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Emergent Literacy Skills Of Young Children With Autism: A Comparison Of Teacher-Led And Computer-Assisted Instruction, Jason Christopher Travers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Young children with autism often are identified as experiencing problems in language, social, and behavioral development. Current research typically focuses on these three areas with little attention paid to the academic learning of these children. Because of this, young children with autism often do not engage in typical early literacy experiences (e.g.., emergent literacy activities). This can result in these children being at risk for developing poor literacy skills. It is important that researchers begin to explore systematic literacy instruction for young children with autism to not only increase literacy learning, but also facilitate the inclusion of these children in …

Emotion Understanding And Social Competence In Balanced Bilinguals And Language-Dominant Children, Katrina Meza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study investigated the development of emotion understanding and social competence among 106 culturally and linguistically diverse children (50 girls and 56 boys). It investigated if there were differences in the development of emotion understanding and social competence between balanced bilinguals and language-dominant children. Balanced bilinguals outperformed language-dominant children on two advanced tasks of emotion understanding, in which they evidenced an increased understanding that emotions can be based on desires and that emotions can be hidden. Balanced bilinguals and language-dominant children follow a similar developmental trajectory on emotion understanding. There were no significant differences between language groups in social …

De-Mystifying The Magic: Meaningful Moments In Music Therapy When Working With Children That Have Severe Special Needs, Kayla C. Daly

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The purpose of my study is to explore the “magic” that occurs in these music therapy sessions, and to discover what this word means for those who use it. For the purpose of this study we will define “magic” as having the occurrence of meaningful outcomes or moments in music therapy sessions. This study will attempt to reveal methods and techniques that are being used by music therapists to further facilitate the therapeutic process for children with severe special needs in their lives and everyday experiences. This study included naturalistic inquiry and phenomenological inquiry.

Immigrant Children And Globalization: Formal Education In Producing New Citizens, Lelde Ilzina

Macalester International

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Family Factors On Neuropsychological Outcome In A Clinical Sample Of Preschool Children, Kara Leiser

Dissertations (1934 -)

Children impacted by neurological insult or disorder are at risk for impaired neuropsychological functioning; however, there is substantial variation in outcome, with many affected children doing very well. The factors that explain the variation in outcome in children with compromised neurological functioning are poorly understood. The present study examined the nature of relationships among family factors, including primary caregivers' appraisals of stress (i.e., primary caregivers' injury/medical condition-related stress, parenting stress, psychological distress, and relationship quality) and the primary caregiver-child relationship, and neuropsychological outcomes (i.e., intellectual functioning; language skills; adaptive, socio-emotional, and behavioral functioning). A clinical sample of 72 preschool children …

A Comparison Of Intervention Approaches For Improving Literate Language Use By Children With Language Impairments, Kristina Morrey, Lichelle Slater, Kelsi Bailey

Browse All Undergraduate research

Westby (1985) has characterized language development in terms of an “oral-literature” continuum. Oral language resides at one end of this continuum while “literate language” resides at the other. Broadly defined, oral language acquisition has been characterized as the process by which children “learn to talk.” Literate language has been described as “talking to learn.” Literate language is used to monitor, reflect, reason, plan and predict and is more “scholarly” than oral language. Children who use literate tend to perform well in school (Wallach & Butler, 1994) and have diverse vocabularies that can be used to describe and elaborate on concepts …

System Transformation In The Context Of Building An Integrative System In The Child Welfare System In Allegheny County Through Child And Adolescent Needs And Strengths Assessment, Svetlana Doni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, the Allegheny County constituents could witness the transformation of a widely criticized system of divided services into a single Department of Human Services. As an attempt to improve service planning DHS moved to a common assessment (CANS Comprehensive) shared across the child-serving offices/systems that would lead to a shared service plan and an overall integrated service delivery process. The primary goal of the CANS is to support communication between systems and, in the end, help the integration process within DHS.

This study describes what CANS is and how it became a central point in Human Services …

(2010) Philosophical Dialogue With Children: Essays On Theory And Practice, David Kennedy

Collected Papers of David Kennedy

David Kennedy is the foremost expert of children’s philosophical experience and practice writing today. One of the factors that makes him so will be apparent to readers of this collection of essays: the insistent probing and the astonishing range of his scholarship, which encompasses philosophy of childhood, philosophy of education, developmental psychology, cultural studies, critical theory, philosophy of subjectivity, chaos and systems theory, epistemology, and metaphilosophy. The other factor, only hinted at in this book, is the thousands of hours that Kennedy has clocked on the rugs and in the small chairs of schools, pre-schools, churches and other children’s spaces …

Evidence-Based Strategies And Techniques For Children With Asd, Tanya Walerius

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

To identify and research evidence-based Autism Spectrum Disorder strategies and techniques for working with children, particularly children aged 6 –10 years old, who receive In-Home Skills Services. Most therapeutic services are received through the school systems (Shapiro & Accardo, 2008), but Counseling Services of Southern Minnesota (CSSM) provides In-Home Skills Services that requires the Children’s Therapeutic Services and Supports (CTSS) staff to be knowledgeable and competent in the services they provide to clients.

The purpose of this project was to provide CSSM with specific strategies and techniques through a manual to be used by the CTSS workers. The information will …

Natural High Prevention Platform: A Search-Based, Substance Abuse Prevention Program For Sundt Memorial Foundation, Jennifer Martin, Kay Costilow, Rose Baxter, Maureen Guarcello

Program Design and Evaluation

Research project for Sundt Memorial Foundation on Natural High Prevention Platform: a research-based, substance abuse prevention program.

Can Children Use Similarity Between Actions To Learn Grammar?, Fiona Anning

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The present study was a replication and extension of Casenhiser and Goldberg (2005). Children aged 5;0 to 7;6 were assigned to one of two training conditions, either they were only taught novel verbs in a novel construction paired with appearance scenes or they were additionally trained on novel verbs in the transitive construction. All participants were assessed on both word orders with new novel verbs using a forced-choice comprehension test. The children in both conditions performed significantly worse on the appearance items than the causative trials, which fails to replicate the original study. The translation post-test responses suggest that poor …

Acoustic And Spectral Patterns In Young Children's Stop Consonant Productions, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study was to examine the acoustic and spectral patterns of stop articulation in the speech of pre-pubescent children. A set of voiceless stop consonants, /ptk/, produced by a group of adults and typically developing children 3-5 years of age were examined in terms of multiple acoustic and spectral parameters. Findings indicated that, with the exception of spectral kurtosis, the acoustic and spectral characteristics of the stop productions varied significantly as a function of place of articulation and vowel context. Sex-specific differences in spectral slope, mean, and skewness were found for the 5-year-old and adult speakers. Such …

Development Of Psychometrically Equivalent Speech Audiometry Materials For Testing Children In Mongolian, Meghan Elizabeth Caldwell

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate Mongolian monosyllabic and bisyllabic child-appropriate words which can be used in the measurement of word recognition scores and speech-reception threshold (SRT) in children who are native speakers of Mongolian. Based on data collected from a survey of Mongolian child language professionals, a subset of child-appropriate materials was adapted from a set of materials developed for Mongolian adults. Two lists of 50 monosyllabic words and four half-lists of 25 words each were developed for testing the word recognition abilities of Mongolian children. The developed lists and half-lists were …

Phonemic Categorization Of Eight-To-Ten Year Old Children With An Articulation Disorder, Marjorie A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Phonemic categorization is the ability to discriminate and organize speech sounds into categories. This ability begins soon after birth and continues to refine as an individual matures. An association between categorical labeling and phonological awareness has been reported. A strong link between perception and production has been established. The present study examined phonemic categorization of two groups of four listeners. Eight-to ten-year-old children with an articulation disorder were compared with typically speaking peers to determine if the two groups differed in their ability to categorize speech sounds. Behavioral and electrophysiological measures were used to ascertain if any differences existed. These …

A Contrast Of Bilingual And Monolingual Children In Regards To Semantic And Syntactic Language Acquisition, Jessica Michelle Pfister

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Multiple language acquisition has only recently become a heavily researched and focused topic. Many questions have been left unanswered and furthermore, experts in the field are coming to contradicting results and conclusions. The presented thesis investigates the culmination of recent research in this newly developed field, as well as provides feedback from bilingual individuals on their experiences of being bilingual. Through analyzing current studies, the conclusion is made that bilingual children will follow a series of stages in their semantic and syntactic acquisition in which there is a bilingual disadvantage, followed by a bilingual advantage, and lastly a continuous stage …

Challenging Monohumanism: An Argument For Changing The Way We Think About Intercountry Adoption, Shani King

Michigan Journal of International Law

In Part I, this Article provides a brief history of ICA. In Part II, using a post-colonialist theoretical framework, the work of legal scholars from the past twenty years on the subject of ICA is explored. This analysis exposes the centrality of MonoHumanism to our discourse on ICA. In Part III, this Article illustrates how our discourse regarding intercountry adoption contributes to our violating the rights of children (and families) as they are defined in the CRC. Lastly, in Part IV, this Article explores how this argument fits into the current and somewhat polarized debate on ICA and how the …

Categorization Of Regional And Foreign Accent In 5-To 7-Year-Old British Children, Caroline Floccia, Joseph Butler, Frédérique Girard, Jeremy Goslin

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Empirical Development Of An Instructional Product And Its Impact On Mastery Of Geometry Concepts, Donaldson Williams

Dissertations

Problem

Relatively poor levels of mathematical thinking among American school children have been identified as a major issue over the past half century. Many efforts have been made to increase the mathematics performance of children in schools. Additionally, out-of-school-time programs have attempted to address this issue as well. Holistic development is one of the distinguishing features of Seventh-day Adventist instructional programs. Yet, as of 2007, the Pathfinder program, an informal educational program operated by the world-wide Seventh-day Adventist church, had no instructional product designed to foster participants’ cognitive development in mathematics. This study focused on the empirical development of an …

A Meta-Analytical Study Of Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: Symptomology And Comorbidity, April Walter

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A meta-analysis approach was employed to research the symptomatology andcomorbidity of pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD). This approach was chosen due to the wide range of previously published research results and the limited size of the populations investigated. Database searches of peer-reviewed empirical research identified 861 journal articles published on the topic of pediatric bipolar disorder over the last 49 years. Fifty-four articles, with a total subject pool of 10,318, met specific inclusion criteria, which included being a quantitative study using standardized mean difference, correlation coefficient, or odds-ratio statistics. Fifteen separate meta-analyses were used to determine specificity regarding: differences reported in …

An Analysis Of The Current United States And State Of Washington's Mental Health Policies Serving Children And Families, Maile M. Bay

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Due to continued fragmentation and gaps in mental health services and the increase in the prevalence of mental health problems for children, youth, and their families, these populations remain underserved. In 2003, the federal New Freedom Commission (Commission) responded by publishing policies to address these concerns. As directed in 2005, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded planning incentive grants to states to transform their delivery of care.

The study reviewed the federal policy, specifically the recommendations of the Commission’s Subcommittee on Children and Families, and Washington State’s policy and implementation actions of its five-year SAMHSA incentive …

Gender Differences In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Comorbid Psychopathology, Julie Hess

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract Children and adolescents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) frequently exhibit symptoms that are not associated with the core features of ASD. These symptoms may meet criteria for an additional diagnosis; however, accurate assessment of comorbid psychiatric conditions in ASD has been hindered by a lack of measures designed for this specific purpose. The newly constructed assessment measure, Autism Spectrum Disorders-Comorbid for Children (ASD-CC) has been developed specifically for examining comorbid psychiatric disorders in ASD. Therefore, this study set out to assess differences in the endorsement rates of psychiatric symptoms in children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD compared to …

Memory Functioning In Children With Reading Disabilities And/Or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Clinical Investigation Of Their Working Memory And Long-Term Memory Functioning., Michelle Y. Kibby, Morris J. Cohen

Publications

We examined memory functioning in children with reading disabilities (RD), Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and RD/ADHD using a clinic sample with a clinical instrument: the Children's Memory Scale, enhancing its generalizability. Participants included 23 children with RD, 30 with ADHD, 30 with RD/ADHD, and 30 controls. Children with RD presented with reduced verbal short-term memory (STM) but intact visual STM, central executive (CE), and long-term memory (LTM) functioning. Their deficit in STM appeared specific to tasks requiring phonetic coding of material. Children with ADHD displayed intact CE and LTM functioning but reduced visual-spatial STM, especially when off stimulant medication. Children …

Perceptual Differences In Quality Standards Among Teachers And Related Service Personnel Who Work With Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Maria L. Manning, Lyndal M. Bullock, Robert A. Gable

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Current legislation requires school personnel to identify indicators of quality instruction for all students—including students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD). While competency standards provide a measure of highly qualified teachers, questions remain whether or not there are inherent differences in what is expected by teachers and related service personnel within the classroom. Given present emphasis on inclusive education and, in light of a succession of reform initiatives it is time to reexamine perceived differences in level of relative importance attached to knowledge and skills statements based on standards established by the Council for Exceptional Children between teachers and related …

Educating The Whole Child: The Real Story Of Wholeness And Belonging, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Publications & Research

In her 2008 keynote address to the Massachusetts ASCD, Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall outlines why we--as leaders, storytellers and mapmakers--must ensure that the story, map, and landscape of schooling does not constrain our children’s potentials, silence their spirit, demean their passion, ridicule their dreams, or deny them access to wisely learn whatever it is that they want to know.

Acculturation And School Adapation Of Somali Bantu Refugee Children., Manbeena Sekhon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The number of refugees being uprooted from their homes to seek refuge and resettlement in countries like the United States continues to grow, with large numbers being children. While each refugee group has its own set of challenges when adjusting to a new country, a better understanding of their needs may help facilitate their transition more quickly with lesser challenges. This study investigated the adjustment of one such group--Somali Bantus in a Midwestern U.S. city. Specifically, acculturation and school adaptation of Somali Bantu refugee children was explored using the Differentiated Multidimensional Model of Acculturation. Somali Bantu refugee children in 5 …

Recognition Of Emotion In Facial Expressions By Children With Language Impairment, Dorthy A. Stott

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research has shown that children with language impairment (LI) have increased social difficulties. This study examined the relationship between language skills and emotion understanding through recognition of facial expressions of emotion in children with LI and their typically developing peers. It is a replication of the research of Spackman, Fujiki, Brinton, Nelson, and Allen (2005) and Atwood (2006). Participants consisted of 22 children with LI and 22 age- and gender-matched peers with typically developing language, from the age range of 7:0 to 10:11 years. They were shown photographs of faces conveying one of the following emotions: happiness, sadness …

Performance On Natural Dissemblance Tasks In 7-11 Year-Old, Language-Impaired And Typically Developing Children, Noel Quist

Theses and Dissertations

Studies over the past several years have shown that children with language impairment (LI) have greater difficulty in social situations than typically developing children. More specifically, studies have shown that children with LI have more difficulty with dissemblance. This study was conducted to assess whether these children are less likely to dissemble in real-life situations. Forty-four children aged 7 to 11 years (22 LI and 22 typically developing) were presented with four situations designed to elicit dissemblance. Their reactions were scored and compared. The results of this study showed subtle differences between children with LI and typically developing children. Children …

Event Related Potentials Of Syntactic Language Processing In Two Children With Specific Language Impairment: A Case Study, Melissa Ann Willes

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the electrophysiological activity of two children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and two aged-matched peers while listening to syntactically correct sentences versus syntactically incorrect sentences. The study specifically analyzed the N400 and P600 components. The N400 component is a negative wave occurring approximately 400 ms post-stimulus and is elicited by semantically incorrect stimuli. The P600 component is a positivity that occurs approximately 600 ms post-stimulus and reflects processing of syntactically incorrect stimuli. The participants in the study included a 7-year-old child and a 9-year-old child with SLI and two age-matched peers with typically developing language. Each participant …

Negotiating Home Language: Spanish Maintenance And Loss In Latino Families, Amy Lutz

Sociology - All Scholarship

Based on in-depth interviews and fieldwork in and around Dallas, Texas, this paper explores the ways in which Latino parents and their children negotiate home language and offers a theoretical framework for understanding language maintenance and loss in the home. The parents in this study overwhelmingly view bilingualism as the ideal, yet many parents, especially those who are English-dominant or bilingual, find it difficult to maintain Spanish at home because of outside pressures that prioritize English and concerns about their children's English-language acquisition. The family, as the environment in which children first begin to learn language, and family dynamics regarding …

Shared But Differentiated Responsibility: Integration International Obligations In Fight Against Trafficking In Human Beings, Anna Gekht

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.