Digital Commons Network^™

A Reflection Of Adults As Child Participants In Commercial Activities, Janette Angella Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children are being used as marketers and consumers for the purpose of financial gain. Although much research exists about children's stance as consumers, very little is known about their role as marketers. Such lack of information indicates that children's authentic voices about their experiences are seldom articulated, heard, listened to, and acted on. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological heuristic study was to explore the lived experiences of former child participants in commercial activities in order to understand their perceptions as well as, the meaning, and impact of the experiences on their childhood development. The theoretical framework used included the …

Individual Differences In Music Discrimination And Their Relation To Reading And Reading-Related Skills In Children, Elaina C. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that there may be a relationship between music and reading. Some researchers have found that musical rhythm is related to reading in children, while others have found that it is musical pitch and not rhythm that correlates with reading. Prosody is the melodic element of language that encompasses both pitch and rhythm. In the past, these have been studied separately. In the present study, we analyzed pitch and rhythm discrimination skills, phonological awareness, prosody and reading in thirty-nine seven and eight year old children. We predicted that music and reading skills would be related, and that prosody would …

Exploring The Vocabulary Teaching Strategies Used In Children’S Educational Television, Rebecca Wettstein

Honors Projects

The present study explored the extent to which vocabulary instructional strategies are used in the children’s educational television show Word Girl, and whether or not the occurrences of vocabulary instructional strategies changed over the time the show was aired. Instructional strategies included repetition of target words, labeling, defining/mislabeling, and onscreen print. A total of eighteen episodes between 2007 and 2015 were analyzed. The early time period included episodes aired from 2007-2009, the middle time period included episodes aired from 2010-2012, and the late time period included episodes aired from 2013-2015. Results revealed within episode variability for all vocabulary instructional …

The Timecourse Of Phonological Competition In Spoken Word Recognition: A Comparison Of Adults And Very Young Children, Elizabeth Schoen Simmons

Master's Theses

Spoken word recognition (SWR) is the mapping of speech sounds to words from many potential candidates in one’s lexicon. In adults, words that are phonetically similar, of high frequency, or semantically related compete for recognition. An ongoing debate in the literature is whether or not very young children encode spoken words with fine-grained temporal and phonetic detail. Specifically, whether they represent words wholistically or as smaller phonetic units similar to that of adults. The adult literature demonstrates that words that are phonetically similar at onset (cohorts) and offset (rhymes) compete for recognition. As it happens, rhymes have the potential to …

"State Your Defense!": Children Negotiate Analytic Frames In The Context Of Deliberative Dialogue, Jennifer Hauver

Democracy & Education

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the analytic frames children (ages 9 to 11) employed as they worked together to make sense of an ill-structured problem, what those same children did when their frames collided in the context of deliberative dialogue, and what they learned from the process of negotiation. Data included pre- and post-dialogue interviews with individual children as well as videotapes of the five dialogue sessions. Analysis suggests that children invoked six frames: fairness, common good, safety, kindness, tradition and self-interest. Of these, fairness and common good were super-ordinate frames, which resonated with peers …

Get Them Moving: Increasing Physical Activity In The Classroom, Elizabeth G. Balcom

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this senior capstone project is on increasing the amount of physical activity within the classroom. Studies show that living a sedentary lifestyle can be detrimental to your health, yet we require students to sit still in classrooms for hours on end. For this project different elementary grade levels were compared to determine the amount of physical activity that currently occurs inside the classrooms, and several teachers were interviewed to see how the issue could be helped. Through what was learned from the the research conducted , an action was taken that responds to the issue of increasing …

Communicative Function Use Of Preschoolers And Mothers From Differing Racial And Socioeconomic Groups, Danai Kasambira Fannin, O. A. Barbarin, E.R. Crais

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Purpose: This study explores whether communicative function (CF: reasons for communicating) use differs by socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity, or gender among preschoolers and their mothers. Method: Mother-preschooler dyads (N=95) from the National Center for Early Development and Learning’s (NCEDL, 2005) study of Family and Social Environments were observed during one structured learning and free play interaction. CFs were coded by trained independent raters. Results: Children used all CFs at similar rates but those from low SES homes produced fewer utterances and less Reasoning, while boys used less Self-maintaining and more Predicting. African American (AA) mothers produced more Directing and less …

Education Access For Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Deidra Coleman, Adam Avrushin

Center for the Human Rights of Children

No abstract provided.

World Changers: Inspiring Cultural And Linguistic Excellence In Children, Parents And Teachers, Ana I. Berdecia Med, Caitlin Kosec Mpp, The John S. Watson Institute For Public Policy For Thomas Edison State College

Center for the Positive Development of Urban Children

The New Jersey Cultural Competency and English Language Learners Summer Institute and Mentoring Program hosted its 10th Anniversary, Three-Day Learning Institute, Aug. 23-25, 2016, with the theme, World Changers: Inspiring Cultural and Linguistic Excellence for Children, Parents and Teachers. After the Three- Day Learning Institute, classroom teachers were assigned a mentor who provided monthly supports to the classroom teachers in the adoption English language learners and cultural competency strategies with the goal of creating culturally and linguistic responsive classrooms. Twenty-three teachers from Trenton Public Schools were recruited and received 21 hours of training in best practices for engaging diverse …

Developing A Competency-Based Framework To Guide Elementary School Teachers' Efforts In Helping Bullied Children, Samantha Gregus

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study aimed to develop a competency-based framework designed to assist elementary school teachers in their efforts to help bullied children. Drawing from extant research, Gregus and Cavell (2017) created an initial draft of the framework that contained 25 components representing a mix of knowledge, attitudes, and skills. In Study 1, I obtained input on the framework from practicing elementary school teachers (n = 26) and researchers who study school bullying (n = 14). Teacher input was gathered via a series of focus groups and researchers responded using an online survey. Both teachers and researchers viewed the framework positively …

Perceptual Analysis Of Children's Adaptation To An Electropalatography Sensor, Kasey Marie Duffield

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to observe childrens adaptation to an electropalatographic (EPG) sensor. Sound recordings of six children between the ages of 7;0 and 9;11 sampled at 30-minute intervals over a two-hour period of wearing an EPG sensor were perceptually evaluated to quantify the children's adaptation over time. Twenty native speakers of American English evaluated the pronunciation of a series of words with embedded stops and fricatives produced with and without an EPG sensor in place. When collapsed over speaker and stimulus type, listener ratings decreased significantly after inserting the EPG sensor. Ratings then increased significantly after the …

Using Imagination To Bridge Young Children’S Literacy And Science Learning: A Dialogic Approach, Huili Hong, Karin Keith, Renee Rice Moran

ETSU Faculty Works

Integrating children’s literacy and science learning has become a new focus in literacy instruction. Imagination, an integral part of children’s learning experience, remains marginalized in today’s early childhood education curriculum. Drawing on a yearlong ethnographic study in a first-grade classroom, this paper explores the potential affordance of imagination in integrating young children’s literacy and science learning. The findings showed that the integration opportunities were organically constructed in and through children’s natural engagement of imagination in their reading process. A dialogic approach is presented as one way to ignite children’s imaginations in their literacy and science learning.

The Glocal Creation Of Space: Paru Paru’S Youth Casting Their Own Futures, Teresa M. Drenten

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis illustrates the active participation of Indigenous children in the creation of space intersecting across multiple scales. I engaged with critical decolonial theories to create a community based participatory process with eleven bilingual Quechua-Spanish children in Paru Paru, Peru. My methodology focuses on the desires of the community, concentrating on their lived experiences and honoring the community’s challenges and resiliency. This research and knowledge belong to the community. Through small group and observation methods, these young participants demonstrated two desires; First, they want to remain connected to their lands and cosmology; next, they wish to receive the benefits from …

Using Lena To Examine Associations Between Parental Speech And Child Language Skills, Courtney T. Swanson

Senior Honors Projects

Children are exposed to language in a variety of ways and by a multitude of people - parents, teachers, friends, etc. Language input that a child receives has been a significant area of study for researchers to determine the cognitive, linguistic, and social developmental levels of speech clients. Traditionally, maternal speech input has been viewed as more influential than paternal speech input. The purpose of this study is to use the Bridge Hypothesis of paternal speech to compare the speech between child and mother vs. child and father through the use of LENA technology. Gathering a speech sample can be …

The Benefits Of Music In Child Development, Dulce-Paola Ixtupe

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Music is a subject that does not limit children to simply having fun, although “fun” is an essential component when trying to engage children in learning activities. Music further enhances a series of transferable skills and can help children with their learning experience in other subjects. By being part of a fun activity such as music, children are able to acquire affective, cognitive, and evaluative skills, which will further reinforce a variety of areas of their development. When engaged in an activity where recognition and expression of feelings are required, they learn that having feelings is perfectly normal and that …

An Exploration Of Youth Experiences In Chatrooms, Emily A. Greene-Colozzi

Student Theses

Internet predation of minors has increasingly become a focus of child abuse research and legislation. Concerns have arisen regarding “online grooming,” the ongoing process during which an adult offender prepares a child for sexual abuse by gaining emotional access to the child through an intimate online relationship. The present study provided one of the first comprehensive examinations of a victim's perspective of online grooming. Participants were 374 male and female college students at a public undergraduate institution who completed an online survey covering demographics, lifestyle factors, and experiences online of sexual solicitation or online grooming. Results showed that approximately 30% …

A Dynamic Measure Of Morphological Awareness In Young Children, Frances Elizabeth Gibson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although sound awareness has been proven critical for skilled literacy development, further investigation is needed to examine additional factors that could also be critical. Awareness of meaning or morphological awareness is an additional factor that could impact literacy development. Although morphological awareness is mastered early in spoken language, little is known in regard to this skill in other language and literacy contexts. This study investigated the validity of a dynamic measure of morphological awareness (DMMA) in young children. Seventy-eight first-grade children completed a language and literacy battery. Morphological awareness was assessed using both a standardized and an experimental measure comprised …

Bilingualism And The American Family, Caitlin M. Nickerson

Senior Honors Projects

Bilingualism is the ability to speak more than one language fluently. People of all ages may aspire to learn a second or third language in order to fulfill both personal goals and communicate with a variety of people in different contexts. Irrespective of one’s walk of life or socioeconomic status, being bilingual is a valuable skill. Although English is the language of power in the United States, there are hundreds of other languages spoken in this country.

There are a number of different ways in which children can become bilingual. For example, they may enter the school system speaking the …

(Un-)American Movement: Unaccompanied Immigrant Children And The Rhetoric Of Space And Identity, Emily K. Royer

Political Science Honors Projects

Immigration, in all its various forms, has become one of the most pressing issues of the modern era. In the contemporary United States, the arrival of migrants—be they refugees, asylum seekers, documented or undocumented immigrants—is often figured as a problem of existential proportions. In this project, I turn my attention to a significant recent development in the new American immigration “crisis.” During the summer months of 2014, the United States witnessed a period of heightened migration by unaccompanied children from the Central American nations of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Through a rhetorical analysis of congressional hearings held in response …

Is Having Children An Essential Part Of A Good Human Life?, Bethany Blinsky

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

Is being a parent part of living a good human life? In this paper I argue, contra Rosalind Hursthouse, that the answer is no. However, I make the case that something very much like this is essential to living a good human life. I get at this by borrowing Claudia Mills’ account of the value of unchosen relationships. I argue that unconditional and unchosen love is an essential component of a good human life, and while we can get this by having children, we can also get it in other ways.

The Narrator, The Mute, And The Familiar: Configurations Of Children In War Films, Kiyomi Wilks

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis undertakes the examination of how and why children often figure prominently in films about war. Rather than accept the common argument that innocence is what makes children compelling as victims and objects of observation, this thesis argues that children in war films subvert dominant narratives about war and victimhood by asking questions that pierce through accepted narratives, revealing the child as an agent in possession of an adult knowledge that seems to run contrary to attempts to display the child as a naive innocent. The children in the three movies under examination-- The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) …

Parent Support Groups And Well-Being: Investigating The Benefits Of Parent Support Groups For Families Of Children With Special Needs, Rachel Zeutenhorst

Master of Education Program Theses

This qualitative research study seeks to identify if peer support groups for parents with children who have disabilities are beneficial to the parents’ physical and emotional well-being. Previous literature has shown that parents of children with disabilities feel more knowledgeable, accepted, and empowered when they are able to share their successes and struggles with parents who are in similar situations. Furthermore, the literature also shows that when parents are actively involved with their child’s school, other parents, and their community, their children earn higher grades, attend school more often, have better social skills, and are more likely to attend college …

Universal Design Across The Curriculum: Training For Students And Teachers, Trish Mackeogh, James Hubbard, Kieran O'Callaghan

Research and Innovation - Articles

Providing an inclusive educational setting for children with disabilities is essential if they are to truly benefit from mainstream education. Universal design (UD) provides a framework to develop our classrooms, materials and methods to accommodate diverse learners and students with special educational needs without the need to retrofit or remove the student from the classroom. This paper outlines the theory and the approach of two training courses on Universal Design developed for teachers and students.

Civil Rights Gone Wrong: Racial Nostalgia, Historical Memory, And The Boston Busing Crisis In Contemporary Children’S Literature, Lynnell L. Thomas

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

On May 14, 2014, three white Boston city councilors refused to vote to approve a resolution honoring the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education because, as one remarked, “I didn’t want to get into a debate regarding forced busing in Boston.” Against the recent national proliferation of celebrations of civil rights milestones and legislation, the controversy surrounding the fortieth anniversary of the court decision that mandated busing to desegregate Boston public schools speaks volumes about the historical memory of Boston’s civil rights movement. Two highly acclaimed contemporary works of children’s literature set during or inspired by Boston’s …

Annual Report Fy2016, Tennessee. Commission On Children And Youth.

Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Reducing Children's Behavior Problems Through Social Capital: A Causal Assessment, Ruth N.López Turley, Adam Gamoran, Alyn Turner Mccarty, Rachel Fish

Education and Child Study: Faculty Publications

Behavior problems among young children have serious detrimental effects on short and long-term educational outcomes. An especially promising prevention strategy may be one that focuses on strengthening the relationships among families in schools, or social capital. However, empirical research on social capital has been constrained by conceptual and causal ambiguity. This study attempts to construct a more focused conceptualization of social capital and aims to determine the causal effects of social capital on children's behavior. Using data from a cluster randomized trial of 52 elementary schools, we apply several multilevel models to assess the causal relationship, including intent to treat …

The Use Of Code-Switching In Bilingual Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Monica Yolanda Ponce-Lawler

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abstract

Background: Code-switching may be seen as a weakness in the eyes of many who do not truly

understand bilingualism. Several professionals consider code-switching to be a compensatory

strategy, however other professionals perceive code-switching as a functionally motivating behavior

(Chung, 2006). Whether is it consciously or subconsciously that a child code-switches, there is

limited research on when bilingual children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are likely to

code-switch as well as what patterns they utilize when they code-switch.

Purpose: To grow the limited research on the use of code-switching in bilingual children with ASD.

Introduce and compare two language treatments; …

A Review Of Internet Resources Related To Spoken Language Intervention For Spanish-Speaking Parents Of Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Karen F. Munoz, Lauri H. Nelson Phd, Brittan Barker

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify website information related to hearing loss, hearing technology, and spoken language development available to Spanish-speaking parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH).

Design: An exploratory, descriptive design was used to determine the presence or absence of parent education information on a variety of websites.

Study Sample: The study explored Internet resources provided by national, state, and parent support organizations in the United States.

Results: A total of 53 organization websites were identified that had information for parents of DHH children learning spoken language, eight of which were …

“Whatdunit?” Developmental Changes In Children’S Syntactically-Based Sentence Interpretation Abilities And Sensitivity To Word Order, James W. Montgomery, Julia L. Evans, Ronald B. Gillam, Alexander V. Sergeev, Mianisha C. Finney

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

Aim 1 of this study was to examine the developmental changes in typically developing English-speaking children’s syntactically-based sentence interpretation abilities and sensitivity to word order. Aim 2 was to determine the psychometric standing of the novel sentence interpretation task developed for this study, as we wish to use it later with children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Children listened to semantically implausible sentences in which noun animacy and the natural affordance between the nouns were removed, thus controlling for event probability. Using this novel “whatdunit?” agent selection task, 256 children 7-11 years listened to two structures with canonical word order …

Mishpachah: The Jewish Family In Tradition And In Transition, Leonard Greenspoon

Studies in Jewish Civilization

Dictionary definitions of the term mishpachah are seemingly straightforward: “A Jewish family or social unit including close and distant relatives—sometimes also close friends.” As accurate as such definitions are, they fail to capture the diversity and vitality of real, flesh-and-blood Jewish families.

Families have been part of Jewish life for as long as there have been Jews. It is useful to recall that the family is the basic narrative building block of the stories in the biblical book of Genesis, which can be interpreted in the light of ancient literary traditions, archaeological discoveries, and rabbinic exegesis. Rabbinic literature also is …