Early literacy and parental writing mediation in young children with and without ADHD

The study compared early literacy of Israeli children aged five to six years with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), contrasted parental writing mediation in the two groups and tested the relations between parents’ mediation characteristics and children’s early literacy skills. Each of 62 parent‐child dyads (32 with ADHD) was videotaped at home while writing words. Videotapes were transcribed and analysed for mediation (specific writing task measures, emotional measures typical of problem‐solving tasks, and general measures of interactions). Children’s early literacy (word writing, letter knowledge and phonological awareness) was assessed at home. Results showed that children with ADHD already exhibited lower literacy achievements at ages five to six compared to their peers without ADHD. Parents of children with ADHD scored lower than parents of children without ADHD on the writing‐specific, emotional and general mediation measures. In both groups, the specific writing mediation measures correlated significantly with children’s early literacy. More emotional mediation measures correlated significantly with children’s early literacy in the ADHD than in the non‐ADHD group. Discussion focused on parent‐child writing interactions as a context of early literacy development among young children with ADHD.     

Deaf children and children with ADHD in the inclusive classroom: working memory matters

This study compared the working memory functioning of deaf children, children with ADHD and typically developing children. Working memory is involved in the storage and mental manipulation of information during classroom learning activities that are crucial for the acquisition of complex skills and knowledge. Thus, it is important to determine how these groups compare in this regard as this has implications for teaching them together in an inclusive classroom. Simple and complex visuo-spatial and verbal working memory were assessed in 24 children with ADHD and 20 control children with no diagnosed ADHD, to determine whether any differences existed between these groups. A second comparison occurred between the simple and complex visuo-spatial working memory of the latter two groups, as well as 24 deaf children, all matched on age, gender and home language. The control group scored significantly higher than the deaf children and the children with ADHD on all components of simple and complex working memory. The implications of this finding are that children with ADHD and deaf children may share similar working memory profiles, making it easier to accommodate both sets of children together in the inclusive classroom. Suggestions are given for how educators could assist these children by reducing the demands on working memory.     

Educational television as mediated literacy environments for preschoolers

Research on children’s television suggests that preschool programs can facilitate literacy and language development. In 1998 Whitehurst and Lonigan described two interdependent sets of skills involved in literacy acquisition: ‘outside‐in’ or oral language skills and ‘inside‐out’ or code‐related skills. Outside‐in skills support children’s interpretation or understanding of print by placing written language into context through oral language. Inside‐out skills focus on those skills involved in the translation of print into sounds and sounds into print. This study describes the production techniques of Between the Lions that contributed to preschooler’s observed behaviors from the outside‐in and the inside‐out.     

注意力缺陷多动障碍超常儿童:特质、鉴别与干预

从特质、鉴别以及干预等方面综述了国内外注意力缺陷多动障碍超常儿童的研究进展.描述ADHD儿童与超常儿童共存的特质,对ADHD超常儿童与一般超常儿童和ADHD儿童进行比较;介绍智力测验、行为观察和创造力测验等多种鉴别方法,通过不同方法对多种能力进行评估可提高鉴别准确性;对ADHD超常儿童进行教育干预,既要通过药物和行为治疗,弥补其缺陷,更要设计合理的超常教育方案,促进其潜能的实现.     

ADHD as a classroom diagnosis. An exploratory study of teachers’ strategies for addressing ‘ADHD classroom behaviour’

ABSTRACT

This study scrutinizes strategies that teachers deploy when confronted by behaviour related to the diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Over two years, ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in two inclusive classrooms in Denmark, and all instances of teacher initiatives addressing ADHD-related classroom behaviour were recorded. Six basic strategies recurred across teachers and classrooms. To maintain the instructional flow with the rest of the students and not continually stop, the strategy of ignoring the disruptive conduct of a diagnosed child is often used. This strategy has not previously been explored in classroom research on ADHD. This is probably because previous research has primarily focused on the singular child and the singular teacher, thus leaving the whole-class interplay and complex orientations of teachers unexplored.     

Australian Play School: viewing and post-viewing behaviours in young children

Australian Play School is a children’s television programme developed in collaboration with early childhood educators. It is screened free to air across Australia. Two hundred and twenty-four adult carers of young children aged 1–8?years completed an online survey via a link on the Play School website. The survey addressed child behaviours during and after viewing, and adult perceptions about which programme segments were most engaging to the child. Play School elicited a large number and variety of behavioural responses from children during and after viewing. The types of responses elicited suggest that viewing the programme may be beneficial for children’s development and learning. Results were tempered by the age of the child and this, as well as the impact of carer attitudes and carer input during and after viewing, needs to be explored further before results are translated into recommendations for programming and optimal viewing strategies.     

Recognizing and Treating Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in College Students

Traditionally diagnosed in children, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is now regarded as a life span condition. The academic difficulties experienced by children and adolescents with ADHD have been observed to continue into young adulthood. Treatment outcome studies demonstrate that behavioral and pharmacotherapeutic interventions can be beneficial in improving ADHD symptoms such as inattention, and so facilitate academic performance in young adults with ADHD. This review discusses how ADHD leads to academic underperformance, the warning signs of undiagnosed ADHD, and the potential impact interventions can have on adult academic impairment.     

Family literacy as a third space between home and school: some case studies of practice

In this article, the relationship between literacy practices and spatiality is explored in the context of family literacy. The article draws on fieldwork in family literacy classrooms as part of two evaluations in Croydon and Derbyshire of family learning provision. Methods of evaluation included classroom observations in rural and suburban locations. In addition, teachers and parents were interviewed. In this instance, family learning included literacy and language activities with parents and children in school and nursery settings. These were learning spaces where parents and children collaborated on joint projects including book making, storytelling, the making of visual artefacts and reading and writing activities. The research revealed how family literacy classrooms could be understood as ‘third spaces’, between home and school, offering parents and children discursive opportunities drawing on both domains.     

Visualisation to support children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder learning to solve mathematical word problems: A randomised controlled trial

This randomised controlled trial experimental study compared the effectiveness of using two different types of visualisation – self-constructed visualisation (SCV) and passively received visualisation (PRV) – to help children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) solve mathematical word problems. While SCV refers to drawings that children create to help solve given word problems, PRV refers to pre-made images that accompany word problems. Twenty children with ADHD in Kuwait, aged nine to 11 years, were randomly assigned to either the SCV or PRV group, where they were taught to use either SCV or PRV to solve word problems across 20 daily one-to-one sessions. The results showed that regardless of the visualisation type, children's word problem-solving ability significantly improved. Children with ADHD should thus be encouraged to use visualisation to help make the word problem-solving process more accessible to them.     

The role of personal best (PB) goals in the achievement and behavioral engagement of students with ADHD and students without ADHD

In the context of competitive classroom settings and relativistic assessment schedules, some groups of students may particularly benefit from an emphasis on personal progress and personal growth approaches to their academic development. Building on recent promising results from general samples of high school students (undifferentiated by academically at-risk sub-groups within them) and dominant models of attention and executive functioning, the present study examines the potential of personal best (PB) goals for students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study focuses on N = 87 students with ADHD and N = 3374 non-ADHD peers from the same schools and year levels – in addition to a supplementary analysis of a randomly drawn non-ADHD sub-sample of N = 87 and a second supplementary analysis controlling for achievement. Multi-group multivariate path analyses demonstrated (a) significant and positive associations between PB goals and academic outcomes (achievement and behavioral engagement) for students with ADHD, (b) similar positive effects for non-ADHD students (N = 3374), (d) replicated results with the randomly drawn non-ADHD sub-sample (N = 87), (e) similar findings when controlling for achievement, and (f) absolute parameter estimates that trended larger for students with ADHD than non-ADHD students. These findings indicate that the positive role of PB goals may generalize across diverse student groups and that there appears to be merit in broadly promoting PB goals amongst ADHD (and, potentially, other academically at-risk students) and non-ADHD students alike.     

Medicus interruptus in the behaviour of children in disadvantaged contexts in Scotland

The medicalisation of the behaviour of children is a phenomenon that is attracting growing attention, with particular concern about the increased likelihood of children living in disadvantaged contexts receiving a medical diagnosis, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and treatment. This paper reports on a study of professionals involved with children experiencing behavioural problems. The professionals interviewed in this study articulated their own reservations about the medicalisation of children’s behaviour and revealed a number of strategies for interrupting the process towards diagnosis. These interruptions, analysed using Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of deterriorialisation, took place along linguistic, visual and affective planes and were successful in encouraging teachers and head teachers to see alternatives to the medical route. The findings have implications for existing practice in the response to, and support for, behavioural problems and for teacher education.     

Associations between abuse/neglect and ADHD from childhood to young adulthood: A prospective nationally-representative twin study

Child maltreatment has consistently been found to be associated with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the robustness of this association and the direction of the link between maltreatment and ADHD remain unclear. We used data from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a cohort of 2232 British twins, to investigate the associations between exposure to abuse/neglect and ADHD in childhood and in young adulthood, and to test their robustness and specificity. We also aimed to test longitudinal associations between abuse/neglect and ADHD from childhood to young adulthood, controlling for confounders. Results indicated strong associations between abuse/neglect and ADHD in childhood and also in young adulthood. In childhood, the association was concentrated among children with comorbid conduct disorder. Longitudinal analyses showed that childhood ADHD predicted abuse/neglect in later years. This association was again concentrated among individuals with comorbid conduct disorder. Abuse/neglect in childhood was not associated with later ADHD in young adulthood after adjusting for childhood ADHD. Our study does not provide support of a causal link between child abuse/neglect and adult ADHD but highlights the possibility of a long-term effect of disruptive behaviors on the risk for experiencing abuse/neglect. These findings emphasize the need for clinicians treating people with ADHD, especially those with comorbid conduct disorder, to be aware of their increased risk for experiencing abuse/neglect. Interventions aimed at reducing risks of abuse/neglect should also focus on the environment of individuals with disruptive behaviors.     

Ambivalent attitudes about teaching children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Drawing on attitude theories from social psychology, we conducted a survey of Australian pre-service (n = 327) and in-service (n = 127) teachers’ attitudes about teaching children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This paper reports a content analysis of beliefs, affect and behaviours towards teaching children with ADHD and quantitative analyses pertaining to attitudinal ambivalence – that is, where a teacher may simultaneously report negative and positive evaluations of teaching children with ADHD. While on average, overall or global attitudes were mildly positive for both cohorts, considerable ambivalence about teaching children with ADHD was commonly experienced. Participants reported ambivalent beliefs, affect and behaviours, as well as ambivalence between these attitude components. Paradoxically, participants who knew more about ADHD and held stronger positive global attitudes about teaching children with ADHD reported less ambivalent behaviours towards these children, but reported more ambivalent beliefs. The implications for teachers’ professional development and training are discussed.     

Energy literacy and agency of New Zealand children

The development of energy literacy (knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviour) and agency of New Zealand children (age 9–10) were investigated through thematic and exploratory statistical analyses of interviews (October 2011–April 2012) with 26 children, their parents and teachers, focus groups and photo elicitation. The children knew that electricity costs money and saw it as a finite resource. Half could name an energy source but few knew of any associated environmental issues. Most of the children had a positive attitude towards saving electricity, but did not intend to save energy to a further extent (low intended behaviour) and were not influencing their families to conserve energy (low agency). The children were learning about energy informally from a variety of sources, and acquired their attitudes mostly from talking to their parents. The results highlight the need for energy education for citizenship at school and conversations about energy both there and at home.     

Teachers’ beliefs about literacy practices for young children in early childhood education and care settings

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of early literacy beliefs held by early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers in Japan by developing a novel scale. We believed that overviewing ECEC teachers’ beliefs about early literacy from ecological perspectives would contribute to understanding the underlying factors influencing the quality of early literacy instruction and involvement in ECEC. To this end, 349 ECEC and 45 primary school teachers were asked to complete a two-part questionnaire dealing with (1) ECEC teachers’ literacy beliefs and (2) teachers’ general pedagogical beliefs. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three sub-categories of literacy belief – Direct instruction, Natural development, and Social interaction – and two sub-categories of general pedagogical belief – Adult-centred and Child-centred – and the relations between these sub-categories and background factors were then discussed. The results implied that considering the ecological perspectives of ECEC teachers affords a better understanding of effective practices to facilitate the early literacy experiences of young children in ECEC settings beyond differences in their educational tradition concerning early literacy. These perspectives include the influence of the educational tradition in each region, how ECEC teachers differ from primary school teachers, and the values shared by a particular ECEC facility.