#6: no separation of mother and baby with unlimited opportunity for breastfeeding

In this position paper-one of six care practice papers published by Lamaze International and reprinted here with permission-the value of keeping mothers and their babies together from the moment of birth is discussed and presented as an evidenced-based practice that helps promote, protect, and support normal birth. The paper is written for childbearing women and their families. Babies held skin-to-skin with their mothers cry less often, breathe easier, and stay warmer than babies who are separated from their mothers. They also instinctively attach to the breast and begin breastfeeding, usually within one hour of birth. The advantages of rooming-in for mother and baby are also discussed. The accompanying commentary-written by two leading professionals in the field of maternity care and pediatrics-provides further evidence to support the practice of keeping mothers and their babies together after birth. Lamaze International encourages women to give birth in settings that do not separate mothers and babies after birth.     

Family Factors Related to Children's Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivational Orientation and Academic Performance

This study examined 3 familial factors—parental surveillance of homework, parental reactions to grades, and general family style—in relation to children's motivational orientation and academic performance. Family, parent, and child measures were obtained in the home from 93 fifth graders and their parents. Teachers provided a measure of classroom motivational orientation, and grades and achievement scores were obtained from school records. Higher parental surveillance of homework, parental reactions to grades that included negative control, uninvolvement, or extrinsic reward, and over- and undercontrolling family styles were found to be related to an extrinsic motivational orientation and to lower academic performance. On the other hand, parental encouragement in response to grades children received was associated with an intrinsic motivational orientation, and autonomy-supporting family styles were associated with intrinsic motivation and higher academic performance. In addition, socioeconomic level was a significant predictor of motivational orientation and academic performance.     

Prosodic awareness and children’s multisyllabic word reading

Prosodic awareness (the rhythmic patterning of speech) accounts for unique variance in reading development. However, studies have thus far focused on early readers and utilised literacy measures which fail to distinguish between monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. The current study investigated the factors that are specifically associated with multisyllabic word reading in a sample of 50 children aged between 7 and 8 years. Prosodic awareness was the strongest predictor of multisyllabic word reading accuracy, after controlling for phoneme awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary and short-term memory. Children also made surprisingly few phonemic errors while, in contrast, errors of stress assignment were commonplace. Prosodic awareness was also the strongest predictor of stress placement errors, although this finding was not significant. Prosodic skills may play an increasingly important role in literacy performance as children encounter more complex reading materials. Once phoneme-level skills are mastered, prosodic awareness is arguably the strongest predictor of single word reading.     

Orthographic analogies and phonological priming effects

Bowey, Vaughan and Hansen (1998) have demonstrated that once phonological priming effects have been taken in account, there is no orthographic analogy effect for words with common end patterns (e.g. beak–peak). Goswami (1999) has argued that the study on which this claim is based is methodically flawed. This paper attempted to verify Bowey et al.’s claim by using an improved clue‐word procedure with a group of beginning readers, whose phonological awareness and vocabulary was also assessed. The results indicated that while rime‐based analogies seem to be phonological rather than orthographic in nature, beginning readers are able to use an orthographic analogy strategy when reading words that have similar beginnings (e.g. beak–bean).     

Social and emotional learning schemes as tools of cultural imperialism: a manifestation of the national and international child well-being agenda?

ABSTRACT

The need for improved well-being of children in Britain has been highlighted in a raft of reports both nationally and internationally. In this paper, I aim to explore some of the practicalities experienced by schools that, in response, have implemented social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions as a means to improve child well-being. I make the case that the discourses of emotions inherent within such schemes, and the various supranational publications, are susceptible to exploitation and manifestation. The study employed a mixed methodological approach, utilising a combination of quantitative and qualitative strategies with primary school staff members including head teachers, teachers, teaching assistants, welfare staff, other support staff, etc. Three phases of study – questionnaires, focus groups and individual interviews – were administered as a means of creating an insight into the interpretation and use of SEL in these settings. The findings demonstrate a propensity for staff to conflate social and emotional aspects of self with more moralistic constructs of identity, revealing how SEL schemes have the potential to act as tools of cultural imperialism by marginalising and/or endorsing certain values, norms and behaviours. After maintaining that such realisations of these schemes may impede rather than improve the lived experiences of children, that are fundamental to their social and emotional well-being and mental health, I make the case for alternative approaches to SEL in schools.     

Shyness and Socioemotional Functioning in Young Chinese Children: The Moderating Role of Receptive Vocabulary

The goal of this study was to explore links among shyness, receptive vocabulary, and indices of socioemotional functioning in a sample of young children in mainland urban China. In particular, we sought to examine the potential moderating role of receptive language in these relations. Participants were N = 360 young children (200 boys, 160 girls, M_age = 4.72 years, SD = 0.63) attending preschool/kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multisource assessments were employed, including maternal ratings (child shyness), standardized tests (receptive vocabulary), child self-reports collected during individual interviews (loneliness), teacher ratings (child internalizing problems), and peer nominations (peer liking). Results indicated that receptive vocabulary moderated (buffering effect) the relations between shyness and several indices of socioemotional functioning. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of language skills for early school adjustment of young shy Chinese children.