Connectives in written narratives by German-speaking children in fourth grade and adults

This study aimed to describe core words of written personal narratives to inform the implementation of AAC supports for literacy instruction. Investigators analyzed lexical diversity, frequency of specific word use and types of words that made up 70% of the total words used in 211 written narrative samples from children in first grade (n = 94) and fourth grade (n = 117). Across grades, 191 different words made up 70% of the total words used in the 211 written narrative samples. The top 50 words were comprised of content words (64%) and function words (36%). Grade differences were noted in diversity and types of words, including differences in the number of words comprising the core (132 words for children in first grade and 207 for fourth grade) and a higher proportion of abstract nouns for children in fourth grade based on the 200 most frequently occurring words for each grade.

Performances of fourth and sixth grade children who had been in a program based on Science—A Process Approach were compared with performances of control groups on two conservation‐of‐volume tasks. The fourth grade children who had had Science—A Process Approach performed at a higher level than the control group on one of the tasks. There were no other significant differences between groups.The volume tasks were analyzed and learning hierarchies devised. A test based on the hierarchies was constructed and administered to all (189) children. An instructional program based on the hierarchies was carried out with approximately half of the children in each school at each grade level. All children were then post‐tested on the volume tasks and the tasks of the learning hierarchies. All groups who had deceived instruction had higher mean scores on the Learning Hierarchies Test but no group made a significant improvement on the volume tasks. Performance of the volume tasks was found to be related to age and score on the Learning Hierarchies Test.

Title of Dissertation: A BILINGUAL FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM FOR FAMILIES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: EXPERIENCES, PERSPECTIVES, AND LITERACY PRACTICES FROM THREE FOCAL FAMILIES Kimberly Palombo, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Rebecca Silverman Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, University of Maryland, College Park A large body of research identifies the positive association between family literacy and reading outcomes for children. However, much of this research focuses on children in the emergent reading stage. Research aimed at family literacy for families with English language learners (ELLs) is further limited. Due to the dearth of family literacy program (FLP) literature for children in grades three through five, the current study investigated the experiences and attitudes of three parent–child focal pairs who participated in a bilingual family literacy program. This qualitative study of a family literacy program investigated the following two research questions: (1) What are families’ experiences and attitudes related to a family literacy program, implemented as part of an existing reading intervention, to support children’s reading development?; and (2) How does what families learn in a family literacy program align with at–home literacy interactions? Three parent–child focal pairs who were ELLs and had children in fourth grade, served as the participants to investigate these questions. Data sources for analysis included parent and student interviews, parent questionnaire, and audio/video recordings of the program. The constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) was used to analyze all data, both within and across the focal families. The analysis culminated in the development of an emergent theory that summarized the findings from the experiences of the focal families included in this study. Analyses of data revealed the three focal families desired to support their children’s literacy development through participation in family literacy programming, and they added to their skills with practical strategies to use with their children. Further, participation in family literacy programming deepened Spanish family literacy interactions related to texts children read in English through oral discourse. Finally, families’ implementation of strategies learned in an FLP extended their existing home literacy environment. A discussion of the findings, implications for families, home–school partnerships, and future FLPs, limitations of the current study, and future areas of research are then explored. A BILINGUAL FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAM FOR FAMILIES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: EXPERIENCES, PERSPECTIVES, AND LITERACY PRACTICES FROM THREE FOCAL FAMILIES

This study investigated children's perceived self-competence and its relationship to the social antecedent of adult attachment and the outcome of children's cognitive ability. Utilizing a predominantly African American sample, 154 mothers, 80 fathers and 205 children were included in this cross-sectional study of second and fourth grade children. Regression analyses indicated that the exploratory relationship between adult attachment as a predictor of children's self-competence was upheld with both second and fourth grade children of participating mothers and fathers. More specifically, maternal attachment was a significant predictor of second grade children's perceived physical competence, social acceptance, and maternal acceptance. Maternal attachment was a significant predictor of fourth grade children's perceived social acceptance. Paternal attachment was a significant predictor of fourth grade children's perceived athletic competence. Regression analyses also indicated that second and fourth grade children's perceived self-competence was a significant predictor of cognitive ability as measured by a standardized test of cognitive ability. In addition, fourth grade children's perceived cognitive competence was a significant positive predictor of cognitive ability while perceived social acceptance was a significant negative predictor of cognitive ability. This exploratory study found relationships between adult attachment and children's perceived self-competence in middle childhood. Further research is necessary to investigate whether these relationships are upheld over time and with larger and more diverse samples.

Aims: This study examined associations between mothers’ depressive symptoms and the Turkish heritage vocabulary of their school-age children. We expected that mothers’ depressive symptoms would be associated with lower Turkish vocabulary scores in fourth grade as well as slower growth in vocabulary scores from fourth to sixth grade. Design: We collected longitudinal data on 139 mothers of Turkish origin in Germany and their children in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. Mothers reported on the level of their depressive symptoms, and children were administered a Turkish receptive vocabulary test. Analysis: Data were analyzed with growth curve modeling. Findings and conclusions: Mothers’ depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with children’s vocabulary in fourth grade. However, mothers’ depressive symptoms did predict slower growth in children’s vocabulary from fourth to sixth grade. The higher a mother’s depressive symptoms score, the slower the growth of her child’s Turkish vocabulary. Originality: To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the association between mothers’ depressive symptoms and their children’s vocabulary development during the school-age years, and the second to examine it for heritage language development. Significance and implications: Our findings suggest that mothers’ depressive symptoms may be one risk factor limiting parents in successfully passing on the heritage language to their children, even during school-age. Families as well as medical, psychological, and educational professionals should be made aware of the role of mothers’ depressive symptoms in their children’s language development.

To study overweight and aerobic fitness among children in the third and fourth grades of elementary schools in a city in the United States of America (El Paso, Texas) and a city in Mexico (Chihuahua, Chihuahua) that are on or near the border between those two countries, and to compare the results from those two cities with earlier findings for other children in the United States. We followed the El Paso children (427 boys and 385 girls, 93% of them of Mexican descent) from third to fourth grade and assessed the change in their body mass index (BMI). In the city of Chihuahua we cross-sectionally measured the BMI of a sample of third grade children (221 boys and 237 girls) and a sample of fourth grade children (268 boys and 215 girls). BMI and triceps skinfolds were measured for all the children studied in the two cities. BMI was used to assess risk for overweight (at least the 85th percentile BMI for age and gender) and overweight (at least the 95th percentile BMI for age and gender) in all the children. The distance that El Paso children ran in nine minutes was used to assess their aerobic fitness (aerobic fitness was not measured in the Chihuahua children). The data from El Paso were collected in 1999, 2000, and 2001, and the Chihuahua data were collected in 2000 and 2001. In the El Paso boys, overweight significantly increased in the one year from third grade to fourth grade, from 22% to 28%, while risk for overweight significantly increased, from 37% to 44%. In the El Paso girls, risk for overweight significantly increased over the same one-year period, from 29% to 37%. The El Paso boys and girls were significantly less fit when compared to samples of children from throughout the United States. Third and fourth grade children from Chihuahua had similar rates of risk for overweight and of overweight when compared to the children from the same grades in El Paso. Children in both El Paso and Chihuahua were more overweight than were non-Hispanic white children throughout the United States. In addition, the children in El Paso were less aerobically fit than were non-Hispanic white children and than were other Mexican-American children in the United States. These results clearly show that efforts should be made in the border regions of both Mexico and the United States to develop physical activity and nutrition programs to help stem rising rates of overweight.

The following study concerns the spelling abilities of 8,624 Iowa school children in io cities, approximately 1,500 children in each grade from the third to the eighth inclusive. The cities are Boone, Centerville, Algona, Grinnell, Ames, Creston, Ft. Dodge, Dubuque, Ottumwa, and Sioux City. In all, 1,503 third-grade children were tested; I,599 children in the fourth grade; 1,441 in the fifth grade; 1,525 in the sixth grade; 1,361 in the seventh grade, and 1,195 in the eighth grade. The tests were given in order to determine whether or not Iowa children are as proficient in spelling as children in other states. For this purpose modified forms of Buckingham's tests in spelling were used. Nature of the tests.-There were three tests in the series. Test No. I was composed of 50 words which most children in the third and fourth grades, according to Buckingham, should be able to spell correctly. Test No. II was composed of 50o words which most children in the fifth and sixth grades should be able to spell correctly. Test No. III was composed of 50o words which most children in the seventh and eighth grades should be able to spell correctly. The reader will remember that Buckingham has given us lists of words together with the average number of times each word was spelled correctly by children in a given grade throughout the United States. In this way the average difficulty of a particular word for a particular grade was determined. For example, Buckingham found that the word doctor is on the average spelled correctly by 55 out of every ioo children in the third grade, and by 75 out of every ioo children in the fourth grade. If enough words are taken and their difficulty is determined for each grade, we have what may be called a standard spelling test. That is, we know that on the average a certain percentage of the children in a given grade 556

The present study investigated the contribution of executive functions to narrative writing in fourth grade children, and evaluated to what extent executive functions contribute differentially to different levels of narrative composition. The written skills of 102 Dutch children in fourth grade were assessed using a narrative picture-elicitation task. In addition, a large test battery assessing transcription skills, language skills and executive functions, was administered. The results showed that executive functions contributed both directly and indirectly to narrative composition. More specifically, analyses revealed that inhibition and updating, but not planning, contributed directly to the text length of the narrative, and indirectly, through handwriting, to the text length, syntactic complexity, and story content. The findings underscore the need to assess a variety of executive functions and support the idea that in developing writers executive functions also play a role in more complex written composition tasks, such as narrative writing.

Children's Step Counts on Weekend, Physical Education, and Non-Physical Education Days There have been well-documented increases in overweight and obese children, sedentary lifestyles, and increased prevalence of a hypokinetic disease over the past 20 years. Thus understanding the physical activity patterns of children is essential for developing effective interventions. Little evidence exists that illustrates the contribution of weekend, physical education, and non-physical education days to overall physical activity patterns of children. The purpose of the study was to examine differences in pedometer-determined physical activity patterns of fourth and fifth grade children during weekend, physical education and non-physical education days. Three hundred and sixty-three children (8-11 years old) from six Southwestern USA elementary schools participated by wearing pedometers (Yamax Digiwalker SW-200) for seven consecutive days. Children recorded their steps at arrival to school and when they woke up and went to bed on weekend days. During weekdays, the fourth and fifth grade children averaged 13,196 ± 3,334 and 11,295 ± 3,168 steps/day for boys and girls, respectively. This is compared to a weekend average of 7,660 ± 4,647steps/day (boys) and 7,317 ± 4,062 steps/day (girls). Children were significantly more active on physical education days, averaging 12,979 steps/day (14,197 ± 4,697 steps/day for boys and 12,058 ± 3,772 steps/day for girls),compared to non-physical education school days, when they accumulated 11,809 steps/day (12,788 ± 3,600 steps/day for boys and 11,047 ± 3,382 steps/day for girls). Based on the findings in this study, children and youth are more active during school days than on weekend days. Furthermore, children are more active on physical education days than non-physical education days. These findings suggest that increased physical activity programming and interventions during weekend days may be needed to increase physical activity. The expansion of school-based physical education across more school days may also serve to increase children's physical activity during the school week.

Children's food preferences are major determinants of their consumption. The present study aimed to increase children's preferences for fruits and vegetables (FV) through a school wellness program combined with cafeteria vegetable tasting. A total of 250 fourth and fifth grade students (41% boys; 63% fourth graders) attending low‐income, public elementary schools in southeastern Louisiana participated. The 15‐week intervention included a classroom curriculum that emphasized benefits and consumption of FV and a cafeteria‐based vegetable tasting program (four vegetables). After participating in the intervention, children's knowledge of the benefits of eating FV increased (p < .01). Nutrition knowledge was greater among fifth graders as compared to fourth graders (p < .01) and girls compared to boys (p < .01). Children's preferences for baked potatoes, greens, and green beans increased (p < .01) and fourth graders had higher preferences for apples, oranges, pineapple, strawberries, and tangerines than fifth graders (p = .02). For broccoli, carrots, celery, cabbage, corn, lettuce, and spinach fifth grader's preferences were increased while fourth grader's preferences dropped following the intervention (p = .03). This school wellness program increased children's nutrition knowledge and preferences for a variety of FV. Funding: Baton Rouge Area and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana FoundationsGrant Funding Source: Baton Rouge Area and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundations

Numerous studies have identified neurophysiological correlates of performing arithmetic in adults. For example, oscillatory electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns associated with retrieval and procedural strategies are well established. Whereas fact retrieval has been linked to enhanced left-hemispheric theta ERS (event-related synchronization), procedural strategies are accompanied by increased bilateral alpha ERD (event-related desynchronization). It is currently not clear if these findings generalize to children. Our study is the first to investigate oscillatory EEG activity related to strategy use and arithmetic operations in children. We assessed ERD/ERS correlates of 31 children in fourth grade (aged between nine and ten years) during arithmetic problem solving. We presented multiplication and subtraction problems, which children solved with fact retrieval or a procedure. We analyzed these four problem categories (retrieved multiplications, retrieved subtractions, procedural multiplications, and procedural subtractions) in our study. In summary, we found similar strategy-related patterns to those reported in previous studies with adults. That is, retrieval problems elicited stronger left-hemispheric theta ERS and weaker alpha ERD as compared to procedural problems. Interestingly, we observed neurophysiological differences between multiplications and subtractions within retrieval problems. Although there were no response time or accuracy differences, retrieved multiplications were accompanied by larger theta ERS than retrieved subtractions. This finding could indicate that retrieval of multiplication and subtraction facts are distinct processes, and/or that multiplications are more frequently retrieved than subtractions in this age group.

Academic self-concept, the belief in one’s ability, is a key motivational construct in educational psychology and large-scale assessments. The construct is typically measured by instruments with positively (“I usually do well in science”) and negatively worded items (“I am just not good in science”). A single latent factor is often assumed. Here, we investigated this assumption using international large-scale assessment data across two age groups of children in fourth grade and adolescents in eighth grade (N = 296,320 students, 23 educational systems). We, instead, found strong evidence of the substantiveness of a negative self-concept factor derived from negatively worded items. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses uncovered negative self-concept as being distinct from positive self-concept. Furthermore, theory-driven modeling supported the internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model effect on negative self-concept: achievement has a stronger effect on eighth graders’ negative self-concept relative to fourth-grade children across many countries, especially for mathematics. Overall, understanding students’ negative appraisals and negative beliefs of their ability is an important theoretical and policy imperative.

Contextual diversity is a main determinant of word identification times in young readers

This paper analyses the associations between computer use in schools and at home and test scores by using TIMSS data covering over 900,000 children in fourth grade. When controlling for school fixed effects, pupils who use computers at school, especially those who use them frequently are found to achieve less than students who never use computers. Daily computer use at home is negatively associated with test scores, although monthly, and sometimes weekly, use is positively associated with pupil performance. There is no significant difference between subjects and only small gender and country differences are observed. Moreover, the result suggests that the negative association of computer use at school is larger among low-performing pupils than for high-performing pupils. The findings suggest a negative association of computer use at school and test scores but do not reject the possibility that computers have a positive impact on test scores if computers are used optimally.

Intrinsic optical changes associated with neural responses evoked in rat somatosensory cortices