometimes that means students and/or parents lack documentation, which creates anxiety and ambiguity in students’ lives that schools need to negotiate. Suro …

Egyptian Media Policies To Protect Minors From Harmful Content And Promote Positive Media Use, Nour Hussien Abu-Seada

Theses and Dissertations

Children are by far the most important asset for the future of any nation. Hence, any investment in them will not only reflect positively or negatively on their homeland and society, but maybe even the whole world. With the understanding that early childhood is an extremely important and critical stage for mental, physical and psychological development, it is highly important to constantly provide a healthy environment for young children in order to nourish those seeds that will harvest the future. Media is on the forefront means influencing peoples lives nowadays, some even consider it a source of information. Children, being …

Beyond Regression: An Investigation Of Art Material Choice For Children With Trauma, Natalie Lane

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Choice in art materials and the artistic process are arguably two of the primary facets of how art making can be therapeutic. The purpose of the present inquiry was to investigate the impacts of art material choice in children who have experienced trauma. Using the expressive therapies continuum (ETC) as a foundation for choosing art materials in a therapeutic context, this inquiry sought to introduce art materials in the kinesthetic/sensory component of the ETC (e.g., clay, paint, large paint brushes, etc.). As a mediating consideration, this inquiry articulated the responsibilities and obligations that the art therapist possesses in working with …

Auditory Distraction Does More Than Disrupt Rehearsal Processes In Children’S Serial Recall, Angela M. Aubuchon, Corey I. Mcgill, Emily M. Elliott

Faculty Publications

As children mature, their ability to remember information improves. This improvement has been linked to changes in verbal control processes such as rehearsal. Rehearsal processes are thought to undergo a quantitative shift around 7 years of age; however, direct measurement of rehearsal is difficult. We investigated a measure of rehearsal ability in children and compared this measurement to serial recall performance in the presence of auditory distractors. Theories of auditory distraction effects in children rely upon a combination of attentionally based and serial-order-based processes (Elliott et al. in Journal of Memory and Language, 88, 39–50, 2016); the present work contributes …

The Effect Of Retrieval Practice On Vocabulary Learning For Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Casey Krauss Reimer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The goal of the current study was to determine if students who are deaf or hard of hearing (d/hh) would learn more new vocabulary words through the use of retrieval practice than repeated exposure (repeated study). No studies to date have used this cognitive strategy—retrieval practice—with children who are d/hh. Previous studies have shown that children with hearing loss struggle with learning vocabulary words. This deficit can negatively affect language development, reading outcomes, and overall academic success. Few studies have investigated specific interventions to address the poor vocabulary development for children with hearing loss. The current study investigated retrieval practice …

Arkansas Principal Preparedness To Identify And Assist Students With Mental Health Needs, Candra Leigh Brasel

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

There is a growing need for children’s mental health services. With the majority of their time spent at school, educators are often the first adults in a child’s life to identify and assist students with mental health needs. However, oftentimes educators do not have the education and training needed to assist students with accessing quality mental health services. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the preparedness of Arkansas public school principals to assist students with mental health needs in this rapidly changing era of education. The participant sample of the study consisted of 133 Arkansas public school …

Poverty In The School Setting, Brienna Wolf

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Poverty effects nearly every school district in the United States to some degree. This literature review explores the impacts poverty has on children in the school setting. This paper examined studies that looked at children ages six months through eighteen years of all socio-economic statuses and compared them specifically to children living below the poverty line. Through examining the significance and detriment of poverty in schools, I explain the different forms of poverty, myths and misconceptions about people living in poverty, the effects poverty has on brain development, barriers to accessing education, barriers within the educational system, and strategies to …

Aac Device Use In School-Aged Special Education Students, Vanessa Medina

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation analyzes how often AAC users typically utilize their devices throughout their day in their school setting. A survey method was implemented where elementary school educators were asked to report on their special education students use of their device during their school day. To identify special education educators' perceptions regarding the use of AAC devices in the public-school system, special education educators in the public-school system were contacted via email to conduct a survey in regard to current practice in their school setting regarding AAC use.

A letter of consent was obtained from the University of Texas Rio Grande …

Orthographic And Phonological Processing In Beginning Readers, Emily Fisher

Senior Theses

In order to learn to “sound out” new words, children must have phonological awareness, the ability to reflect on and manipulate the sounds in words. However, in skilled readers, performance on phonological awareness tasks is influenced by orthographic awareness, the awareness of spelling patterns and constraints. Both orthographic and phonological awareness are essential to reading, however, until recently the role of orthographic knowledge in phonological awareness has not been thoroughly investigated in beginning readers. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between orthographic and phonological knowledge in beginning readers and established a proof of concept for the use of …

Child Migrants And America’S Evolving Immigration Mission, Shani M. King

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the many challenges—legal and otherwise—that child migrants face as they attempt to navigate the complex web of courts, laws, and shifting political landscapes to become naturalized United States citizens, while putting these challenges in the context of an immigration system that has long been shaped by politics of exclusion and xenophobia that have shaped immigration law and policy in the United States for over one-hundred years. Such an investigation comes at a time when the issue of immigration in the United States is increasingly complex and contested. As the Trump administration mulls over new prototypes for a …

The Effect Of Expressive Therapies On Refugee Children And Adolescents: Meta-Analytic Findings, Brian Kristopher Cambra

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Millions of displaced families are seeking refuge in countries that are not their own due to war, violence, persecution, political unrest, and natural disasters. This global crisis is forcing researchers and practitioners to consider how refugees are coping with trauma associated with their migration process. Effective therapeutic approaches are needed in a global effort to address the traumatic impact of forced migration. This meta-analytical study investigates the effectiveness of expressive therapeutic modalities, including play, art, music, sandplay, theatre, and writing therapies, in helping children and adolescents cope with refugee trauma. A theoretical understanding of the neurobiological and human ecosystemic frameworks …