Children's Appreciation Research Articles

Development of children's ability to distinguish sarcasm and verbal irony*

Adults distinguish between ironic remarks directed at targets (sarcasm) and ironic remarks not directed at specific targets. We investigated the development of children's appreciation for this distinction by presenting these speech acts to 71 five- to six-year-olds and 71 nine- to ten-year-olds. Five- to six-year-olds were beginning to understand the non-literal meanings of sarcastic speakers and ironic speakers but did not distinguish ironic and sarcastic speakers' intentions. Nine- to ten-year-olds were more accurate at understanding sarcastic and ironic speakers and they distinguished these speakers' intentions, rating sarcastic criticisms as more 'mean' than ironic criticisms. These results show that children can determine the non-literal meanings of sarcasm and irony by six years of age but do not distinguish the pragmatic purposes of these speech acts until later in middle childhood.

Unmasking “Alive”: Children's Appreciation of a Concept Linking All Living Things

Decades of research have documented in school-aged children a persistent difficulty apprehending an overarching biological concept that encompasses animate entities such as humans and nonhuman animals, as well as plants. This has led many researchers to conclude that young children have yet to integrate plants and animate entities into a concept of LIVING THING. However, virtually all investigations have used the word “alive” to probe children's understanding, a term that technically describes all living things, but in practice is often aligned with animate entities only. We show that when alive is replaced with less ambiguous probes, children readily demonstrate knowledge of an overarching concept linking plants with humans and nonhuman animals. This work suggests that children have a burgeoning appreciation of this fundamental biological concept, and that the word alive paradoxically masks young children's appreciation of the concept to which it is meant to refer.

Children's appreciation of outdoor places in a poor neighborhood

Children 7–12 years of age, living in a poor neighborhood, photographed outdoor places where they liked to go in their neighborhood. In individual interviews, they discussed their photos, selected their favorite place, and discussed the places they disliked. Children identified parks and playgrounds most often both as liked and disliked places, and spaces near an acquaintance's home as their favorite place. Liked places varied according to children's age and degree of vegetation. Children's negative perceptions of places were centered on safety threats. Children distinguish favorite places from liked places only by the greater number of positive characteristics and activities they offer children. The study highlights how positive and negative features coexist in places of importance to these children.

Maths through arts and crafts activities

Showing patterns and symmetry in a colourful and artistic way will help to increase a child's understanding and appreciation of them

Developmental changes in children's understanding of the similarity between photographs and their referents

In a series of three experiments, we investigated the development of children's understanding of the similarities between photographs and their referents. Based on prior work on the development of analogical understanding (e.g. Gentner & Rattermann, 1991), we suggest that the appreciation of this relation involves multiple levels. Photographs are similar to their referents both in terms of the constituent objects and in terms of the relations among these objects. We predicted that children would appreciate object similarity (whether photographs depict the same objects as in the referent scene) before they would appreciate relational similarity (whether photographs depict the objects in the same spatial positions as in the referent scene). To test this hypothesis, we presented 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old children and adults with several candidate photographs of an arrangement of objects. Participants were asked to choose which of the photographs was 'the same' as the arrangement. We manipulated the types of information the photographs preserved about the referent objects. One set of photographs did not preserve the object properties of the scene. Another set of photographs preserved the object properties of the scene, but not the relational similarity, such that the original objects were depicted but occupied different spatial positions in the arrangement. As predicted, younger children based their choices of the photographs largely on object similarity, whereas older children and adults also took relational similarity into account. Results are discussed in terms of the development of children's appreciation of different levels of similarity.

Appreciation and implementation of a school-based intervention are associated with changes in fruit and vegetable intake in 10- to 13-year old schoolchildren--the Pro Children study

The purpose was to investigate the degree of implementation and appreciation of a comprehensive school-randomized fruit and vegetable intervention program and to what extent these factors were associated with changes in reported fruit and vegetable intake. The study was conducted among 10- to 13-year old children exposed to the intervention during the school year 2003-04 in Norway, Spain and the Netherlands. Children, parents and teachers completed questionnaires regarding (i) the implementation of the school curriculum, (ii) parental involvement, (iii) distribution of fruit and vegetables at school, (iv) children's appreciation of the project and (v) children's intake levels. Univariate analyses of covariance and multilevel multivariate regression analyses indicated that teacher-reported level of implementation of the school curriculum and schoolchildren's appreciation of the project were important determinants of changes in intake. The results point to the importance of optimal implementation of an attractive school curriculum.

Routes to Symbolization: Intentionality and Correspondence in Early Understanding of Pictures

This research investigated the extent and nature of the informational support that enables young children to understand pictures as symbols. Two experiments were conducted using an object-retrieval task. The first experiment varied the amount (complete and no instructions) and kind of information (intended function of the symbol and picture-referent correspondence) provided to 30-month-old children. The results show that information which emphasizes intentionality was critical for symbolic comprehension. Although information about correspondence was not enough in itself, children came to achieve an insight halfway through the task, probably as a consequence of a comparison process. This study suggests that highlighting the heart of the symbolic relation, its intended function, is a privileged route in children's appreciation of a picture-referent relation. The second experiment shows that by 36 months of age, children figured out, with no instructions at all, the intentional nature of the symbol.

Routes to Symbolization: Intentionality and Correspondence in Early Understanding of Pictures

This research investigated the extent and nature of the informational support that enables young children to understand pictures as symbols. Two experiments were conducted using an object-retrieval task. The first experiment varied the amount (complete and no instructions) and kind of information (intended function of the symbol and picture-referent correspondence) provided to 30-month-old children. The results show that information which emphasizes intentionality was critical for symbolic comprehension. Although information about correspondence was not enough in itself, children came to achieve an insight halfway through the task, probably as a consequence of a comparison process. This study suggests that highlighting the heart of the symbolic relation, its intended function, is a privileged route in children's appreciation of a picture-referent relation. The second experiment shows that by 36 months of age, children figured out, with no instructions at all, the intentional nature of the symbol.

An Acquired Taste:Children's Perceptions of Humor and Teasing in Verbal Irony

Around 5 or 6 years of age, children begin to recognize that speakers who make ironic remarks do not believe what they literally say, but children of the same age do not show appreciation for the humor function of irony (Dews et al., 1996; Harris & Pexman, 2003). We investigated 7- to 10-year-old children's interpretations of verbal irony and focused on factors that might modulate children's impressions of humor in irony. Results showed that (a) children tended to identify with the target, not the speaker, of ironic remarks and perceived less humor in irony when they did so; (b) children's appreciation of the teasing function of irony, like the humor function of irony, continues to develop late in middle childhood; and (c) children did not use relationship information (speaker and target were friends, strangers, or enemies) as a cue to the speaker's humorous intent. We suggest that these characteristics of children's theories of verbal irony are a function of their social knowledge and representational skills.

Formative Development of an Intervention to Stop Family Tobacco Use: The Parents and Children Talking (PACT) Intervention

ABSTRACT Intervening with families is a promising strategy for addressing the continuing problem of adult and youth tobacco use. A four-step formative process was used to develop an innovative self-directed family-based intervention: (1) planning and strategy development through structured telephone interviews, a focus group, and a literature review; (2) development and pretesting of concepts, messages, and materials by using feedback from children and adults on prototypic materials; (3) implementing the program by mailing 6 modules to 50 families (composed of at least one adult smoker and a 9–12-year-old) with overall high levels of engagement; and (4) assessing effectiveness and making refinements by measuring the intervention effect on smoking-related communication, skills, and attitudes. Inconsistent intervention effects related to the difficulty of cessation and the influence of parental smoking suggested needed refinements. Engaging smokers willing to make a quit attempt during the intervention time frame may augment children's appreciation for the difficulty of cessation. Content related to stress management may need greater emphasis. Enhancing the personal context in which the influence of parental behavior is conveyed may be needed. Although the family context offers the opportunity to address the parent–child reciprocal nature of tobacco use, it requires sensitivity to the challenges of addressing this topic.

THE WINTER WORLD

How can we develop children's appreciation of the natural world and changing seasons into creative words? 5 to 7 asked the poet Clare Bevan where to begin

Singular or plural? Children's knowledge of the factors that determine the appropriate form of count nouns.

Two experiments investigated the factors that govern children's use of singular and plural forms of count nouns. Experiment 1 used an elicited production task to investigate whether children use referential and/or syntactic information to determine the form of the count nouns when the two sources of information conflict (e.g. each x, one of the xs), as well as when the linguistic context does not provide any constraint on the form of the noun, but the referential context does (e.g. the dog(s)). 48 children, aged 1;9 to 5;6, participated in Experiment 1. The results suggest that even the youngest children can use referential information when relevant, and can ignore referential information when necessary. Children did, however, show a tendency to make errors with the quantifier each in non-partitive contexts, and a developmental trend was found in the use and avoidance of each in non-partitive contexts. Experiment 2, an act out task, provided a second test of the role of referential information in children's use of singular and plural forms. Experiment 2 also investigated children's appreciation of the semantic distinction between each and all. 48 children, aged 1;8 to 5;6, participated in Experiment 2. A weak sensitivity to the semantic distinction between the two quantifiers as well as the syntactic context in which they were used was found. The results of the two experiments suggest that, from the beginning, children approach the task of learning when to use singular and plural forms of count nouns on the basis of morphosyntactic, semantic, and referential properties of utterances, rather than initially using only one of these types of information.

How Children Learn the Meanings of Words

How Children Learn the Meanings of Words by Paul Bloom. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000, xii+300 pp. Reviewed by Masahiko Minami San Francisco State University How do children learn the meanings of words? In his new book, Paul Bloom examines a variety of issues associated with children's word learning, a process intricately connected with other aspects of language acquisition. Bloom claims that children learn words via cognitive abilities that already exist for other pur- poses, such as the ability to infer others' intentions, the ability to acquire concepts, and an appreciation of syntactic In structure. Bloom's book provides a series of el- egant and convincing arguments concerning how children learn words. briefly Chapter First Words, Bloom lays out the plan for the book and describes issues surrounding the overall topic. In Chapter 2 the author explores fast mapping, in which children make a quick guess about a word's denotation on the basis of limited experience. Chapter 3, Theory of Mind, deals with a wide range of topics, including the listener's ability to determine the references made by his or her interlocutor's choice of words; here also, Bloom investigates children's appreciation of the mental states of others, through which children acquire lexical items (and syntax as well) by means of associative acquire are nouns, learning. Because the majority of words that children initially Bloom gives special treatment to nouns and pronouns: Common nouns are discussed in Chapter 4, and pronouns and proper names are dealt with in Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, Concepts and Categories, Bloom extends his analysis to the conceptual foundations of word learning. In Chapter Naming Representations, he discusses a case study important to any theory of concepts and naming visual representations. From here, Bloom moves to other parts of speech: In Chapter 8, Learning Words through Linguistic Context, he offers an account of how chil- dren learn verbs and adjectives, as the development of syntactic abilities cannot be dissociated from the development of lexical abilities. Chapter 9 deals with learn the how we numbers and Chapter 10 with how the words we learn affect our mental life. In Chapter 11, Final Words, Bloom provides a brief summary and some general remarks. Throughout the book, the author weaves in ideas pro- posed by such linguists, psychologists, and philosophers as B. F. Skinner, Noam Chomsky, and Jean Piaget, who, through different lenses, have closely observed words for and analyzed how human beings develop and around them. issue long relevant to how they conceptualize the world As with most language acquisition texts, Bloom makes early reference to an human development: the nature/nurture debate. These alter- ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 12 Issues in Applied Linguistics © 2001, Regents of the University of California No.

Preparing Prospective Physical Educators in Exercise Physiology

This paper addresses the need for the continued assessment of the course content and instructional methods traditionally employed within physical education teacher education programs to deliver theoretical and applied information from the foundational subdiscipline of exercise physiology. The current literature suggests that physical education teacher educators must implement alternative instructional strategies in order to help students effectively inteprate exercise physiology theory into the practice of teaching physical education. An innovative course at West Virginia University has heen designed to facilitate students' ability to bridge the existent gap between theory and practice in the area of exercise physiology. The infusion of developmental exercise physiology subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge. and pedagogical content knowledge into a single course is intended to ultimately enhance prospective teachers' readiness to foster school-aged children's appreciation for regular physical activity as an essential component of a healthy lifestyle.

An Investigation of an Arts Infusion Program on Creative Thinking, Academic Achievement, Affective Functioning, and Arts Appreciation of Children at Three Grade Levels

The effects of an arts infusion program (SPECTRA+) on the creative thinking, academic achievement, self-esteem, locus of control, and appreciation for the arts of school children were investigated. Participants were 615 children in four schools in two school districts, in either an arts infusion, modified control, or full control condition for one year in a pre-and post-test design. Children's scores were compared on standardized tests on the indices mentioned above. Children in the SPECTRA+ program scored significantly better than their control group peers in the areas of creativity, social and parental self-esteem, and appreciation for the arts. Data regarding academic achievement were mixed. SPECTRA+ boys scored higher in math than all other groups but SPECTRA+ girls scores lowest. In one of the school districts, the SPECTRA+ students achieved higher scores in reading than their control group counterparts. Results, implications, and cautions regarding the generalization of results are discussed, as are plans for future studies.

Preschool children's understanding of the desire and knowledge constraints on intended action

In two experiments, 3‐, 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were tested on their ability to distinguish between intended and unintended actions on the basis of the agent's desire (wanting vs. not wanting the outcome) and/or the agent's knowledge state (having vs. not having the relevant knowledge to intend the outcome). Whereas all age groups had little difficulty imputing intention on the basis of desire, only about one‐half of 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds were able to impute intention on the basis of knowledge; mastery of this latter aspect of intention understanding was not in place until after the age of 5 years. Within‐subjects analyses confirmed these findings fully, and also showed that children were able to attribute ignorance and false beliefs on the basis of a lack of perceptual access before they were able to make judgments of intent on the basis of an agent's knowledge state. The relative lag in young children's appreciation of the knowledge constraints on intended actions is discussed in terms of cognitive, linguistic and social factors.

Intention and Knowledge in Preschoolers' Conception of Pretend

Experiments 1 and 2 investigated 3- and 4-year-olds' understanding of the intended nature of pretend behaviors by testing their ability to distinguish between involuntary behaviors and the same behaviors emitted intentionally through acts of pretend. Four-year-olds' high rate of passing showed that (1) they understood intention as a mental cause of action and (2) they construed pretend behaviors mentalistically. Experiment 3 used the same contrastive procedure to examine Lillard's contention that 4-year-olds do not understand the knowledge conditions and hence the mental representational component of pretend actions. Whereas nearly all of the 5-year-olds understood that an agent who did not know of a specific animal could not be pretending to be that animal, 4-year-olds systematically associated ignorance with pretend. On the basis of the combined findings of the present experiments, and other research showing a mentalistic understanding of pretense by the age of 3 or 4, it was concluded that the specific reasoning requirements of Lillard's tasks resulted in an underestimation of children's appreciation of the mental features of pretend.

Intention and Analogy in Children's Naming of Pictorial Representations

What underlies children's naming of representations, such as when they call a statue of a clothespin “a clothespin”? One possibility is that they focus exclusively on shape, extending the name “clothespin” only to entities that are shaped like typical clothespins. An alternative possibility is that they extend a word that refers to an object to any representation of that object, and that shape is relevant because it is a reliable indicator of representational intent. We explored these possibilities by asking 3- and 4-year-olds to describe pictures that represented objects through intention and analogy. The results suggest that it is children's appreciation of representation that underlies their naming; sameness of shape is neither necessary nor sufficient. We conclude by considering whether this account might apply more generally to artifacts other than pictorial representations.

Children's Judgments of Certainty and Uncertainty on a Problem Where the Possible Solutions Differ in Likelihood

In the present study, the authors adapted a task introduced by Piaget (1987) to assess children's appreciation of indeterminacy under conditions in which the possible solutions to a problem are not equally likely. The task involved identifying or predicting the number of chips that must be drawn from a box in order to determine its contents with certainty. Children 7 through 12 years old were presented with this task and with Pieraut-Le Bonniec's (1980) box task (a standard measure of the ability to distinguish determinate from indeterminate conditions). The tasks produced parallel developmental functions, although there was some indication that appreciating indeterminacy was easier on Piaget's problem than on the standard task. Information about likelihoods did not influence children's judgments of certainty and uncertainty. In general, recognizing that a problem is determinate precedes recognition of indeterminacy, which, in turn, precedes success at predicting the moves needed to establish certainty on a problem.

Young children's appreciation of the mental impact of their communicative signals.

Young children's appreciation of the mental impact of their communicative signals.