Children's Talk Research Articles

Knowing silence: how children talk about immigration status in school

Knowing silence: how children talk about immigration status in school

Teachers’ perceptions of enabling and hindering factors in child abuse disclosures

ContextIt is well argued in literature that teachers are ideally placed to observe and monitor children for signs of abuse and neglect, there are categories of abuse which are more difficult to observe in the school context, such as sexual abuse and rely on children ‘telling’ about their experience. For numerous and complex reasons, children find it difficult to ‘tell’; however, there are enabling factors that support children in this process. AimThe aim of this paper is to outline primary or elementary school teachers’ opinions on the enabling and hindering factors to children talking and telling about abuse in the school environment. MethodsA qualitative research study was undertaken in the Irish context with 21 primary school teachers. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with all participants and as part of each interview, teachers elaborated on the barriers and facilitators which enable children to disclose abuse in the school environment. FindingsParticular barriers to children reporting in the school environment relate to how difficult it is for children to tell, the lack of meaningful collaboration between schools and the Child and Family Agency who have statutory responsibility in the Irish context for dealing with child protection reports and the lack of training available for teachers. Enablers to children telling in the school environment include the relationship of trust built between teacher and child and the implementation of a personal safety skills programme. ImplicationsThis research highlights that teachers can create the conditions that support children talking about abuse and they must be properly supported and adequately trained to support them in doing so.

What Content in Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development is Present in Swedish Preschools?

This article shares what Swedish preschool teachers are working with in the field of early childhood education for sustainable development (ESD) as e, merged in talks with their children, aged two to five years. The tasks carried out as the basis for the present analyses were informal child talks about a topic related to sustainability that the teachers and children had worked with in practice. The teachers themselves chose what content to talk about. The 200 teachers participated in the Swedish research and development programme Sustainable Preschool. The aim of the present study was to make visible the content of teacher-child talks about sustainable development in early childhood education. The research question is: What content areas do teachers communicate about with children 2-5 years of age related to ESD? The teacher-child talks were initiated by the teachers, but through the use of interpretative content analysis the children’s voices were also made visible. The main result is narratives about the content, the most common topics being recycling, growing plants, and animals, areas which have long been common topics in Swedish preschools. For many preschools, however, the talks show an integration of transformative and transactional perspectives in how the content was handled together with the children. ESD in early education in Sweden is no longer dominated by the environmental dimension, as earlier content studies have shown; a new common content relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 regarding sustainable lifestyles and human rights and sustainability is a long process, founded in empowerment, action competence, and changed policy.

‘Children say playing and adults say working’: Children negotiating regulations on digital media in a Swedish preschool

AbstractIn current societal debate, opinions on children's use of digital technologies are polarized. This study investigates situated negotiations in everyday interactions by analysing how preschool children talk about digital media in relation to regulations on digital media use. A childhood sociological perspective guides an understanding of how children's experiences with digital media are shaped by their perspectives and social contexts. The findings show the participants managing tensions between home and preschool, resisting adult terminology, contributing to group identity and challenging the preschool rules. By restricting children's media use through policies might lead educators to overlook valuable insights offered by children.

Knowing silence: How children talk about immigration status in school By ArianaMangual Figueroa, Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2024

Knowing silence: How children talk about immigration status in school By ArianaMangual Figueroa, Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2024

Accuracy of Automatic Processing of Speech-Language Pathologist and Child Talk During School-Based Therapy Sessions.

This study examines the accuracy of Interaction Detection in Early Childhood Settings (IDEAS), a program that automatically transcribes audio files and estimates linguistic units relevant to speech-language therapy, including part-of-speech units that represent features of language complexity, such as adjectives and coordinating conjunctions. Forty-five video-recorded speech-language therapy sessions involving 27 speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and 56 children were used. The F measure determines the accuracy of IDEAS diarization (i.e., speech segmentation and speaker classification). Two additional evaluation metrics, namely, median absolute relative error and correlation, indicate the accuracy of IDEAS for the estimation of linguistic units as compared with two conditions, namely, Oracle (manual diarization) and Voice Type Classifier (existing diarizer with acceptable accuracy). The high F measure for SLP talk data suggests high accuracy of IDEAS diarization for SLP talk but less so for child talk. These differences are reflected in the accuracy of IDEAS linguistic unit estimates. IDEAS median absolute relative error and correlation values for nine of the 10 SLP linguistic unit estimates meet the accuracy criteria, but none of the child linguistic unit estimates meet these criteria. The type of linguistic units also affects IDEAS accuracy. IDEAS was tailored to educational settings to automatically convert audio recordings into text and to provide linguistic unit estimates in speech-language therapy sessions and classroom settings. Although not perfect, IDEAS is reliable in automatically capturing and returning linguistic units, especially in SLP talk, that are relevant in research and practice. The tool offers a way to automatically measure SLP talk in clinical settings, which will support research seeking to understand how SLP talk influences children's language growth.

Peran Orang Tua dalam Mengembangkan Bahasa Anak Usia Dini Sesuai dengan Tahapan Usianya

In a child's life, guardians are the primary environment for them to acquire dialect assets additionally from the social environment. The communication that exists between children and guardians is accepted to have a extraordinary impact on dialect advancement in children, where the part of guardians is about how they give incitement to children within the shape of instructing them based on their children's age stages, and teaching children around all things related to dialect improvement. Within the talk of this article, a subjective strategy is utilized. This article points to clarify how the part of guardians in each arrange of dialect development in children is. How guardians take their part in creating children's dialect begins from the primary stages of dialect advancement from birth to one year, one year to two a long time ancient, two a long time to three a long time, three a long time to four a long time, four a long time to five a long time, five a long time to six a long time, and six a long time to seven a long time. It can be concluded that there are numerous parts that guardians can do at each organize of a child's dialect improvement, to be specific welcoming children to talk, perusing stories, welcoming play, presenting objects, welcoming them to open places, tuning in to music, welcoming them to examined stories, appearing pictures and objects around them, telling pixie stories, and introducing the individuals closest to them, tuning in and reacting when the child talks.

With me it is exactly the same: second stories and their argumentative function in child talk

Conversation circles in kindergartens can foster discursive abilities such as argumentation. This paper analyzes argumentation in conversation circles in a kindergarten with respect to the function of narrative argumentation. We focus on second stories as a specific narrative form that is characterized by relating in content and form to a before told narrative thereby displaying similarity and alignment. In this paper, we will analyze videographed conversation circles in a kindergarten. Our methodological approach is interactional and qualitative, informed by conversation analysis and narrative analysis. We will argue that preschool children use second stories for argumentative purposes in cooperative argumentative exchanges and through them produce interactional alignment.

Att genomföra systematiska barnsamtal — till nytta för hållbarhet i förskolan

Research in the field of education and teaching for sustainability in preschool has highlighted the importance of communication for knowledge development in the field of sustainability. This article presents a study of the variations that appear in preschool teachers' perceptions of the importance and the experience of having carried out systematic child talks in preschool. The experience is covered by 60 written comments from preschool teachers after they, within a research and development program (R&D program) in the spring of 2022, conducted systematic child talks in the children's groups where they are working. The data has been analysed based on a phenomenographic theoretical perspective. The result of the analysis shows that in the preschool teachers' perceptions of carrying out systematic talks with children, four varying perceptions emerge: Becoming aware of one's own actions; Exciting and educational to discuss with the children about sustainability; Talking with children was difficult; and, Sharing children's thoughts and experiences was the retention. In the preschool teachers' comments, it appears that some of them, through the systematic child talks, have deepened their reflection and their awareness of talking with the children about aspects of sustainability. At the same time, several difficulties are highlighted regarding the task itself and how to ask questions and maintaining children's interest during the talks. Finally, the study indicates that systematic child talks as a method and working tool are not common in preschool, as several preschool teachers point out that they do not talk to the children in this way in everyday life.

Watch Me Play!: protocol for a feasibility study of a remotely delivered intervention to promote mental health resilience for children (ages 0–8) across UK early years and children’s services

BackgroundHalf of mental health problems are established by the age of 14 years and 75% by 24 years. Early intervention and prevention of mental ill health are therefore vitally important. However, increased demand over recent years has meant that access to child mental health services is often restricted to those in severest need. Watch Me Play! (WMP) is an early intervention designed to support caregiver attunement and attention to the child to promote social-emotional well-being and thereby mental health resilience. Originally developed in the context of a local authority mental health service for children in care, it is now also delivered online as a low intensity, scalable, preventative intervention. Although WMP shows promise and is already used in some services, we do not yet know whether it is effective.MethodsA non-randomised single group feasibility study with embedded process evaluation. We propose to recruit up to 40 parents/carers of children aged 0–8 years who have been referred to early years and children’s services in the UK. WMP involves a parent watching the child play and talking to their child about their play (or for babies, observing and following signals) for up to 20 min per session. Some sessions are facilitated by a trained practitioner who provides prompts where necessary, gives feedback, and discusses the child’s play with the caregiver. Services will offer five facilitated sessions, and parents will be asked to do at least 10 additional sessions on their own with their child in a 5-week period. Feasibility outcomes examined are as follows: (i) recruitment, (ii) retention, (iii) adherence, (iv) fidelity of delivery, (v) barriers and facilitators of participation, (vi) intervention acceptability, (vii) description of usual care, and (viii) data collection procedures. Intervention mechanisms will be examined through qualitative interview data. Economic evaluation will be conducted estimating cost of the intervention and cost of service use for child and parents/carers quality-adjusted life years.DiscussionThis study will address feasibility questions associated with progression to a future randomised trial of WMP.Trial registrationISRCTN13644899. Registered on 14th April 2023.

Assessment of Temper Tantrum Behaviour in Preschool Children: A Descriptive Survey Approach

Objective: The purpose of the study is to assess parents’ experiences and associate demographic characteristics of parents and children with temper tantrum behavior characteristics of preschool children. Methods: A descriptive survey approach was used to conduct this study. A non-probability purposive sampling technique was adopted to recruit 121 parents of children aged between 3-6 years visiting a selected tertiary care hospital in India. All parents completed the parents’ experience of temper tan- trums in the children’s questionnaire. The analysis of results was carried out on IBM SPSS Software version 23.0. Results: A moderate level of temper tantrums showed on the mother’s age, education, occupation, marital status, program attendance, and medical and mental illness in the family, whereas a family’s monthly income above 50,000 indicated a severe level of temper tantrums, and half of the children ex- perienced tantrum behavior to get the attention of their parents, hungry and tired. The most frequently reported tantrum behavior was throwing things and hitting parents and siblings, and most tantrums occurred in public places and in vehicles. The majority of the parents adopted strategies to distract their child’s attention by helping the child talk about the causes of anger. A significant association was found between temper tantrum behavior and demographic characteristics of the marital status of parents (x2 = 15.340, p = 0.002) and the awareness program attended regarding temper tantrums in children (x2 = 4.491, p = 0.034). Conclusion: As temper tantrums peak in the toddler age group, the present study found that parental involvement is a necessity to manage temper tantrums in preschoolers as well. The main parent’s strategies to control the tantrum were distraction of child attention and helped them to talk about the causes of tantrum. Therefore, the study emphasizes the necessity of the involvement of parents and family members.

Which participation practices can be found in child welfare service records?

ABSTRACT Several studies show insufficient practices regarding children’s participation in child welfare cases. This article is based on document analysis of 216 child welfare records from four Norwegian Child Welfare Services. Our study aims to investigate whether varying degrees and forms of participation are found in different phases of child welfare work: investigation, supportive measures, and in care. With whom the child talks, the topic, and the phase of the process are crucial for whether participation is documented. Individual conversations with the child welfare worker regarding child welfare topics enhance the probability of the child’s views being documented in their records.

Childhood conduct problems and parent–child talk during social and nonsocial play contexts: a naturalistic home-based experiment

Parent–child interactions are a critical pathway to emotion socialization, with disruption to these processes associated with risk for childhood behavior problems. Using computational linguistics methods, we tested whether (1) play context influenced parent–child socioemotional language, and (2) child conduct problems or callous-unemotional traits were associated with patterns of socioemotional or nonsocial language across contexts. Seventy-nine parent–child dyads (children, 5–6 years old) played a socioemotional skills (“social context”) or math (“nonsocial context”) game at home. We transcribed and analyzed game play, which had been audio recorded by participants. The social context elicited more socioemotional and cognitive words, while the nonsocial context elicited more mathematical words. The use of socioemotional language by parents and children was more strongly correlated in the social context, but context did not moderate the degree of correlation in cognitive or mathematical word use between parents and children. Children with more conduct problems used fewer socioemotional words in the social context, while children with higher callous-unemotional traits used fewer cognitive words in both contexts. We highlight the role of context in supporting socioemotionally rich parent–child language interactions and provide preliminary evidence for the existence of linguistic markers of child behavior problems. Our results also inform naturalistic assessments of parent–child interactions and home-based interventions for parents and children facing socioemotional or behavioral challenges.

Bermain Sebagai Media Untuk Mengubah Sikap Pemalu pada Anak Prasekolah

Shyness in children affects the child's ability to adapt in social environment and cannot maximize his abilities at school, so it is necessary to provide psychological intervention with playing as a media. This is because playing is the biggest activity in a child's world, and one of the way for children talk or express their feelings to others. The games that will be giver are active play such as constructive games, role plays, sports games and group play. The aim of this research is to determine the success of the intervention provided. The research method used is a qualitative case study with 1 respondent. Before the intervention process, researchers collected data through interviews, observations and psychological tests from respondents. Based on the data, the results of this research show that respondents have not actualized their abilities optimally and tend to close themselves off and withdraw from the environment. The results of the intervention show that individuals are more confident, have better interactions, a desire to play with friends, have better social skills, have the courage to express their feelings, and are more active in school activities. Thus it is concluded that playing can be a medium for providing intervention in overcoming children's shyness.

Locational citizenship, exclusion and inclusion. The case of street children in Ethiopia

AbstractPublic space is a possible site for grounding a social psychology of citizenship. Locational citizenship speaks to the right to have a place in public space. Certain groups are however often excluded. Drawing on individual interviews and focus group discussions with street children in Gambella Town, Ethiopia, this study explores how street children talk about their lives on the street. The results demonstrate the children's lack of inclusion in locational citizenship, and how public space becomes contested space when different groups use these places in ways that clash. The children also speak to processes of inclusion, both among groups of street children, and kindness from individual adults in their environment. These children's their stories of both exclusion and inclusion are crucial to the developing social psychology of citizenship. The study emphasizes exclusion and inclusion as processes, and the children's active handling of their street life. We also problematizes the division between private and public space when the former is often no longer an available space for these children.

Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents.

Language is a universal human ability, acquired readily by young children, who otherwise struggle with many basics of survival. And yet, language ability is variable across individuals. Naturalistic and experimental observations suggest that children's linguistic skills vary with factors like socioeconomic status and children's gender. But which factors really influence children's day-to-day language use? Here, we leverage speech technology in a big-data approach to report on a unique cross-cultural and diverse data set: >2,500 d-long, child-centered audio-recordings of 1,001 2- to 48-mo-olds from 12 countries spanning six continents across urban, farmer-forager, and subsistence-farming contexts. As expected, age and language-relevant clinical risks and diagnoses predicted how much speech (and speech-like vocalization) children produced. Critically, so too did adult talk in children's environments: Children who heard more talk from adults produced more speech. In contrast to previous conclusions based on more limited sampling methods and a different set of language proxies, socioeconomic status (operationalized as maternal education) was not significantly associated with children's productions over the first 4 y of life, and neither were gender or multilingualism. These findings from large-scale naturalistic data advance our understanding of which factors are robust predictors of variability in the speech behaviors of young learners in a wide range of everyday contexts.

I occasionally wear his huge sweaters… but I often prefer not to think about it: Bereaved children talking and not talking about parental loss

The unique perspective of children communicating about the loss of a parent has rarely been studied. In this qualitative research, we interviewed 12 children aged 7–12 and asked them about their experience communicating their loss. The children’s verbal and non-verbal communication was characterized by constant movements away from and closer to various aspects of their loss, illustrated by three main themes: (a) children either talking about the loss or not talking about it; (b) first talking about the loss and then stopping to talk about it; and (c) simultaneously talking and not talking about the loss. Based on Stern’s interpersonal relational thinking, our findings indicate that children wish to talk about the loss but also to avoid talking about it. The possibility of choosing to talk and not to talk with themselves and close individuals about the loss allows children to think about and articulate their feelings and thoughts.

Identifying parental math talk styles and relations to child talk and skills

Prior studies on parental math talk often emphasize utterance frequency, with few distinguishing between utterance types (e.g., questions, statements, and confirmations). This study identified parental math talk styles (i.e., combinations of utterance types) and examined associations with children’s math and language performance. Participants were 76 mostly middle-income, White parents and their four-year-old children. Dyads’ conversations while looking at pictures were transcribed and coded for math content and children completed math and language assessments. Cluster analyses identified three parental math talk styles: Math Discussers privileged math questions and statements over other utterances, Math Commentators privileged math statements over other utterances, and Math Elicitors privileged math questions over other utterances. Math Discussers tended to be more likely than Math Commentators to have children who spoke more about math. Parental math styles did not relate to children’s math or language skills. Findings suggest parental math talk styles are promising to understand early math support.

Taboo words in pediatric oncology: Communication experiences of nurses and physicians with dying children and their families

PurposeDespite the numerous benefits of effective communication between patients, families, and healthcare professionals, there are still substantial barriers and communication challenges. This study investigated the experiences of nurses and doctors working in different pediatric hematology-oncology units in Turkey communicating with children and their parents about end-of-life issues. MethodThis qualitative study was conducted with twenty-four physicians and nurses. A descriptive phenomenological approach was used. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step reflexive thematic analysis. The MAXQDA software was used to facilitate data management. ResultsThe findings revealed three main themes describing end-of-life communication experiences of physicians and nurses: Avoiding communication with a dying child, Everyone knows but nobody talks, and Complicating aspects of the setting. ConclusionsCommunication with dying children and their families is essential. However, multiple barriers remain for healthcare providers to do so. That issue burdens the child and their family more during the end-of-life, which is already a challenging experience to handle. Healthcare professionals need urgent training in communication with the dying children and their families.

Children’s perspectives on the relations between home and school

The aim of the article is to shed light on children’s perspectives of the relations between home and school. The study is based on 52 interviews with children aged 12-13 years in Sweden about their knowledge and notions of the relations between their parents and teachers, and what they perceive their own role to be in this context. The study reveals that the children’s understandings are drawing on both ideas of connectedness and autonomy to different actors characterised by a vertical or horizontal frame and that generational and institutional power are important in their understanding of the relations. The results reveals the different ways in which children talk about home-school relations, namely as (1) an asymmetric vertical “keep-apart-relation” characterised by institutional power, generational power and children’s autonomy and power and (2) a horizontal relation that is characterised by a symmetric power relation between the actors, i.e. they think that the parties to some extent sometimes have an equal influence in the relation. In addition, the study indicates that children adopt different strategies in relation to the adults. The children’s accounts show that they reproduce and also resist the social order and structure.