New Lunchbox, Old Feelings: What Kids Bring to School

Research on the transition to school has shown successful adjustment to be characterized by a high degree of effort, initiative, and positive interaction with peers and adults. These behaviors often have their root in the earliest transactions between infant and caregiver, particularly the infant's experience of having his/her cues and signals responded to in a consistent, sensitive way and the secure attachment which develops from such care. Through experiences with caregivers in the first year of life children begin to develop “working models” of others and self, models which influence how that child behaves at later ages, and which in turn influence how others respond to that child. Children who are deprived of the opportunity to develop a secure attachment often fail to develop the initiative and social skills which would facilitate their transition to school. Teachers' low expectations and negative responses to the child in the first years of school may perpetuate the child's negative working models and decrease the child's chances for subsequent school success. The challenge to us is to contradict the negative working models many children bring to school. This implies l) considering the meaning of the child's behavior within the context of his/her relationship history and current life experiences, 2) consistently and persistently caring for a child even in the face of apparent rejection of our efforts, 3) looking for opportunities to reframe how we and others perceive the child, and 4) being alert to subtle ways in which we and others may be perpetuating negative working models held by both the child and his/her parents.     

Treatment integrity and acceptability with families: A case study of a child with school refusal

This article describes a graduated re-entry behavioral intervention implemented over an eight week period to treat a child with school refusal who would run away from school if taken there against his will. A multi-method evaluation procedure was used. Baseline data were collected over a five day period documenting school attendance and running away behaviors. In addition, a comprehensive psychological test battery was administered to the child, and clinical interviews conducted with the child's parents and teacher were used to develop the most appropriate treatment program. Based on these data, an initial graduated exposure to school combined with positive reinforcement for staying in school was chosen. As the intervention proceeded the greatest concern became the need to minimize the reinforcing impact of the child's mother on the child's school refusal. The intervention was eventually changed to a rapid exposure to school. By the third week of the intervention, the child was attending school all day for five consecutive days. He maintained this attendance record for the remainder of the treatment program. Follow-up data collected at bi-weekly intervals for a seven month time period until the end of the school year and follow-up for the first two months of the next school year showed stable and continued efficacy of the intervention, with no reoccurrence of refusal to attend or remain at school once he had arrived. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Intergenerational effects of war trauma among Palestinian families mediated via psychological maltreatment

We tested the hypothesis that intergenerational effects of parents’ war trauma on offspring's attachment and mental health are mediated by psychological maltreatment. Two hundred and forty children and their parents were sampled from a war-prone area, Gaza, Palestine. The parents reported the number and type of traumatic experiences of war they had had during their lifetime before the child's birth and during a current war when the child was 10–12 years old. The children reported their war traumas, experiences of psychological maltreatment, attachment security, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSS), depression, and aggression. The direct and indirect intergenerational effects of war trauma were tested in structural equation models. The hypotheses were confirmed for father's past war exposure, and disconfirmed for mother's war exposure. The father's past war trauma had a negative association with attachment security and positive association with the child's mental health problems mediated by increased psychological maltreatment. In contrast, the mother's past war trauma had a negative association with the child's depression via decreased psychological maltreatment. The mother's current war trauma had a negative association with the child's depression and aggression via decreased psychological maltreatment. Among fathers, past war exposure should be considered as a risk factor for psychological maltreatment of children and the associated attachment insecurity and mental health problems. Among mothers, war exposure as such could be given less clinical attention than PTSS in the prevention of psychological maltreatment of children.     

Experiments in Moral Education at College Level

Abstract:

An attempt is made to distinguish four stages in the development of empathy during the pre‐school years. The method adopted is to examine four popular books frequently read to children throughout this age span and to show briefly how each contributes to the development of children's empathy by illustrating in a progressively more complex way situations which correspond to the child's own experience. It is assumed that the child's identification with the heroes of these books will both draw upon his present capacity for empathy and develop it further.     

Putting the child first how one student teacher negotiated the moral landscape of teaching

Abstract

One student teacher's moral development process is uncovered, using a case study approach to capture the participant's internal processes and the constructed social context. The participant was in the first eight‐week placement of her semester‐long student teaching assignment, a kindergarten classroom in a rural public elementary school with a diverse student body. The participant believed that her professional moral responsibility was to “put the child first.” She believed this included protecting the child's dignity and autonomy, creating a close classroom community, establishing trust between teacher and child, fostering productive communication among all adults in the child's life, and safeguarding the child's health and safety. The participant maintained these priorities in her daily teaching practice and used them in her decision‐making process. However, the decisions that she was required to make during her early weeks of student teaching led to a modified understanding of her values. Democratic discourse and professional autonomy were associated with the process of moral development in this case. Theoretical and practical implications are described.     

Adolescents' attachment and coping with stress

This study examined how high school students cope with stress as a function of their attachment style. Data were gathered from 75 adolescent–parent pairs in Texas and included measures of attachment, coping style, life stress, and whom the respondent would turn to in times of stress. Adolescents' attachment security was positively related to family communication and negatively related to negative avoidance behaviors such as drinking or using drugs. Attachment insecurity was positively related to negative avoidance. Parent and child attachment ratings were related for secure and preoccupied but not fearful or dismissing styles. Research limitations and implications for school psychologists are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 391–402, 2004.     

Early Relationship Quality From Home to School: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this investigation was to examine the role of social relationships in the home as predictors of social functioning in the first years of school. Longitudinal data gathered on 156 children from urban, low-income families were used to examine the unique contributions of mother-child attachment classification at ages 1 and 2 years, the child's relationship with another adult caregiver, the child's closeness to a sibling, and the child's status in the family relative to siblings between ages 3 and 4 years, to teacher reports of their own relationship to the child and the child's social skills in the classroom and peer relations. The role of family-based relationships as possible protective factors for children at social or demographic risk for problems in school was also tested. Results indicate that quality of different family relationships provides relatively independent and complementary information about early social functioning in school, with more limited evidence for compensatory or protective processes at work.     

Towards social competence in verbal children with special needs‐The parent's dilemma

Abstract

This paper considers the universal human need to link with others through shared social experience. It discusses theoretical and practical issues involved when a young person, although articulate, is not skilful at perceiving feedback in social interactions, and the ongoing dilemma for parents trying to foster social independence. The nature of reciprocity is discussed in relation to play. From a contextual approach it is suggested that the early childhood sequence of play skills may be relevant to learning “self‐inclusion” at later developmental stages.

It is within the intimacy of the immediate family setting that the infant first learns how to gain a response from its mother, father, and other caregivers. The research of John Bowlby (1982) and Mary Ainsworth (1974) has given us insight into how attachment proceeds, from the neonate's early non‐discriminating responses, to somewhere between six to eight months, when the child shows an obvious preference for one person, often the mother.

Babies come equipped with reflexes designed to elicit nurturing behaviour from their parents and these interactions quickly become mutually‐reinforcing social patterns. With the cognitive attainment of “object permanence” as described by Piaget (1958), the growing child begins to understand that mother does indeed exist, even when out of sight, and will return. Once the infant is mobile we can tell when attachment has developed by the child's proximity seeking, and by protest behaviour, such as crying, upon separation. In Ainsworth's theory it is from a secure emotional base that the infant is able to investigate its environment, and it is to this secure parental haven that the child returns after exploratory risk‐taking, both social and physical. Though developmental milestones may be delayed in special needs children, there is no reason to suppose that the attachment process involved is qualitatively different.     

Children with Behavioural and Emotional Difficulties: Complex Children,Complex Training for Teachers

This paper consists of two parents’ accounts of their experiences of having children with AD/HD. The article is divided into three distinct sections. In the first section the mother of ‘Simon’ describes her experience of bringing up a child who, from early infancy, presented challenging behaviour. She describes the effect of this on her family and her self esteem as a parent. She goes on to give an account of the process by which ‘Simon’ came to be diagnosed as having AD/HD and the effects of the ensuing treatment programme. In the second section the same writer describes the impact of her experience on her relationships with the extended family. The third section of the paper is provided by a second writer, who is also the mother of a child with AD/HD. This section focuses on the difficulties she experienced in dealing with her child's educational needs and the conflicts which arose between her and staff in her child's school.     

Power Struggle,Submission and Partnership: Agency Constructions of Mothers of Children with ADHD Diagnosis in Their Narrated School Involvement

The contemporary education paradigm highlights the interdependency of home and school expertise. This discourse analysis study examines the narrated agentive possibilities of 18 Finnish mothers of children diagnosed with ADHD to influence and be involved in their child's schooling. Mothers' strong involvement endeavor is premised on their expertise concerning ADHD, distrust of teachers' adequate knowledge of and attitude towards their child, and anxiety for their child's wellbeing. However, our analysis reveals a gap between the mothers' narrated potential agency to fight for her child's well-being and their actual capability to be involved as intended, due to unequal institutional power relations between home and school. Educational responsibility, and the promise of recognition the diagnosis holds in educational social practices are discussed.     

Pedagogical Thinking in a Student's Mind: A conceptual clarification on the basis of self‐determination and volition theories

This article suggests that educational psychology should pay more attention to the role of the curriculum when the optimal motivation to learn in school is considered. The curriculum frames the teaching‐studying‐learning process in school. This fact has several implications on the motivation to learn in school. After the child starts school, his or her motivation to learn seems to change from an intrinsic motivation to an extrinsic motivation. To develop pedagogical thinking in a student's mind means that the student must become acquainted with the aims and goals of the curriculum, assimilate them into his or her integrated sense of self and, thus, fully accept them as their own. If this succeeds, it will have positive effects on the student's motivation at school and especially on the motivation to study and learn. The concept of pedagogical thinking in a student's mind is analogous to the concept of teacher's pedagogical thinking. Based on previous studies, this article provides an example of how joint‐planning can offer a learning environment that promotes students' pedagogical thinking and the internalisation of the aims and goals of the curriculum in school. This article calls for new theoretical syntheses and research programmes that better take into account the normative nature of learning and teaching in school.     

Gender differences in factors associated with how parents communicate with school in Korea

The authors explored different factors that were associated with mothers' and fathers' choice between two forms of parent–school communication: school briefing sessions and parent–teacher conferences. A total of 585 parents—295 mothers and 290 fathers from different households—who had at least one child enrolled in middle school in Korea were surveyed. Analytic results indicated that there were gender differences in how mothers and fathers were motivated to communicate with school. More educated and affluent mothers who positively assessed their child's academic achievement but were less confident in the child's ability and dissatisfied with the school-provided information were more likely to communicate with the school, whereas fathers were influenced by the employment status of their wives and communication with the child. Perception of positive child–teacher relationship predicted both mothers' and fathers' engagement in communication. Based on the findings, the authors discuss ways to promote parental involvement in communication with school.     

The Relationship Between Security of Attachment and the Development of a Personal Premise System of Relationships and Expectations for Peer Interaction

Block (1984) postulated that children develop a personal premise system concerning the nature of relationships from the kind of responsiveness, balance, and control they experience when interacting with the caregiver and the caregiver's degree of accessibility during caregiver–child interactions. Block's theory was used in this review to discuss how children's personal premise systems or models of relationships develop through the process of attachment to the caregiver, and how, as children establish more extensive social relationships, this premise system becomes a more generalized model of self and others which shapes all interactions with others including peer relationships during early and middle childhood. The review also suggests continuity in the organization of behavior, for just as the nature of the early personal premise system is shaped by caregiver responsiveness, control, consistency, and availability, so the quality of ties youngsters form with their peers seems also to be shaped by the tone of children's responsiveness to peers, the degree and kind of control youngsters exert in peer interactions, the consistency of behaviors with peers, and children's emotional and physical availability to peers.     

Partners in Loving the Children: Roles and Relationships in Teaching and in Parenting

The author describes how her perspectives as a teacher educator and as a parent were extended and enriched as her daughter entered school and learned to read. She highlights the importance of prioritizing love in her engagement with her child's teachers and in her professional thinking and actions as a teacher educator.     

From Early Relationships to Preacademic Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Developmental Cascade to School Readiness

This study aimed to test a four-wave sequential mediation model linking mother–child attachment to children's school readiness through child executive functioning (EF) and prosociality in toddlerhood and the preschool years. Mother–child attachment security was assessed when children (N = 255) were aged 15 months and 2 years, child EF at age 2, prosocial behavior at age 4, and finally cognitive school readiness in kindergarten (age 6). The results revealed three indirect pathways linking attachment to school readiness: one through EF only, one through prosocial behavior only, and a last pathway involving both EF and prosocial behavior serially. These findings suggest that secure attachment may equip children with both cognitive and social skills that are instrumental to their preparedness for school.     

Do parents' own school memories contribute to their satisfaction with their child's school?

In the present study a group of parents with a child in preschool were asked to give evaluative recollections of their own primary school and then to indicate the level of their satisfaction with the functioning of their child's school repeatedly in the course of the child's compulsory education. Across the follow‐up, the parents with positive recollections showed more satisfaction than those with negative recollections did. Over the years, the level of satisfaction decreased in all other groups but the fathers with positive recollections. Parents' recollections may be seen as an experience‐based component of their attitudes towards education.     

Investigating the social engagement of children with autism in mainstream schools for the purpose of identifying learning targets

The social needs of children with autism are complex, and their inclusion in mainstream schools necessitates a consideration of the nature of a child's participation in peer culture and how it is received by others. The case study reported here sought to investigate the social engagement of a child with autism and his peers using naturalistic methods to provide contextualised and detailed information. A comparative approach was used to study different social contexts: the wider class group, the peer group which included the child with autism, and the individual participation of the child with autism compared with this smaller group. Findings indicate that the child with autism demonstrated a number of competencies in relation to his own social group and that social difficulties were not necessarily seen as a weakness within the peer culture. The importance of careful analysis of social processes and the use of reflective assessment to autism education is highlighted.     

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Most research into religious education has concentrated upon older children, but this paper reports findings obtained from the teachers of junior (seven to II years old) school children. From the content of religious education lessons and the overall religious sub‐cultures of classroom and school, conclusions are drawn about the religious socialization process of the child. A distinction is made between the child's own religious quest for meaning and the Christian culture which is generally accepted in Britain and taught in school. The child's religion is divided into the cognitive and the emotive while the socialization process is treated as cognitive, explicit and implicit. The general conclusion reached is that religious education lessons do not respond to the child's own cognitive level and are thus likely to confuse, whereas the religious life of classroom and school leads to an emotive affinity with Christianity. Thus ambivalence towards the Christian religion is produced in the child.     

Prediction of School Enrolment of Children with Intellectual Disabilities in Kenya: The role of parents' expectations,beliefs, and education

The purpose of this study was to develop a logistic regression model for the prediction of school enrolment of Kenyan children with intellectual disabilities. The initial set of predictors included three demographic variables (child's gender, child's level of intellectual disability, and parents' level of education) and six factors of parents' expectations and beliefs about future outcomes and education of children with intellectual disabilities. Previous research implicated some of these concepts in school enrolment of children with disabilities in African countries without providing a particular prediction model. The hypothesised factor structure of the instrument developed in this study was tested by using a confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis. A stepwise logistic regression was conducted with the initial model including all nine predictors of school enrolment of children with intellectual disabilities in Kenya. Significant predictors in the final logistic regression model were (a) parents' expectations about social acceptance of the child, (b) parents' bias against educating children with intellectual disabilities, (c) parents' beliefs about a segregated school option, (d) parents' beliefs about the appropriateness of the child's school education, and (e) parents' level of education.