Contribution of Attentional Networks to Basic Arithmetic Achievement in School-age Children / Contribución de las redes atencionales al rendimiento en aritmética básica en niños de edad escolar

Nowadays, there is still debate about the origin of arithmetic disabilities. Two predominant hypotheses have been developed in this regard: 1) difficulties in arithmetic appear due to a deficit in domain-specific skills (numerical skills) and 2) there is a strong relationship between the development of the domain-general processes and arithmetical skills. In this study we explore the specific contribution of orienting and executive control attentional networks to individual variability in basic mental arithmetic. Participants were elementary school children, from second to third grade, with and without difficulties in basic mental arithmetic. Results provide support for the two proposed hypotheses. Children with difficulties in arithmetic showed difficulties both in numerical skills and in attentional networks. These findings suggest that arithmetic difficulties may be associated with a heterogeneous combination of deficits, including difficulties in attentional functioning.

En la actualidad existe aún debate sobre el origen de las dificultades en aritmética. Se han desarrollado dos hipótesis predominantes al respecto: 1) las dificultades en aritmética aparecen por un déficit en las capacidades de dominio específico (capacidades numéricas) y 2) hay una estrecha relación entre el desarrollo de los procesos de dominio general y las habilidades aritméticas. En este estudio se explora la contribución específica de las redes de atención ejecutiva y orientación atencional a la explicación de la varianza en aritmética básica. Participaron niños de segundo y tercer grado de primaria, con y sin dificultades en aritmética básica. Nuestros resultados ofrecen sustento a las dos hipótesis propuestas, ya que los niños con dificultades en aritmética mostraron dificultades tanto en las capacidades numéricas como en las redes atencionales. Estos hallazgos sugieren que las dificultades en aritmética pudieran estar asociadas a una combinación heterogénea de déficits, incluyendo dificultades en el funcionamiento atencional.

Los grupos sociales y el prejuicio intergrupal de los niños. ¿Cómo influyen las normas grupales? / Social groups and childre's intergroup prejudice: Just how influential are social group norms?

Teniendo como referencia la Teoría Evolutiva de la Identidad Social (SIDT, Nesdale, 2007), en este trabajo se presenta una serie de estudios en los que se examina la influencia de las normas grupales sobre el prejuicio intergrupal de los miembros del grupo. Los estudios 1 al 3, realizados en niños desde Educación Infantil hasta 9 años, mostraron que una norma interna de exclusión promueve la antipatía hacia el exogrupo mientras que una norma de inclusión promueve la simpatía por el exogrupo. Los estudios 4 y 5 indicaron que a medida que los niños se hacen mayores, muestran cada vez menos simpatía por aquellos miembros de su grupo que presentan rasgos y conductas inconsistentes con lo que los miembros del grupo espera. En los estudios 6 y 7 se examinaron varios factores que deberían eliminar o, al menos, moderar las actitudes negativas hacia el exogrupo en los niños pequeños. Se encontró que la norma de exclusión en el endogrupo no está moderada por la empatía de los niños sino por la presencia de una norma de inclusión en la escuela. Los resultados se discuten en relación con la SIDT y se ofrecen posibles estrategias para moderar los efectos de las normas grupales (AU)

Drawing upon social identity development theory (SIDT, Nesdale, 2007), a series of research studies examined the impact of social group norms on group members‟ intergroup prejudice. Studies 1-3 on preschoolers to 9-year olds showed that an ingroup norm of exclusion instigated outgroup dislike in ingroup members whereas an inclusion norm prompted outgroup liking. Studies 4 and 5 showed that as children increase in age during the middle childhood period, they display less and less liking for ingroup members who display traits and behaviours that are inconsistent with those expected from ingroup members. Studies 6 and 7 examined several factors that might be expected to extinguish or, at least, moderate young children‟s negative outgroup attitudes. However, whereas children‟s empathy was found not to moderate an ingroup exclusion norm, the latter was moderated by a school norm of inclusion. The findings are discussed in relation to SIDT, and possible strategies for moderating the effects of group norms (AU)

¿Es estable la orientación afectiva de los niños hacia los diferentes grupos étnicos? Un estudio longitudinal de las actitudes intragrupo y exogrupo en niños de Escuela Infantil / How stable is children's affective orientation toward different ethnic groups? A longitudinal study of in-group and out-group attitudes among preschoolers

La mayoría de las investigaciones sobre la conciencia étnica y el prejuicio en niños se ha basado en estudios transversales, por lo que tenemos poca información sobre los cambios intraindividuales que ocurren en esta área de desarrollo. ¿Hay una secuencia de desarrollo estable de los diferentes componentes de la conciencia étnica? ¿La preferencia por el endogrupo precede al rechazo del exogrupo, como sugieren los estudios transversales? ¿Y mantienen los niños la misma orientación afectiva hacia diferentes exogrupos? En este artículo se presenta un estudio longitudinal con 50 niños españoles de 4 a 5 años (primera medida) y de 5 a 6 años (segunda medida) en el que se evaluaron varios aspectos de su conciencia étnica y de sus actitudes hacia cuatro grupos (españoles, latinoamericanos, africanos y asiáticos), en un contexto de juego de ordenador. Los resulta-dos mostraron una significativa positividad hacia el endogrupo, pero ausencia de negatividad hacia los exogrupos, tanto en el primer tiempo de medida como en el segundo. De hecho, no hubo diferencias en las atribuciones negativas de los niños al endogrupo y a los exogrupos. Por otra parte, los análisis longitudinales mostraron que la mayoría de los niños no cambió la intensidad de su orientación afectiva hacia cada grupo étnico, un tema que ha recibido poca atención en estudios previos (AU)

Most previous research on children’s ethnic awareness and prejudice has been based on cross-sectional studies; hence we have little in-formation on the intra-individual changes that occur in this area of development. Is there a stable developmental sequence of the different components of ethnic awareness? Does in-group preference precede out-group rejection, as cross-sectional studies do suggest? And do children maintain the same affective orientation toward different out-groups? We con-ducted a longitudinal study with 50 Spanish children aged 4 to 5 years (first measure) and 5 to 6 years (second measure). We assessed several aspects of their ethnic awareness and attitudes toward four groups (Spaniards, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians), within a computer-game context. Results showed a significant in-group positivity but a lack of out-group negativity, both at time 1 and 2. In fact, children’s negative attributions to the in-group and to the out-groups did not differ. On the other hand, the longitudinal analyses revealed that most children did not change the intensity of their affective orientation to each group, an issue that has received little attention in previous studies (AU)

Culture and development in children and youth.

Although culture has long been recognized as having a significant impact on human development and its variations, many child and adolescent psychiatrists and mental health clinicians assume a universal nonvariance to normal development, with the risk of identifying variations as pathologic. This article reviews the conceptual basis for the role of culture in human development, particularly psychosocial and cognitive development, presents evidence and support from field observations of children in diverse cultures, and discusses the emerging evidence from the field of cultural neuroscience. Implications for these different perspectives on future research, childhood education, and even intercultural relations are presented.

Searching for success: boys, family aspirations, and opportunities in Gabon, ca. 1900-1940.

Boys growing up in rural Gabon between 1900 and 1940 negotiated with many challenges: the rise of migrant labor, famines and hardships brought on by World War I, the growth of Christianity and African-based spiritual traditions, and the undermining of clans, which had been the main form of social and political organization in the nineteenth century. Parents, extended family members, missionaries, and European businesses recruited boys to serve their varied interests. Boys in turn developed new self-understandings by leaving their homes as students, workers, and clients of older men. This article examines the life histories of four boys to trace the successes and challenges that individual boys encountered in this turbulent era. Interestingly, older biological relatives of boys generally succeeded in maintaining their authority over children living far from home, although the education and wages that boys received forced older men to offer boys more benefits.

Children in the archives: epistolary evidence, youth agency, and the social meanings of "coming of age" in interwar Nyasaland.

This study looks at multiracial boys and girls, often referred to as "half castes," in Nyasaland. It reconstructs the status and agency of these children by assessing the ways in which they maneuvered local African and European communities to explore opportunities that would improve their individual situations. At times they took initiative by writing letters to the Nyasaland administration for financial support. Furthermore, state responses to these letters provide evidence of how the state perceived these children, particularly the moral responsibility felt given that their fathers were often white settlers and at times colonial officials. This article also discusses the general challenges and opportunities that childhood experiences raise, with specific attention to the kind of subaltern social knowledge that such evidence presents--knowledge that challenges conventional visions of what constitutes history and who makes it.

"Perplex't paths": youth and authority in Milton's Mask.

This essay argues that John Milton's "A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle" (1634) is influenced by early modern concepts of childhood in a way that critics have not recognized. Childhood was a problematic concept in contemporary religious, pedagogical, and legal discourses. Children were depicted as models of submission, but prone to impetuous indiscretion, and their path to adult agency was strewn with pitfalls, especially in the liminal period of youth. "A Mask" engages with and transforms these discourses. It rejects the political quietism routinely associated with childhood and shows that the child's unique sensitivity may offer a route to a particularly powerful kind of voice.

Fatherhood, childism, and the creation of society.

This essay argues for a new religious ethical approach to fatherhood centered on children and their expanding capabilities for participation in society. Under the notion of "childism"­in analogy to feminism, womanism, humanism, and the like­it takes the perspective of the experiences and concerns of childhood as such. In contrast with a soft patriarchal argument for fatherhood that dominates much religious discourse today, it argues for a larger and more hopeful vision of fatherhood as directed toward the human social good. This requires, methodologically, a richer hermeneutical circle between religion and the social sciences. Substantively, it calls for Christian and other religious ethicists to re-imagine fatherhood as an integrated public­private responsibility that aims to cultivate children's fully human social creativity as images of their Creator.

A randomized trial of practice-based education to improve delivery systems for anticipatory guidance.

BACKGROUND: Communication between physicians and patients is an important component of medical encounters and has been identified by the Institute of Medicine as a point of intervention to increase quality of care. In pediatric health maintenance visits, substantial recommended communication, in the form of anticipatory guidance, is not provided. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of an intervention of continuing medical education and process improvement methods to implement "office systems" to improve the delivery of anticipatory guidance for parents of young children. METHODS: We performed a randomized controlled trial of a practice-based quality improvement intervention among 44 pediatric practices in North Carolina. In the 22 intervention practices, project staff coached practice staff in auditing performance and identifying, testing, and implementing new care processes to improve delivery of anticipatory guidance. We surveyed parents of 1-month-olds and 6-month-olds regarding their recollection of anticipatory guidance as well as parent knowledge and parent behaviors and used cluster analysis to determine the effects of the intervention. RESULTS: The proportion of parents of 1-month-olds who reported that they received all age-appropriate anticipatory guidance changed from 15.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.9%-26.7%) to 10.0% (95% CI, 5.1%-18.8%) in the control practices and from 7.3% (4.1%-12.9%) to 24.0% (95% CI, 14.6%-36.9%) in the intervention practices (difference between 2 differences, P = .002). The proportion of parents of 6-month-olds who reported that they received all age-appropriate anticipatory guidance changed from 8.2% (95% CI, 3.6%-17.8%) to 5.4% (95% CI, 2.8%-10.2%) in the control practices and from 2.2% (95% CI, 0.8%-5.9%) to 18.1% (95% CI, 10.3%-29.9%) in the intervention practices (difference between 2 differences, P = .001). There were no differences in self-reported parent knowledge and parent behavior. CONCLUSION: An office system intervention improved parent reports of quantity of anticipatory guidance but did not change parent knowledge or parent behavior. Future research should examine how to use systems improvement methods to improve the impact of anticipatory guidance.

[Intervention study on healthy lifestyle of children].

OBJECTIVE: To set up valid, feasible and reliable intervention to help children with a healthy life-style. METHODS: Children of grades 3, 4 and 5 in Taoyuan elementary school in Taiyuan city, Shanxi province were studied by self-administered knowledge, attitudes and behaviors questionnaire on health, in May 1999. Results indicated that there were some problems in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on health among children. Children were assigned to intervention group and control group. The balance between the two groups was tested statistically. Children of the intervention group received intervention for half a year. After intervention, knowledge, attitude and behavior of children on health in both groups were assessed again. RESULTS: After intervention the mean scores of health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of intervention group were significantly higher than that in control group (P < 0.01). After intervention, the total mean score of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on health has been improved from 125.70 +/- 16.95 on pre-test to 156.84 +/- 21.72 on post-test in intervention group. The mean score of knowledge on health was increased form 47.54 +/- 10.07 to 68.19 +/- 12.92 while the mean score of attitudes increased from 17.87 +/- 3.66 to 20.92 +/- 4.31 and the mean score of healthy behavior increased from 60.30 +/- 9.08 to 67.74 +/- 10.44 respectively. CONCLUSION: Methods used in the intervention study seemed to be appropriate and the contents suitable.

Consulta pediátrica: efeito de procedimentos instrucionais sobre os temas tratados / Pediatric consultation: effect of instructional procedures on the treat subjects

A consulta pediátrica é uma ocasião para acompanhamento da saúde da criança e para orientar os cuidadores sobre as ações básicas, incluindo a promoção do desenvolvimento da criança...

[Process of institutional child guidance counseling reflected by the Central Continuing Education of the Federal Conference for Child Guidance Counseling]. / Vorgehensweisen der institutionellen Erziehungsberatung im Spiegel der Zentralen Weiterbildung der Bundeskonferenz für Erziehungsberatung.

The Bundeskonferenz für Erziehungsberatung (bke) is the federation for child guidance and family-counseling in Germany. Members are the working groups for child guidance and family-counseling of the Länder, where the employees of the child guidance are organized. The federation was founded in 1962. It is sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth. Further education for professional youth workers is central mission of bke. The constitution of the federation lais down these contents. Every autumn the bke publishes the program for further education for the following year in a brochure called Zentrale Weiterbildung--the program for child guidance, family counseling and youth counseling. A special Kommission Zentrale Weiterbildung acquires the contents of the program for further education und selects the referents. Since 1968 the Zentrale Weiterbildung of Bundeskonferenz für Erziehungsberatung offers events for professional youth workers in child guidance, family counseling. The program for further education contributes the quality of the institution of child guidance. After a time with above average use of the program for further education with therapeutical focal point, the orientation of the program changes to child and youth services. A constant number of counselors use the program. Beside the change of contents there was a change to effectiveness of contents and a reduction of participants.

Prevençäo a perdas auditivas: um caminho que passa pela escola / Preventive measure loss hearing: open way in the school

O trabalho que relatamos aqui foi realizado em uma escola particular em Porto Alegre. Propöe-se mostrar que o eixo do trabalho do fonoaudiólogo näo se encontra somente na relaçäo terapeuta-paciente, mas amplia-se na relaçäo fonoaudiólogo-sociedade, trazendo em si a responsabilidade e participaçäo deste profissional nos fatos sociais, o que lhe permite conscientizar e prevenir distúrbios nas diversas áreas de comonicaçäo. Nesse sentido, a escola se mostra o caminho mais aberto e acessível para essa tarefa, possibilitando a intervençäo do fonoaudiólogo na formaçäo educacional dos futuros cidadäos

Family outreach: a program for the prevention of child neglect and abuse.

A Texas volunteer program designed to prevent child neglect and abuse also stresses promotion of the public's awareness of its responsibility to report suspected cases.