Early Intervention with Medically Fragile Infants: Investigating the Age-at-Start Question

Very few studies have investigated the age at which early intervention should begin. Similarly few studies have examined the effects of early intervention for infants who are medically fragile. The present study responds to these two critical issues by longitudinally comparing groups of infants who are medically fragile. These infants were randomly assigned to receive developmentally appropriate programs beginning at either 3- or 18-months adjusted age. Analysis of measures of child development and family functioning for the first three annual assessments indicated that the two groups were similar on measures of child functioning at the first and second assessment. However, at the third assessment, children who received the intervention at an earlier age scored significantly higher than did children whose intervention began 15 months later. No significant group differences were found on measures of family functioning at any of the assessments. Implications of these results for future research and practice are discussed.     

You’re doing what? Students’ experiences of advice from a New Zealand university

This case study explores student perceptions and experiences of advising at a New Zealand university. It considers the implications arising from the students’ responses and also investigates the influence of students’ demographic characteristics on perceptions of advice. Both first‐ (n = 191) and final‐ (n = 171) year cohorts of students were surveyed to determine why they chose particular courses, what advice they received and how aware they were of various support services. Although students were happy overall with the advice received, many had little or no expectations of the type of advice they should be receiving. The main sources of advice were the University enrolment pack, family and University School’s Liaison Officers. Academic advisers were less well used as a source of advice, even during later years of study. Advisers need to be educated about particular advising issues related to first‐generation students, part‐time students and international students. Many students had a career path in mind so it is important to provide holistic developmental academic advice that includes future career options.     

External stimulus control of target-directed attack and biting elicited by tailshock

Two experiments evaluating the effects of external stimuli on attack and biting in rats elicited by electric tailshock are reported. In the first experiment, stimuli presented to four groups of test subjects consisted of a stimulus animal, a stimulus animal plus taped vocalizations of a rat experiencing shock, an inanimate object, and an inanimate object plus taped vocalizations. Subjects in a fifth (control) group were tested in the absence of these stimuli. The presence of another animal in the test situation significantly increased the amount of target-directed responding. A decrease in responding, rather than increase, was shown by the subjects tested under the stimulus-object plus taped-vocalization conditions. Experiment 2 investigated the salient features of the stimulus animal and found a combination of both olfactory and visual cues to be most effective in eliciting target-directed responding. These studies indicate that the amount of target-directed attack and biting shown in this situation may be related causally to the type of sensory input received by the test animal.     

The rhetoric of auscultation: Corporeal sounds,mediated bodies,and abortion rights

This essay argues that corporeal sound, including the spoken voice and the auscultated heartbeat, can be understood as material rhetoric, and that material rhetoric, by extension, should be understood as both a force and a networked fluid. I illustrate this argument through the case study of abortion practices and policies, arguing that both mandated heartbeat auscultation and physician speech-and-display provisions represent the forceful fluidity of material rhetoric and demonstrate the power of such rhetoric to carve out networks of meaning. Through this networking, sound’s material role in defining autonomy takes on a powerful role in debates over fetal personhood.     

Victim, perpetrator, family, and incident characteristics of infant and child homicide in the United States Air Force

OBJECTIVE: The present study describes factors related to fatal abuse in three age groups in the United States Air Force (USAF). METHOD: Records from 32 substantiated cases of fatal child abuse in the USAF were independently reviewed for 60 predefined factors. RESULTS: Males were over-represented in young child victims (between 1 year and 4 years of age) and child victims (between 4 years and 15 years of age) but not in infant victims (between 24 hours and 1 year of age). African-American infant victims and perpetrators were over-represented. Younger victims were more likely to have been previously physically abused by the perpetrator. Perpetrators were predominantly male and the biological fathers of the victims. Infant and young child perpetrators reported childhood abuse histories, while child perpetrators reported the highest frequency of mental health contact. Victims' families reported significant life stressors. Families of young child victims were more likely divorced, separated, or single. Incidents with infants and young children tended to occur without witnesses; incidents with child victims tended to have the victim's sibling(s) and/or mother present. Fatal incidents were more frequent on the weekend, in the home, and initiated by some family disturbance. CONCLUSIONS: Differences among groups in factors related to infant and child homicide across age groups may assist in the development of more tailored abuse prevention efforts and may also guide future investigations.     

Differential Item Functioning for Minority Examinees on the SAT

The standardization approach to assessing differential item functioning (DIF), including standardized distractor analysis, is described. The results of studies conducted on Asian Americans, Hispanics (Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans), and Blacks on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are described and then synthesized across studies. Where the groups were limited to include only examinees who spoke English as their best language, very few items across forms and ethnic groups exhibited large DIF. Major findings include evidence of differential speededness (where minority examinees did not complete SAT-Verbal sections at the same rate as White students with comparable SAT-Verbal scores) for Blacks and Hispanics and, when the item content is of special interest, advantages for the relevant ethnic group. In addition, homographs tend to disadvantage all three ethnic groups, but the effect of vertical relationships in analogy items are not as consistent. Although these findings are important in understanding DIF, they do not seem to account for all differences. Other variables related to DIF still need to be identified. Furthermore, these findings are seen as tentative until corroborated by studies using controlled data collection designs.     

Gender,Media and Protest

This article traces the ways in which the British suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was represented in national newspapers between 1913—the year she died—and 2013, the centenary of her death. We identify three key discourses through which Davison has been represented in four British newspapers throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first: delegitimisation, recuperation and trivialisation. In doing so, this paper provides original insights into the ways that the fight for women’s rights has been figured in different historical moments. A key argument is that over time, Davison’s militant actions—once cast as those of a hysterical lunatic—have slowly come to be recuperated and legitimised as part of the story of British democracy. However, this discursive shift cannot be straightforwardly celebrated as a progressive move in representations of women’s movements, as Davison is frequently invoked to delegitimise contemporary feminism. Our analysis charts the extent to which Davison has been visible (or not) in newspapers through different historical periods; the specific ways in which Davison’s image was transformed along with broader changes in women’s status; and it considers the political implications of these (in)visibilities and representations for contemporary feminism.     

Pop Into My Place: An Exploration of the Narrative and Physical Space in Jan Pieńkowski’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Haunted House</Emphasis>

Discussions of children’s literature frequently neglect the pop-up. This universally popular type of book is often considered ephemeral and insubstantial, although some titles have managed to attain popularity and critical recognition, elevating the form to iconic status. One of the most acclaimed and lasting titles in contemporary pop-up books is Jan Pieńkowski’s Haunted House. Gothic themes have always been popular with pop-up book originators, especially as the form lends itself perfectly to concepts of transformation, but a close reading of this particular title is ideally suited to the investigation of place and space. Everything is carefully designed to draw the reader in. The familiar experience of arriving in a strange house is a concept even the youngest child can relate to, while the text poses questions and, even in its title, establishes the potential for surprise. Each turn of the page delivers this as each pop-up unfolds and demands reaction from the reader, linking narrative place and space with actual three dimensional place and space. Using Pieńkowski’s Haunted House as a focus, this article argues for a revaluation of the pop-up form.