Children's Sense Research Articles

Ways to implement preschool inclusion: A multiple-case study

This study is about preschool inclusion. It concentrates on ways to implement inclusion, on support for children with disabilities, and on the quality of inclusion practices, and it adopts a mixed method approach and a multiple-case study design. Participating in the study were twenty-five staff members and fourteen children aged three to five with different disabilities from six inclusive preschool units in Sweden. Observations and focus group interviews were conducted and analyzed. The preschool units in the study have a specialised or comprehensive organisational typology; they implement full inclusion, partial inclusion, or outdoor inclusion; and they provide various types of support to facilitate the children's sense of belonging, involvement, and development. As well, the preschool units incorporate a number of inclusive practices that are of nearly good, good, or nearly excellent overall quality. This study can form a basis for interesting discussions on preschool inclusion and the ways it can be implemented.

The Distance Between the "Self" and the "Other" in Children's Digital Books.

This conceptual paper contributes toward our understanding of the underlying mechanisms in children’s understanding of self and the other with media. We synthesize diverse bodies of literature, concerned with children’s reading with digital and traditional (print) books, to explicate the parameters that may, in part, explain positive learning outcomes and further illuminate the patterns across various measures. We propose the “Distance Model,” which suggests that a child’s interest in a reading activity depends on its proximity to the child’s funds of identity (Esteban-Guitart and Moll, 2014). The closer the proximity, the more salient the impact on the child’s cognitive understanding and sense of belonging. The familiarity of the reading content and the relevance of the reading medium for a child’s personal life can be evoked through a number of reading strategies and design techniques, which we discuss in relation to children’s literature and the contemporary design of children’s interactive e-books. We conclude with some suggestions regarding future applications of the Distance Model in children’s media research.

Peer victimization and sympathy development in childhood: The moderating role of emotion regulation

AbstractAlthough peer victimization is widely considered to be detrimental to children's well‐being, knowing what it feels like to be harmed is also thought to contribute to children's sense of concern for others. However, research has yet to establish a clear link between peer victimization and sympathy during childhood. Across two samples of Canadian 4‐ and 8‐year‐olds (total N = 504), we examined whether children's emotion regulation capacities (ER) moderated the victimization–sympathy link. Study 1 (n = 300; 33% European origin; 73% of caregivers held bachelor's degree or higher) examined the interactive effects of victimization and child‐ and caregiver‐reported ER on children's self‐reported sympathy assessed concurrently and 1 year later. Concurrently, victimization was positively associated with sympathy for children higher in self‐reported ER and for boys higher in caregiver‐reported ER. Longitudinally, victimization positively predicted changes in sympathy from 4 to 5 years of age for children higher in self‐reported ER. No longitudinal interaction effects emerged for caregiver‐reported ER or in older children. Using the same caregiver‐reported ER measure, Study 2 (n = 204; 30% European origin; 65% of caregivers held bachelor's degree or higher) replicated this pattern in a different cross‐sectional sample of 4‐ and 8‐year‐olds. These results provide initial support for the hypothesis that victimization experiences may facilitate other‐oriented concern in children who can effectively regulate their emotions.

Motivation matters: Parents' path to adoption as related to their perceptions of open adoption

Structural openness in adoption has become very popular. However, it does not guarantee communicative openness. This study explores the relationship between adoptive parents' motivations for adopting children from the welfare system and their evolving reactions to their open adoption experiences. A qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews with 16 Israeli adoptive parents revealed that those who adopted for child-centered reasons, most of whom have their own birth children, feel positive about open adoption and see its benefits for the child. Adoptive parents who adopted for self-oriented reasons, most of whom had been childless for many years, see it as a barrier to the development of the child's identity and sense of belonging, and tend to limit communicative openness. Recommendations for practice and research are discussed.

Applying Fairbairn's Object Relations Theory to the Psychological Development of Anders Breivik

The author summarizes the trauma/dissociation model of W.R.D. Fairbairn and applies it to the psychological development of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer. Fairbairn's model focuses on the absolute dependency of the infant on its mother for all of its physical and psychological needs. Maternal indifference, neglect, or outright abuse is so catastrophic to the child's sense of security that he/she has to dissociate intolerable events. When dissociation is repeatedly deployed, the memories of parental failures gradually coalesce and form internal self and object structures that mirror the intolerable events that the child experienced. These unconscious views of self and other influence the central ego's perception of reality and are responsible for transferences, reenactments, and projection of the inner relational patterns onto external objects. The author concludes that Breivik's developmental history was acted out in his displaced rage toward innocent victims after being radicalized in adulthood by racist rhetoric on the internet.

Differentiating Motor Coordination and Position Sense in Children with Cerebral Palsy and Typically Developing Populations Through Robotic Assessments.

Motor function and coordination improve as children age. Robotic assessments of motor function and coordination have been shown to be repeatable, objective, and accurate. Additionally, robotic assessments have been used to measure and quantify deficits in motor function and coordination in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Normative models of motor function and coordination based on age have not been used widely to differentiate impaired performance from typical performance. This study presents preliminary results of identifying deficits in motor function and coordination assessed with a robotic reaching task and using a normative model of typical performance that accounts for age, sex, and handedness. The models were compared with data from three participants with CP to evaluate whether the models could be used to identify deficits in motor function. The models indicated motor deficits in one participant when performing a visually guided reaching task with respect to initial speed and distance ratios. There was no evidence of motor control deficits in the other two participants. Future work will refine the models to be able to better identify and quantify motor control impairments with the potential to target therapy around quantifiable goals.

A qualitative investigation of unsupervised outdoor activities for 10- to 13-year-old children: “I like adventuring but I don't like adventuring without being careful”

There has been increasing recognition of the importance of children's outdoor play and independent mobility for thriving children, neighbourhoods, cities and society, which has led to calls to reverse children's retreat from the street commonplace in many Western nations. We privilege the voices of children aged 10–13 living in three diverse neighbourhoods in an urban centre in Canada to examine the factors that influence children's unsupervised outdoor activities (UOA), such as play, hanging out, and active. A total of 105 children participated in go-along interviews. Analyses revealed two themes: First, ‘feeling safe’ encompassed a sense of social and physical safety, including children's sense of neighbourliness, social dangers, discomfort around traffic, and personal agency to keep themselves safe. Second, having ‘things to do,’ included the affordances that children perceived as important in their neighbourhoods, particularly having other children to play with, diverse amenities and access to nature, and opportunities for challenge and risky play. We outline a conceptual model of children's decision process for UOA that identifies key variables that influence children's engagement in UOA.

"The connection just happens": Therapists' perspectives of canine-assisted occupational therapy for children on the autism spectrum.

The inclusion of a therapy dog has been suggested as a means of facilitating therapy engagement for children on the autism spectrum within occupational therapy sessions. The aim of this study was to seek an understanding of possible benefits and challenges of this practice from the perspectives of occupational therapists, trained in canine-assisted therapy. This study adopted an interpretive descriptive design. Six therapists participated in a semi-structured, telephone interview to describe their experience of working as canine-assisted occupational therapists with children on the autism spectrum. An inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Two overarching themes emerged. The first captured how therapists incorporated their therapy dog into sessions to accelerate children's initial motivation to engage within the therapy process. Specifically, therapists discussed how involving their therapy dog facilitated the development of a secure relationship, supported autonomous task involvement and increased children's sense of confidence. Second, they identified challenges inherent in their practice, such as the therapist's ability to maintain a goal-directed focus when including a therapy dog. Beyond the challenges within their own practice sessions, therapists reflected on issues thought to impact the occupational therapy profession since starting practice as a canine-assisted occupational therapist. Findings from this study contribute to the current understanding of how occupational therapists incorporate therapy dogs into their practice with children on the autism spectrum. The specific challenges noted by the therapists highlighted the importance of canine-assisted occupational therapy being viewed as an advanced scope of practice within Australia and, therefore, the need for training and practice guidelines to be established.

Respond with warmth

How do love and care impact on a child's holistic development and what happens when they are lacking? Jo Button flags up the importance of practitioners developing a knowledge of neuroscience to support children's sense of security.

Strategi Memanfaatkan Rasa Senang Anak Bersekolah (Studi Berdasarkan Tingkat Pendidikan Orang Tua DI Pangkalan Bun Kalimantan Tengah)

This study aims to analyze how children's acceptance begins school; and how parents' strategies to maintain the fun of children early in school. This qualitative research was explored through observation techniques to parents in utilizing children's sense of schooling; and interviews with parents as research subjects, and also to children as informants and subanalysis of research on the acceptance of children attending school and parents' tips in utilizing the joys of children attending school; and family documentation to see the child's age of birth. This research is analyzed systematically through theories relating to pedagogy and psychology. The research findings show: all children have the same acceptance, that is; feeling happy when starting formal schooling in the elementary school; the strategy of parents with high school education and scholars who is using and conditioning consciously the joys of children in school; and parents who have junior high school education submit to children through teacher guidance; and parents who have an elementary school education fully surrender to children without guidance.

MOTIVES OF THE EGYPTIAN EDUCATION FUTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN 2020 AND 2030

Purpose of the study: The current study aims to identify the engines of the future of Egyptian education to achieve the fourth goal of the United Nations Convention on Sustainable Development. Methodology: The research followed the analytical method in the comparative analysis of the future of Egyptian education between 2020 and 2030. Main Findings: The results of the research, in addition to the conclusions of researchers from the literature and previous studies, stressed on the importance of the existence of ten motives for the future of education for sustainable development 2030. Applications of this study: This research attempts to address this dilemma through the perspectives and engines of education for sustainability. Where teachers can meet the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) approach to enhance knowledge and positive attitudes towards appropriate action for sustainability in relevant, meaningful, exciting, and creative ways, this research offers experiences that allow pupils to become more connected to nature, develop children's sense of practical orientation that embraces positive attitudes, change behaviour and hope for the child's future. Novelty/Originality of this study: There is no research or studies that addressed the motives of the Egyptian education future for sustainable development.

"The Ugly Face of Old Age": Elders' Unmet Expectations for Care and Support in Rural Ethiopia.

As migration, urbanization, and aging accelerate in developing nations, traditional family supports for elders are diminishing. With these trends in mind, hermeneutic phenomenology was used to examine the experiences of 10 rural Ethiopian elders of age 70 and older. Narrative data from in-depth interviews revealed three prominent themes: the "good old days," drained happiness, worry and pessimism. Elders felt devalued by their children, grandchildren, and youth in general. Compared to how they treated their own parents, elders believed that their children's sense of filial obligation was weak and unreliable. Interactions were described as undermining, embarrassing, and abusive. Elders were pessimistic about the prospect of reliable caregivers, even expressing a wish to die before they become dependent on others for care. Despite such challenges, participants viewed aging as a privilege. New cooperative models of community-based care are needed to ensure that elders in developing nations can expect adequate care throughout their lives.

Socioeconomic inequality and adjustments in children’s perceptions of their agency as they age in South Korea

AbstractThis paper explores how children's perceptions of their agency, as something that is closely associated with its exercise, appear in relation to social structural factors, especially their socioeconomic positions, as they age. Using data from 862 10–18 years old in South Korea, we examine how children's expressed optimism about their ability to achieve their occupational choices can conceal the impact of structural factors on their ‘choices’ and dispositions for (non‐)action over time. Based on the findings, we argue for a more careful interpretation of children's sense of agency that recognises its propensity to continuously adjust in contexts of structural inequality.

Samoan children's sense of place: Experiential landscapes in an urban village

Pacific Island communities are experiencing significant societal changes as a result of rural urban, inter‐island migration and migration to New Zealand. These relocations have significant implications for children's relationship to place. However, virtually nothing is known about children's sense of place in Samoa or places and activities that are important to them. This exploratory study worked with eight children aged 5–12 years growing up in an urban village in Samoa drawing on ‘Talanoa’ as research methodology and method by employing photo‐elicitation. The study provides a first snapshot of Samoan children's sense of place growing up in an urban village.

Turn-taking and sense making: Children and professionals co-producing and revisiting multimodal books during transition from day-care to school

Abstract This study contributes to current research on technological tools in early childhood education. The activities studied were part of a larger, socioculturally informed and design-based study conducted by the researcher in collaboration with professionals and children in Denmark. Activities are examined where children and professionals use tablets and interactive whiteboards for co-producing and dialogically revisiting multimodal books during transition from day-care to school. Findings show how children, professionals, hardware, software, and institutional practices co-constitute a turn-taking infrastructure that shapes activities. Children are thus allocated rights and obligations to contribute sequentially with photos, audios, and texts to single pages in the common books. In addition, they are attributed ownership to the multimodal records they produced. Through examination of activities over time, the study traces children's sense making of multimodal records as trajectories across time and contexts. It is shown how the joint activities rely on participants' initiation and maintenance of shared understanding, accomplished partly through turn-taking procedures, partly through utterances of sense making. It is discussed how a dynamic tension, sometimes a contradiction, between sequential structure and multi-voiced sense making unfolds dialectically. This points to insights regarding technological tools mediating young children's communicative agency within early childhood educational settings.

Commentary: Children's Sense of Fairness as Equal Respect.

Commentary: Children's Sense of Fairness as Equal Respect.

Nutritional Considerations in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

The high prevalence of malnutrition in adult and pediatric cancer patients has been appreciated for decades and continues to be documented. Although the prognostic significance of nutritional status among patients with cancer remains controversial, it is generally accepted that the nutritional support is an important aspect of medical therapy. Children with cancer are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, because they exhibit elevated substrate needs due to the disease and its treatment. At the same time, children have increased requirements of nutrients to attain appropriate growth and neurodevelopment. Malnutrition in children with cancer should not be accepted at any stage of the disease or tolerated as an inevitable process. The undernourished patients of ALL are more prone to infections, requiring longer duration of hospital stay. Therefore, optimum nutritional support to such patients can help to decrease the chances of infections and ultimately improve the outcome based on a systematic assessment. Nutritional assessment is the first step of nutritional support which will not improve the child's sense of well-being but also maintain normal growth, promote wound healing, improve tumor response to therapy and enable the child to better withstand the effects of therapy. Assessment will also help prevent over nutrition which may in some instances be detrimental to the treatment of cancer. Therefore, nutritional adequate strategies should be considered and integrated as a fundamental feature of pediatric oncology with the same diligence as one does for other supportive care measures to prevent chronic illness and adverse late effects caused by malnutrition in children with ALL.

Motives of the Egyptian Education Future for Sustainable Development: A Comparative Analysis Between 2020 and 2030

Purpose of the study: The current study aims to identify the engines of the future of Egyptian education to achieve the fourth goal of the United Nations Convention on Sustainable Development. Methodology: The research followed the analytical method in the comparative analysis of the future of Egyptian education between 2020 and 2030. Main Findings: The results of the research, in addition to the conclusions of researchers from the literature and previous studies, stressed on the importance of the existence of ten motives for the future of education for sustainable development 2030. Applications of this study: This research attempts to address this dilemma through the perspectives and engines of education for sustainability. Where teachers can meet the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) approach to enhance knowledge and positive attitudes towards appropriate action for sustainability in relevant, meaningful, exciting, and creative ways, this research offers experiences that allow pupils to become more connected to nature, develop children's sense of practical orientation that embraces positive attitudes, change behavior and hope for the child's future. Novelty/Originality of this study: There is no research or studies that addressed the motives of the Egyptian education future for sustainable development.

Predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics of dental services utilization among socially deprived schoolchildren

To test the relationship of predisposing, enabling and need characteristics with dental services utilization and pattern of dental attendance among 12-year-old schoolchildren living in a socially deprived urban area. A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 358 children enrolled in public schools located in a deprived area of the city of Manaus, Brazil. Predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics were selected according to Andersen's behavioral conceptual model. Self-completed questionnaires were used to collect the predisposing characteristics (child's gender, sense of coherence, self-esteem, oral health beliefs). Parents or guardians provided data on enabling characteristics, including dental health insurance and socioeconomic status. Evaluated need characteristics included oral clinical status assessed through dental examinations conducted by five calibrated examiners. Structural equation modeling was used to test the predictors of dental services utilization and pattern of dental attendance. Predisposing characteristics, including male gender and low parents/guardians sense of coherence predicted poor dental services utilization and inadequate pattern of dental attendance, respectively. Low socioeconomic status and poor oral clinical status were linked to poor dental services utilization and worse children's pattern of dental attendance. The present findings suggest that predisposing (child's gender and parental sense of coherence), enabling (socioeconomic conditions) and evaluated need characteristics (oral clinical status) are associated with dental services utilization among children.

Bangs and bubbles

Children are naturally inquisitive about the world and they will always be excited by hands-on science. These simple experiments devised by Claire Hewson are designed to ignite children's curiosity, wonderment and sense of discovery.