Children & Society最新文献

While there are many studies in the literature on out-of-school learning (OSL) environments, whose importance for learning is increasingly understood, studies involving parents and their views on these environments are rarely found. However, parents' contribution is extremely important and necessary for an efficient learning process. In this study, a survey was developed to determine parents' views on OSL environments. Thirty-seven parents were face-to-face interviewed regarding to their views on OSL environments. An item pool was formed based on these interviews. Then this pre-survey was administered to 702 voluntary parents. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have performed and a survey with 21 items has been obtained. The survey has three dimensions: contribution of OSL environments to children's cognitive development; contribution of OSL environments to skill development; and parents' concerns about out-of-school learning environments. According to the findings, a significant number of parents are aware of the contribution of out-of-school learning environments in terms of both cognitive and skill acquisition. Also, it is seen that the gender of the parents and the gender of their child do not make any significant difference in their views. Parents with a bachelor's degree believe that out-of-school learning environments will contribute more to their children's skill and cognitive development than parents with a primary and secondary school degree.

School readiness has a profound educational value for children's positive adjustment to primary school and holistic development. However, little research sufficiently addresses how young children view multifaceted components of learning, such as cognitive, affective and behavioural experiences on school readiness. A timely understanding of children's perceptions and experiences is crucial to shed light on how to promote transition and improve children's school readiness. This study investigated the perceptions and experiences of 41 children in China (5–6 years of age, 23 girls) regarding their school readiness based on Mosaic approach methods. The results indicated that young children have their own unique perceptions, emotional and behavioural experiences of school readiness. The perceptions of school readiness include four aspects of material supplies, subjects knowledge, interests and specialties and behavioural habits, which has similarities to that of adults in aspects of academic knowledge and social rules. Nevertheless, findings revealed young children view interests and strengths as important part of school readiness, reflecting their personal preferences and abilities. The emotional experiences could be considered positive or negative, with positive emotional experiences expressing children's curiosity and expectation, fulfilment and pleasure, and negative emotional experiences expressing academic burden, rules pressure and social worries, which need to be addressed. Young children's behavioural experiences with school readiness present two patterns of passive acceptance and active participation, they are eager to participate in activities and have a strong desire to explore and learn. Our findings extend beyond existing conception of school readiness, and give greater weight to children's interests and strengths, positive experiences and active participation. It is important to focus on children's intrinsic interests and strengths, accept children's ideas and choices, care for their emotional state and provide positive support.

Due to the difficulty in identifying and monitoring factors that cause hearing impairment during pregnancy, large numbers of new hearing-impaired children are born every year. Children's hearing impairment can have an impact on all aspects of the family. Family education, as an important element of family function, plays a key role in the growth and development of hearing-impaired children and in improving the interaction between hearing-impaired children and their parents. Based on a qualitative study in central China, this article examines the current situation and dilemmas of family education for hearing-impaired children. Results show that families of hearing-impaired children generally have a tendency to avoid family education responsibilities, as demonstrated by the lack of family roles, low participation in specific family education, absence of communication and care functions and a laissez-faire approach to bringing up their children. This evasive tendency cannot simply be attributed to parental irresponsibility; rather, it is the result of a combination of four factors and is closely related to insufficient social support. In the short term, a two-pronged approach is needed: strengthening the government's responsibility and rendering assistance for families with hearing-impaired children on the one hand, and establishing reliable links between home and school to provide professional support on the other. In the long run, it is necessary to build up a social support mechanism with social work intervention. This paper puts forward the need for collaboration among multiple parties and a family-centred assistance model to promote a shift from the tendency towards evasion to active assumption of family responsibility.

This article provides new perspectives on the transitions of children from military families. It examines the experiences and agency of a group of UK primary-school Service children who were undergoing far-reaching transitions while participating in an arts-based research project. Transitions are conceived here not as events, such as school moves, but as processes of changing, the dialogical interplay between ever-changing socio-cultural and physical environments and the psychological work individuals undertake in response to change. This reconceptualisation of transitions shifts attention away from children's resilience, or lack thereof, and towards unique, nuanced understandings of their subjective experiences and priorities. Presenting multimodal pieces created by three children as they explored the question, ‘What's it like to be a Service child in this school?’, I describe their diverse and agentic responses to their changing circumstances, as they sought to mitigate anticipated and past losses and perceived disadvantage and to use their transitions as positive opportunities for self-development. Although punctuated by observable moments of change, this transition work happened over an indefinite timescale, highlighting a need for long-term support informed by understandings of children's agency and priorities. Such support and insight may be achieved through developing spaces for multimodal dialogue with Service children.

Children who actively participate in their health interactions benefit from greater likelihood of better health outcomes, and development of competency, autonomy and decision-making skills. However, children are often passive participants in their health care. This study aims to improve understandings of child patients', parents' and health professionals' perceptions of children's participation as patients in health interactions, through a theoretical framework of child-centred care. An exploratory, qualitative design using a story completion method was used. Participants (28 children, 22 parents and 17 health professionals) constructed stories about a child patient's medical appointment. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings are discussed in relation to the themes of (1) children's willingness to participate, and (2) what doctors were perceived to be focussed on. Findings suggest that health professionals might require training to develop child-specific communication skills. Health care organisations should consider implementation of child-centred care principles in every aspect of services they provide.

This article explores the potential of feminist new materialisms for rethinking enduring debates that cohere around children, sexuality, age and ‘childhood innocence’. A new materialist ontology of sexuality and Karen Barad's concept of spacetimemattering are employed to conceptualise sexuality as an emergent becoming of relational material-discursive forces. Within this paradigm, mobilisation of arguments about ‘sexual innocence and readiness’ become a matter of entanglement of contingent ‘things’, ‘spaces’ and ‘ideas’, that includes young people's own sexual knowledge. We consider how this reorientation shifts the contours, debates and possibilities of sexuality education beyond restrictive ‘age-appropriate’ narratives.

This study explores the role of music and singing in fostering transformative caring relationships between fathers and their children. It aims to understand how these interactions contribute to fatherhood identity and relational dynamics, filling a significant gap in research on musical fatherhood. Employing a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, the study conducted open-ended interviews with eight fathers, analysing data through the lens of Paul Ricoeur's theory of interpretation. Findings reveal that musical activities enable fathers to engage intuitively and responsively with their children, facilitating a pre-verbal form of communication that deepens emotional bonds and enhances paternal identity. Music and singing emerge as powerful tools that transcend traditional parenting roles, allowing fathers to experience and express a potentiated sense of fatherhood marked by empathy, connection and care. This study highlights the profound impact of musical engagement on father–child relationships and suggests broader implications for emotional intelligence and gender roles in parenting.