An open book: what and how young children learn from picture and story books

Looking at and listening to picture and story books is a ubiquitous activity, frequently enjoyed by many young children and their parents. Well before children can read for themselves they are able to learn from books. Looking at and listening to books increases children’s general knowledge, understanding about the world and promotes language acquisition. This collection of papers demonstrates the breadth of information pre-reading children learn from books and increases our understanding of the social and cognitive mechanisms that support this learning. Our hope is that this Research Topic/eBook will be useful for researchers as well as educational practitioners and parents who are interested in optimizing children’s learning. We conceptually divide this research topic into four broad sections, which focus on the nature and attributes of picture and story books, what children learn from picture and story books, the interactions children experience during shared reading, and potential applications of research into shared reading, respectively.

The acquisition of verbal paradigms in Dutch and Greek L2 children: cross-linguistic differences and inflectional defaults

Previous research with children learning a second language (L2) has reported errors with verb inflection and cross-linguistic variation in accuracy and error patterns. However, owing to the cross-linguistic complexity and diversity of different verbal paradigms, the cross-linguistic effects on the nature of default forms has not been directly addressed in L2 acquisition studies. In the present study, we compared accuracy and error patterns in verbal agreement inflections in L2 children acquiring Dutch and Greek, keeping the children’s L1 constant (Turkish). Results showed that inflectional defaults in Greek follow universal predictions regarding the morphological underspecification of paradigms. However, the same universal predictions do not apply to the same extent to Dutch. It is argued that phonological properties of inflected forms should be taken into account to explain cross-linguistic differences in the acquisition of inflection. By systematically comparing patterns in child L2 Dutch and Greek, this study shows how universal mechanisms and target language properties work in tandem in the acquisition of inflectional paradigms.

Cross-situational learning of object-word mapping using Neural Modeling Fields

The issue of how children learn the meaning of words is fundamental to developmental psychology. The recent attempts to develop or evolve efficient communication protocols among interacting robots or Virtual agents have brought that issue to a central place in more applied research fields, such as computational linguistics and neural networks, as well. An attractive approach to learning an object-word mapping is the so-called cross-situational learning. This learning scenario is based on the intuitive notion that a learner can determine the meaning of a word by finding something in common across all observed uses of that word. Here we show how the deterministic Neural Modeling Fields (NMF) categorization mechanism can be used by the learner as an efficient algorithm to infer the correct object-word mapping. To achieve that we first reduce the original on-line learning problem to a batch learning problem where the inputs to the NMF mechanism are all possible object-word associations that Could be inferred from the cross-situational learning scenario. Since many of those associations are incorrect, they are considered as clutter or noise and discarded automatically by a clutter detector model included in our NMF implementation. With these two key ingredients - batch learning and clutter detection - the NMF mechanism was capable to infer perfectly the correct object-word mapping. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Story of English Language Learning – How Can Children’s Literature be Used in Teaching Vocabulary to Young English Language Learners? : - A Literature Review

This study aims to find research relating to the use of children’s literature to promote vocabulary development in young children, particularly English language learners in Sweden. The main questions address how (methods) children’s literature can be used and why (reasons) children’s literature is often recommended for the teaching of vocabulary to young learners. The study also aims to explore reasons against the use of children’s literature in vocabulary teaching found in previous research. A systematic literature review was carried out, including results from five empirical studies. The studies involved native speakers, second language learners and foreign language learners from various backgrounds. The results suggest that while research has shown children’s literature to be a good tool to use with young learners, careful lesson planning needs to be carried out. Direct instruction and scaffolding using pictures, technology and gestures is recommended. Hence, the teacher plays an important part for the vocabulary development using children’s literature in the classroom.

Hospital hero: a game for reducing stress and anxiety of children while waiting in emergency room

This report tells a story which started as an idea that came to us to fight the battle-cry feeling commonly known as stress and anxiety. Before creating the solution of the idea, we first need to understand the feelings underneath and its effects on our well-being. Throughout the course of our lives, we experience states of weakness and fear. These feelings can arise, for instance, while we are in an emergency room. Needless to say, how much it would have imaginable effects on children, who are unfamiliar to such environments. We ran through a serious of scenarios to find the most suitable solution, among them the study of interaction with positive expressions by Dr. Baldwin, proved to be a valued resource. It was reduced due to its length and to be suitable to our public audience. The game was then created in order to reduce or even eliminate the stress and anxiety of children. Since the game was initially released, some modifications had been made but the original idea - interaction with positive expressions – remained. When the time came, we asked children to play one of the two versions of the game while waiting in the emergency room. This not only created a diversion for them but also a learning experience as it displayed some hospital equipment. The difference between the two versions is that one provides expressions, while the other does not. After all our hard work, we felt rewarded because the project proved its worth and we would see that in the expressions on children’s faces while they played. Most importantly, their anxiety level numbers were significantly reduced during that short period of time.

Auditory processing disorder in patients with language-learning impairment and correlation with malformation of cortical development

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Achieving educational quality: what schools teach us: learning from Chile's P900 primary schools

Includes bibliography

What schools teach us about educating poor children in Chile?

Includes bibliography

A interação entre alunos e professor na classe da 3ª série do ensino fundamental em sala inclusiva: um estudo exploratório

Pós-graduação em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Aprendizagem - FC

O ensino da escrita e o desenvolvimento das pessoas com deficiência intelectual

This article proposes a theoretical reflection on the development of children with intellectual disabilities, regarding the importance and necessity of the process of learning the written language, from a historical-cultural point of view. For this approach, the course of development of a child disabled or not will occur according to cultural and social conditions experimented by him or her. Therefore, concerning the child with intellectual disabilities, his cultural condition, in dynamic relationship with the obstacles placed in its special condition, will be the source of his development. If the development of higher psychological functions is realized through the use of tools and if the people with intellectual disabilities present an inability to use these tools, there will be the need for aids so they can learn to use them in order to train and develop their psychic functions. In this process, education and written language acquisitions are fundamental ways of accessibility to the cultural world, a wider significance of communication in the world and to oneself. In short, the educators' comprehension about the importance of intentional teaching of written language and the historical process that envolves its development represents a fundamental contribution to the process of humanization of children with disabilities.

Tecnologia assistiva para a criança com paralisia cerebral na escola: identificação das necessidades

Studies about Assistive Technology have emphasized the need to integrate resources, services and strategies for inclusion and special education to foster the learning process and skill development of students with disabilities. The literature describes that the first step towards implementing assistive technology in schools should enable professionals to understand the situation involving the student in order to expand his or her participation in the teaching and learning process. This study aimed to identify the need for assistive technology services, resources and strategies for students with cerebral palsy in school. Two children with cerebral palsy and their teachers were selected. The data collection phase included three successive procedures: interviews with teachers, completing the identification protocol of the school routine and participant observation conducted in the classroom using filming and field diary. Based on the material gained from these three procedures, data triangulation was proposed, i.e., grouping information in a single document in order to establish categories of analysis. After preparing the material, the categories were assessed by judges from the field of knowledge. The results showed that after understanding the situation of the disabled student within the school context, it was possible to establish his or her skills and needs to indicate the appropriate assistive technology resources for the teacher's planning and thus provide proper teaching and learning for the children with disabilities. The study identified the need to establish specific procedures, an organized pedagogical plan and participation of health professionals as consultants on using assistive technology in school.

Case study of children of referrals to health services: an individualizing design?

Nowadays education for all is recommended as an international action. However in Brazil one can observe homogeneous practices for a heterogeneous public. When the student has learning difficulties, there seems to be an attempt to normalization and pathologization by the means of referral, many times being indiscriminate, to health services. This case study aimed to analyze records of pedagogical strategies to meet the students educational needs before sending them to health services. Two records sent to a multidisciplinary team of a Regional Specialty Clinic (ARE) in a city of the state of São Paulo/Brazil, were used. The results reflect that the records of the educators do not show the pedagogical strategies used with the students and that the education system still seeks homogeneous classes, devaluating the diversity present in its context.

Auditory middle latency response and phonological awareness in students with learning disabilities

Introduction Behavioral tests of auditory processing have been applied in schools and highlight the association between phonological awareness abilities and auditory processing, confirming that low performance on phonological awareness tests may be due to low performance on auditory processing tests. Objective To characterize the auditory middle latency response and the phonological awareness tests and to investigate correlations between responses in a group of children with learning disorders. Methods The study included 25 students with learning disabilities. Phonological awareness and auditory middle latency response were tested with electrodes placed on the left and right hemispheres. The correlation between the measurements was performed using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Results There is some correlation between the tests, especially between the Pa component and syllabic awareness, where moderate negative correlation is observed. Conclusion In this study, when phonological awareness subtests were performed, specifically phonemic awareness, the students showed a low score for the age group, although for the objective examination, prolonged Pa latency in the contralateral via was observed. Negative weak to moderate correlation for Pa wave latency was observed, as was positive weak correlation for Na-Pa amplitude.

Acessibilidade espacial e inclusão em escolas municipais de educação infantil

Pós-graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo - FAAC

Effects of Systematic Social Skill Training on the Social-Communication Behaviors of Young Children with Autism During Play Activities

A systematic social skills training intervention to teach reciprocal sharing was designed and implemented with triads of preschool-age children, including one child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and two untrained classroom peers who had no delays or disabilities. A multiple-baseline research design was used to evaluate effects of the social skills training intervention on social-communication and sharing behaviors exhibited by the participants with ASD during interactive play activities with peers. Social-communication behaviors measured included contact and distal gestures, touching peers and speaking. Four sharing behaviors were also measured, including sharing toys and objects, receiving toys and objects, asking others to share, and giving requested items. Results indicated considerable gains in overall social-communication behaviors. The greatest improvements were observed in the participants’ use of contact gestures and speaking. Slightly increasing trends were noted and suggested that participants with ASD made modest gains in learning the sharing skills taught during social skills training lessons. Social validity data indicate that participants with ASD and peer participants found the intervention appropriate and acceptable, and staff perception ratings indicated significant changes in the social skills of participants with ASD. Study outcomes have practical implications for educational practitioners related to enhancing social-communication and social interactions of young children with ASD. Study limitations and future directions for research are discussed.