Selection Of Children Research Articles

The effect of strabismus on a young child's selection of a playmate

This study investigated the effect of strabismus on a child's playmate selection. Photographs of orthotropic children aged 3-6 years were altered to simulate various magnitudes of strabismus. The pictures were arranged in pairs, one orthotropic child and one with strabismus. One hundred children aged 3-8 years viewed the photographs and were asked to select a playmate from each pair. Chi-squared analysis found 23 children showed evidence that strabismus influenced their choices (p < 0.07). Of these 23, 12 preferred playmates with strabismus and 11 preferred orthotropic playmates. Chi-squared analysis of all subjects combined found decisions were not based on the magnitude or direction of strabismus. As only 11% of the children consistently selected against playmates with strabismus, and about the same percentage preferred playmates with strabismus (12%), the presence of strabismus does not appear to be a significant factor in peer acceptance in this age group.

Perceptual complexity and form class cues in novel word extension tasks: how 4‐year‐old children interpret adjectives and count nouns

Two experiments examined the role of perceptual complexity, object familiarity and form class cues on how children interpret novel adjectives and count nouns. Four-year-old children participated in a forced-choice match-to-target task in which an exemplar was named with a novel word and children were asked to choose another one that matched the exemplar in either shape or material In experiment 1, 56 children were provided with lexical form class cues suggestive of adjectives. The results of Experiment 1 showed that perceptual complexity and not object familiarity determined whether children made material or shape matches. In Experiment 2, 56 children were provided with lexical form class cues suggestive of count nouns. The results of Experiment 2 showed that neither perceptual complexity nor object familiarity affected children's selections in the matching task. When provided with lexical form class cues suggestive of a count noun, children selected shape matches. Thus the results suggest that the perceptual properties of the objects presented to children coupled with the particular lexical form class cue determine which features of objects children attend to when interpreting novel words.

Children's peer selection: Experimental examination of the role of self-perceptions.

Although previous studies have examined characteristics of children selected as friends, little research has examined the role played by characteristics of the selecting child. In 2 experimental studies that examined the role of self-perceptions in peer selection, participants (91 seventh graders in Study 1 and 83 third graders in Study 2) viewed various evaluations of themselves. Participants either believed evaluations were written by unfamiliar peers (Study 1) or were asked to imagine that the views of puppets were views of unfamiliar peers (Study 2). Participants were asked to select the peers they wished to meet and interact with. When evaluations were related to specific competence domains, 7th graders preferred positive peers to negative peers, whereas 3rd graders selected peers who viewed them as they viewed themselves. When evaluations were related to global self-worth, children's selections were unrelated to views of their own global worth. Selection of a globally negative peer was associated with attachment-insecurity/maternal-rejection and depressive symptoms.

Use of context in question answering by 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children.

This study investigates, within the theory of relevance of Sperber & Wilson (1995), how3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children (n = 45) use context when answering questions. The children were required to answer questions that placed differing contextual and processing demands on them, as predicted by the theory. The results indicate that an increasing ability to use complex contextual information was related to age and was reflected in the children's ability to answer questions appropriately. A developmental pattern became evident in terms of how the children assigned referents, enriched semantic underdetermination, and recovered implicatures. It also became evident that even at the age of 5 years 6 months the children were in the process of becoming more skilled at integrating contextually complex inferences. It was further shown how children's selection of the appropriate context, given the focus of the question, depended on how relevance was achieved in that context.

Behavioral Response Generation and Selection of Rejected-Reactive Aggressive, Rejected-Nonaggressive, and Average Status Children

ABSTRACT Examined response decision processes of rejected-reactive aggressive, rejected-nonaggressive and average children in terms of the presence or absence of behavioral response alternatives. This study is an extension of the Dodge and Coie (1987) work. In the present study, 116 third- and fourth-grade children were identified as rejected-reactive aggressive, rejected-nonaggressive, or average status on the basis of peer sociometric nominations and the Teacher Checklist of Social Behavior (Dodge & Coie, 1987). Of this sample, 75 children participated in a hypothetical situation task to assess assignment of intent and response decision processes. Congruent with previous research, rejected-reactive aggressive children made significantly more hostile attributions and generated a higher number of aggressive responses than nonaggressive peers. When presented with response alternatives, rejected-reactive aggressive children's selection of aggressive responses for hypothetical behavioral enactment declined significantly and they did not differ significantly from nonaggressive peers in their response decisions. Results are discussed in terms of developing potentially successful components for intervention programs with rejected-aggressive and rejected-nonaggressive youth.

Children on the reef : Slow learning or strategic foraging?

Meriam children are active reef-flat collectors. We demonstrate that while foraging on the reef, children are significantly less selective than adults. This difference and the precise nature of children's selectivity while reef-flat collecting are consistent with a hypothesis that both children and adults attempt to maximize their rate of return while foraging, but in so doing they face different constraints relative to differences in walking speeds while searching. Implications of these results for general arguments about factors that shape differences between child and adult behavior and human life-histories are explored.

Context Effects in Children's Selection and Use of Simple Arithmetic Strategies

Six- and 7-year-old children computed moves on a board game from dice over 3 sessions (game context) and also solved simple, aurally presented addition problems (academic context), corresponding to the dice rolls made in the game. Children displayed multiple and variable use of addition strategies in both the game and academic contexts, although there were significant differences in the strategies used and patterns of performance between the 2 contexts. Children used more sophisticated strategies and made more errors during the academic than the game context. The relation between strategy use, variability, and errors also varied between the 2 conditions, as did the selection of strategies children used for solving identical addition problems. These findings support selectionist models of cognitive development and illustrate the potent role of context in young children's strategy use.

What is a picture? Children's conceptions of pictures

In an exploratory study we examined children's selections of ‘pictures’ or things ‘good as pictures' from various sets of items. Most children regardless of age discriminated pictures from real objects and models. Many 3‐ to 4‐year‐olds selected pieces of paper with abstract forms, patterns of Os and Xs, letters, written words and numbers. Some selected as a picture a piece of plain white paper. Most rejected an image on the side of a drinking mug or a solid cube, even when asked to point to things ‘with pictures on’. English‐speaking children's early conception of a picture perhaps includes writing and number notations as subcategories, and for some it may include the paper substrate on which pictures are characteristically produced. In contrast, most children of age 6–8 years and older selected as pictures only drawings that had recognizable subject‐matter, rejected abstract figures, patterns, letters and numbers, and disregarded substrate in deciding picture status.

Trilingualism in Malta: Social and Educational Perspectives

Malta's two official languages, Maltese and English, are both vestiges of the island's former colonisers. Maltese children are taught the country's two official languages as soon as they start school. Furthermore, at secondary school level all children are required to learn, in addition to English and Maltese, at least a third and preferably a fourth language. This paper seeks to discover the reasons behind Maltese children's selection of languages. In the choice of language, persons do not simply select an instrument for mutual understanding and communication. Language is used to define worldviews and construct meanings about the speakers and the geo-political reality around them. What do the results of a large-scale linguistic survey conducted by the present author in 1999 reveal about the popularity of the languages on offer? Why is it that although the country's indigenous language, Maltese, is a variety of Arabic, few if any respondents choose to learn Arabic?

Maternal responses to word approximations in Japanese children's transition to language.

Verbal/vocal interactions of three Japanese mother-child dyads were examined when the children were 1;0, 1;2 to 1;3, 1;6 to 1;7, and 1;8 to 1;9 to determine whether mothers provide information which may facilitate the elaboration of child lexical forms during the transition from the prelinguistic to the linguistic period. Mothers were likely to reproduce only the child's word-like utterances, both well- and ill-formed. This provided an opportunity for the child's ill-formed word-like utterance to be contrasted with an immediate maternal response. This finding, along with results showing within-child variability of lexical forms, suggested that maternal contrastive replies 1) signal errors to the child (cf. Saxton, 1997), and 2) may promote the child's selection and stabilization of production alternatives which are more accurate. Maternal reproductive responding presumably originated in their tendency to seek content-oriented communication, as was reflected in mother's growing inclination to continue verbal interactions following the child's non-word-like vocalizations.

Parental Selection of Children's Sexual Orientation: A Commentary

One can agree that for many individuals sexual orientation is largely beyond conscious control and therefore morally neutral. One can also agree that homosexual activity is not in itself directly harmful to the participants or to third parties so justification on pragmatic secular grounds for criminalizing the behaviour or discriminating against homosexuals is hard to find. Although the authors support homosexuals to this extent they argue that parents should be free to choose to avoid producing a homosexual offspring. Consideration of the implications of permitting or refusing choice is at present hypothetical. The available evidence points to sexual orientation development being determined by a multiplicity of factors that include features of the uterine environment as well as social and sexual learning. Genetic predisposition is itself likely to be governed by numbers of interacting genes that promote outcomes that are not necessarily all or none. The homosexual/heterosexual dimension is not always a dichotomy; the range of sexualities includes bisexuals as well as a variety of gender dysphorics and physical intersexuals. The technology to fulfil parental wishes is a long way off and if it comes it may do no more than reduce the likelihood of exclusive homosexuality. However for the purpose of discussion one may assume as the authors do a situation in which parents can opt for heterosexual babies. (excerpt)

The ability to distinguish between comprehension and memory: Failing to succeed.

The authors investigated 1st graders' ability to select the appropriate strategy for constructing a building from memory versus constructing a building while listening to instructions that included an unfamiliar word. In 2 experiments, children's strategy selections (a) preceded any construction attempts, (b) followed failed construction attempts, or (c) followed verbal feedback about construction failures. Long-term strategy maintenance also was assessed. First graders who selected strategies after concrete failure experiences were more likely to select appropriate strategies than children whose strategy selections preceded construction attempts. Failure experiences may help children recognize task goals, assess their inability to achieve these goals, and identify the source of this inability. However, concrete failure experiences did not result in long-term strategy maintenance.

Preschool Children's Selection of Race-Related Personal Names

Preschool Children's Selection of Race-Related Personal Names

THE ART OF CHILDREN'S BOOK SELECTION: A LABYRINTH UNEXPLORED

As teachers increase their use of trade books and literature as the core of reading instruction, children will be faced with increasing numbers of decisions about how to select books for their own reading. This study demonstrated that when children select books there is a generalizable routine or pattern that is learned and followed by most children. On the other hand, refinements or elaborations on that basic routine are best demonstrated by “outlier” behaviors atypical to the basic routine of book selection. This study also showed that children typically select books based upon the physical characteristics of the book and a holistic, implicit value attachment to a book representing preferences. Limitations, both external and internal such as time limits, check out limits, personal limitations and self concept, influence children's books selection behaviors. The shelving of books at or below eye‐level positively influenced the likelihood that a book would be selected by a student. And finally, children know the geography of their school libraries and tend to apply this knowledge when selecting books.

Does Sign Language Provide Deaf Children With an Abstraction Advantage? Evidence From a Categorization Task

The effects of sign language use on cognitive processes of second-generation deaf children were investigated through an intensional categorization task. A forced-choice paradigm was used to examine children's selections of schematic and categorical alternatives as associations to targets that differed in their related sign language characteristics. The results obtained from 48 deaf and hearing 6-year-olds suggest some differences in the categorization abilities and cognitive flexibility between the two groups of children. These differences appear to be explainable in terms of linguistic variables underlying French Sign Language.

THE ART OF CHILDREN'S BOOK SELECTION: A LABYRINTH UNEXPLORED

As teachers increase their use of trade books and literature as the core of reading instruction, children will be faced with increasing numbers of decisions about how to select books for their own reading. This study demonstrated that when children select books there is a generalizable routine or pattern that is learned and followed by most children. On the other hand, refinements or elaborations on that basic routine are best demonstrated by “outlier” behaviors atypical to the basic routine of book selection. This study also showed that children typically select books based upon the physical characteristics of the book and a holistic, implicit value attachment to a book representing preferences. Limitations, both external and internal such as time limits, check out limits, personal limitations and self concept, influence children's books selection behaviors. The shelving of books at or below eye‐level positively influenced the likelihood that a book would be selected by a student. And finally, children know the geography of their school libraries and tend to apply this knowledge when selecting books.

Doctor/Nurse, Teacher/Caretaker: Children's Gendered Choice of Adult Occupation in Interviews and Role Plays

Abstract A social constructionist analysis is used here to examine London primary school children's job choices in interview discussions and role play groups. Children's selections are compared according to gender, and according to the different interactive environments in which they made them. By analysing their responses this paper investigates which gendered constructions appeared to prevail, and the ways in which children explain their ideas. Previous studies of children's occupational choices have found their responses to be gender‐stereotypical. This paper shows that in their interviews the children in this study chose a diverse selection of jobs, which were less gender‐stereotypical than found in previous studies. However, a clear dichotomy remained between the attributes of the jobs chosen by the different genders, and few children chose jobs traditionally performed by the opposite sex. Moreover, in their role play groups children's constructions of gender and adult occupation often appeared diffe...

Randomized intervention to increase children's selection of low-fat foods in school lunches

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether children would increase their selection of low-fat foods in school lunches if these foods were labeled on the menu and parents were notified of their availability. Methods: The 16 elementary schools in the Bellevue (Washington) School District were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Participants were the students eating the school lunch—an average of 2445 students per day, of whom one third received free or reduced-price lunches. In all schools, one of the two daily lunch entrees was low in fat ( <30% of calories from fat). After a 5-month baseline period, eight schools received a 4-month intervention. The monthly menus carried home by students began to indicate the low-fat entree and to compare the fat content of both entrees. In the first month, parents in the intervention schools (2329 households) received a mailing with a copy of the menu, an informational pamphlet on dietary fat, and a letter that described the menu changes and asked the parents to encourage their children to select low-fat entrees. A follow-up telephone survey was performed in one school 1 month after the intervention mailing to assess the recall and impact of the intervention. The main outcome, based on 249, 861 student meal selections, was the proportion of students who selected the low-fat entree, and the unit of analysis was the school. Results: At baseline, there was little difference between intervention and control schools in the percentage of children choosing the low-fat entree (31.5% vs 30.8%). During the intervention, there was an increase in low-fat entree selection in the intervention schools compared with the control schools (35.5% vs 32.2%; p = 0.03). Of 221 parents surveyed, 71% recalled the mailing, 53% remembered that there were now low-fat entrees on the menu, and 10% reported that, after the mailing, they asked their child to choose a low-fat entree. Conclusion: More than 30% of elementary students spontaneously selected a low-fat entree for school lunch when available. There was a small further increase in the selection of the low-fat entrees when they were labeled on the menu and parents were notified of their availability. (J P EDIATR 1994;125:535-40)

Gender Labels and Play Styles: Their Relative Contribution to Children's Selection of Playmates

Gender Labels and Play Styles: Their Relative Contribution to Children's Selection of Playmates

Gender Labels and Play Styles: Their Relative Contribution to Children's Selection of Playmates

The relative contribution of gender labels and play styles (masculine or feminine) in playmate selection was evaluated in 60 children between the ages of 4 and 8 years using a novel interview measure. In the interview, when targets' gender labels and targets' play styles were presented as independent dimensions, children showed predicted sex differences in preferences for gender labels and for play styles (including toys, rough-and-tumble play, and activity level). However, when targets' gender labels and targets' play styles were presented as competing dimensions, boys of all ages chose female targets with masculine play styles over male targets with feminine play styles. In contrast, younger girls (4-5-year-olds) chose female targets with masculine play styles, whereas older girls (6-8-year-olds) chose male targets with feminine play styles. This suggests possible sex differences in the contribution of gender labels and of play styles in the development of children's preferences for same-sexed playmates.