Knowledge and Skills of the Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator: Results of a Job Task Analysis

Content validity of certification examinations is demonstrated over time with comprehensive job analyses conducted and analyzed by experts, with data gathered from stakeholders. In November 2011, the Lamaze International Certification Council conducted a job analysis update of the 2002 job analysis survey. This article presents the background, methodology, and findings of the job analysis. Changes in the test blueprint based on these findings are presented.     

Individual differences in navigation between sharable content objects—an evaluation study of a learning module prototype

In this article, we report the design and evaluation of a prototype for learning modules compliant to the SCORM standard. This prototype is especially developed for the subject matter of process systems engineering and features a novel process control display for the navigation between Sharable Content Objects. In a controlled field study, N=18 undergraduate students interacted with the module for a period of 40 minutes. The relations between individual differences in learner characteristics, navigation, and learning outcome were considered. Interaction with the module had a strong positive effect on learning outcome. Individual differences in learning outcome were significantly affected by individual differences in intrinsic motivation, computer experience and navigation behaviour.     

Reality Therapy: A Global Perspective

Based on universal principles, reality therapy is practiced and taught in many cultures and countries. The underlying theoretical basis, choice theory, states that all human beings are motivated by five current genetic instructions: survival or self-preservation, belonging, power or achievement, freedom or independence, fun or enjoyment. The effective reality therapist learns to adapt the methodology to individuals and groups from many cultures. The delivery system employs specific tools for helping clients identify and clarify their wants and desires, their hopes and their dreams. Clients are led to examine specific actions, cognition, and feelings which are seen in reality therapy as behaviors chosen to impact the external world of clients for the purpose of satisfying their needs. The cornerstone in the practice of reality therapy is the self-evaluation by clients. Counselors ask clients to examine the effectiveness of their choices especially as they impact their relationships with people important to them. Clients also examine the attainability of their wants, as well as their degree of commitment in attaining their wants. Included in the process is realistic planning for need satisfaction especially for enhancing the clients' interpersonal relationships. Multiethnic research has shown the multicultural efficacy of reality therapy.     

Intergenerational programs for young children: Organizational procedures

Bringing together groups of preschoolers with older people is a concept that is gaining in popularity. Commonly referred to asintergenerational, these experiences — when carefully planned — have been shown to provide children with positive experiences. More specifically, the National Council on Aging defines intergenerational programs as planned activities that increase cooperation and exchange between any two generations for their mutual benefit.I never seen my great grandpa — I seen some old people in Minnesota.Brandon, age fourAlfred James is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, Department of Education, Washburn University, Topeka, KS. Kathy Leon is Director of Menninger Child Care Center, Menninger, Topeka, KS.     

Reading disorders: Strategies for recognition and management

Conclusion My emphasis on linguistic factors and sense of competence as exciting areas for clinical research reflects personal interest and in no way is intended to demean paradigms based on information processing or hemispheric specialization, which are equally promising models. Indeed, I would hope a number of models would be pursued in parallel, best of all in the same patients so that we might better establish whether they cluster together or identify diverse groups. There will, of course, be practical limits, both to the competence of any team of examiners and to the durability of any group of subjects in tolerating extended test sessions. In my view, the most meaningful research will be tied to clinical trials of the remedial methods suggested by research findings, first in the hope of benefitting the child, second in order to provide a further test of hypotheses. There is no other way of beginning the task of developing new linguistic and psychological assessment tools than by exploring their utility with clinical and control groups. But once reliable and valid methods are at hand, it is essential that they be employed epidemiologically and longitudinally on stratified samples of a school population reappraised at appropriate intervals. Referred patients and cross-sectional studies simply will not suffice to provide a valid analysis of the distribution of reading problems, of their natural history, and of their response to remediation. It is high time that we began to think in these terms and to pool efforts to make such studies possible. Presented at the 29th Annual Conference of the Orton Society, Minneapolis, November 1978.     

Effect of taste preexposure on taste and odor aversions

Thirsty Sprague-Dawley rats drank flavored water in a wind tunnel prior to lithium-induced toxicosis. Flavors were presented for 5 min; 30 min later a toxin, lithium chloride, was injected. After the rats had recovered, subsequent aversions to the taste and the odor were assessed separately. In Experiment 1, extensive preexposure to the taste component of the flavor attenuated neophobia to the flavor and the subsequent taste aversion. However, the subsequent odor aversion was unaffected. Experiment 2 partially replicated the results of Experiment 1 and showed that, in a situation in which only taste-potentiated odor aversions are usually found, nonpotentiated aversions were evident. Experiment 3 found that, in addition to attenuating taste aversions, taste preexposure enhances the capacity of rats to learn nonpotentiated odor aversions. The results are interpreted with a neural-based model of conditioned flavor aversions.     

The Role of Social Support in Moderating the Relationship Between Psychological Distress and Willingness to Seek Psychological Help Among Black and Latino College Students

This study examined the role of social support in moderating the relationship between psychological distress and willingness to seek psychological help in 158 Black and Latino college students from a large, predominantly White university. The authors found that a social support network served as a significant moderator for Black college students but not for their Latino counterparts. Implications of the findings are presented.