Intergenerational Communication in Immigrant Punjabi Families: Implications for Helping Professionals

This paper is an extension of the primary author’s post-doctoral research on the Sikh diaspora in Vancouver, Canada. Drawing upon the orality, literacy and ‘analytics’ (critical inquiry) paradigm, the paper delineates the distinctive communication patterns that characterize each of three generations in the Punjabi community in that location. A sample intergenerational dialogue in the counselling context is provided to demonstrate the nature of fluidity in communication, and the implications for helping professionals are discussed.     

Visual Attention to and Comprehension of Television in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disordered and Normal Boys

This study examined the effects of distracters on the television viewing of diagnosed ADHD (n = 19) and normal (n = 20) boys who ranged in age from 6 to 12 years. Subjects were videotaped watching four 7-min segments of "3-2-1 Contact," once in the presence and once in the absence of highly appealing toys. The results indicated that, while in the presence of toys, ADHD boys spent one-half as much time as control boys attending to the television. However, when toys were absent, there were no significant differences in visual attention between ADHD and normal boys. The effect of the toy manipulation was most dramatic with younger children of both groups. Recall of didactic content by ADHD boys and normal subjects did not differ significantly, even when the attention of ADHD boys was reduced. These findings suggest that ADHD children, like their normal counterparts, are active and strategic viewers of television.     

Coloured overlays and their benefit for reading

Children in mainstream schools compared text on white paper with identical text covered in turn by each of ten differently‐coloured plastic overlays. More than 50% reported improved perception with one or more colours, and were given the best colour to use. About half used the overlays for more than three months and their reading speed increased when the overlays were used. In Study I children were examined twice using different methods and examiners. 47% chose the same colour on both occasions, and showed the greatest improvement in reading fluency, reliable at retest. In Study II children were issued with a random colour, and the greatest improvements in reading speed occurred when the random colour was the same as that previously chosen. Phonological reading strategies were not related to visual symptoms, or the benefit from overlays. Across individuals, reading speed varied by a factor of more than three, for good and poor readers. Study III provided estimates of the prevalence of improvements based on a sample of 426 children from 12 schools: 5% of children read more than 25% faster with a coloured overlay.     

Literacy and language change: The special case of speech act verbs

This paper explores the methodological and theoretical issues that need to be addressed in testing the validity of proposed correlations between the rise of a certain class of words and the development of literacy. Olson and Astington (in press) suggest a correlation between the rise of a) assertive speech act verbs such asobserve,state, andclaim, b) literacy, and c) the Enlightenment. Data from the history of speech act verbs in English do not provide evidence for any privileged correlation with the Enlightenment, since assertives abound from Old and especially Middle English on. Possible correlations with literacy point not to writing as the motivating force but rather to the language of the law-courts, feudal practices, and rhetorical debate in the Middle Ages.This paper is being reprinted from Judith Langer (Ed.),Language, Literacy and Culture: Issues of Society and Schooling/it (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987) with the permission of the publisher.