D. Uttal, Meredith M. Amaya, María del Rosario Maita, L. L. Hand, C. Cohen, Katherine O’Doherty, J. Deloache
Three experiments compared performance and transfer among children aged 83–94 months after written or manipulatives instruction on two-digit subtraction. In Experiment 1a, children learned with manipulatives or with traditional written numerals. All children then completed a written posttest. Experiment 1b investigated whether salient or perceptually attractive manipulatives affected transfer. Experiment 2 investigated whether instruction with writing would transfer to a manipulatives-based posttest. Children demonstrated performance gains when the posttest format was identical to the instructed format but failed to demonstrate transfer from the instructed format to an incongruent posttest. The results indicate that the problem in transferring from manipulatives instruction to written assessments stems from a general difficulty in using knowledge gained in one format (e.g., manipulatives) in another format (e.g., writing). Taken together, the results have important implications for research and teaching in early mathematics. Teachers should consider making specific links and alignments between written and manipulatives-based representations of the same problems.
{"title":"It works both ways: Transfer difficulties between manipulatives and written subtraction solutions","authors":"D. Uttal, Meredith M. Amaya, María del Rosario Maita, L. L. Hand, C. Cohen, Katherine O’Doherty, J. Deloache","doi":"10.1155/2013/216367","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/216367","url":null,"abstract":"Three experiments compared performance and transfer among children aged 83–94 months after written or manipulatives instruction on two-digit subtraction. In Experiment 1a, children learned with manipulatives or with traditional written numerals. All children then completed a written posttest. Experiment 1b investigated whether salient or perceptually attractive manipulatives affected transfer. Experiment 2 investigated whether instruction with writing would transfer to a manipulatives-based posttest. Children demonstrated performance gains when the posttest format was identical to the instructed format but failed to demonstrate transfer from the instructed format to an incongruent posttest. The results indicate that the problem in transferring from manipulatives instruction to written assessments stems from a general difficulty in using knowledge gained in one format (e.g., manipulatives) in another format (e.g., writing). Taken together, the results have important implications for research and teaching in early mathematics. Teachers should consider making specific links and alignments between written and manipulatives-based representations of the same problems.","PeriodicalId":9783,"journal":{"name":"Child development research","volume":"2013 1","pages":"216367"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1155/2013/216367","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64392733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Objective. In this paper we examine the association between mothers’ attachment style and their infants’ sleep patterns. We hypothesized that low levels of anxiety and avoidance attachment orientations would enable the mother to use more efficient strategies to put her infant to sleep, and in time the infant will assimilate these strategies and consequently develop suitable and more independent sleep routines. Participants and Measures. The 125 mothers who participated in this study completed (a) a measure of attachment orientations (b) and a measure of mother’s perception of their infant’s sleep patterns. Results. The results indicated that the greater the mothers’ avoidance attachment orientation is, the longer it takes to put the child to bed at night, the more wakeful the child is at night, and the more the night wakings are. However, for mothers with high anxiety attachment orientation, there is a positive correlation between child’s age and the time it takes to put him/her to bed, such that the older the child, the longer it takes. Conclusions. The implications of the parent strategies for putting infants to bed on infants’ sleep patterns are discussed. Suggestions for future studies examining broader implications of the results are offered.
{"title":"The Relationship between Mothers’ Attachment Orientations and Their Infants’ Sleep Patterns","authors":"Diana Cohenca-Shiby, Shiri Schonbach-Medina","doi":"10.1155/2013/324217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/324217","url":null,"abstract":"Objective. In this paper we examine the association between mothers’ attachment style and their infants’ sleep patterns. We hypothesized that low levels of anxiety and avoidance attachment orientations would enable the mother to use more efficient strategies to put her infant to sleep, and in time the infant will assimilate these strategies and consequently develop suitable and more independent sleep routines. Participants and Measures. The 125 mothers who participated in this study completed (a) a measure of attachment orientations (b) and a measure of mother’s perception of their infant’s sleep patterns. Results. The results indicated that the greater the mothers’ avoidance attachment orientation is, the longer it takes to put the child to bed at night, the more wakeful the child is at night, and the more the night wakings are. However, for mothers with high anxiety attachment orientation, there is a positive correlation between child’s age and the time it takes to put him/her to bed, such that the older the child, the longer it takes. Conclusions. The implications of the parent strategies for putting infants to bed on infants’ sleep patterns are discussed. Suggestions for future studies examining broader implications of the results are offered.","PeriodicalId":9783,"journal":{"name":"Child development research","volume":"2013 1","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1155/2013/324217","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64406378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While in recent years there has been increasing research on body dissatisfaction in preadolescence and a small body of research on worry in association with eating disorders, less is known about their effects on school disaffection. Therefore, the current study examined possible gender-specific relations between body dissatisfaction, worry, and school disaffection. To identify possible strategies of intervention and prevention, sport involvement and general self-worth were tested as mediators. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test for the mediating role of sport involvement and general self-worth in the association between body dissatisfaction, worry, and school disaffection in a sample of 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students (; ) in elementary schools in Berlin, Germany. The results suggest that promoting feelings of general self-worth could be an effective starting point in decreasing the association between body dissatisfaction, worry, and school disaffection, in both boys and girls. Conversely, sport involvement was identified as a mediating factor for boys only.
{"title":"The Role of Sport Involvement and General Self-Worth in the Interplay between Body Dissatisfaction, Worry, and School Disaffection in Preadolescent Boys and Girls","authors":"D. Raufelder, S. Waak, A. Melchior, A. Ittel","doi":"10.1155/2013/835149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/835149","url":null,"abstract":"While in recent years there has been increasing research on body dissatisfaction in preadolescence and a small body of research on worry in association with eating disorders, less is known about their effects on school disaffection. Therefore, the current study examined possible gender-specific relations between body dissatisfaction, worry, and school disaffection. To identify possible strategies of intervention and prevention, sport involvement and general self-worth were tested as mediators. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test for the mediating role of sport involvement and general self-worth in the association between body dissatisfaction, worry, and school disaffection in a sample of 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students (; ) in elementary schools in Berlin, Germany. The results suggest that promoting feelings of general self-worth could be an effective starting point in decreasing the association between body dissatisfaction, worry, and school disaffection, in both boys and girls. Conversely, sport involvement was identified as a mediating factor for boys only.","PeriodicalId":9783,"journal":{"name":"Child development research","volume":"2013 1","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1155/2013/835149","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64277575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Conduct problems that emerge in childhood often persist into adolescence and are associated with a range of negative outcomes. It is therefore important to identify the factors that predict conduct problems in early childhood. The present study investigated the relations among maternal attachment status , mother-child emotion talk, child emotion understanding, and conduct problems in a sample of 92 (46 males) typically developing children (M age = 61.3 months, SD = 8.3 months). The results support a model in which maternal attachment status predicts the level of appropriate/responsive mother-child emotion talk, which predicts child emotion understanding, which in turn negatively predicts child conduct problems. These findings further underline the developmental role of mother-child emotion talk as well as the importance of involving parents in programs designed to increase children’s emotion understanding and/or decrease the incidence of conduct problems.
{"title":"Maternal Attachment Status, Mother-Child Emotion Talk, Emotion Understanding, and Child Conduct Problems","authors":"B. Farrant, M. Maybery, J. Fletcher","doi":"10.1155/2013/680428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/680428","url":null,"abstract":"Conduct problems that emerge in childhood often persist into adolescence and are associated with a range of negative outcomes. It is therefore important to identify the factors that predict conduct problems in early childhood. The present study investigated the relations among maternal attachment status , mother-child emotion talk, child emotion understanding, and conduct problems in a sample of 92 (46 males) typically developing children (M age = 61.3 months, SD = 8.3 months). The results support a model in which maternal attachment status predicts the level of appropriate/responsive mother-child emotion talk, which predicts child emotion understanding, which in turn negatively predicts child conduct problems. These findings further underline the developmental role of mother-child emotion talk as well as the importance of involving parents in programs designed to increase children’s emotion understanding and/or decrease the incidence of conduct problems.","PeriodicalId":9783,"journal":{"name":"Child development research","volume":"2013 1","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1155/2013/680428","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64203581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Mori, Hiroki Nakamoto, Hiroshi Mizuochi, Sachi Ikudome, C. Gabbard
Previous research indicates that the home environment is a significant factor in early child development. The present study examined influence of the multidimensional home environment on young Japanese children’s motor development. A Japanese translation of the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development-Self Report (AHEMD-SR) was used to assess home motor affordances in 262 families. Motor ability was assessed by parental report using the Enjoji Infant Analytic Developmental Test. We also asked parents to rate their own physical activity in terms of level and years of experience. As results, we found that the home environment in Japan was generally sufficient for children’s motor development and that children’s access to Fine Motor Toys (FMT) and Gross Motor Toys (GMT) had the strongest influence on their development. Analysis also indicated that AHEMD-SR scores were higher for children of parents who had some level of physical activity experience compared to children whose parents indicated no physical activity experience. Parents’ self-reported activity level was correlated with higher scores for the subscales FMT and GMT and for total AHEMD-SR score. These results indicate that both the physical and social-psychological environments (parental experience and views) of the home influenced children’s motor development.
{"title":"Influence of Affordances in the Home Environment on Motor Development of Young Children in Japan","authors":"S. Mori, Hiroki Nakamoto, Hiroshi Mizuochi, Sachi Ikudome, C. Gabbard","doi":"10.1155/2013/898406","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/898406","url":null,"abstract":"Previous research indicates that the home environment is a significant factor in early child development. The present study examined influence of the multidimensional home environment on young Japanese children’s motor development. A Japanese translation of the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development-Self Report (AHEMD-SR) was used to assess home motor affordances in 262 families. Motor ability was assessed by parental report using the Enjoji Infant Analytic Developmental Test. We also asked parents to rate their own physical activity in terms of level and years of experience. As results, we found that the home environment in Japan was generally sufficient for children’s motor development and that children’s access to Fine Motor Toys (FMT) and Gross Motor Toys (GMT) had the strongest influence on their development. Analysis also indicated that AHEMD-SR scores were higher for children of parents who had some level of physical activity experience compared to children whose parents indicated no physical activity experience. Parents’ self-reported activity level was correlated with higher scores for the subscales FMT and GMT and for total AHEMD-SR score. These results indicate that both the physical and social-psychological environments (parental experience and views) of the home influenced children’s motor development.","PeriodicalId":9783,"journal":{"name":"Child development research","volume":"2013 1","pages":"1-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1155/2013/898406","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64304585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Considerable efforts have been devoted to map the relations between the home environment and selected aspects of child’s development. A recent instrument was developed that aimed at assessing the affordances in the home environment, the AHEMD-SR. Although the AHEMD-SR gave insight into affordances in the home, it was focused on two specific populations from the United States and Portugal. Currently, there is limited research regarding the validity of this instrument when used in different cultures. The purpose of this study was to compare a sample of Middle Eastern children to the normative sample that was used to validate the AHEMD. Results showed a significance difference between the socioeconomic statuses between the groups. Concerning factor analysis, results showed that the Lebanese group had five factors loading as did the American/Portuguese sample but with variables loading differently. Interestingly, the Lebanese group showed higher scores for affordances inside the home such replica toys and games. Our findings show that the state of the environment may play a role in the affordances and development. Future work is needed to look at the specific loading and possible variables that may be included in the AHMED-SR to look at other cultures that may have other limitations.
{"title":"Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development: A Cross-Cultural Study between American and Lebanese Children","authors":"D. Ammar, Gabriel A. Acevedo, Alberto Cordova","doi":"10.1155/2013/152094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/152094","url":null,"abstract":"Considerable efforts have been devoted to map the relations between the home environment and selected aspects of child’s development. A recent instrument was developed that aimed at assessing the affordances in the home environment, the AHEMD-SR. Although the AHEMD-SR gave insight into affordances in the home, it was focused on two specific populations from the United States and Portugal. Currently, there is limited research regarding the validity of this instrument when used in different cultures. The purpose of this study was to compare a sample of Middle Eastern children to the normative sample that was used to validate the AHEMD. Results showed a significance difference between the socioeconomic statuses between the groups. Concerning factor analysis, results showed that the Lebanese group had five factors loading as did the American/Portuguese sample but with variables loading differently. Interestingly, the Lebanese group showed higher scores for affordances inside the home such replica toys and games. Our findings show that the state of the environment may play a role in the affordances and development. Future work is needed to look at the specific loading and possible variables that may be included in the AHMED-SR to look at other cultures that may have other limitations.","PeriodicalId":9783,"journal":{"name":"Child development research","volume":"2013 1","pages":"1-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1155/2013/152094","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64380306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We report a replication experiment of a mechanized version of the seminal wide-screen/narrow-screen design of Wilcox and Baillargeon (1998) with 9.5-month-old infants (). Two different methodologies were employed simultaneously: (a) the standard looking time paradigm and (b) eye tracking. Across conditions with three different screen sizes, the results from both methodologies revealed a clear and interesting pattern: the looking times increased as a significantly linear function of reduced screen sizes, that is, independently of the number of different objects involved. There was no indication in the data that the infants made use of the featural differences between the different-looking objects involved. The results suggest a simple, novel, and thought-provoking interpretation of the infants’ looking behavior in the wide-screen/narrow-screen design: moving objects are attractors, and the more space left for visible object movement in the visual field, the longer are infants’ looks. Consequently, no cognitive interpretation may be needed.
{"title":"Object Individuation or Object Movement as Attractor? A Replication of the Wide-Screen/Narrow-Screen Study by Means of (a) Standard Looking Time Methodology and (b) Eye Tracking","authors":"Peter Krøjgaard, O. Kingo, S. R. Staugaard","doi":"10.1155/2013/639702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/639702","url":null,"abstract":"We report a replication experiment of a mechanized version of the seminal wide-screen/narrow-screen design of Wilcox and Baillargeon (1998) with 9.5-month-old infants (). Two different methodologies were employed simultaneously: (a) the standard looking time paradigm and (b) eye tracking. Across conditions with three different screen sizes, the results from both methodologies revealed a clear and interesting pattern: the looking times increased as a significantly linear function of reduced screen sizes, that is, independently of the number of different objects involved. There was no indication in the data that the infants made use of the featural differences between the different-looking objects involved. The results suggest a simple, novel, and thought-provoking interpretation of the infants’ looking behavior in the wide-screen/narrow-screen design: moving objects are attractors, and the more space left for visible object movement in the visual field, the longer are infants’ looks. Consequently, no cognitive interpretation may be needed.","PeriodicalId":9783,"journal":{"name":"Child development research","volume":"2013 1","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1155/2013/639702","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64188974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
F. Vlachos, F. Gaillard, K. Vaitsis, A. Karapetsas
The aim of the present study is twofold. First, we tested the view that individuals who do not develop a typically strong behavioral laterality are distributed differentially among the two genders across age. Second, we examined whether left handedness and mixed handedness are associated with an elevated risk of some developmental or cognitive deficits. A special recruitment procedure provided norms of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) copy from large samples of left-handed (