Play as a route to literacy

There is a ready acceptance amongst educators that play has an important role to play in learning, particularly in the early years. Yet, as Linda Miller shows, the role of play in literacy learning is under-developed and she offers some suggested ways forward in this area.     

Interference of anti-T4 autoantibodies in the single step free T4 radioimmunoassays

The thyroid hormone profile of a hypothyroid patient, with moderate sized diffuse goiter and history of exogenous thyroid hormone therapy, was found to be highly ambiguous. The total as well as free T4 levels were consistently high (out of range) with suppressed T3 (total and free) and elevated thyrotropin levels. We incubated the serum with the radio-iodine labelled T4 and observed that the patient’s serum bound about 50.5% of the total radioactivity resulting in 85.3% interference in the radioimmunoassay. On resolving the serum proteins by cellulose acetate electrophoresis, the radioactivity was detected in the gamma globulin band. The protein profile showed mildly raised levels of IgG. Therefore it was established that the patient’s serum carried T4 reactive antibodies (IgG) which were interfering in the immunoassays. Elevated anti-thyroid microsomal antibodies were also present in the patient’s serum. The anti-T4 antibodies were highly specific for T4 and did not show any cross reactivity with the T3 or its analogues used in the estimation of free T3. We stripped the serum by precipitating the immunoglobulins and were successful in estimating the levels of free T4 in the stripped serum by single step radioimmunoassy.     

Intervening in severe physical child abuse cases: mental health, legal, and social services.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the child protection process in cases of severe physical abuse, to compare characteristics of the families with risk factors previously reported in the published literature, and to develop recommendations about the use of mental health professionals in such cases. METHOD: Reviewers examined 30 case records of severely physically abused children under age 5, nominated by child protection workers and mental health providers. The reviewers recorded demographic, clinical, and case process information such as mental health and other referrals, reunification status, and frequency of criminal prosecution. A case study was described. RESULTS: The parents displayed a range of psychological characteristics (e.g., depression, anxiety, personality disorders) and life problems (e.g., domestic violence, substance abuse, abused as child). The majority of parents denied the abuse. The children were very young (more than half under 6 months old) and many had difficult births or medical problems prior to the abuse. The most common services offered were individual psychotherapy and parenting classes. More than half of the children reunified with at least one parent within I year. Forty percent of the cases involved criminal prosecution. CONCLUSIONS: Reunification occurred more quickly and more often than expected based on the severity of the injuries. The system often relies on psychotherapy to correct the abusive behavior, even when the perpetrator remains unknown and specific risks such as substance abuse or domestic violence are present. The authors advise utilizing multidisciplinary teams for recommendations regarding reunification.     

Speech and Gesture Production Provide Unique Insights Into Young Children’s Spatial Reasoning

This study took a novel approach to understanding the role of language in spatial development by combining approaches from spatial language and gesture research. It analyzed forty-three 4.5- to 6-year-old’s speech and gesture production during explanations of reasoning behind performance on Spatial Analogies and Children’s Mental Transformation Tasks. Results showed that speech and gesture relevant for solving the trials (disambiguating correct choices) predicted spatial performance when controlling for age, gender, and spatial words and gestures produced. Children performed the spatial tasks well if they produced relevant information either verbally through speech or nonverbally through gesture. These results highlight the importance of not only focusing on concepts children can reference but also on how such concepts are used in spatial tasks.     

The Effect of Birth weight on Child Development Prior to School Entry

The present study examines variation in the effect of birth weight on children’s early cognitive and socioemotional outcomes by family socioeconomic status (SES). It is hypothesized that not only will lower birth weight children display worse cognitive and socioemotional outcomes prior to school entry, as prior research has found, but that effects will be stronger for lower-SES children. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort, the study compares the age 4 outcomes of twins discordant for birth weight (N ~ 1,400). Twin fixed-effects models are run on the full twin sample and separately for low- and high-SES children. Results support the study’s hypotheses, suggesting that socioeconomic risk accentuates the effects of birth weight on early development.     

Socioeconomic status,mental wellbeing and transition to secondary school: Analysis of the School Health Research Network/Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey in Wales

Young people's wellbeing is often lowest where they assume a relatively low position within their school's socioeconomic hierarchy, for example, among poorer children attending more affluent schools. Transition to secondary school is a period during which young people typically enter an environment which is more socioeconomically diverse than their primary school. Young people joining a school with a higher socioeconomic status intake relative to their primary school may assume a relatively lowered position within their school’s socioeconomic hierarchy, experiencing a detriment to their wellbeing as a consequence. This article draws on data from 45,055 pupils in Years 7 and 8, from 193 secondary schools in Wales, who completed the 2017 Student Health Research Network (SHRN) Student Health and Wellbeing (SHW) survey. Pupils reported which primary school they previously attended, and survey data on wellbeing were linked to publicly available data on the free school meal entitlement of schools attended. In cross-classified linear mixed-effects models, with primary and secondary school as levels, mental wellbeing varied significantly according to both primary and secondary school attended. A higher school-level deprivation was associated with worse mental wellbeing in both cases. Mental wellbeing was significantly predicted by the relative affluence of a child's primary and secondary school, with movement to a secondary school of higher overall socioeconomic status associated with lowered wellbeing. These findings highlight transition to secondary school as a key point in which socioeconomic inequality in wellbeing may widen, and thus as an important focal point for intervention to reduce health inequalities.     

Antecedents and consequents of student satisfaction in higher technical-vocational education: evidence from Brazil

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This article proposes a model of antecedents and consequences of student satisfaction in Higher Technical-Vocational Education (HTVE)...     

Using a control group to evaluate a resource room program

The effectiveness of a resource room program was examined by testing 162 second- through sixth-grade students who had learning problems severe enough to qualify them for special services. Half of the students were randomly assigned to a resource room, while the others remained in the regular class. Results indicated that the children who were provided with resource room services as well as those who spent the entire day in the regular class gained significanlty in achievement over the year-long study. There was evidence on two of the four dependent variables that the resource room students gained more than those in the regular classroom. However, additional analyses found that these observed differences were relatively weak. If the control group had not been used, gains in achievement might have been attributed to the resource room, emphasizing the importance of using a control group.