Using “Sesame Street” to facilitate children’s recognition of letters and numbers

How can adults who watch “Sesame Street” with children facilitate the children’s recognition of the letters and numbers presented on the show? In order to examine this question, each of 95 preschool children watched three specially edited versions of “Sesame Street” with an adult who either (a) asked the child questions and provided feedback, (b) only asked questions, (c) directed the child’s attention to the screen, or (d) simply watched the shows with the child. Those children in the Questions + Feedback condition and the Questions condition scored significantly higher on a delayed posttest than did children who just watched the shows with an adult. There were no other significant differences among the treatment conditions. Results indicate that adults can increase children’s recognition of letters and numbers presented on “Sesame Street” by asking the children to name the letters and numbers as they are presented. Other interpretations are also discussed.     

Does Chronic Classroom Peer Rejection Predict the Development of Children’s Classroom Participation During the Grade School Years?

A sample of 398 children was followed up from ages 5 to 12 to investigate the relation between peer group rejection and classroom participation. The participation trajectories of individuals and groups of children who were rejected for differing periods of time were examined both during and after rejection using piecewise growth curve analyses. The results showed that whereas during periods of rejection, children exhibited negative or negligible growth in participation, when nonrejected, they manifested positive growth. These findings corroborated the hypothesis that (a) peer rejection creates constraints that inhibit children's classroom participation and (b) the cessation of rejection enables children to become more active and cooperative participants in classroom activities.     

The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of different types of negative emotion and regulation and control to 55- to 97-month-olds' internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Parents and teachers provided information on children's (N = 214) adjustment, dispositional regulation and control, and emotion, and children's regulation was observed during several behavioral tasks. Internalizing was defined in two ways: as social withdrawal (to avoid overlap of items with measures of emotionality) or, more broadly, as anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic complaints. In general, children with externalizing problems, compared with children with internalizing problems and nondisordered children, were more prone to anger, impulsivity, and low regulation. Children with internalizing symptoms were prone to sadness, low attentional regulation, and low impulsivity. Relations between internalizing problems and emotionality were more frequent when the entire internalizing scale was used. Findings suggest that emotion and regulation are associated with adjustment in systematic ways and that there is an important difference between effortful control and less voluntary modes of control.     

The relations of parental warmth and positive expressiveness to children's empathy-related responding and social functioning: a longitudinal study

This study examined the concurrent and cross-time relations of parental observed warmth and positive expressivity to children's situational facial and self-reported empathic responding, social competence, and externalizing problems in a sample of 180 elementary school children. Data was collected when the children were in second to fifth grades (age: M = 112.8 months), and again 2 years later. Cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models supported the hypothesis that parents' (mostly mothers') positive expressivity mediated the relation between parental warmth and children's empathy, and children's empathy mediated the relation between parental positive expressivity and children's social functioning. These relations persisted after controlling for prior levels of parenting and child characteristics. Moreover, concurrent and cross-time consistencies were found on measures of parenting, children's situational empathic responding, and social functioning.     

Evaluation of aerodynamic and rolling resistances in mountain-bike field conditions

Abstract

Aerodynamic and rolling resistances are the two major resistances that affect road cyclists on level ground. Because of reduced speeds and markedly different tyre-ground interactions, rolling resistance could be more influential in mountain biking than road cycling. The aims of this study were to quantify 1) aerodynamic resistance of mountain-bike cyclists in the seated position and 2) rolling resistances of two types of mountain-bike tyre (smooth and knobby) in three field surfaces (road, sand and grass) with two pressure inflations (200 and 400 kPa). Mountain-bike cyclists have an effective frontal area (product of projected frontal area and drag coefficient) of 0.357 ± 0.023 m², with the mean aerodynamic resistance representing 8–35% of the total resistance to cyclists' motion depending on the magnitude of the rolling resistance. The smooth tyre had 21 ± 15% less rolling resistance than the knobby tyre. Field surface and inflation pressure also affected rolling resistance. These results indicate that aerodynamic resistance influences mountain-biking performance, even with lower speeds than road cycling. Rolling resistance is increased in mountain biking by factors such as tyre type, surface condition and inflation pressure that may also alter performance.     

Prediction of elementary school children's externalizing problem behaviors from attentional and behavioral regulation and negative emotionality

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating role of individual differences in negative emotionality in the relations of behavioral and attentional (emotional) regulation to externalizing problem behaviors. Teachers' and one parent's reports of children's regulation (attentional and behavioral), emotionality, and problem behavior were obtained when children were in kindergarten to grade 3 and two years later (N = 169; 146 in major analyses); children's behavioral regulation also was assessed with a measure of persistence. According to the best fitting structural equation model, at two ages behavioral dysregulation predicted externalizing behavior problems for children both high and low in negative emotionality, whereas prediction of problem behavior from attentional control was significant only for children prone to negative emotionality. There were unique, additive effects of behavioral and attentional regulation for predicting problem behavior as well as moderating effects of negative emotionality for attentional regulation.     

Evaluating instructional software: A simplified model

This article describes the evaluation of a simplified version of the new software evaluation model proposed by Reiser and Dick (1990). This approach to evaluation of instructional software focuses upon the collection of performance data to determine the extent to which students learn the skills the software is designed to teach. In two field evaluations of instructional software packages, it was found that use of the simplified software evaluation model generally produced evaluative conclusions similar to those reached using the original, more complex model. It was also found that student learning data did not support the high ratings assigned by subjective software evaluation services. These findings support the use of the simplified model by teachers and media specialists who have limited time and resources, and stress the need for local on-site evaluation efforts.