Joint Reading between Black Head Start Children and Their Mothers

This study examined the behaviors of black Head Start children and their mothers around a series of experimental joint reading contexts in their homes. There were 2 specific objectives: (1) to examine the effects of text genre (narrative and expository) and text format (familiar and traditional) on mothers' teaching strategies while interacting with their children around reading tasks, and (2) to examine the effectiveness of mothers' teaching strategies in eliciting children's participation in the joint reading tasks. 13 mother-child dyads were videotaped in their homes while interacting around a series of texts in each genre and format. Results indicated that genre, not format, affected mothers' teaching strategies. Further, mothers adjusted their level of teaching to children's level of task competence. Results are discussed in terms of Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development.     

Preschool Children and iPads: Observations of Social Interactions During Digital Play

Research Findings: Digital play is now commonplace in many young children’s lives, but not in preschool settings. This situation is likely due to the fact that the existent literature seldom highlights what digital play looks like, the various ways it can be situated, and what young children do when they play together with digital devices in the preschool setting. The present study addresses this limitation by providing a close examination of the social interactions of young children as they engage with different types of iPad apps and each other. Observational data of 20 dyads of children during digital play analyzed qualitatively revealed that children exhibited a range of social behaviors from competitive to collaborative as they engaged in 4 types of digital play: practice/task, exploratory, construction, and pretense. Forms of play and exhibited behaviors were shaped by interrelated factors of children’s individual characteristics and relationships, classroom culture and routines, adult views and actions, as well as aspects of the digital device itself. Practice or Policy: Selecting open-design apps, attending to digital play structures, and monitoring peer play more closely may lessen competition, enhance collaboration, and lead to more complex digital play.     

From Interactions to Conversations: The Development of Joint Engagement During Early Childhood

This research traces the development of symbol‐infused joint engagement during mother–child interactions into the preschool years. Forty‐nine children, who had been previously observed as toddlers (L. B. Adamson, R. Bakeman, & D. F. Deckner, 2004 ), were systematically observed during interactions with their mothers at ages 3½, 4½, and 5½ during activities related to the past and future, internal states, and graphic systems. Although the amount of symbol‐infused joint engagement reached a ceiling by 3½, its focus continued to become more complex and its form more balanced. Individual differences in children's symbol‐infused joint engagement were stable across 4 years. These findings highlight both how joint engagement is transformed as conversational skills develop and how it remains rooted in earlier interactions and supported by caregiver's actions.     

Incorporating Emic Perspectives in Defining Social Competence: Validation of Parental Assessment of Peer Play Interactions at Home for Low-Income Chinese-Heritage Children

Early Childhood Education Journal - Despite the rapid growth of the Chinese immigrant population in the United States, little is known about the social behaviors of Chinese-heritage,...     

When Infants Look to Their Parents: I. Infants'' Social Referencing of Mothers Compared to Fathers

12-month-olds were seen with their mothers and fathers in a laboratory procedure designed to compare infants' solicitation of, emotional resonance to, and self-regulation on the basis of happy, fearful, and conflicting emotional signals from mothers versus fathers. Measures of positive and negative affect and affect lability; of look, approach, and proximity behavior; and of overall response pattern were obtained. Infants showed more positive and less negative affect and greater toy proximity with happy compared to fearful signals. Few differences emerged in infants' referencing response to mothers versus fathers. Infants looked more to mothers than fathers when no signals were given but did not differentiate between parents when only one was signaling or when both were signaling (conflict). In affective state and behavioral regulation, they were not differentially responsive to maternal versus paternal signals either when only one parent was signaling or when both were giving signals.     

Experiences and Support Needs of Mothers of Children with Food Allergy During the Transition to School

Despite the increasing attendance of children with food allergy in schools in Australia and globally, little is known about how affected families manage their children’s transition to school. This paper discusses the experiences and support needs of ten mothers during their child’s transition to school in Sydney, Australia, drawn from the thematic analysis of Photo Elicitation Interviews in homes. One of the significant findings of this study was that most mothers found their child’s transition to school both emotionally and practically challenging, even though their children previously attended a long day care or preschool setting. While the school’s pro-active transitional planning, procedures of food allergy management and psychological support provided to families facilitated a smooth start to school, a lack of these, together with poor or no communication and non-involvement of families in the management of children’s food allergy hindered it. Correspondingly, mothers highlighted the need for schools to keep children’s food allergy at the forefront of their transitional planning and support them holistically by pro-actively communicating, collaborating and involving families in the discussions about food allergy, empowering them with information on the school’s policies and procedures, and acknowledging their concerns of safety. Mothers considered these things to be essential. Additionally, mothers provided advice to other parents on how to achieve a positive start to school. The implications of this study’s findings for schools and families are discussed. Considering the small sample size and generalisability of the findings to other contexts and countries, further research is recommended both nationally and internationally.     

日常家庭生活中父母——儿童互动对儿童数学发展的影响

本研究观察并分析了两组4岁儿童在家庭日常生活中与父母的互动及所涉及的数的学习。组1儿童为书面数符号表征高分者，组2儿童为低分者。57对儿童-父母对子参加了研究。结果表明，本研究所观察到的儿童日常活动内容丰富多样；大概有三分之一的被试对子所从事的活动涉及到不同类型的阅读和数学学习活动，但这些活动大多由父母发起；儿童早期数学发展水平可能与家庭教育的如下因素有关：家庭日常生活中父母-儿童共同活动的内容与频次，高分组儿童的父母在家中可能更加注意发起或者更加成功地发起了阅读与数学学习活动；高分组父母在与儿童互动的某些策略的运用上可能更有利于儿童的数学学习；高分组的父亲在家中可能与孩子一起参与共同活动的时间更长；高分组父母之所以更加成功地发起了与阅读和数学学习有关的活动可能与儿童本身的因素有关。     

国内外城市化基本问题学术观点比较

介绍国内外学术界对城市化问题有关概念和城市化发展战略方面的一些观点。重点介绍了城市圈域经济     

中国留守儿童教育问题文献综述

伴随着我国现代化进程的加快,进城务工农民越来越多,随之而来的一些问题也暴露无遗。笔者的主要关注点是留守儿童教育问题。对学界近几年关于留守儿童教育问题的研究做了一下梳理,探讨了留守儿童教育问题、原因及对策,并做了一个简单评述。     

国内外儿童消极情绪的研究综述

消极情绪是反应个体主观紧张体验与不愉快投入的情绪维度,其作为情绪的一个重要部分,在个体的发展过程中起着重要的作用。儿童时期又是个体获得并发展消极情绪的理解和表达能力的重要时期,因此国内外学者十分关注对儿童的消极情绪进行研究。文章从国内外对消极情绪的研究中来了解儿童消极情绪的研究进展。     

Why We Blog: Homeschooling Mothers of Gifted Children

Blogs have become a go-to information resource for members of online communities. In this qualitative study we applied uses and gratifications theory (U&GT) to analyze the experiences and perceptions of four mothers of gifted children who maintain blogs about their homeschooling experiences. Data suggest that this novel context and population did not yield different categories of gratification; however, not all prior categories were represented among this relatively narrow sample. Results support findings from prior research in other contexts suggesting that bloggers find gratification from self-expression, social interaction, information exchange, maintaining community, and recording life events.     

Social and Emotional Competence in Children of Depressed Mothers

The relations between maternal unipolar major depression and children's self-concept, self-control, and peer relationships were studied in a middle-class, predominantly white sample of 96 families. Each family included a target child between the ages of 5 and 10. Depressed mothers varied on whether or not the child's father also had a psychiatric disorder. Well mothers all had spouses with no psychiatric disorders. Analyses controlled for marital status, age, and sex of child. Children completed measures of self-concept and peer relations skills; teachers completed measures of self-control and a rating of popularity with peers. Results supported the multiple risk factor model in that fathers' psychiatric status and parents' marital status explained much of the variability in children's social and emotional competence. Maternal depression alone, in the context of a well husband/father, was only related to children having been rated by their teachers as less popular. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms by which maternal depression may interact with paternal psychopathology and divorce in relation to children's social and emotional competence. The findings may further indicate that older children are more vulnerable to these multiple risk factors than younger children.     

Caring Behavior in Children of Clinically Depressed and Well Mothers

Young children's sensitivity and responsiveness to mothers' needs were investigated under conditions of high and low parenting risk (depressed and nondepressed mothers, SADS-L). Child characteristics of gender, affect, and impulse control problems and the mother-child attachment relationship were examined as they related to children's caring actions. Children's caring behavior was observed in an experimental situation in which their mothers simulated sadness and in a naturalistic setting. Attachment alone and child's problems alone were not predictors, and maternal diagnosis alone was not a strong predictor. Girls were significantly more caring than boys. Severe maternal depression was necessary to bring out high levels of responding in boys. Highest frequencies of caring were from children with severely depressed mothers, problems of affect regulation, and secure attachment. The importance of recognizing interacting influences and diverse underlying processes in the development of children's caring behavior is discussed.     

上海台商子女学校筹建情况综述

2006年9月22日,上海台商子女学校在闵行区华漕镇举行了隆重的新校舍启用典礼。该校的建成,为解决在沪台胞子女就读问题开辟了新的途径,它考虑到在沪台胞对其子女教育问题的特殊需求,充分体现了做好台湾人民尤其是身边台胞工作的基本精神。本文想就台商子女学校筹建情况作一综述。     

浅谈家园同步培养幼儿良好生活卫生习惯

幼儿良好行为习惯的培养应体现在幼儿生活的各个环节中,即可分为在园和在家两个时间段。所以,教师与家长都自然成为了幼儿良好行为习惯的榜样。如果家庭与幼儿园在培养幼儿良好的行为习惯上达成共识,家园同步,将能促进幼儿良好行为习惯的养成。     

Tiger Mothers and Praise Junkies: Children,Praise and the Reactive Attitudes

In this article, I look at some discussions of praising children in contemporary parenting advice. In exploring what is problematic about these discussions, I turn to some philosophical work on moral praise and blame which, I argue, indicates the need for a more nuanced response to questions about the significance of praise. A further analysis of the moral aspects of praise suggests a significant dimension of the parent‐child relationship that is missing from, and obscured by, the kind of parenting advice exemplified by the discussions of praise with which I began.