Child's Point Research Articles

Abelardo Morell: the universe next door

Over the past twenty-five years, Abelardo Morell (b. 1948) has earned international praise for his images that use the language of photography to explore visual surprise and wonder. Born in Havana, Cuba, Morell came to the United States as a teenager in 1962 and later studied photography, earning an MFA from Yale University. He gained attention for intimate, black-and-white pictures of domestic objects from a child's point of view, inspired by the birth of his son in 1986, as well as images in which he turns a room into a giant camera obscura, projecting exterior views onto interior spaces; and photographs of books that revel in their sensory materiality. In more recent years, he has turned to color, exploring the camera obscura with a painterly delight and innovating a tent camera that projects outdoor scenes onto a textured ground. Across his career, Morell has approached photography with remarkable wit and creativity, examining everyday objects with childlike curiosity. The first in-depth treatment in fifteen years, this handsome and important book examines Morell's career to the present day, including his earlier works in black-and-white and never before published color photographs from the past decade. An essay by Elizabeth Siegel, along with a recent interview with the artist and an illustrated chronology of his life and works, offers a riveting portrait of this contemporary photographer and his ongoing artistic endeavors.

Night Sky Wheel Ride by S. Fitch

Fitch, Sheree. Night Sky Wheel Ride. Illus. Yayo. Vancouver : Tradewind Books, 2012. Print.Fans of Sheree Fitch will not be disappointed by the magical dream world circus presented in "Night Sky Wheel Ride". Young readers are drawn into the ethereal journey by the main characters as they wonder if they are up to the challenge of riding the big wheel: "Are we big enough this year, Mama? Are we brave enough, Brother? Sister are you ready to fly?" This book will work well as a bedtime or naptime story as Fitch's rhymes and scenarios are a little softer and less gregarious than some of her other books. For example, the siblings contemplate the night sky as they enjoy the ride: "Swinging, swaying, staying / up top the stopped ferris wheel / Dizzy-dazed we gaze upfeel the moon's breath on our faces/soft as dandelion's fuzz". However, there are certainly bursts of action and energy often accented by onomatopoeic words, such as when the children first take flight: “Hop up to knee knock rockety rock swiggle sway creak squeak rickety ratcheting up! up! up!”Illustrator Yayo's images are bright, whimsical and echo a child's imagination and point of view where everyday objects morph into magic: a roller coaster glides along the curved edges of a laundry basket while the big wheel can be seen inside the spinning drum of a washing machine. There are forests of cotton candy, and the colourful dots of people “waayyy down on the ground” are drawn as "dancing jellybeans". The back and front covers and inside pages are particularly attractive as they feature phosphorescent images on a dark background.Throughout the story the text is woven in and out of the illustrations to reflect the movements of the main characters and other objects. This helps to engage readers without hindering the storyteller as the text is large and legible. According the publisher's web site it is recommended for ages 3-4. It would make an excellent addition to a home, school or public library picture book collection.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Kim FrailKim is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. Children’s literature is a big part of her world at work and at home. She also enjoys gardening, renovating and keeping up with her kids.

Childhood in the shadow of war: filled with work and play

This study was focused on war-time childhood. The target period covers the war years 1939–1945 and the years of post-war reconstruction. The research was based on memories of 13 participants who lived in the countryside in northern Finland during the Second World War. The purpose of the study was to find out what children's everyday life was like during the war. According to the results, children did play regardless of the war situation. Children also participated in household work actively. By highlighting children's experiences and perspectives, this study provided important information about children's survival during war time. The study also helps understanding the effects of wars from children's point of view.

Oral Narrative Performance of African American Prekindergartners Who Speak Nonmainstream American English

This study had 4 primary purposes: (a) to describe the oral narrative performance of typically developing African American prekindergarten children with commonly used macro- and microstructure measures; (b) to examine the concurrent and (c) predictive relations between narrative performance, spoken dialect use, vocabulary, and story comprehension; and (d) to explore change in narrative performance during the school year. Children provided story retells of Frog Where Are You? ( Mayer, 1969) at the beginning ( n = 76) and end ( n = 146) of the school year. Retells were analyzed using the narrative assessment protocol ( Pence, Justice, & Gosse, 2007), the narrative scoring scheme ( Heilmann, Miller, & Nockerts, 2010; Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, & Dunaway, 2010), high point analysis ( McCabe, Bliss, Barra, & Bennett, 2008), and other common indices of narrative ability (e.g., number of different words). Children also completed spoken dialect use, oral vocabulary, and story comprehension measures. Comparisons with data reported in the literature suggest that, on average, the children in this study performed within age-appropriate expectations on each narrative measure. In general, narrative performance was correlated with and predicted by complex syntax and vocabulary skills and was not associated with spoken dialect use. Finally, the children's narrative assessment protocol and high point analysis scores changed significantly during the school year. The results are useful in interpreting the performance of African American children during the prekindergarten school year.

Dramatherapy focusing on maternal insightfulness: A preliminary report

This study aimed to enlist the child development studies literature and Dramatherapy practice to create an intervention program for mothers of children at risk due to inadequate parental care. Thus, we created a manualized treatment of Dramatherapy focusing on maternal insightfulness. Maternal insightfulness refers to the capacity to see things from the child's point of view, and is considered as a crucial step for therapeutic change in the context of mother–child relationship. We created a 10-week Dramatherapy group intervention focusing on the core concepts of maternal insightfulness: insightfulness, separateness, complexity and acceptance, and we used dramatic means to explore and experience these components of maternal insightfulness. We used the insightfulness assessment interview (IA) pre- and post-intervention to evaluate the changes that occurred. In this preliminary report we describe the intervention and illustrate with a specific example the positive changes that occurred following it.

Two Sides to Every Story?: Parents' Attributions of Culpability and Their Interventions Into Sibling Conflict

This study examined associations between parents' attributions of culpability and their observed interventions into sibling conflict. A total of 61 primary caregivers judged who was at fault for a sibling conflict and subsequently discussed the event with their two children (aged 4-10 years). Nonunilateral fault attributions (blaming both children or neither child) were related to parents' discussion of the reasons underlying children's behavior/perspectives and were more frequent when the age gap between children was larger. Parents selectively referred to their younger child's point of view in conversation and, when the age gap was larger, selectively provided evidence in favor of their younger child. Results extend previous research by providing novel insight into how parents' conflict judgments are linked to their intervention strategies with older and younger siblings and by identifying the circumstances in which parents intervene in ways that promote children's mutual understanding and constructive conflict strategies.

Children's nomination of friendly places in an urban neighbourhood in Shiraz, Iran

This study investigates how children conceive of and value the outdoor environment as a child-friendly one with particular reference to an urban neighbourhood in Shiraz, Iran. It utilizes Chatterjee's (2005. “Children's Friendship with Place: A Conceptual Inquiry.” Children, Youth and Environments 15 (1): 1–26) place friendship construct to find out friendly places and their attributes from children's points of view. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 106 middle childhood children. Findings suggest that a child-friendly neighbourhood is made up of diverse places that children use to meet their different needs. However, formal and informal open spaces, private precincts, and streets in the neighbourhood afforded highest contributions to place friendship.

The role of psychological control, socioeconomic status and academic achievement in parents' educational aspirations for their adolescent children

The present study examined the associations between mothers' and fathers' psychological control, socioeconomic status (SES) and their role in parents' educational aspirations for their adolescent children. Moreover, we examined to what extent SES and psychological control predicted their child's grade point average (GPA) and educational aspirations. A total of 1,034 Finnish adolescents aged 15 to 16 and their parents (720 mothers, 542 fathers) were surveyed at the beginning of the last grade of compulsory school. The results showed that the use of psychological control was more common among parents with lower SES. Moreover, the lower parents' SES was and the more psychological control they imposed, the lower were their educational aspirations for their adolescent children and lower was their child's GPA. The impact of SES was partially mediated by psychological control. The effects were similar for mothers and fathers.

Hemoglobin status associated with performance IQ but not verbal IQ in Chinese preschool children

Despite the body of literature that links anemia with poorer cognition in children and the evidence that the severity of the effects of anemia on children's cognition vary in different populations, few studies have investigated the effects of anemia on the cognitive development of Chinese children. This longitudinal cohort included 171 children from a developing region of China. Hemoglobin (Hb) and iron levels were taken when the children were 4 years old. At age 6, the children's cognition was tested with the Chinese Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Psychosocial information was also used in analyses. Results showed that the children who had low Hb levels had significantly lower scores in performance IQ (PIQ), but not verbal IQ. Although blood Fe levels were not shown to moderate the link between Hb levels and IQ, we found children who performed the best on IQ tests exhibited low iron levels concurrent with high Hb levels, whereas the group who performed the worst exhibited high iron but low Hb levels. We also found that psychosocial adversity did not differ significantly between children who had normal or low Hb levels, although the effect of Hb on PIQ became only suggestive after controlling for psychosocial adversity, therefore the correlation is not causal but only a suggestive association. Our findings are in agreement with literature on the negative effects of anemia on children's cognition and point to the possibility that the portions of the brain associated with PIQ components are particularly affected by low Hb during crucial periods of development.

Diagnosing Appendicitis at Different Time Points in Children with Right Lower Quadrant Pain: Comparison Between Pediatric Appendicitis Score and the Alvarado Score: Reply

Diagnosing Appendicitis at Different Time Points in Children with Right Lower Quadrant Pain: Comparison Between Pediatric Appendicitis Score and the Alvarado Score: Reply

Diagnosing Appendicitis at Different Time Points in Children with Right Lower Quadrant Pain: Comparison Between Pediatric Appendicitis Score and the Alvarado Score

Dear Editor, We read the article by Wu et al. [1] with a great interest. In that study, the Alvarado score and the PAS are compared at different time intervals to diagnose appendicitis. We want to comment on some issues about this article. First, the upper limit of white blood cells (WBC) at age 6 is 14.5 (910/L) and at age 12 it is 13.5 (910/L). After 12 years of age WBC is at adult level [2]. Children between 3 and 18 years of age were included in the study. Therefore, when the scores were calculated for infant group (PAS score gives 1 point to WBC, Alvarado gives 2 points), they could be much higher and the cutoff values might have been detected differently than usual. Hence, it might have been more appropriate to include in the study only those older than 12 years of age. Of the 1,395 patients, 53.8 % were female and 36.8 % did not have appendicitis. The final diagnosis in this group, with scores greater than six and no appendicitis, usually was pelvic inflammatory disease or ruptured tubo-ovarian abscess. Therefore, false-positive results in menstruating girls were possibly high. The author reported a high falsepositive rate, so another subgroup consisting of menstruating and nonmenstruating children should have been created. Alvarado and PAS scoring systems have similar criteria except for two variables. It is difficult to decide which one is most effective in diagnosing appendicitis according to the results of this study. Schneider et al. [3] pointed out that neither method provided a sufficient positive predictive value (PPV) so as to be used in clinical practice as the sole method for determining the need for surgery. From the very beginning, when the study was designed, inclusion of those older than 12 and menstruating children into the study could provide more valuable and precise results.

Children's Environmental Concerns: Expressing Ecophobia

While numerous quantitative studies across disciplines have investigated children's knowledge and attitudes about environmental problems, few studies examine children's feelings about environmental problems—and even fewer have focused on the child's point of view. Through 50 in-depth interviews with urban children (ages 10–12) this research aimed to fill the scholarly gap in our understanding of children's environmental concerns by voicing children's feelings about environmental problems. Findings revealed 82% of children expressed fear, sadness, and anger when discussing their feelings about environmental problems. A majority of children also shared apocalyptic and pessimistic feelings about the future state of the planet. These results suggest that many children are “ecophobic” (i.e., fearful of environmental problems), which scholars argue may have serious implications for children's participation in environmental stewardship and conservation efforts more broadly. Understanding children's perspectives regarding these issues is critical, considering that children are important environmental stakeholders, consumers, residents, and future voters facing the pernicious effects of local and global environmental degradation.

Evaluation of Play from Private and Public Pre-School Children's Point of View

Play is an activity that has different formats during childhood and adulthood. Therefore, it is investigated in different ways by those who are responsible for transforming children into individuals ready for the society, such as researchers, teacher or families. Finding out a child's perception of play as someone who actively engages in it would provide important source of data for families, teachers and researchers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate pre-school children's views on play. The sample consists of 40 pre-school children between the ages of 5-6 attending a preschool educational institution. Structured interviews were conducted to obtain children's views on play. The most significant finding from the qualitative analysis of children's statements was that lack of play was perceived as a negative emotional state by children. In addition, it is worth noting that children stated to play more at school than at home.

Diagnosing Appendicitis at Different Time Points in Children with Right Lower Quadrant Pain: Comparison Between Pediatric Appendicitis Score and the Alvarado Score

Acute appendicitis is the most common abdominal emergency in clinical surgery. This study was designed to compare the diagnostic value of the Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) with that of the Alvarado score based on different time points in children with right lower quadrant (RLQ) abdominal pain. This prospective cohort study comprised 1,395 children (aged 3-18 years) with RLQ abdominal pain between 2005 and 2009. The patients were scored by the pediatric emergency physicians. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the appropriate cutoff scores of the Alvarado and PAS systems. The sensitivity and specificity, and area under ROC curve were calculated for both systems. The AUCs of the Alvarado system were all higher than those of the PAS system (day 1: 0.09 vs. 0.87; day 2: 0.87 vs. 0.84; day 3: 0.88 vs. 0.82). The best appropriate cutoff scores were seven (days 1 and 2) and six (day 3) on the PAS and six (days 1 and 2) and seven (day 3) on the Alvarado system. The preliminary data show that the best cutoff score of Alvarado and PAS systems vary with the different time points of RLQ pain presentation. It may provide helpful information for primary or emergency physicians to determine whether the patient should undergo surgical consultation.

Aspects of Child Labor in Tonna's Helen Fleetwood

This article explores the unique role of Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's "Helen Fleetwood" (1841), one of the first social-problem novels, in shaping the concerns and strategies of the genre. Writing at a moment of cultural change in the attitude toward children, Tonna's Blakean vision of child labor as diabolical allows her to offer a daring critique of social institutions. Yet her political vision is inconsistent: although she redeems the working-class child's point of view and rehumanizes this figure, Tonna's staging of child labor as originating in a metaphysical, divine plan leads her to construct children's suffering as a justifiable and even desirable ethos.

The Capacity to See Things from the Child's Point of View—Assessing Insightfulness in Mothers with and without a Diagnosis of Depression

Insightfulness is seen as the mental capacity that provides the context for a secure child-parent attachment. It involves the ability to see things from the child's perspective and is based on insight into the child's motives, a complex view of the child and openness to new information about the child. To test our hypothesis that maternal insightfulness is related to maternal depression, we utilized the Insightfulness Assessment (IA) developed by Oppenheim and Koren-Karie to conduct and analyse interviews in which mothers discussed their perceptions of video segments of their interactions with their children. We compared the results of a control group of 30 mothers without a diagnosis of depression with a sample of 23 mothers diagnosed with depression (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision). As expected, depression was negatively related to maternal insightfulness. Oppenheim and Koren-Karie have argued that the IA might be used as a diagnostic instrument; our work suggests that the IA might show ways of aiding mothers in improving the quality of mother-infant interaction while they are being treated for depression. Insightfulness is seen as the mental capacity that provides the context for a secure child-parent attachment. Maternal depression was negatively related to maternal insightfulness. The Insightfulness Assessment might be used as a diagnostic instrument. The Insightfulness Assessment might show ways of aiding mothers in improving the quality of mother-infant interaction while they are being treated for depression.

The monster within: the hidden side of motherhood

Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. The Ubiquity of Maternal Ambivalence Chapter 2. Motherlove: The Power of Maternal Desire Chapter 3. The Subtle Ambivalence of the Too-Good Mother Chapter 4. Before the Beginning: Women's Fears of Monstrous Births Chapter 5. Women's Reproductive Fears: More Clinical Examples Chapter 6. Rachel's Story: Internalized Ambivalence and the Dangers of Hidden Guilt Chapter 7. Whose Fault Is It? The Externalization of Ambivalence Chapter 8. When Fears Are Realized Chapter 9. From the Child's Point of View Chapter 10. Vampyric Mothering: From Stage Moms to Invasive Moms Chapter 11. The Darkest Side of Motherhood: Child Murder Chapter 12. What Happens Later: The Fate of Maternal Ambivalence Chapter 13. What's a Mother to Do? Notes Bibliography Index

‘I bambini si guardano’: The documentaries of Costanza Quatriglio

ABSTRACTCostanza Quatriglio has made numerous documentaries and one feature film that have focused on marginalized children. We discuss two of her documentaries: Il mondo adosso/The Weight of the World (2006) which is about minors who arrive unaccompanied as immigrants to Italy and L'insonnia di Devi/Devi's Insomnia (2001) about children and adolescents who are products of transnational adoptions and who struggle with questions of identity. These documentaries, structured as journeys, privilege the uniqueness of personal narratives. Unlike many contemporary feature films which use the child's point of view as a different angle from which to observe the ‘adult’ world, these documentaries place the adolescents' reality at the centre of the narrative while also challenging the authority of those who frame their stories. The two documentaries are structured around an ethos, an aesthetic principle and a relational style that give voice to often marginalized ‘others’. Both deliberately privilege the often unheard and unauthorized voices of child migrants. They also foreground the uniqueness of each individual's narrative and explore complex feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Moreover, both documentaries address pressing social issues in contemporary Italy.

Donkey-assisted rehabilitation program for children: a pilot study.

Bonding with animals grants access to the sphere of affectivity and facilitates therapeutic engagement. The methodological approach of donkey-assisted programs is based on mediation, which is characterized by multidirectional relationships (patient-donkey-therapist). The donkey is an excellent facilitator in the motivation-building process, being able to stimulate the child's development by way of active and positive forces that foster psycho-affective and psycho-cognitive development processes. Results of this study, which focused on the child's approach to the donkey, indicate that while communicating with the animal, children rely more on physical expressions than on verbal language. Donkey-assisted rehabilitative sessions can help in identifying children's strong points, on which motivation could be built.

Commentary: From the Mother's Point of View

Abstract A person‐centered ethnography of mothering begins with the mother's point of view, reconstructed in terms of its utilitarian and semiotic components, and proceeds to the child's point of view, which is more difficult to detect. The child's culture‐specific precocious behavior can provide indications of earlier experience. Other methodological and interpretive problems are briefly discussed in terms of the articles in the issue: discontinuities in socialization, questions of internalization, and the emotional mutuality of mother and child. [mothering, parenting, childhood, socialization, emotions, ethnographic methods]