Digital Technology Usage of Young Children: Screen Time and Families

Early Childhood Education Journal - This study aimed to explore the digital environments of 3–6-year-old children within the home setting. A total of 537 children aged...     

One Screen,Many Fingers: Young Children's Collaborative Literacy Play With Digital Puppetry Apps and Touchscreen Technologies

This article examines the digital literacy practices that emerge when young children play together with digital apps on touchscreen devices. Children's collaborative composing with a digital puppetry app on a touchscreen—with many hands all busy dragging, resizing, and animating puppet characters, and many voices making sound effects, narrating, directing, and objecting—appears aimless, chaotic, and in sharp contrast to the orderly matching activities in prevalent letter and word recognition apps that dominate early childhood educational software. The crowded collaboration around a single touchscreen looks messy but produces a complex text built with (a) touches, swipes, and other embodied actions that make up digital literacy practices; (b) sensory or multimodal layers of colorful images, dialogue, sound effects, and movement that make up animated stories; and (c) negotiation and pooling of children's individual story ideas for shared pretense that make up playful collaboration—all contained on a 9.7 inch screen.     

The Precursors of Reading Ability in Young Readers: Evidence From a Four-Year Longitudinal Study

We report a longitudinal study investigating the predictors of reading comprehension and word reading accuracy between the ages of 7 to 8 (UK Year 3) and 10 to 11 years (Year 6). We found that different skills predicted the development of each. Reading comprehension skill measured in Year 3 was a strong predictor of comprehension in Year 6; vocabulary and verbal IQ also made significant unique contributions to the prediction of comprehension ability across time. Three comprehension components (inference, comprehension monitoring, and knowledge and use of story structure) emerged as distinct predictors of reading comprehension in Year 6, even after the autoregressive effect of comprehension was controlled. For word reading accuracy, early measures of word reading accuracy and phonemic awareness predicted later performance.     

Family Structure,Family Instability,and Child Psychological Well-Being in the Context of Migration: Evidence From Sequence Analysis in China

This study conceptualizes parental migration as a dynamic family process that exposes children to parental absence and family instability. Using detailed migration histories, this study identifies the left-behind trajectories of rural Chinese children throughout childhood (age 1–12) and examines the impact on psychological well-being (N = 3,961). Results indicate heterogeneity in children’s experience of parental migration, which is characterized by both persistence (prolonged parental absence) and instability (repeated parental migration). A quarter of rural children experienced prolonged parental migration, and for half of these, by both parents. Another 50% of rural children experienced repeated parental migration. Children continuously left behind by both parents and children who experienced substantial family instability both fared worse in psychological development than those in stable two-parent families.     

Canine Visitors: The Influence of Therapy Dogs on Young Children's Learning and Well-Being in Classrooms and Hospitals

Trained therapy dogs are becoming an increasingly common sight in many educational and health care settings. This article, coauthored by a college professor, a Therapy Dogs International, Inc., Evaluator and local program director, and a registered nurse reviews the research on using registered therapy dogs as adjuncts in school programs and health care treatment plans for children ages 5–8. It addresses to the most commonly raised objections to allowing dogs in classrooms and patient rooms and offers practical guidelines for maximizing the positive outcomes of animal-assisted activities and therapy (AAA/T).     

Disentangling Robust Developmental Constraints From the Instructionally Mutable: Young Children's Epistemic Reasoning About a Study of Their Own Design

This study examines first graders' epistemic reasoning, in tacit “practical epistemologies” reflected in thinking about an investigation of their own design. I analyzed children's epistemic reasoning, following a design experiment scaffolding increasing regulation of scientific inquiry in a domain they studied in depth. Participants consisted of children in two first grade classes (n = 35). The study capitalizes on the final phase of the design experiment, wherein pairs assumed substantial responsibility for design and implementation of an investigation pursuing their own question. I conducted structured interviews with each pair, eliciting their thinking about their investigation. Forty-three percent of the children attributed uncertainty to their findings. Forty-nine percent transcended phenomenon-based reasoning in thinking about how to improve their study, reasoning instead in terms of relation between variables. Forty percent posited additional potentially influential variables, reflecting a tacit understanding of the lack of any straightforward one-to-one correspondence between cause and effect. These findings suggest that epistemic reasoning is plastic, sensitive to instructional opportunities. I argue that the children's relatively deep familiarity with the domain, experience in assuming increasing responsibility for structuring scientific inquiry, and investment they had in their own investigations contributed to the surprisingly robust epistemic reasoning they revealed in this context.     

The Development of Children's Prelife Reasoning: Evidence From Two Cultures

Two studies investigated children's reasoning about their mental and bodily states during the time prior to biological conception—“prelife.” By exploring prelife beliefs in 5‐ to 12‐year‐olds (N = 283) from two distinct cultures (urban Ecuadorians, rural indigenous Shuar), the studies aimed to uncover children's untutored intuitions about the essential features of persons. Results showed that with age, children judged fewer mental and bodily states to be functional during prelife. However, children from both cultures continued to privilege the functionality of certain mental states (i.e., emotions, desires) relative to bodily states (i.e., biological, psychobiological, perceptual states). Results converge with afterlife research and suggest that there is an unlearned cognitive tendency to view emotions and desires as the eternal core of personhood.     

Young Children's Interpretation of Multidigit Number Names: From Emerging Competence to Mastery

This study assessed whether a sample of two hundred seven 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds could interpret multidigit numerals using simple identification and comparison tasks. Contrary to the view that young children do not understand place value, even 3‐year‐olds demonstrated some competence on these tasks. Ceiling was reached by first grade. When training was provided, there were significant gains, suggesting that children can improve their partial understandings with input. Findings add to what is known about the processes of symbolic development and the incidental learning that occurs prior to schooling, as well as specifying more precisely what place value misconceptions remain as children enter the educational system.     

From External Regulation to Self-Regulation: Early Parenting Precursors of Young Children's Executive Functioning

In keeping with proposals emphasizing the role of early experience in infant brain development, this study investigated the prospective links between quality of parent–infant interactions and subsequent child executive functioning (EF), including working memory, impulse control, and set shifting. Maternal sensitivity, mind-mindedness and autonomy support were assessed when children were 12 to 15 months old ( N  =   80). Child EF was assessed at 18 and 26 months. All three parenting dimensions were found to relate to child EF. Autonomy support was the strongest predictor of EF at each age, independent of general cognitive ability and maternal education. These findings add to previous results on child stress-response systems in suggesting that parent–child relationships may play an important role in children's developing self-regulatory capacities.     

从理论到测量——幸福感心理结构研究发展

幸福感是研究人类良好存在的实证科学.幸福感理论模型是幸福感测量工具的基础与归宿,主观幸福感是幸福感研究的主流范式,侧重于快乐的体验层面,包括生活满意、积极情绪与消极情绪三个经典测量指标,另外两种幸福感研究思路,一是Ryff等提出的心理幸福感理论模型以及据此建构的多维心理幸福感问卷,其关注人的心理健康层面,包括自我接受、环境掌控、与他人的积极关系,生活目的、个人成长以及自主性六个维度;另外一种思路是Keyes的社会幸福感理论模型以及测量工具,包括社会认同、社会实现、社会贡献、社会和谐、社会整合5个维度,其更加关注个人在社会领域面临的种种挑战.在幸福感40年发展历程中,幸福感理论模型经历了三次大的转折:第一次是情绪幸福感与认知幸福感的融合,形成主观幸福感理论模型;第二次是主观幸福感与心理幸福感的融合,形成积极心理测量模型;第三次则是主观幸福感、心理幸福感与社会幸福感三者的融合,形成现代积极心理健康模型.因此,幸福感的理论与实证研究,应当从多个侧面入手,更加全面揭示幸福的内涵与实质,把幸福感心理学理论模型与心理计量模型结合起来,实现理论导向与数据导向的统一,切实保证测量的科学性、准确性、有效性.     

Young Children's Projective Abilities: what can a monster see?

Abstract A series of four tasks was presented to 3‐7 year‐old children in order to investigate their understanding of the way in which an obstruction restricts a person's view of an array. The results indicated that children's ability to predict another person's line of sight and field of view develops significantly during this period. The responses of most 4‐7 year‐olds in a nonverbal hiding game were consistent with their verbal judgments about what another person could see, but 3‐year‐olds’ responses in the hiding game were much more sophisticated than could be expected from their performance on the verbal tasks. The possibility is raised that satisfactory performance in hiding games may not always depend on a child's first working out what a seeker can see.     

年幼儿童的视频学习:研究与展望

视频资源已成为当代儿童生活中不可或缺的组成部分.研究表明,尽管年幼儿童通过视频进行了学习,但在年幼儿童,尤其是3岁前儿童的认知发展过程中,视频学习的作用可能并不明显.因此,理解年幼儿童视频学习的视角应当从对认知发展的关注转换到对社会性发展的关注上来,在年幼儿童社会化的过程中理解视频学习,揭示视频学习的社会性本质.视频资源不应是单纯的知识载体,而应当成为儿童的社会伙伴.考察视频环境中年幼儿童的学习,应在儿童、他人和视频构成的互动系统中,关注人际互动与人机互动的动态协调.强调视频学习的社会性本质,可以为年幼儿童学习理论的建设带来新思路,也可以为视频资源的教育应用及相关政策的制定提供依据,为视频节目的设计与制作带来新的启示.     

Between Desires and Beliefs: Young Children's Action Predictions

1 view of children's developing understanding of mind contends that children adopt a succession of naive psychological theories, moving from a desirefocused theory to a mature theory that attributes a greater role to beliefs. Between these, a transition theory, in which desires are primary but beliefs play an auxiliary role, is characteristic. Novel predictions arising from this view were tested in 2 experiments utilizing within participants designs. Preschool children ( N s = 20 and 24) were asked to predict the actions of story characters who believed a desired object to be in one of two containers (which were shown to actually contain the desired object, nothing, or a different object). In both experiments, children's predictions accorded with belief significantly more when objects of the type desired were in both containers than when containers held nothing or other sorts of objects, supporting a transition theory interpretation over competing interpretations.     

全国农村留守幼儿的状况、问题及对策

2005年全国1％人口抽样调查数据表明,在农村留守儿童总数中,0-5周岁幼儿的数量规模已达1585万人,占27．05％。全国农村留守幼儿在科学喂养、预防接种、亲子交流和学前教育机会等生存与发展方面存在诸多问题。然而,这些问题远未得到政府和社会应有的关注。要想解决这些问题,我国相关政府部门应该建立包括农村留守幼儿在内的农村留守儿童档案数据库和监测系统,完善农村卫生保健管理体系,建设农村家庭教育支持网络,大力发展农民工流出地和流入地的学前教育,开展针对留守幼儿的各种社会关爱活动。     

The Contribution of RAN Pause Time and Articulation Time to Reading Across Languages: Evidence From a More Representative Sample of Children

We examined the relationship between rapid automatized naming (RAN) components—articulation time and pause time—and reading fluency across languages varying in orthographic consistency. Three hundred forty-seven Grade 4 children (82 Chinese-speaking Taiwanese children, 90 English-speaking Canadian children, 90 Greek-speaking Cypriot children, and 85 Finnish-speaking children) were assessed on RAN (colors and digits) and reading fluency (word reading efficiency and text reading speed). The results showed that articulation time accounted for more unique variance in reading in the alphabetic orthographies than in Chinese, and pause time for more unique variance in reading in Chinese than in alphabetic orthographies. If automaticity in RAN is manifested with a higher contribution of articulation time to reading fluency than pause time and with a strong relationship between articulation time and pause time, then our findings suggest that automaticity in RAN is reached earlier in alphabetic orthographies than in Chinese.     

现代瑜珈对青年女性身心影响的研究

瑜珈是通过一种动态的体育锻炼和精神上的冥想练习达到身心的平衡,控制身体的感官和思想.现代瑜珈作为一个低强度的有氧运动,被广大青年女性健身减肥者所青睐.采取文献资料法、专家访谈法、测量法等研究方法进行分析,研究结果表明：练习瑜珈有助于促进青年女性的腰围和大腿及腹部围脂肪比例的减少,同时确保胸围和臀围不减少,灵活性、柔韧性相关指标均高于训练前（均P〈0.01）并有显著性差异,实验者的身体自尊基本情况在练习之前和之后通过方差分析结果没有呈现显著差异.     

Education,Welfare Reform and Psychological Well-Being: A Critical Psychology Perspective

There are established links between education and well-being, and between poverty and education. This article draws on interviews with parents of school-aged children impacted by a policy in the UK commonly referred to as the ‘bedroom tax’. A critical psychology perspective to education is put forward, acknowledging the complex interrelationships between psychological well-being, sociopolitical factors and education.     

Classroom-to-Home Connections: Young Children's Experiences With a Technology-Based Parent Involvement Tool

Research Findings: DVD classroom newsletters are one proposed technology tool to promote classroom-to-home connections. The present study explored the experiences of prekindergarten children from predominantly Spanish-speaking homes with bilingual (English and Spanish) DVD classroom newsletters. On average, parents reported that children watched each DVD nearly 3 times. Interviews with children and other sources, including parent logs, teacher logs, and a teacher focus group, also captured children's experiences. Findings indicate that children have overall positive experiences with watching DVD classroom newsletters at home. Practice or Policy: Overall the findings support the use of DVD newsletters in prekindergarten programs as a way to create an opportunity to empower children, strengthen their digital literacy, extend the learning environment, and provide opportunities for meaningful conversations in the classroom and home.     

大班幼儿对无字绘本细节的观察与解读

无字绘本中的细节有助于幼儿理解故事情节、享受阅读的乐趣。研究选取9名大班幼儿作为调查对象,以《灰袍奶奶和草莓盗贼》这一无字绘本为阅读材料,采用观察和访谈等方法对幼儿如何观察和解读该绘本的细节进行研究和统计分析。研究结果显示:幼儿观察的细节数量有差异,更易发现熟悉的细节;处于不同阅读阶段的幼儿,均可能善于发现细节;幼儿乐于发现细节,却鲜少理解细节的功能。根据这些特点,应进一步培养和提升幼儿解读、品味无字绘本细节的能力。