Child Psychology Commons^™

Reading Development In Adolescent First And Second Language English Learners: A Comparison Using Age Match Design, Vahidehsadat Shahidi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Fourteen Iranian-Canadian bilingual students were tested for language ability as well as cognitive and phonological processing skills in two languages: Farsi and English. They were compared to 30 Iranian monolingual chronological age matched students and 30 Canadian chronological age matched peers. Since there were not any standardized tests in Farsi, one of the aims of this study was to begin creating the language ability measures in Farsi, and to test their reliabilities. In general, from six developed and translated Farsi tasks, three of them were found to be reliable. It was found that bilingual students perform better on memory tasks, …

The Effects Of Implementing Restorative Justice In An In-School Suspension Program, Nikki Brown-Kersey

Dissertations

The purpose of the proposed study was to assess the effects of implementing an in-school suspension program with a Restorative Justice component on office referrals, suspensions and grade point averages. The combination of Restorative Justice and inschool suspension as an alternative to out-of-school suspension warrants empirical evaluation. According to recent research, neither Restorative Justice nor in-school suspension alone have enough empirical evidence to support their success and continued use in schools in isolation. The positive aspects of each combined may produce a more successful alternative to suspension. A group design procedure was used to assess if significant changes in the …

Using Environmental Sounds To Initiate Receptive Language Training For Children With Autism, Woan Tian Chow

Dissertations

A pre-test showed that three pre-school children with autism had difficulty learning to match spoken words to objects (receptive identification). Therefore, they were first taught to match environmental sounds to objects (e.g., to touch a tambourine, when they heard the sound of the tambourine) and then to match spoken words to other objects while continuing to match the mastered environmental sounds to the original objects.

For all three children, simply learning the environmental-sound/object matching did not facilitate learning spoken-word/object matching; however intermixing the training of spoken-word/object matching with the previously mastered environmentalsound/ object matching did result in the mastery of …

Evaluating The Effects Of Camera Perspective In Video Modelingfor Children With Autism: Point Of View Versus Scene Modeling, Courtney Cotter

Dissertations

Video modeling has been used effectively to teach a variety of skills to children with autism. This body of literature is characterized by a variety of procedural variations including the characteristics of the video model (e.g., self vs. other, adult vs. peer). Traditionally, most video models have been filmed using third person perspective (i.e., scene models), where the viewer is watching the actor perform in a scene. Recently, studies have successfully incorporated the use of first person perspective into video models (i.e., point of view models), where the view is directly from the actor's point of view. Currently, no studies …

Jamaican American Child Disciplinary Practices, Stephaney Carter

Dissertations

Little is known about child disciplinary practices in Jamaican American families. Literature on child discipline in Jamaica and other Caribbean nations has mainly focused on physical discipline, and no empirical studies have investigated the types of discipline used in the Jamaican American community. The purpose of this study was to describe current child disciplinary practices in Jamaican American families. A total of 311 primarily first-generation Jamaican American parents from New York City completed the 54-item Jamaican Child Discipline Survey, designed for this study, either online or in paper-pencil format. The main foci of the study included the use of child …

The Internalization Of Mathematics Stereotypes In Elementary School Children, Amanda Schell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigated mathematics-related gender stereotypes, internalization of these stereotypes in 2nd and 5th grade children, and whether there is a relationship between internalization and the underperformance of girls in mathematics. There is evidence that gender stereotype internalization occurs throughout elementary school with an increasing impact on girls’ mathematical competence and performance (e.g., Muzzatti & Agnoli, 2007). However, there has been no definite determination with respect to the point at which this process begins. Parents and teachers have displayed gender stereotypical beliefs concerning children as young as three years of age (Lee & Schell, under review). This factor can influence …

Summer Library Reading Programs And Literacy: An Assessment Of Children’S Reading Progress After Having Participated In A Summer Library Reading Program, Ashley Kristina Van Andel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examined the effects of a summer library reading program on children’s reading progress. Sixty-nine children in second to fifth grade, ages 7–11, completed reading ability measures at two points: before and after participating in the summer library reading program, for the duration of July and August. For this quasi-experimental design, the treatment group consisted of 16 children who participated in the program, while the control group included 53 classmates who did not participate. Results showed that those who participated in the summer library reading program scored higher than the control group only in reading comprehension and not other …

Effects Of Delayed Auditory Feedback On Young Infants’ Crying, Sarah M. Sanborn

Master's Theses

Neural control of newborn crying has typically been considered to originate primarily in the lower brain centers, although support for this assumption is limited. To address this, the present study manipulated newborn infants’ perceptual experience during a cry bout through use of delayed auditory feedback (DAF). Atypical cry productions during DAF would suggest that newborn crying is under higher levels of cortical control than previously assumed. Infants’ spontaneous crying was recorded for 2 minutes at 4 weeks of age (n=16) and again at 8 weeks of age (n=17) using an ABA design, alternating synchronous feedback with DAF. Standard repeated-measures 2 …

Effects Of Embodiment On Perceptual And Affective Responses To Infant Crying, Jennifer B. Bisson

Master's Theses

Three experiments were conducted to investigate how changes in bodily states might be related to perceptions of infant vocalizations. In Study 1, participants were asked to hold a pencil between their lips, mimicking a smile, while listening to infant crying. Although there were no embodied effects for perceptual ratings, results indicated that this manipulation decreased participants’ self-reported, negative affect. In Study 2, participants were played both infant crying and birdsong while exposed to similar embodied manipulations, including activation of muscles related to approach and withdrawal behavior. There were no embodied effects for ratings of crying or for affect. Comparing Study …

Like Mother Like Child: An Investigation Of Mother Characteristics And Child Temperaments, Tempus Fugitt

Statistics

Much research has gone into what biological and social factors raise the risk of children developing cognitive, social, or behavioral problems. This project looks at what characteristics of the mother are significantly associated with different temperaments in the child which may predict problems developed in the child later in life. These characteristics include mother’s age, her education level, household income, parenting attitudes, involvement with the child, and drug and alcohol use. Data was used from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study conducted by the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Cumulative logistic regression was used to analyze the …

Developmental Bibliotherapy In Practice: A Study Of Bibliotherapy Effects On Kindergarten Behavior, Courtney Hawley

Graduate Theses

Bibliotherapy is the use of books and other print media for the purpose of instructing the audience about a certain topic. Developmental bibliotherapy is a form of bibliotherapy in which a teacher or other facilitator presents a book to a group in order to help instruct a desired behavior. This study was conducted to determine the effects of developmental bibliotherapy instruction over the course of a six weeks time period in the Kindergarten classroom. I wanted to determine the effectiveness of the bibliotherapy program as it related to teaching problem solving behaviors for a small group of students. The students …

Educators' Attitudes Toward Outdoor Classrooms And The Cognitive Benefits In Children, Carlie Speedlin

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at a K-5 elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraksa. This school is Saratoga Elementary School and is a United States Title I Distinguished School1 under No Child Left Behind. It has a population of 266 students, with 47% being minority, 1% gifted, and 28% special education (LPS School Profile Brochure). 80% of the student population is eligible for free/reduced meals, implying that it’s a school with a lower socioeconomic status. At this school a garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented for this case study. The club had been running since …

Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire: Trauma In The Lives Of Homeless Youth Prior To And During Homelessness, John Coates, Sue Mckenzie-Mohr

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Anecdotal evidence from those who work with homeless youth indicates that trauma permeates these young people's lives. This paper presents the findings from a study of 100 homeless youth regarding the presence of trauma in their lives, both before and during homelessness. Participants living in the Maritime Provinces volunteered to take part in a semi-structured interview lasting one to two hours. The interview questionnaire was conducted by a trained interviewer, and was composed of standardized and adapted survey instruments, as well as questions regarding demographics, experiences prior to becoming homeless, assistance received while dealing with stressors, and current needs. The …

The Economics Of Being Young And Poor: How Homeless Youth Survive In Neo-Liberal Times, Jeff Karabanow, Jean Hughes, Jann Ticknor, Sean Kidd, Dorothy Patterson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Based upon in-depth interviews with 34 youth in Halifax and seven service providers in St. John's, Montreal, Hamilton, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary, the findings of this study suggest that labor occurs within a particular street context and street culture. Formal and informal work can be inter-related, and despite the hardships they experience, young people who are homeless or who are at-risk of homelessness can respond to their circumstances with ingenuity, resilience and hope. Often street-involved and homeless young people are straddling formal and informal work economies while mediating layers of external and internal motivations and tensions. The reality is that …

Examining The Effectiveness And Efficiency Of Two Delivery Models To Teach Children Abduction Prevention Skills, Kimberly E. Seckinger-Bancroft

Dissertations

Nearly all children receive abduction prevention training. Most traditional education programs increase the learner's knowledge, but often fail to produce concomitant behavior change. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is a multicomponent, behavior-based training strategy with empirical support demonstrating its effectiveness in teaching children safety skills, behavioral generalization and maintenance over time. BST, however, is restricted by financial, human and time costs and limited resources to implement the training protocol. These factors likely limit widespread adoption of the training model. This study examined the use of computer-based instruction that emphasized active responding and mastery level performance requirements to teach school-aged children abduction …

Scaling Up: Professional Development To Serve Young Children In Chinese Welfare Institutions, Carolyn P. Edwards, Janice N. Cotton, Wen Zhao, Jerònia Muntaner-Gelabert

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

As senior program directors and field supervisors, we at Half the Sky Foundation asked ourselves, how can we empower children's welfare institution staff to provide nurture, enrichment, and education for all young children in state care? Creating an infrastructure for providing professional development was the first step. The HTS training infrastructure for early childhood includes international experts and a cadre of skilled Chinese teacher trainers, who together create a network of HTS teacher trainers (program directors and field supervisors for Infant Nurture and Little Sisters). In addition, Blue Sky model training centers-soon to number 31, one for each province of …

Long-Term Outcomes For The Promoting Care Suicide Prevention Program, Carole Hooven, Jerald R. Herting, Karen A. Snedker

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Objectives : To provide a long-term look at suicide risk from adolescence to young adulthood for former participants in Promoting CARE, an indicated suicide prevention program. Methods : Five hundred ninety-three suicide-vulnerable high school youth were involved in a long-term follow-up study. Latent class growth models identify patterns of change in suicide risk over this period. Results : Three distinct trajectories are determined, all showing a maintenance of decreased suicide risk from postintervention in adolescence into young adulthood for direct suicide-risk behaviors, depression and anger. Intervention conditions as well as key risk/protective factors are identified that predict to the long-term …

Contemporary Children’S Literature Recommendations For Working With Preadolescent Children Of Divorce, P. S. Mcmillen, Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson

Library Faculty Research

Bibliotherapy, defined most basically, is helping with books (Hynes & Hynes-Berry, 1994). Derived from the Greek words meaning book and therapy, bibliotherapy goals fall usefully into two categories. Clinical bibliotherapy, using books to facilitate specified therapeutic goals with those experiencing significant emotional or behavioral problems, involves trained health and mental health professionals such as psychologists, counselors, psychiatric nurses, or social workers. Developmental bibliotherapy, using books to address situational, transitional, and normal developmental issues, can be implemented by others, like educators or librarians, who work in helping roles. Books provide solace, reassurance, and even escape; they also provide new ideas for …

The Uneven Distribution Of Social Suffering: Documenting The Social Health Consequences Of Neo-Liberal Social Policy On Marginalized Youth, Michelle Fine, Brett G. Stoudt, Maddy Fox, Maybelline Santos

Publications and Research

In 2009, British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett published "The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Strong", in which they argue that severely unequal societies produce high rates of ‘social pain”: adverse outcomes including school drop out, teen pregnancy, mental health problems, lack of social trust, high mortality rates, violence and crime, low social participation. Their volume challenges the belief that the extent of poverty in a community predicts negative outcomes. They assert instead that the size of the inequality gap defines the material and psychological contours of the chasm between the wealthiest and the most impoverished, enabling …

The Death Experience: Helping Parents Understand Childhood Grief, Naomi Weeks, Kimber Peart

All Current Publications

Children sometimes experience the loss of someone they love or are close to, or may be suffering from a life-threatening illness themselves. This fact sheet provides a brief insight into how to help children cope with death.