Language development in internationally adopted children: a special case of early second language learning

The French language development of children adopted (n=24) from China was compared with that of control children matched for socioeconomic status, sex, and age. The children were assessed at 50 months of age, on average, and 16 months later. The initial assessment revealed that the 2 groups did not differ with respect to socioemotional adjustment or intellectual abilities. However, the adopted children's expressive language skills were significantly lower than those of the nonadopted children at both assessments. The receptive language skills were also significantly weaker for the adopted children at the second assessment. The results are discussed in terms of possible early age-of-acquisition effects that might affect adopted children's ability to acquire a second first language.     

Freedom: Toward an Integration of the Counseling Profession

Freedom is presented as an overarching paradigm that may align and bring together the counseling profession's diverse counseling theories and open a doorway to a new generation of counseling techniques. Freedom is defined and discussed in terms of its 4 modalities: freedom from, freedom to, freedom with, and freedom for. The long‐standing problem of theoretical integration of counseling and psychotherapy is explored in combination with the phenomenon of therapeutic change in the context of freedom. The new paradigm generates new and possibly more effective counseling techniques by aligning and incorporating freedom with such ideas as agency, self‐determination, metacognition, mindfulness, and often unexamined Asian therapeutic techniques from yoga and Buddhism.     

Economic evaluation research in the context of Child Welfare policy: a structured literature review and recommendations

Objectives

With over 1 million children served by the US Child Welfare system at a cost of $20 billion annually, this study examines the economic evaluation literature on interventions to improve outcomes for children at risk for and currently involved with the system, identifies areas where additional research is needed, and discusses the use of decision-analytic modeling to advance Child Welfare policy and practice.

Methods

The review included 19 repositories of peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed “gray” literatures, including items in English published before November, 2009. Original research articles were included if they evaluated interventions based on costs and outcomes. Review articles were included to assess the relevance of these techniques over time and to highlight the increasing discussion of methods needed to undertake such research. Items were categorized by their focus on: interventions for the US Child Welfare system; primary prevention of entry into the system; and use of models to make long-term projections of costs and outcomes.

Results

Searches identified 2,640 articles, with 49 ultimately included (19 reviews and 30 original research articles). Between 1988 and 2009, reviews consistently advocated economic evaluation and increasingly provided methodological guidance. 21 of the original research articles focused on Child Welfare, while 9 focused on child mental health. Of the 21 Child Welfare articles, 81% (17) focused on the US system. 47% (8/17) focused exclusively on primary prevention, though 83% of the US system, peer-reviewed articles focused exclusively on prevention (5/6). 9 of the 17 articles included empirical follow-up (mean sample size: 264 individuals; mean follow-up: 3.8 years). 10 of the 17 articles used modeling to project longer-term outcomes, but 80% of the articles using modeling were not peer-reviewed. Although 60% of modeling studies included interventions for children in the system, all peer-reviewed modeling articles focused on prevention.

Conclusions

Methodological guidance for economic evaluations in Child Welfare is increasingly available. Such analyses are feasible given the availability of nationally representative data on children involved with Child Welfare and evidence-based interventions.

Practice implications

Policy analyses considering the long-term costs and effects of interventions to improve Child Welfare outcomes are scarce, feasible, and urgently needed.     

Strengthening Universal Primary Education in Uganda: The potential role of an asset-based development policy

This paper is divided into three complementary parts. First, we examine the challenges to the Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy in Uganda, including insufficient instructional materials and family-level poverty. Second, guided by asset theory, and based on a systematic review of studies on asset-based development programs and interventions, we assess the potential of these programs in addressing the challenges of UPE, and improving access to UPE. Third, we conclude with a discussion of the implication of using asset-based development as one structural-level approach that may strengthen the UPE policy.     

Differential effects of problem-solving demands on individual and collaborative learning outcomes

The effectiveness and efficiency of individual versus collaborative learning was investigated as a function of instructional format among 140 high school students in the domain of biology. The instructional format either emphasized worked examples, which needed to be studied or the equivalent problems, which needed to be solved. Because problem solving imposes a higher cognitive load for novices than does studying worked examples it was hypothesized that learning by solving problems would lead to better learning outcomes (effectiveness) and be more efficient for collaborative learners, whereas learning by studying worked examples would lead to better learning outcomes and be more efficient for individual learners. The results supported these crossover interaction hypothesis. Consequences of the findings for the design of individual and collaborative learning environments are discussed.     

The Relation Between Executive Functions,Fine Motor Skills,and Basic Numerical Skills and Their Relevance for Later Mathematics Achievement

Research Findings: This study examined the interrelations between fine motor skills, executive functions, and basic numerical skills in kindergarten as well as their predictive value for mathematics achievement in 2nd grade in a sample of 136 children. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to uncover the unique predictive value and mediation of 4 predictors. The results indicated that each of these factors made a unique contribution to the prediction of later mathematics achievement; when estimated simultaneously, basic numerical skills were the strongest predictor, which suggests that domain-specific factors have a greater impact on mathematics achievement than domain-general factors. A strong direct and indirect predictor was updating. Nevertheless, indirect effects of fine motor skills and an inhibition/switching factor indicated that domain-general skills have a direct impact on early domain-specific precursors and through them an indirect effect on mathematics achievement. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that the relationship between motor skills, executive functions, and mathematical skills is more complex in its nature. Therefore, to achieve the best outcome, all skills should be promoted if a child has difficulties with mathematics.     

Benefits of Systematic Phonics Instruction

Systematic-phonics instruction appears to be more effective than nonsystematic phonics instruction for teaching reading (Ehri, Nunes, Stahl, & Willows, 2001 Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Stahl, S. A. and Willows, D. M. 2001. Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panels meta-analysis.. Review of Educational Research, 71: 393–447. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the present study, a systematic phonics approach was directly compared with a nonsystematic phonics approach for kindergarten children. Both approaches were delivered using computer programs teaching the same Dutch grapheme–phoneme correspondences. Both phonics-trained groups progressed to the same extent on productive letter-sound knowledge compared to the control group. However, on measures of phonemic awareness, spelling, and reading, the systematic phonics group made more progress than the nonsystematic phonics group and the control group.