Early Child Contingency Learning and Detection: Research Evidence and Implications for Practice

The types of contingency experiences infants and young children are typically exposed to are examined with a focus on the implications for early childhood intervention with young children who have developmental disabilities and delays. Studies of response-contingent child learning, the manner in which contingencies are not under direct child control, and child/caregiver reciprocal contingencies, are reviewed in terms of how they influence child learning and development. Results indicate that the different types of contingencies all positively influence child behavior. Implications for practice are described in terms of contingency-rich everyday child learning activities, child response-contingent learning in the context of those activities, and caregiver contingent responsiveness as an instructional strategy for supporting child contingency learning.     

Technical Communication and the World Wide Web. Edited by Carol Lipson and Michael Day. Mahwah,NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005. 355 pp

Computers and Technical Communication: Pedagogical and Programmatic Perspectives. Ed. Stuart Selber. Greenwich, CT: Ablex. 415 pages.     

Self-compassion: a potential resource for young women athletes

Self-compassion has demonstrated many psychological benefits (Neff, 2009). In an effort to explore self-compassion as a potential resource for young women athletes, we explored relations among self-compassion, proneness to self-conscious emotions (i.e., shame, guilt-free shame, guilt, shame-free guilt, authentic pride, and hubristic pride), and potentially unhealthy self-evaluative thoughts and behaviors (i.e., social physique anxiety, obligatory exercise, objectified body consciousness, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation). Young women athletes (N = 151; Mage = 15.1 years) participated in this study. Self-compassion was negatively related to shame proneness, guilt-free shame proneness, social physique anxiety, objectified body consciousness, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation. In support of theoretical propositions, self-compassion explained variance beyond self-esteem on shame proneness, guilt-free shame proneness, shame-free guilt proneness, objectified body consciousness, fear of failure, and fear of negative evaluation. Results suggest that, in addition to self-esteem promotion, self-compassion development may be beneficial in cultivating positive sport experiences for young women.     

The Discourse of Crisis in Public Meetings: Case Study of a School District's Multimillion Dollar Error

School districts are both big businesses and a form of local governance that is part of American democracy. When a crisis makes a district's democratic face relevant, the organization will experience a dilemma that does not occur in business-only organizations. This study examines the public meetings of a school board in the western United States as it confronted a multimillion dollar error. After reviewing the organizational crisis literature, background is provided on the district, the crisis, and the method—action-implicative discourse analysis. The district's crisis, the paper shows, was constructed through six discursive practices. Each is identified and illustrated. Because school boards are democratic bodies, they depend on having citizens willing to attend and speak out in public meetings, and they depend on a smaller set of citizens willing to run for and serve in these elected, unpaid school board positions. In crises, these two groups of citizens will have partially competing needs. As a result, local governance organizations will experience a dilemma regarding how to design their public participation. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on organizational crisis and public meetings, and practical implications for citizens and elected officials.