More Effective Consolidation of Episodic Long‐Term Memory in Children Than Adults—Unrelated to Sleep

Abilities to encode and remember events in their spatiotemporal context (episodic memory) rely on brain regions that mature late during childhood and are supported by sleep. We compared the temporal dynamics of episodic memory formation and the role of sleep in this process between 62 children (8–12 years) and 57 adults (18–37 years). Subjects recalled “what–where–when” memories after a short 1‐hr retention interval or after a long 10.5‐hr interval containing either nocturnal sleep or daytime wakefulness. Although children showed diminished recall of episodes after 1 hr, possibly resulting from inferior encoding, unlike adults, they showed no further decrease in recall after 10.5 hr. In both age groups, episodic memory benefitted from sleep. However, children's more effective offline retention was unrelated to sleep.     

Intervention in the motor domain: A training study with first- and second-grade slow readers

A burgeoning interest in learning disabilities during the past five years has aroused educational interest in the hypothesized sequence of motor, perceptual, and symbolic development. The present research was undertaken to test the effectiveness of beginning training at the motor level for children having difficulty with the symbolic system of reading. First- and second grade children were screened on the Gates Primary Reading Test and all motor subtests of the Purdue Perceptual-Motor Survey. The final sample comprised 35 children randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: Motor Training, Physical Education, and Reading Control. Variables of teacher differences, adult-child ratio, amount of physical activity, and Hawthorne effect were controlled for in the design. Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance and an analysis of covariance on a parallel form of standardized reading test showed a consistent pattern of greater gains following motor training and reading activities, and minimal progress after the physical education treatment. It was hypothesized that this may reflect effects of structured experiences and more equal distribution of teacher-child interaction. Reading gains of the first-grade children were significantly greater than those of the second-graders beyond the 0.01 level, a result not explainable by ceiling effects. Implications of the slower progress of the older children were explored in terms of a need for focus on particular reading subskills across perceptual-motor-symbolic systems.     

Education in the Context of Structural Injustice: A symposium response

What an honor to have political and educational theorists of such caliber take up ideas from my work! What a daunting task to try to respond! My remarks will touch on the following questions: What are some key issues of distributive justice in education today? Why does defining justice in terms of oppression and domination imply that issues of justice cannot be reduced to distribution? How does normalization constitute a major process enacting oppression, and what does this imply for education? What does it mean to include marginalized groups in economic opportunity and democratic process, and how can educational institutions foster such inclusion? Why do issues of religion and other forms of cultural expression belong to a distinct category of justice? Are values of freedom of expression and tolerance in tension with the project of democratic inclusion? How shall we consider transnational issues of educational justice?     

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Reports of Their Supportive Responses to Their Children’s Negative Emotions Over Time

Objective. Parents’ emotion socialization practices are thought to be moderately stable over time; however, a partner’s socialization practices could initiate change. Design. We examined mothers’ and fathers’ reports of their supportive responses to their children’s negative emotions when the target child was 7 years old and again at age 10. We tested a dyadic, longitudinal path model with 111 mother–father pairs. Results. Significant actor and partner effects emerged: Parents’ age 7 responses predicted their own age 10 responses and their partners’ later responses. Conclusions. Parents’ reported responses to children’s negative emotions during middle childhood are predicted by their own earlier responses and by their partners’ responses.     

Crawling versus Walking Infants' Perception of Affordances for Locomotion over Sloping Surfaces

14-month-old toddlers vs. 8.5-month-old crawling infants were encouraged to ascend and descend a sloping walkway (10°, 20°, 30°, and 40°). Infants in both locomotor groups overestimated their ability to ascend slopes. However, on descending trials where falling was more aversive, most toddlers switched from walking to sliding positions for safe descent, but crawlers plunged down headfirst and many fell at each increment. Toddlers touched and hesitated most before descending 10° and 20° slopes, and they explored alternative means for descent by testing out different sliding positions before leaving the starting platform. In contrast, crawlers touched and hesitated most before descending 30° and 40° slopes, and they never explored alternative sliding positions. In addition, we analyzed measures of locomotor skill and experience in relation to children's ability to perceive affordances. Findings indicate that children must learn to perceive affordances for locomotion over slopes and that learning may begin by fine-tuning of exploratory activity.     

Menus for toddlers in dau care: Part II

This is the second part of a fourpart series of articles that provide a total of four weeks' worth of menus for toddlers. In the first installment (Fall 1978) will be found the Basic Recipes for preparing Milk Plus, TVP, and Fruit Juice, as well as a general introduction to the format of these menus. Emily Herbert-Jackson managed the nutrition research project described here in her capacity as Research Associate in the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas. She is now associated with Children's Behavioral Services, Reno, Nevada. Marion O'Brien is a writer for the Living Environments Group and has served as consultant to the toddler center in which the research was conducted. The authors wish especially to thank Kathy Erwin for her contribution to the development of these menus, as well as all the staff and children at the toddler center. The research described here was supported in large part by grant MC-R-200347 from the Office of Maternal and Child Health to the Bureau of Child Research and the Department of Human Development at the University of Kansas. The toddler day care program is fully deseribed in the bookThe Toddler Center: A Practical Guide to Day Care for One-and Two-Year-Olds, by Marion O'Brien, Jan Porterfield, Emily Herbert-Jackson, and Todd R. Risley (Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978).