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This article examines, how two Russian-speaking children (ages 9 and 11) learn Finnish morpho-syntactic structures in interaction in a transitional classroom at primary school. It also discusses whether the influence of the mother tongue is observable in the learning process. The study focuses on the development of prototypical possessive structure and standard negation. The data consist of 15 lessons, video-recorded during one school year. The episodes, including the structures used by the children, are analysed by drawing on the principles of conversation analysis. The analyses show that for both children the possessive structure appears to be more complex to learn than the standard negation. However, the children’s acquisition of these structures follows different paths. At the end of the semester, the younger child’s possessive has not become established in Finnish, whereas the older child has begun to use it in accordance with the target language norms. The negation, however, follows the target language norms, in both children’s speech.

Though Bahasa becomes the second language in Indonesia, some lower class students of primary school face difficulties in compiling sentences into short texts. The present study aims to design a SeW – Sentence Writing quartet card for assisting the Grade 2 students of primary school in making short texts. The SeW quartet card was designed by following the design thinking steps namely empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. This was designed by adopting the concept of quartet card game and pictoral card games which the students are familiar with. The study has not been tested to the real students, however, the product has been successfully tested to a younger child as well as the group of Grade 2 teachers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.Keywords: design thinking, SeW quartet card, short text, Bahasa

Participant attrition is a significant challenge for longitudinal studies, particularly those involving disadvantaged populations. We attempted to re-engage n = 990 families in a five-year follow-up of a randomised controlled trial of an early childhood parenting intervention. Tracing was attempted for n = 90/990 (9.1%) uncontactable participants. Evidence for the identification of a matching Facebook profile was classified as strong, moderate or weak. A private message was sent to those with strong evidence (n = 63/90, 70.0%), of which 32 responded, 22 agreed to participate and 19 provided data. Compared to participants engaged using traditional methods, those re-engaged through Facebook were more likely at initial recruitment to have a younger child (p =.02), to be a single parent (p =.04), less educated (p

AIMS: The study sought to 1) characterize the types and frequency of session-level adaptations made to multiple evidence-based practices (EBPs) and 2) identify therapist-, client- and session-level predictors of adaptations. METHOD: Within the community implementation of multiple EBPs, 103 community mental health therapists reported on 731 therapy sessions for 280 clients. Therapists indicated whether they adapted EBPs in specific sessions and described adaptations in open-ended responses. Responses were coded using the Augmenting and Reducing adaptations framework. Multilevel logistic regression analyses examined predictors of Augmenting and Reducing adaptations. RESULTS: Therapists reported making adaptations in 59% of sessions. Augmenting adaptations were reported more frequently than Reducing adaptations. Multilevel models showed that greater therapist openness to EBPs, younger child age, and presenting problems were associated with Augmenting adaptations. Child presenting problem of externalizing problems predicted fewer Reducing adaptations compared to internalizing problems. CONCLUSION: This study extends the growing research examining adaptations within the context of system-driven implementation of multiple EBPs by applying the Augmenting and Reducing adaptation framework to the session-level.

The Top Problems assessment is an idiographic measure of client concerns that may allow clinicians to identify early treatment response. Few studies have examined early response to evidence-based therapies using Top Problems. We collected weekly Top Problems ratings from 95 youth with emotional disorders who received treatment using the Unified Protocols for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children and Adolescents (UP-C/UP-A). We assessed Top Problems rating change from session 1 to session 4, the role of pre-treatment variables in early Top Problems rating change, and the role of early Top Problems rating change in post-treatment symptom outcomes. Top Problems ratings decreased significantly from session 1 to session 4. Younger child age and higher parent cognitive flexibility were associated with early Top Problems improvement. Controlling for pre-treatment, early Top Problems rating change did not explain the variance in post-treatment outcomes. Future research should examine Top Problems trajectories over treatment course.

Despite difficulties in reading and writing, some research suggests that dyslexia may be related to higher levels of creativity. However, this pattern is not consistently observed. The current research sought to ascertain whether individuals with clinically diagnosed dyslexia exhibit higher creativity than controls through a meta-analysis. Fourteen studies that assessed the creativity of 397 individuals with clinically diagnosed dyslexia and 453 controls were reviewed. Random-effects meta-analysis revealed an overall non-significant difference in creativity scores between those with dyslexia and controls. Additionally, method factors such as the type of creativity task and whether intelligence was controlled for, as well as sample-related factors such as gender, did not explain differences in the dyslexia-creativity relationship. Nonetheless, individuals with dyslexia significantly outperformed controls in creativity scores in adult samples, but not in younger child/adolescent samples. Overall, the current findings provide limited support for the idea that individuals with dyslexia are more creative, and that past evidence of this relationship may be limited to adult samples.

Siblings’ influence on youth aggressive behavior has been found in previous studies, but further research is needed in order to better understand both the shared relations between siblings’ levels of proactive and reactive subtypes of aggression as well as the factors contributing to this relationship, such as parent behavior. The current study extended the literature by examining the influence of older siblings’ proactive and reactive aggression on younger siblings and whether these associations were influenced by levels of observed parental criticism. Participants were 50 parent–child dyads. Children in each dyad (52% female; 76% Caucasian) were between the ages of 10 and 15 (M = 11.52; SD = 1.25). Parent-reported measures of their younger and older siblings’ proactive and reactive aggression were collected. Next, parents and the younger child engaged in a conversation task which was coded for parental criticism using a modified version of the Family Interaction Task. Results demonstrated that older siblings’ reactive aggression was positively associated with younger siblings’ reactive aggression and that the strength of this influence depended on levels of parental criticism (β = 0.21; SE = 0.10; p 0.00), such that stronger sibling influence was observed at greater levels of parental criticism. No influence of older siblings’ levels of proactive aggression was evident. Findings suggest that the degree of parental criticism is particularly salient when examining the association between siblings’ aggression.

Manufacturers label their sleeping bags with a temperature rating to assist consumers in selecting a bag that will provide them with an acceptable level of thermal protection under the expected conditions of use. These temperature ratings are typically based on thermal manikin testing and whole-body heat loss models. Due to physical and physiological differences between children and adults, existing adult sleeping bag temperature rating models cannot be applied to children's bags. Therefore, a model for determining the temperature ratings of children's sleeping bags is proposed. Issues related to measuring the thermal insulation of children's sleeping bags are also discussed. The results of the model indicate that an older child has a higher temperature rating than a younger child for the same level of insulation. This is due to the higher sleeping metabolic rate of younger children.

Background Mothers with lifelong care responsibilities might involuntarily be non-employed or work part-time, both of which are defined as “underemployment.” This study aimed to investigate who these underemployed mothers are and what are the factors associated with such employment hardship when having a child with intellectual disability (ID). Method An interview survey was conducted in 2011 in two local authorities of Taiwan on 876 working-age mothers with a child with intellectual disability; 514 of them were working part-time/non-employed and chosen as participants of this study. Results The mothers with a younger child with intellectual disability, a higher level of education, a lower level of family income and more family members with disabilities were more likely to be underemployed compared with the mothers who were voluntarily working part-time/non-employed. Conclusions The underemployed mothers were more likely to have financial difficulty and heavy caregiving loads; their employment hardship should be of concern for policymakers. peerReviewed

The aim of this chapter is to methodologically characterize a group of contemporary children’s films that have rarely been addressed as a separate category, namely live-action/animation hybrids. Using four recent films, the chapter illustrates a range of possible relationships between the analogue (live-filmed) and computer-generated content and the likely impact on the child viewer of various configurations of such hybrids. In particular, the chapter addresses the role of the live child actor and the function of animated creatures. Because many live-action/animation hybrids are directed toward the younger child audience represented by a G rating, this chapter also addresses the child viewer’s developing ability to distinguish between real and unreal and the role of attachment to fictional characters/creatures in developing empathy.

Monosyllabic place holders (MPHs) have been studied extensively in first-language (L1) acquisition of Spanish and other Romance languages. However, the study of MPHs in second-language (L2) acquisition, both by children and adults, has received much less attention. This study provides evidence for the presence of MPHs in the L2 Spanish of two L1 Moroccan Arabic children living in Spain. The age difference between the children (10;9 for Rachida and 6;10 for Khalid) allows us to address the issue of whether the younger child would use MPHs, as is the case in L1 acquisition. However, what the data show is that both children used MPHs, although Khalid’s MPH rate was slightly higher than Rachida’s. Therefore, based on these findings we argue that MPHs can constitute a strategy available for all child learners of Spanish.

Previous research demonstrates that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can experience social difficulties. Therefore, the current study examined the effects of cross-age peer coaching on social behaviors of first graders with significant symptoms of ADHD using a multiple baseline design. Four students who met criteria for ADHD participated, along with four third- or fourth-grade coaches without ADHD. Coaching pairs met each morning to establish a goal for the younger child to meet during free time. Although results were variable, findings suggested that the cross-age coaching program led to decreases in negative social behavior, and was highly acceptable to participants.

Although mild homesickness during summer camp is common, 10 to 20% of children report moderate to severe homesickness that can interfere with their functioning during camp. Previous research has considered many risk and protective factors for homesickness, including prior camp experience and coping strategies. Few studies have examined the role of parent or child anxiety. Both are associated with child adjustment difficulties in school and clinic settings, but have rarely been examined in the camp setting. This exploratory study examined parents' worries about sending their children to camp, and children's anxiety symptoms in predicting homesickness during overnight summer camp. Participants included 275 children and adolescents (7 to 14 years, 131 male and 144 female). At the beginning of camp, parents/guardians reported their anxious expectations, and children completed several items from the Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). Near the end of camp, children reported the amount of homesickness they experienced using items from the Rate Your Day-Revised checklist. The regression model accounted for 36% of the variance in homesickness, with younger child age, less prior camp experience, higher parental anxious expectations, and greater child separation anxiety uniquely predicting homesickness. Implications for including strategies for parents in homesickness prevention programs are discussed.

We examined the relationship between the parents' education levels and the adult intelligence of their children in a population-based, nationwide sample of Norwegian half-brothers with different fathers (2,016 pairs of half-brothers). In a family where the mother has two children with different men, the firstborn child usually lives with the younger child's father during a period of their childhood. This makes it possible to study the non-genetic effects of paternal education on children's development. Results showed that the education level of the younger half-brother's father was positively associated with the intelligence score of the older half-brother. The education level of the older half-brother's father was not associated with the intelligence score of the younger half-brother. Firstborn men whose half-brothers' fathers had high levels of education had intelligence scores that were 33% (95% confidence interval: 18-47%) of a standard deviation higher than those of firstborn men whose half-brothers' fathers had low levels of education, after adjustment for the biological fathers' education levels, mothers' education levels, and other background factors. These findings are compatible with the hypothesis that a child's family environment exerts an effect on the cognitive abilities of the child that lasts into adulthood.

This qualitative longitudinal study focuses on analyses of journals written by 31 sixth grade students who participated in the Chapel Buddy program. The Chapel Buddy program is a developmental mentoring program that pairs sixth graders with kindergarten students. Mentors responded to guided writing prompts three times during the course of the year. Prompts were designed to encourage mentors to explore their role as mentors and their understanding of the mentor–mentee relationship. Results indicated that the program presented a rich, experiential learning opportunity for the sixth graders to develop a relationship with a younger child, to reflect on what it means to be in a helping relationship, and to examine their experiences as “big kids.” Sixth graders varied in their ability to successfully engage and manage their kindergarten mentees, which in turn meaningfully affected the mentors’ satisfaction. Strategies to maximize the educational value of developmental mentoring programs with younger mentors are...

This study examined the features of maternal involvement in Korean children's early education and their relation to contextual variables and three forms of parental cognition. For this study 333 Korean mothers with 5 to 7 year-old children completed questionnaires that covered aspects such as demographical characteristics, three forms of involvement in their children's education, and three forms of parental cognition. Descriptive analysis indicated that mothers who were more involved in monitoring homework paid more monthly activity fees for supplementary classes and engaged more in cognitively stimulating activities at home. Financial investment in supplementary classes for children was not associated with engagement in cognitively stimulating activities at home. Stepwise regression analysis found that mothers who were more involved in monitoring their young childrens homework expressed higher aspirations for their childrens future occupation. Korean mothers who paid more for their child's supplementary classes had higher family incomes. Korean mothers who engaged more often in cognitively stimulating activities at home expressed higher parental self-efficacy, had a higher educational level, had a younger child, and had an earlier birth order or only child.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols for anxiety disorders have been shown to have efficacy with older children and adolescents; however, only recently have investigators begun to adapt and pilot such interventions for younger children. This article reviews data suggesting that even very young children can benefit from CBT for anxiety, discusses some of the necessary developmental adaptations when working with children of preschool and early elementary school age, and reviews studies that have implemented CBT for anxiety disorders with youngsters in this age range. The authors conclude with recommendations for future directions for research in this area.

Following an acrimonious divorce or separation, arguments are frequently presented as to why a child should not be with a nonresident parent. The custodial parent, whether a father or a mother, uses the concept of a child being attached to himself or herself and therefore this should prevent the child from having actual or reasonable contact with the absent parent. This view is based on antagonism between the former partners rather than the importance of the attachment theory being relevant. The attachment theory is also used to discredit the intentions of the noncustodial parent. This is especially the case for the younger child. With older children this is not likely to be as relevant. The history of the development of the attachment theory commencing with Bowlby and Ainsworth is presented, and the counterarguments are also presented. Attachment to the mother is obviously important initially but attachment to the father is equally important to the child and such bonding is likely to lead to positive emo...

This study evaluated emotional functioning in parents of children with food allergy and examined child factors as correlates of caregiver adjustment. Questionnaire data regarding parent subjective distress and emotional resources, allergy characteristics, and child behaviors were gathered from 282 caregivers of food-allergic children. Parents reported experiencing mild-to-moderate distress related to guilt and worry, unresolved anger and sorrow, and long-term uncertainty. Greater distress was associated with caring for a younger child and having a child with emotional or behavioral problems. Parents who perceived having more emotional resources endorsed less distress and had children with fewer emotional or behavioral problems.

This article focuses on key stages in the assessment of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. The main stages of the assessment interview are considered, including preparation for the interview, interview with the family, interview and observation of the child, interview with the parents, physical examination, and investigations, as well as the gathering of information from other sources. Some contextual factors are then considered in the formulation of the child’s difficulties. Key points are discussed as to how assessment of the adolescent may differ from that of a younger child and how the interview with an adolescent may be conducted in an ‘adolescent-friendly’ fashion.

A sample of 917 children, aged 7 to 17 years, their parents, and their teachers each completed the appropriate version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and 120 from each group did so again 2 weeks later. The results indicate that the SDQ demonstrates sound interinformant and test-retest reliability. Younger children, whose self-reports have not been assessed in previous studies, were reliable in their responding, although not as reliable as older children by these measures. However, the internal reliability of the various subscales, in particular, the peer problems subscale, is questionable for both older and younger child respondents. Overall the findings suggest that the SDQ's use may be extended cautiously to include self-report from younger children.

In this paper the course of the therapy of an adopted latency-aged girl is described in some detail. There was considerable improvement outside the sessions while within sessions she remained a not-very-vocal child and continued to play in the way that a younger child might. The clinical material is examined in a discussion of the possible therapeutic factors.

In three studies we investigated the question of whether children consider the attributes of the artist (sentience, age level, affective style, emotion) when making judgments about the traces (drawings) made by that artist. In Study 1, 2‐ 5-year-old children were asked to find pictures drawn by a machine, an adult, an older and a younger child. Results indicated that children younger than 4 years do not consider the artists’ attributes when making judgments, but 4- and 5-year-olds do. Furthermore, whereas the oldest children were adept at both machine‐ person (sentience) and person‐ person (age) contrasts, 4-year-olds succeeded only with person‐ person contrasts. In Study 2, videotaped artists displayed differences in degree of agitation (affective style) while drawing, and this attribute was manipulated in the drawing by varying line density, asymmetry, line overlap and line gap, or all four features, across stimuli. Three- and five-year-old children judged whether a calm or agitated person drew the stimuli. Findings showed that five-year-old, but not 3-year-old, children easily completed the task. In Study 3, 3-, 5- and 7-year-old children judged whether happy or sad artists made paintings of matching emotional tone. Performance on this picture judgment task was contrasted with performance on three theory of mind tasks (false belief, emotion and interpretative). The results indicated that 5- and 7-year-olds successfully judged the impact of artists’ emotions on paintings, but 3-year-olds did not. Performance on the picture task was related to that on the false belief task, but not to the emotion or interpretive tasks. Taken together, the results suggest that children’ s view of visual symbols includes a consideration of the qualities of the artist beginning around 5 years, and there appears to be a common link between judgments of the mind behind the visual symbol in the picture task and judgments of mental state reasoning in the false belief task.

Over the past three decades numerous studies from the English-speaking world have pointed to the advantages for young children of family involvement in their literacy development. However, their emphasis has always been firmly and almost exclusively upon parentsworking with children in specific waysand often using school-sanctioned materials. This article investigates the role played by young siblings close in age in each others’ literacy development and argues for a unique reciprocity in learning between older and younger child. Thus it steps outside hitherto recognized paradigms of ‘scaffolding’ and ‘collaborative learning’. This reciprocity of learning I refer to as a synergywhereby siblings act as adjuvants, stimulating and fostering each others’ development. Using examples from Bangladeshi and Anglo children living in East London, the article traces ways in which synergy takes place between dyads through play activities in home and community contexts.

The effects of trauma in children are amply documented. This paper investigated the relationship between children's age and posttraumatic clusters of symptoms 30 months after the end of the Gulf War and the mother's reaction to the trauma 6 and 30 months after the war. Fifty-one children aged 6 to 8 years (3 to 5 years during the war) and their mothers were interviewed. Results showed no age differences in the various posttraumatic symptoms of the children. Correlations between the children's posttraumatic symptoms and both the general and the specific posttraumatic symptoms of their mothers were positive and significant in the 6-year-olds, positive and nonsignificant in the 7-year-olds, and nonsignificant and mostly negative in the 8-year-olds. These findings may reflect the developmental changes that render the older child more autonomous and the younger child rigidly attached to the mother after a traumatic event.

Pre-school siblings' comments about, and behaviour towards, their older, learning-disabled brothers and sisters are reported. Initially, some of the very young siblings want to be similar, and attempt to imitate their brothers and sisters, particularly if he or she is also physically disabled; this may be because of the immediate visibility of physical disability, which makes it appear interesting and important to the younger child. Before they are 2 years old, children are able to recognize that their older brothers and sisters are different, and often imitate the parents' behaviour towards the older child.

A group of 13 child sex abusers over the age of 65 years is described. They are similar in most respects to sex offenders against children in other age groups, with regard to the seriousness of the abusive behaviours described, but they differ in terms of being of higher socioeconomic status, having stable backgrounds and reporting low rates of personal sexual victimization. These factors may contribute to their apparent skill in avoiding detection. In common with younger child sex abusers, these elderly offenders demonstrate low levels of psychiatric illness, and in particular of organic disorders. There appears to be an increased tendency by the courts to consider non-custodial disposal options for elderly sex offenders as they are perceived as being less of a risk and their physical frailty may make them less able to tolerate the rigours of prison life.

A play skills self-report questionnaire in game form was administered to 72 children aged between 4 years 10 months and 7 years 6 months. The same questions were answered by a parent and teacher of each child. The aim was to establish how children's perceptions of their play skills differed from those of their parents and teachers. Twenty-two children were retested after 1 month to examine test-retest reliability. The influence of age and gender on play self-report and on parent and teacher report, and the effect of position in the family, were also examined. Results indicated that children's views of their play skills were different from adults. Child and parent absolute agreement was significant to P = 0.05 on 6 questions, and child and teacher on 1. There was a significant positive correlation between means of parent and teacher responses (r = 0.42, P = 0.0025) but not betweeen child and parent or child and teacher. Some consistency over time in the children's own view was found (7 questions showed significant agreement to P = 0.05). There was no significant interaction between age, gender and total score, but a significant gender difference for teacher mean score (z =-2.31, P = 0.02) was identified. Means of parents with only one child and those with the subject and one younger child were significantly different (t = 3.48, d.f. = 23, P = 0.002). These results suggest that further investigation of methods for children to self-report their play skills is warranted.

Most of the children who attend Literacy Space are in the early elementary years, between aged six and ten. But sometimes a parent wants to bring an older student, a preteen or tween. Frequently, he or she is the older sibling of the younger child who has been referred to Literacy Space. Julisa was one such girl. Her nine-year-old brother Ernesto was referred and Julisa’s dad asked if Julisa, who wasn’t doing well in sixth grade, could come along too.

We assessed parental differential treatment of siblings (maternal time, affection, discipline) in normal and high-risk families. Differential treatment was measured using home interviews, nightly phone ratings, and daily diaries tracking how mothers spent their time. Subjects were 40 mothers of toddlers (average age 2 years) and preschoolers (average age 4 1/2 years): half were caring for a younger child with a chronic illness (i.e., cystic fibrosis), and half were caring for two healthy children. Little evidence of parental differential treatment was found in the home or phone interview data. However, on the diary variables, both quantitative and qualitative differences in parental treatment were found in cystic fibrosis (CF) versus comparison families. Specifically, mothers spent more individual time with younger, chronically ill children in play and mealtime activities than with their older, healthy siblings. Further, mothers in the CF group rated time spent with older children as significantly more negative than time spent with younger children. Convergence between measures of differential treatment and advantages of using a high-risk comparison approach are discussed.

This study identified and quantified rambling and trembling properties of the postural control system of children 4–12 years of age. Forty five children of varying ages (4-, 8-, and 12-years) and 15 adults stood upright on a force plate and performed 5 trials with and 5 trials without vision with each trial lasting 30 s. Center of pressure, rambling, trembling, mean sway amplitude, and predominant frequency were obtained. Results revealed that the displacement of the center of pressure and overall rambling trajectories were age-related with younger children swaying more than older children and adults. Similarly, overall trembling trajectories for younger children were larger compared with older children and adults. These results suggested that a younger child’s larger body sway mostly results from difficulties using sensory information when estimating overall body position and velocity in an upright stance and is less a result from the noise in the postural control system.

The present study examined children's perceptions of other children's ability to make moral judgements. Preschool, kindergarten, first- and second-grade children rated the permissibility of moral transgressions for a same-age peer, a younger child and an older child. Children also were asked why the transgressions were wrong. Preschool and kindergarten children rated transgressions equally wrong for a same-age peer, a younger and an older child, whereas first and second graders rated transgressions for a same-age peer and an older child as more wrong than for a younger child. Preschoolers stated they did not know why the transgressions were wrong for a younger child, while kindergarten children reasoned that a younger child did not know the rules. First and second graders reasoned that a same-age peer and an older child should know ‘better’, but a younger child would not know ‘better’. Results suggest that children's perceptions of others' moral knowledge is related to children's ability to coordinate domains of social knowledge when making judgements of others' moral transgressions.

This article is focused on children providing and financing long-term care for their elderly parent. The aim of this work is to highlight the interactions that may take place among siblings when deciding whether or not to become a caregiver. We look at families with two children using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe; our sample contains 314 dependent elderly and their 628 adult children. In order to identify the interactions between siblings, we have specified a two-person discrete game model. To estimate this model, without invoking the 'coherency' condition, we have added an endogenous selection rule to solve the incompleteness problem arising from multiplicity or absence of equilibrium. Our empirical results suggest that the three classical effects identified by Manski could potentially explain the observed correlation between the siblings' caregiving behaviour. Correlated effects alone appear to be weak. Contextual interactions and endogenous interactions reveal cross-effects. The asymmetric character of the endogenous interactions is our most striking result. The younger child's involvement appears to increase the net benefit of caregiving for the elder one, whereas the elder child's involvement decreases the net benefit of caregiving for the younger child.

The acquisition of reading is a complex neurobiologic process. Identifying the most effective instruction and remedial intervention methods for children at risk of developing reading problems and for those who are already struggling is equally complex. This article aims to provide the clinician with a review of more current findings on the prevention and remediation of reading problems in children, along with an approach to considering the diagnosis and treatment of a child with dyslexia. The first part of the review describes interventions targeted at preventing reading difficulties in the at-risk younger child. The second part of the review discusses the efficacy of approaches to treat the older, reading-disabled child (“intervention studies”). Factors that impact the response to treatment are also discussed, as are neuroimaging studies that offer insight into how the brain responds to treatment interventions. With appropriate instruction, at-risk readers can become both accurate and fluent readers. In contrast, although intensive, evidence-based remedial interventions can markedly improve reading accuracy in older, reading-disabled children, they have been significantly less effective in closing the fluency gap. Owing to the dynamic course of language development and the changes in language demands over time, even after a child has demonstrated a substantial response to treatment interventions, his or her subsequent progress should be carefully tracked to ensure optimal progress toward the development of functional reading and written language skills. ( J Child Neurol 2004;19:744—758).

When a child with a disability is born, reaction of most parents, regardless of gender, span a range of feelings, starting from denial, shock, anger to, hopefully, at last, reconciliation with the circumstances. Different research studies have shown that most of such parents experience increased levels of stress and extended responsibility due to their new situation, and gender differences do determine the experience and reaction to the situation and also the health and well-being of those affected. Women tend to be more affected by stressful life events in general than men, especially when these events affect individuals with whom they have a relationship, such as family members. Women also report a decreased sense of control in stressful situations*they experience more psychological distress and depression and they tend to use more emotion-focused coping-strategies than men such as verbalizing the problems and seeking support from others. Mothers of children with disabilities experience a higher level of stress and depression than fathers. It has been proven that the depressive symptoms of the mothers increase with the age of the child. This is related to the expectance of the child’s need for care. A younger child is expected to require more care than an older child, having a disability or not. Mothers of children with disabilities also report a higher rate of marital dissatisfaction while the same does not apply to their fathers. The more severe the mother’s subjective perception of the child’s disability, the higher the rate of marital discord reported, which is probably because the more severe the child’s disability, the more time the mother has to spend with the child, leaving very little time left to be spent with her spouse. (Published: 16 April 2014) Citation: Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being 2014, 9 : 24343 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v9.24343

Stealing a car, physically assaulting a younger child, running away from home, and talking back to a teacher are all actions that would be viewed with concern and perhaps condemnation by most members of society. However, whether these constitute illegal acts and whether the youth committing them would be considered a youthful offender depends on a number of considerations, including the laws and policies of the community in which the acts were committed and the age of the youth. Thus, running away from home constitutes a violation of the criminal code in some jurisdictions but not others. Similarly, the theft of a car by an 11-year old would be considered a criminal offense in some areas while in others the child would be too young to be charged with a crime. The implications of this variability in definition extend beyond the mere labeling of acts as criminal or noncriminal since they also determine whether or not the youth is designated as a juvenile offender.

Caring for disabled children has become increasingly the responsibility of parents, even when the medical care is complex. To assess the time commitment required, 133 mothers of disabled children were asked to estimate by specific task categories the extra time required to care for the children. Total average daily care time was reported at 12 hours and 6 minutes, with 6 hours and 30 minutes consumed in "vigilant" tasks (i.e., watching a child who cannot be left alone and/or providing emotional support). Multiple regression analysis showed an increase in total caregiving hours associated with a younger child who was more physically and mentally impaired, and who required more medical treatments. The amount of time required by parents to care for their chronically ill children of necessity results in lost opportunities. Because this burden is experienced primarily by women and because professional nurses could alleviate some of the burden, this issue deserves further study.

For children to be able to work with a partner when they reach the age of five, these skills need to be developed at a much earlier stage, when they are four, or even three. The important thing to remember is that the activities you use to develop these skills must be appropriate for the younger child and start at a simple level. This will allow the child to identify the most basic elements of working with a partner, such as taking turns, observing and remembering what your partner is doing and sharing equipment with your partner.

Mothers told stories to their children, inserting 30 questions about each story under two conditions. In one situation, mothers were alone with their younger child, and in the other condition, an older sibling was also present. During the question-answer interactions, older siblings responded to 60%–65% of all mothers' questions before younger children had a chance to respond and provided direct answers to the questions in 57%–65% of those instances. Mothers responded by producing fewer rephrased questions, fewer questions providing hints and answers, fewer questions functioning as repetitions and expansions, and more directly repeated questions when the older sibling was present. The effect of older siblings' first responses also reduced by half the number of younger children's utterances. The younger children produced fewer noncontent and content answers and more imitated answers in the presence of the older sibling. It is concluded that the presence of older siblings may influence the language young children hear and produce.

English monosyllables were elicited from five adults, from seven children aged 4 to 7 years, and from six of these children, plus a younger child, 14 months later. The durations of clustered and unclustered consonants were measured oscillographically, and patterns of durational change for segments in similar phonetic contexts were compared for the three speaker groups. All common word-initial clusters of English were included. Overall, more mature speakers imposed more organization upon the segments of consonant clusters: the younger child group resembled the adults less than the older group did, with the latter resembling each of the other groups about equally. Within this general pattern, several factors influenced the maturity of production of particular clusters: in older children, manner of articulation of the whole sequence and place of articulation of individual segments were the strongest determinants of maturity of execution, whereas the cluster’s size (two vs three segments), and whether it was homorganic or nonhomorganic, appeared to be more influential with the younger children. The children generally appeared to change gradually towards the adult norm with age, but the patterns of modification for some clusters, notably those involving voiceless stops, moved away from the adult pattern in the older children’s speech.

Early differences in mother-infant interaction were examined as a function of infant birth order and birth spacing. One hundred ninety-three 3-monthold infants and their mothers were observed in the home for a 2-hour period during which a wide variety of mother and infant behaviors were recorded. Birth-order effects were significant, with firstborns generally receiving and emitting behavior more frequently than later borns. Birth-spacing effects were significant for maternal behavior, such that very closely and widely spaced infants received more maternal attention than middle-spaced groups. Both biological and environmental interpretations of these data are offered. The data are related to the theoretical model of the reciprocal nature of the infant-caregiver relationship. The status of the infant in the family constellation was chosen as the context in which to observe mother-infant interaction. The birth order and birth spacing of infants were considered because these family status variables are hypothesized to have an impact on infant and caregiver behavior. In the case of the caregiver, the amount of available time and energy that can be devoted to a given child may be affected by the number of children in the family and the spacing between a given child and the next older and younger siblings. For example, a mother's time and energy might, by necessity, be more divided between two children spaced 2 years apart than two children spaced 6 years apart, especially when the younger child is an infant. In the 2-year spacing, the older child would not yet be self-sufficient and would need consistent care and attention, which might take the mother away from the infant, whereas in the 6-year spacing, the older child would be in school, developing a social network

A younger child may be a family's sacrificial lamb bearing the brunt of considerable physical punishment and deflecting such abuse from other family members

Summary The effect of child spacing and family size on intelligence, personality, and social competence were studied in 533 suburban, middle class children in large (five or more) and small (two-child) families. Spacing was measured as to the next oldest sibling (Space-Old) and to the next youngest (Space-Young). Spacing measures were trichotomized into three categories: close (18 months or less), medium (19 to 30 months), and distant (more than 30 months). Standardized intelligence scores, the Test of Effective Academic Motivation, the Cattell High School Personality Questionnaire, questions about their participation in clubs, level of occupational aspiration, job orientation, and other personality scales were used. In corroboration with the Zajonc and Marcus model, the more closely spaced younger child was found to be less intelligent. However, these closely spaced children were also found to belong to more athletic teams, to be more interested in getting a job, and to be more ambitious occupationally. ...

A sample of 440 full-time employed couples from 11 states was examined to determine the differences between time spent on housework by husbands and wives in rural and urban areas. More time is spent in housework in rural families than in urban families because time spent in housework is greater for rural women than for urban women, while rural and urban husbands' times do not differ. Education of spouses, job status differentials, and age of the younger child do not significantly interact with rural-urban residence and sex of the spouse. However, family income does significantly influence the relationship between time spent on housework for rural and urban husbands and wives.

Four- and six-year-olds were asked questions about hypothetical situations in which a child was to perform one of three cognitive activities: (1) to remember something, (2) to communicate a message, or (3) to attend to a visual array. Questions focused on the child's understanding of the following four facts about the variables under study: (1) that it is easier to cognize about a shorter than a longer list (length), (2) that it is easier to cognize in the absence of noise than in its presence (noise), (3) that an adult or older child will find a cognitive problem to be easier than will a younger child (age), and (4) that it is generally easier to cognize with more time than with less time (time). Results indicated that the pattern of understanding was the same across the different cognitive activities, that there was a higher level of accuracy in answering questions about length and noise than about age and time, and that, over all, the 6-year-olds were more accurate than the 4-year-olds.

Twenty-one children between the ages of 4∶6 and 5∶2 years made a speaker doll address other dolls that represented an adult, a peer, and a younger listener in command and request situations. Analyses of the politeness of the elicited directives revealed that the effect of the listener's age was greatest in the command situations,with the adult listener receiving the politest directives, followed by the peer and the younger child, respectively. The listener age effect diminished in the request situations, where the child had to ask a favor of the listener. In these situations, the children were very polite to all three listeners. The results are discussed in terms of status relationships between the speaker and the listener.

College students were asked to establish priorities for assigning tutorial help to children failing in school. They were to rate the children on the basis of various combinations of sex, age, kind of behavior problem, and subject of school difficulty. The variables selected for top priority were boys, the older child, acting-out behavior, and difficulty in reading. Variables of lowest priority were girls, the younger child, withdrawn behavior, and difficulty in arithmetic. The child's sex interacted with type of behavior in such a way that withdrawn boys and acting-out girls — both deviations from the norm — were considered to need more help than children whose behavior conformed to the norm for their sex.

In the context of an adapted referential communication task the speech of 40 children aged 8-10 years was examined under the listener conditions of speech to a younger child and to a retarded child of the same sex and similar chronological age, relative to initial speech to a peer. Modification, as indexed by an increase in quantity of speech and in semantic coherence was observed in speech to a retarded listener but not to a younger listener, suggesting that the intellectually handicapped children were perceived as being less competent listeners. The effect is interpreted as a result of an active integration programme in a particular school setting and is seen to offer promise for the limited integration of the mildly disabled.