Young mothers' communication about death with their children

Young mothers' death-communication style and content patterns were determined by use of a simulation device in which a child's recorded voice posed questions or expressed reactions to a death situation. Eight different situations were constructed, depicting two each of four common reactions of children to a type of death occurrence (fear, curiosity, anger, fantasy/denial). Interviews were conducted with 100 mothers of young children who also responded spontaneously to each of the eight situations just as they might respond to their own children. Judges were able to place the women's recorded responses into both content and style categories. Content patterns were inconsistent; style (relationship) classifications appeared to be most consistent, with subjects falling into four predetermined style patterns (open-warm, open-cool, closed-warm, closed-cool) and one mixed category. Parents' reaction differences appeared only in the more ego-involving situations in which the child displayed some emotions, whereas a majority of mothers responded similarly to the "developmental curiosity" of the child. Background and personality factors relating to communication styles were investigated; factors labeled "commitment to education" and "resistance to emotional discussion" discriminated most clearly among the five style groups. combined groups (open versus closed, warm versus cool) also revealed significant differences. Implications for parent education and for further research are discussed.     

Incarcerated mothers' perceptions and interpretations of their fatally maltreated children

Fatally maltreated children are an elusive component in the complex interaction that has led to their premature deaths. Retrospective research with women imprisoned for fatal child maltreatment indicated recurring themes of maternal interpretations of their children as rejecting and developmentally abnormal, either advanced or delayed. Separations and difficulties during reunions were critical. The fatality was not a one-time event, but the exit point of a recurrent cycle of abusive interaction.     

Israeli mothers' expectations from early intervention with their preschool deaf children

Family-oriented early intervention programs have become a common practice in deaf education and intervention. This trend requires the extensive investigation of parents' expectations about programs and professionals in order to enhance the efficacy of parent-professional collaboration. The goal of this study was to closely examine the expectations of mothers whose children were already enrolled i a comprehensive early intervention program for deaf children and their families. Three means of data collection were utilized: two open-ended written questions, an individual oral interview with the mother, and a set of formal questionnaires on various maternal, family, and child characteristics. A heterogeneous sample of 50 mothers of 2- to 5-year-old deaf children in Israel participated in the study. A wealth of maternal expectations emerged from this qualitative methodology, underscoring mothers' impressive knowledge and awareness, as well as individual differences. Through cluster analysis, the mothers were sorted into four distinct groups, yielding interesting patterns of expectations for programs and processionals.     

Word learning in children: an examination of fast mapping

Children may be able to gain at least partial information about the meaning of a word from how it is used in a sentence, what words it is contrasted with, as well as other factors. This strategy, known as fast mapping, may allow the child to quickly hypothesize about the meaning of a word. It is not yet known whether this strategy is available to children in semantic domains other than color. In the first study, 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds were introduced to a novel color, shape, or texture word by contrasting the new term with a well-known word from that domain. They were then tested for their ability to produce and comprehend the new term and for whether they knew what semantic domain the word referred to. The results show that even 2-year-old children can quickly narrow down the meaning of a word in each of the semantic domains examined, although children learned more about shape terms than color or texture words. A second study explored the effects of several variables on children's ability to infer the meaning of a new term. One finding of this study was that if the context is compelling, children can figure out the meaning of a new word even without hearing an explicit linguistic contrast.     

对血型是儿童学习风格的基础的假设

一、引言 新世纪初，笔者曾指出，教育理论必将从与心理学的结合转向同生理学结合的方向发展，并开始倡导生理教育理论。随后的研究发现：文学思维对儿童数学（“算术”和几何除外）学习有较大的抵触性；而数学思维对儿童文科学习有很好的兼容性。笔者由此提出“儿童思维可分为文学型思维、数学型思维、文数相兼型思维，即使是文数相兼型思维也还有两者之间更加倾向一方的特点”的新观点。     

Depression and learning disabilities in children: a test of an hypothesis

Performance-Verbal IQ discrepancy scores are compared for 27 depressed and 15 nondepressed children all of whom experienced learning difficulties. Brumbach (1985) reported a significant association between depression and Performance IQ deficits for children with learning difficulties. In contrast to Brumbach's finding, no difference was observed in Performance IQ deficit between depressed and nondepressed children in the current study. Moreover, only 10% of depressed children showed such a deficit. This result differed significantly from Brumbach's findings (34%). Implications of these results are discussed within the context of nascent interest in the relationship between depression and learning disabilities.     

Sentence comprehension in preschool children: testing an adaptive egocentrism hypothesis.

A hypothesis proposing that preoperational egocentrism serves an adaptive function was used to predict the comprehension behavior of preschool children presented with sentences varying on a "personal" dimension. Personal sentences containing the subject's name were contrasted at 2 levels of syntactic complexity with impersonal sentences containing other familiar nouns. Significant effects were found for age, semantics, and syntax (all p's less than .001), with no sex effects or interactions. Personal sentences were better comprehended than impersonals at both levels of syntactic complexity. A second experiment was conducted to rule out "focusing of attention" as an alternative explanation. Variations in the likelihood of occurrence of the depicted event were added to the personal-impersonal contrast. High-probability personal sentences were significantly better understood than low-probability sentences, whether personal or impersonal (p less than .001). Results supported the adaptive egocentrism hypothesis in that sentence content describing the child and his personal experience facilitates the child's comprehension.     

Teaching imaginary children: University students’ narratives about their Latino practicum children

This study investigates the dialogic processes involved in how teachers talk about their students and what consequences their ways of talking (i.e., “narratives”) may have for their guidance. We take a sociocultural perspective on learning as transformation of students’ subjectivity. Teaching, as a process of guiding and facilitating learning, cannot be effective if the teacher does not actively seek how the student perceives and understands reality. We borrow and adapt from Bakhtin (1999) four narrative ways of talking about others: objectivizing, subjectivizing, problematizing and finalizing. The presence of these narratives in web discussion postings of our pre-service teachers about the Latino children they worked with in a community center are analyzed. We then compare their ways of talking about children with print- and web-based discussions about children made by in-service teachers, model teachers and our pre-service teachers in a school-based practicum. Using mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we found an overwhelming predominance of objectivizing and finalizing in our pre-service teachers’ narratives about the children with whom they work that seems to define a certain pedagogical regime that we call here “teaching imaginary children/students.” This “way of talking” about children seems to be characterized by unchecked speculations guiding instruction that are not tested by finding out from the children themselves how they understand the instruction and the world. These speculations, in turn, can lead to a dogmatic approach towards children.     

Images of the family: on interviewing young children about their social concepts

The empirical study explores children's perceptions of the family and family membership. 300 four‐, six‐ and eight‐year‐old children were interviewed with a semi‐structured ‘Family Concept Interview’. Interview strategies and research findings are presented and discussed. Establishing field entry rituals and determining appropriate modes and levels of discourse are important factors for creating an interview situation in which children are continuously attentive and motivated. Findings indicate that children do have a generalised and complex image of the family. The majority construct relatively large families with two or more children; over half the children include grandparents (father and mother)’, but one‐parent‐households are also accepted as ‘a family’, regardless of the child's own family situation. ‘Common residence’ is an important but not a necessary criterion for family membership. The findings show significant age differences concerning some aspects of children's family concepts.     

Talking to children about science is harder than we think: characteristics and metacognitive judgments of explanations provided to children and adults

Adults modify the way they speak to children to support children’s learning across several domains. However, no previous research has studied whether adults change their language when explaining science to children. The current study examined if and how adults change the manner in which they talk about science when providing explanations to children vs. providing explanations to other adults. Participants (N = 81) were video recorded while explaining basic science concepts to children and adults. Recordings were later analyzed to determine if and how participants changed the quality and content of their explanations. The results confirmed that adults did change their explanations when talking to children about science by providing more potentially beneficial, but also disadvantageous, information. Participants perceived that they provided more accurate explanations to children, but appeared to be making metacognitive judgments largely based upon the changes made that could be beneficial to learning. Taken together, this work suggests that science may be a domain in which adults are not well equipped to modify and monitor their language to children.     

Predictors of mothers' use of spanking with their infants

OBJECTIVES: This study describes mothers who report spanking their infants in the first 13 months of life. METHODS: Two hundred forty-six (246) mothers were interviewed in the Mother-Baby Unit of a large university-affiliated hospital in a large southeastern city of the United States. Ninety-three percent (93%) of those mothers were reinterviewed in their homes when infants were 6-13 months of age. RESULTS: Younger mothers, those who endorsed fewer alternatives to corporal punishment, and those who experienced their infants as "difficult" were significantly more likely to spank their infants. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest the importance of more anticipatory guidance from physicians, nurses, social workers, and other professionals about discipline in the first few months of life, particularly given the risks associated with spanking infants and popular support for corporal punishment.     

An exploration of mothers' attitudes towards their daughters' menarche

Menarche is a significant milestone for young women, representing an important juncture between girlhood and maturation. The limited literature that exists suggests that a mother's reaction to her daughter's first periods can shape her experiences and perceptions of menstruation which, in turn, may impact on her self-image and, consequently, sexual risk taking. However, very little is known about UK mothers' attitudes towards their daughters' menarche. This paper aims to add to the body of knowledge by applying a postmodern critique, a Derridian deconstructive analysis, to a discussion thread found on mumsnet.com – a UK parenting website. The thread is concerned with a mother's response to her daughter's menarche to which other mothers respond. The deconstruction revealed a number of meta-narratives and themes within the text: secrecy, sorrow, a lack of competency and knowledge, power, gender and motherhood. Unwittingly, the women appear to be socialising their daughters to comply with and perpetuate the menstrual taboo that they endured themselves, thus repeating the cycles of shame associated with menstruation. The findings of this critique suggest that menstrual education is an area that requires more attention, particularly in the context of perceived menstrual shame and its impact on sexual decision-making.     

Indian mothers' perceptions of their roles in their daughters' university course choices

This paper presents new findings on the experiences of Indian mothers in the roles they play in their daughters' higher education (HE) subject choices. Whilst there are existing studies on White British mothers and parents more generally in terms of parental involvement in education, and a growing number of papers presenting results on Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents, evidence on Indian parents (and students) is relatively sparse. In particular, there is a lack of research where Indian parents are given space to voice their own narratives in their own words. In the main, existing studies focus on parents from the viewpoint of their children as students. This qualitative study involved semi‐structured interviews with nine Indian mothers from different areas in England. Commonalities and disparities between the experiences of Indian mothers presented here and accounts of White mothers of similar class and educational backgrounds presented in existing literature are analysed using an intersectional lens. Results show that working class Indian mothers could be making up some of their disadvantage in terms of social and cultural capital through family and community networks. Furthermore, mothers regard younger relatives as potential sources of important knowledge and resources that could help them and their daughters navigate the HE landscape. This has not been found in studies on White mothers where the emphasis instead has been on the exchange of knowledge from adults to the younger generation. This article arises out of an ESRC funded doctoral study of choice at university for British South Asian women.     

Evaluating Inclusion: an examination of parent views and factors influencing their perspectives

The study examined perceptions of issues associated with inclusive education of 437 parents from a midwestern state in the United States who have a child with a mild, moderate, or severe disability. Parents responded to a modified form of the Opinions Related to Mainstreaming (ORM) Scale (Antonak & Larrivee, 1995 Antonak, RE and Larrivee, B. 1995. Psychometric analysis and revision of the Opinions Relative to Mainstreaming Scale, Exceptional Children, 62: 139–149.  [Google Scholar]) and provided additional written comments. Parents gave strong support to the inclusion concept from a legal and philosophical standpoint. They identified social and emotional outcomes as benefits of inclusion, yet were concerned about possible social isolation, negative attitudes, the quality of instruction, teacher training and skills, and support from teachers and from other parents. Several background variables were related to attitudes. Stronger support for inclusion was given by parents of younger children, children with mild disabilities, parents who reported not knowing their child's education placement, and those with college education. Implications for practices and future research are discussed.     

Coordination of reading and spelling in early literacy development: An examination of the discrepancy hypothesis

The Discrepancy Hypothesis posits that childrenearly in the acquisition process read visually(holistically) and spell phonologically. Thisclaim was examined and rejected. Weinvestigated reading and spelling in Grade 1and Grade 2 children using controlled nonwordand word materials with a variety oforthographic patterns. While reading andspelling were strongly correlated even amongthe younger readers, discrepancies betweenperformance levels occurred in both directions. Children's responses were affected by wordcharacteristics and whether or not theyreceived school phonics instruction. Phonologically complex words, such as thosecontaining consonant clusters, wereparticularly difficult for Grade 1 children toread, while words that were difficult to spellcorrectly but not to read tended to havemultivalent mappings from sound to spelling.The generation of reading responses tospecially selected nonwords was affected byboth implicit and explicit phonological sourcesof knowledge. Orthographic knowledge gained inspelling did not always transfer to reading,and vice versa.     

Urban Zimbabwean mothers' choices and perceptions of care for young children

The opportunity for Black Zimbabwean children to attend preschool became widespread only after about 1987. The present study investigated the basis on which families select preschools and their perceptions of what constitutes quality preschool care. Of particular interest was whether school choice patterns are based on parent-centered goals (e.g., authority, prestige, convenience) or child-centered factors (e.g., safety, accelerated educational preparation, social development). Interviews were conducted with 51 working mothers of children ages 3-5 years in urban Zimbabwe (Harare and Bulawayo), 39 (77%) of whom were attending full-day preschool at the time of the survey. Overall, the four most frequently cited attributes of quality preschool care were good food or a balanced diet, qualified teachers, hygiene or cleanliness, and the physical structure. Mothers in the lowest income group placed greatest emphasis on good food, toys, facility, and school preparation, while higher-income mothers tended to prioritize hygiene and loving teachers. Preschool was viewed as part of the formal education process rather than as a form of child care. Female domestics or relatives were identified as the primary child care providers, even when the child was in preschool all day. Mothers expressed a strong preference for a child-centered approach to preschool education. Deliberate (social mobility), humanistic, and practical goals accounted for 80% of parental goal types. In general, mothers were most satisfied with preschool programs when they perceived a congruence between home and school in terms of their child's cultural development.     

Behaviour and misbehaviour of Latino children in a time of zero tolerance: mothers' views

Thirty‐eight Latin American mothers with young children tell of their perceptions of school discipline and comportment issues and talk of their children's encounters with ‘zero tolerance’ legislation, and related rules for conduct, implemented by the local school boards. The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand: (a) parents' views of and concern about disciplinary practices at school; (b) parents' ideas about the connection between home and school discipline; and (c) parents' understanding of the officially prescribed consequences of behaviour identified as non‐tolerable. Implications of the findings are discussed with regard to professional practice.