Children's Views Research Articles

Do Mothers and Fathers of Egyptian Stuttering Children View Stuttering Differently?

Purpose: Limited research has shown that knowing or interacting with a person who stutters facilitates more positive attitudes toward stuttering. This is true when the stuttering person is a close friend or a family member. The study sought to determine if Egyptian mothers held different stuttering attitudes than fathers as joint parents of children who stuttered. Method: Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering results of 25 mothers and 25 fathers of the same children who stuttered were compared. Also, children's severity scores were correlated with their parents' attitudes. Results: There were no significant differences between mothers' and fathers' stuttering attitudes; however, an unexpected trend for more positive attitudes of fathers was observed. Weak relationships between children's stuttering severity and their parents' attitudes existed, with slightly higher correlations for the fathers. Conclusion: Nonsignificant trends for slightly more positive attitudes for fathers than mothers should be explored in larger sample sizes in order to answer the question “Should information provided for parents of children who stutter be different or differently presented to mothers versus fathers?”

Life Skills for Primary and Secondary School Children: Development of a Multilingual, Inclusive Education Program

The presented paper combines applied research and development in the field of cultural diversity and inclusive education. It addresses the improvement of primary and secondary school children's transversal skills through a specific personal development teaching and learning program and presents an ongoing study as an accompanying action-based research element. In a first step, the theoretical international frameworks for life skills and inclusive education programs are discussed and combined with the claim for lifelong learning and the need for making pre-existing competencies visible. The presented personal development program tackles individual learning processes and transversal skills and shifts the teaching and learning culture towards child-oriented and cooperative learning. This shift can bear challenges for teacher trainers, teachers, students, and the entire educational system as belief systems, traditions, standard teaching practices, and the individual child's view are under change. In a second step, the development of the inclusive personal development program is discussed, focusing on the participatory process and stakeholders of the three partner countries Kosovo, North-Macedonia, and the Republic of Moldova. Alignment to curricula, integration into curricula, development of teaching and learning material, and training programs are presented as relevant issues and stepstones. The personal development teaching and learning material for grades one to nine is explained as an open-source material in different languages. In a third step, the ongoing action-based research study is presented and discussed, highlighting the first results and consequences for the development of teaching and learning materials and training programs.

Children's vision of the covid-19 pandemic: gender-specific views of older preschoolers and younger schoolchildren

Introduction. This article presents the results of the research project "Children's Vision of the COVID-19 pandemic" implemented in 2020. According to many experts, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to negative consequences for the physical (somatic), psychic and psychological and the health of the population. The works of foreign and domestic authors state the facts of a number of negative psychological effects of an emotional, mental and behavioral nature. However, against the background of the available research, a significant gap is found, which concerns the children's version of the perception of the situation of the pandemic and forced isolation, and above all its gender specificity in relation to the stage of early ontogenesis – senior preschool and primary school age.Materials and Methods. To collect the actual data, a projective verbal method of writing a story on the theme "The Tale of the Coronavirus" was used. In total, 138 stories were collected (68 of them were composed by girls and 70 by boys), the content analysis of which was carried out through the open coding procedure. Comparative gender analysis of the texts of the stories was conducted in seven main categories: "characteristics of the coronavirus", "origin of the coronavirus", "current (frustrated) needs", "resources for overcoming difficulties", "emotions", "key events" and "gender of the characters".Results. The data obtained showed the predominantly negative nature of children's views of the coronavirus, pronounced discomfort in most of them caused by frustration of the needs for security, freedom, positive emotions and social contacts, the predominance of a mostly anxious emotional background of the perception of the pandemic situation with a predominance of fear, as well as a special emphasis on such resources for overcoming difficulties as compliance with preventive measures and hygiene rules, medical care and restriction of activity. At the same time, the gender specificity of children's ideas about the COVID-19 pandemic was found, which consists in a more pronounced orientation towards people of their own sex, emphasizing their own role in solving the problem and focusing on active resistance to the threat in boys and focusing on the emotional side of events, emphasizing the role of others and waiting for salvation from outside in girls.Discussion and Conclusions. According to the results of the study, it is concluded that the content of ideas about the COVID-19 pandemic and self-isolation of girls and boys of senior preschool and primary school age, along with general trends, has a gender specificity, which reflects the results of differentiated gender socialization prevailing at the stages of early ontogenesis, based on the tradition of gender polarization.

Incorporating children's views and perceptions about urban mobility: Implementation of the “philosophy with children” inquiry approach with young children

There is an increasing concern among scholars and practitioners to incorporate children's views and perceptions about their daily mobility, followed by the search for structured approaches for data collection and analysis. This paper draws on academic research conducted with 5 to 6-year old children and their caregivers (N = 317) in three public preschools in São Paulo (Brazil) with a high prevalence of low-income immigrants, using the “Philosophy with Children” (PwC) inquiry approach. Once the PwC sessions were transcribed and associated to the questionnaires to caregivers (73% response rate), it was possible to adopt a set of qualitative analysis tools to extract children's views and perceptions about urban mobility, namely topic modelling (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) and sentiment analysis (AFINN and Bing sentiment lexicons). These allowed the identification of variables affecting the opinions shared by young children about urban mobility, including more negative perceptions among boys, non-native children, and those in high social vulnerability. Beyond revealing a potential of the PwC approach to enquire children about their established travel behavior, the implementation of the proposed inquiry sessions covered an age group that is commonly disregarded in most of transport-related studies involving children and youth while encompassing a context of public schools in a developing country, with a high prevalence of low-income and immigrant families.

Holding on and letting go: Views about filial piety among adult children living in New Zealand.

The study aimed to explore the perspectives of adult children about late-life living and care arrangements for their ageing immigrant parents living in New Zealand. Older immigrants' well-being is closely associated with filial relations and is often reliant on families as a main source of social, financial and emotional support. Research among migrant Asian adults has reported mixed findings regarding intergenerational perspectives of filial practices. Qualitative design using focused ethnographic lens. Semi-structured individual interviews were undertaken with 45 adult children of older immigrants living in New Zealand to explore their views about filial piety. The CoREQ checklist was used in reporting methods and findings. Two major themes were identified in this study of adult children's view of filial piety and late-life care for their ageing parents. The first theme, 'holding on-reconfiguring values', referred to a process described by the participants as upholding the core values and cultural familial expectations, looking after their ageing parents, yet modifying the ways in which they provide care. The second major theme 'letting go-reconfigured expectations', described participants' views of aged care for themselves, which meant they no longer held traditional values that needed to be enacted by their children. Adult children from immigrant families were positioned as intermediaries of these shifting values of their own and within younger generations. The adult children's shift of thinking and acceptance of reconfigured expression of filial duties impact care and living arrangements of older people from immigrant and culturally diverse backgrounds, which also influences health and well-being in later life. Healthcare professionals including nurses working in the ageing and aged care sector need to accommodate the changing generational perspectives about filial piety to cater to the unique late-life care requirements and health needs of older people and their families.

Protection or Punishment? Relating the Design Space of Parental Control Apps and Perceptions about Them to Support Parenting for Online Safety

Parental control apps, which are mobile apps that allow parents to monitor and restrict their children's activities online, are becoming increasingly adopted by parents as a means of safeguarding their children's online safety. However, it is not clear whether these apps are always beneficial or effective in what they aim to do; for instance, the overuse of restriction and surveillance has been found to undermine parent-child relationship and children's sense of autonomy. While previous research has categorised and taken inventory of key features of popular parental control apps, they have not systematically analysed the ways such features were designed or realised in such apps, or in particular how aspects of such designs might relate to parents and children's experiences with such apps. In this work, we investigate this gap, asking specifically: how might children's and parents' perceptions be related to how parental control features were designed? To investigate this question, we conducted an analysis of 58 top Android parental control apps designed for the purpose of promoting children's online safety, finding three major axes of variation in how key restriction and monitoring features were realised: granularity, feedback/transparency, and parent-child communications support. To relate these axes to perceived benefits and problems, we then analysed 3264 app reviews to identify references to aspects of the each of the axes above, to understand children's and parents' views of how such dimensions related to their experiences with these apps. Our findings led towards 1) an understanding of how parental control apps realise their functionalities differently along three axes of variation, 2) an analysis of exactly the ways that such variation influences children's and parents' perceptions, respectively of the usefulness or effectiveness of these apps, and finally 3) an identification of design recommendations and opportunities for future apps by contextualising our findings within existing digital parenting theories.

‘Can you hear me?’ An exploratory study investigating the representation and impact of children’s views in multi‐agency meetings

AbstractThe study explored parent and professional perceptions of the representation of children's views in multi‐agency meetings in Scottish schools. Online survey (134 responses) and educational documents provided data sources that were subject to thematic and documentary analysis. The findings highlight the importance of professional beliefs around child capacity and their understanding of what constitutes a competent view. In turn, they influence the extent to which professionals find representations of children's views worthwhile. Implications for practice include raising professional awareness of evolving ontologies around the representation of children's views in multi‐agency meetings in line with policy and legislation.

Evaluation of the Quality of the Pictorial Book ‘Dana and Dentistry’ from Preschool Children’s Viewpoint

BackgroundPictures can be useful in children’s learning processes and strengthen their thinking and imagination. It is possible to teach new concepts to children using pictorial books. The pictorial book ‘Dana and Dentistry’ has been designed by a pedodontist by getting assistance from a painter. The present study aimed to qualitatively evaluate the pictures in this book by a target group, i.e., the preschool children.Materials and methodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in 3 kindergartens in Kerman-Iran in 2019 in order to examine children's views on the images of 18 chapters of the book designed by pediatric dentists Dana and Dentistry. The children replied to the question on each chapter after viewing the pictures in each chapter of the book on a pictorial checklist by color painting. Multivariate analysis of variance and binomial analysis were used to analyze the data and a significance level of less than 0.05 was considered.ResultsIn the present study, 79 children aged 4 to 6 years participated, 48.1% and 51.9% of the children were female and male, respectively. The mean overall score of the 18 questions on the checklist was 16.19 ± 0.18, and the mean correct response to each question on the checklist was >60%, which was significant (P=0.0001).ConclusionThe pictorial book ‘Dana and Dentistry’ has been designed well from more than 60% of children’s viewpoints to teach various dental subjects to children.

Views of 4-5-Year-Old Children with No Nursery or Kindergarten Experience about School

To have a successful school life, a child must be able to make a healthy start to this period both socially and mentally. For this, children's views about school have a strong potential to affect their entire lives. The research aimed to examine the views of 4-5-year-old children who have not started any formal school yet. The study group consisted of 12 children aged between 4-5 years who have not started kindergarten from the province of Rize in Turkey. For the study; an open-ended, concentrated interview and drawing methods were applied with a small group. The data obtained from the group interviews with the children and the interpretation of the drawings were analyzed using the descriptive analysis technique. Based on the data, it was concluded that the family and the media are among the strong information sources of children about school and that positive features are frequently repeated. Negative features included crowding, rules, etc. The results also revealed that children who have no school experience and those who attend a pre-school education institution full-time have similar views about the school.

Children's Views Toward Their Peers With Disabilities During Early Childhood

In this study, it was aimed to examine the opinions of preschool children towards their peers with disabilities and the characteristics that affect these views. This research is a qualitative study. In the research in which qualitative data analysis techniques are used, the basic data collection source is the semi-structured interview form. The study group consisted of 68 children between the months of 36 and 72 who attend kindergarten. In the analysis of the research findings, qualitative data were evaluated by content analysis. As a result of the research; In the post-test application regarding the appearance features of dolls with disabilities, the children in the age group of 3, 4 and 5; It was seen that they made definitions in the category of " describing the disability condition ". In the post-test application regarding the playmate preference of the children, the majority; It has been observed that they accept dolls with disabilities as playmates on the grounds of "not having experience" and "presence of equipment" in the age group of 3, and "activity content" and "having experience" in the age group 4 and 5. In addition "What games would you like to play?" question’s answers were evaluated, it was seen that all the children gave answers in the "games adapted to the disability condition" category in the post-test application.

Children's perspectives and experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and UK public health measures.

BackgroundThe COVID‐19 pandemic has had profound impacts on how we live our lives; yet, the implications for children and the effects on children's everyday lives have been relatively underacknowledged. Understanding children's views on COVID‐19 and related restrictions on their lives provides an important opportunity to understand how children have responded to the pandemic, including the impacts on their social and emotional well‐being.ObjectiveThis study explored the experiences and perspectives of children in relation to the COVID‐19 pandemic and related restrictions on everyday life.MethodA qualitative study using semistructured online interviews with participatory drawings was undertaken between May and July 2020. Eighteen children from England and Wales, aged 7–11 years, participated in interviews.FindingsThemes included children's reflections on (1) COVID‐19 as a deadly contagion; (2) fears and sadness and (3) social responsibility and opportunities to respond positively.ConclusionsYoung children offer insightful reflections on their experiences during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Children and young people's perspectives must be considered in future public health discourse.Patient or Public ContributionThis work was informed by conversations with my own three primary school‐aged children and the children of friends. A formal Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group was not established due to the speed with which the project was undertaken. Any future research in this area would benefit from formal PPI in the design, methods and questions.

Effect of landscape design elements on promoting neuropsychological health of children

The environmental design of built spaces can have neuro-psychological effects on humans. The design of hospital environments, especially for children, is probably more important than the other spaces because children are mentally more vulnerable than other social groups. This research aimed to examine the children's and therapists' views and perceptions on the effect of a children's hospital's landscape design elements to improve their neuropsychological health during their treatment period. Sixty sick children and 60 hospital staff (therapists) evaluated landscape images and responded to a questionnaire. Both respondent groups believed in the positive effects of landscape elements on all children's neuropsychological indices, including the increased emotional index, increased cognitive index, and reduced non-symptoms index. Both respondent groups firstly preferred children's features and secondly, water features. These preferences positively affected many neuropsychological indices of sick children. However, children chose water features as their priority, which positively affected sick children's relaxation. However, this view was not consistent with their therapists' views. The children and their therapists were also not in agreement on the impact of other landscape elements (trees, flowers, ground cover plants, turfgrasses, and mulch) on many neuropsychological indices of sick children. Therefore, based on this research, children's therapists cannot be good representatives for their psychological perceptions about the hospital's landscape elements when a direct assessment of children's perceptions is almost impossible. This research has practical recommendations for landscape professionals around the world on the sustainable design of therapeutic landscapes.

Child-focused practice in social services for adults in Norway

Summary Children of social service users are at risk for developing mental health problems as well as social and behavioral problems. Social service counselors should therefore be aware of service users’ children and provide support for them. In fact, they are obligated by law to consider children's views and their best interests in cases affecting them. Despite this, little is known about social service counselors’ child focus in their practice. In this study, self-reported survey data from 93 counselors working for the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration (NAV) were analyzed to explore their child focus. Findings Findings suggest that a particular focus on children is no part of common practice among NAV counselors; nor is use or knowledge of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Knowledge and use of the CRC may be a predictor of child-focused practice. The results showed a significant difference of medium effect size between NAV counselors who ask about children and NAV counselors who do not when it comes to knowledge and use of the CRC. Applications Policy makers and practitioners should utilize NAV's potential as a preventive arena. For NAV counselors to be aware of and support children of social service users they need a stronger focus on children and hence know and use the laws concerning children's rights. Incorporating children's rights into social workers’ education and internal training may strengthen the focus on children in NAV counselors’ practice.

How Child‐Focused are Child Protection Conferences?

Child protection conferences (CPCs) are multiagency meetings that are central to child protection procedures in the UK. They bring together practitioners, parents and children to consider whether a child has experienced significant harm and, if so, what action is required to protect him or her in future. This article presents findings from a qualitative study of CPCs in two areas in central England which explored the extent to which conferences are ‘child‐focused’ events. Data were gathered from audio recordings and documentary analysis of 14 initial and review conferences, 15 interviews with conference staff and six focus groups with 35 practitioners from a range of agencies. A four‐part conceptualisation of child‐focused practice was used to analyse practice in conferences. Children's participation in CPCs was found to be low, and child‐focused decision‐making and planning were rarely achieved. The findings emphasise the importance of pre‐conference work with children and families, and the central role of the conference chair. These findings are compared to those of the landmark ‘studies in child protection’ research published by the Department of Health almost 26 years ago to determine if improvements in child protection conference practice have occurred.‘Explore[s] the extent to which [child protection] conferences are ‘child‐focused’ events’Key Practitioner Messages Making CPCs more child‐focused requires greater support, preparation and planning from practitioners. In particular, mechanisms to facilitate children's participation in conferences should be identified and used. While representation of children's views is critical, in order for the conference to be child‐focused, it must also consider the individual child's experience, including their daily lived experience and needs and outcomes in reports for conference, CPC discussion and child protection planning – please state preference. The time allocated for planning and decision‐making should be ring‐fenced within the conference.

One year of Young EFIS: achievements and future directions

One year of Young EFIS: achievements and future directions

Right to be heard by children in Custody Evaluation institution in the Iranian legal system

Advances in the humanities have led to a shift in attitudes toward children and the issuance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989. Social activists to reduce the negative consequences of divorce on children and their better adjustment after their parental divorce, have been wanted to change family law to provide children's participation in any judicial proceedings (such as custody and access disputes) to express their views about decisions affecting their lives and well-being. In this article we analyses with content method, Iranian family law statement, to extract capacity of children's legal right to decision- making in custody disputes. The findings show, three dimensions of approach in children's right and participation are identified: rights approach, best interests approach and mixed approach .The rights approach focuses on fundamentally rights such as: equality, dignity thus emphasis on the right of the child to be heard .the second approach seem to have negative views about children's right to participation because involving children in parental fighting, are very harmful. While the third approach states, it is necessary children's voice to be heard, as the same time emphasis on child protection. The paper notes, that under Iranian law, children's views are sometimes absent in decision- making particularly in custody litigation.

Children's perceptions of environment and health in two Scottish neighbourhoods

This article explores children's understanding of the role that neighbourhood plays in their health and well-being. Whilst evidence exists on the relationship between the environment and children's health, we have little knowledge of this from the perspective of children themselves. Children's experiences are all too frequently researched through the eyes of adults. Following a Rights of the Child framework, respecting children's views and giving them due weight, this paper reports from a project that worked with children from two relatively deprived urban neighbourhoods in Scotland. Using this framework, the children themselves were the researchers who designed the themes, decided upon the methods, conducted the research and analysed the resulting data. Using focus groups, visual mapping and community walks the children explored their local neighbourhoods and the findings reveal features of the environment that the children perceive as important for their health and well-being. The children selected three themes to explore in the research: safety, littering, and family and friends, through which they elicit their experiences, feelings and attitudes towards the environment and their well-being. The paper reveals that not only do the children have a deep understanding of the link between environment and health, but that they also understand how aspects of disadvantage, including place-based stigma, can limit their social participation and inclusion in society. We conclude with recommendations made by the children themselves, ranging from access to affordable activities, improved open spaces, ‘support not stigma’ and the need to be heard in local decision making.

“We are in Cyprus, we have to use our language, don't we?” Pupils’ and their parents’ attitudes towards two proximal linguistic varieties

The ideas, values and stereotypes associated with different linguistic varieties in specific communities that are reflected in people's attitudes toward those varieties and their speakers are acquired through social practices and institutions of replication, such as the institution of family and education. These are contexts where language ideologies are produced and reproduced and, consequently, form and affect people's language attitudes. This study examines elementary school aged children's and their parents’ language attitudes in the Greek-speaking community in Cyprus. This community is diglossic with Standard Modern Greek (SMG) being the High variety and Cypriot Greek (CG), the native language of the people, being the Low variety. The study examines whether the participants’ sex, place of residence, education level, and their perceived ability to use the two varieties affect their attitudes towards the two varieties, the people who use them and their views on the introduction of CG to education. The data are collected via questionnaires and interviews and are analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The analysis of the data shows that parents hold more prescriptive ideas about language than the pupils and assign status and superiority only to speakers of the standard variety. At the same time, females in both groups show a tendency to favour the standard variety and standard language speakers while adult males favour the non-standard variety. Overall, the pupils’ language attitudes are positive towards both varieties and those who use them. Unlike their parents, pupils perceive their place of residence (whether it is urban or rural) as a factor that affects the frequency of their use of the two varieties. Data from their language performance at school give credit to their claim. Finally, the pupils seem to value their native language and seek its use at school not only because it is easier for them to understand the lesson, but also because they view it as part of their identity. Their parents do not seem to share their children's views, and when they do claim that CG has a place in education in Cyprus, CG is only accepted in oral communication. The examination of the findings is framed with a discussion of two important ideologies cultivated in Greek Cypriot schools: the ideology of the standard language and the ideology of ethnic nationalism.

Children's preferences on the move: Establishing the characteristics of unofficial paths and their benefits for children's physical play in Australian primary school grounds

Although school grounds have long been recognised as effective settings for children's physical activity, the design of current school grounds in Australia does not often meet children's preferences for physical play. This participatory qualitative study explored the sophisticated layers of unofficial environmental opportunity that children discovered to support their physical play activities in school grounds. This paper focuses particularly on the activities linked with unofficial paths – the paths that have not been designed deliberately to facilitate movement patterns but are perceived and utilised by children throughout the school grounds. Three methods were used (walking tours, focus groups and behaviour mapping) in three Australian public primary schools. The results from the thematic analysis showed that children's choice of unofficial paths was associated with the form of these paths, their affordances, the ground surface materials and the network of their connections. The study also identified the link between children's choice of these paths and two considerations: the school rules; and their perception of overcrowding. The discussion indicates that the overlay of unofficial paths within school grounds adds more layers of diverse environmental and social opportunities for children's physical play that need to be recognised in school ground design and in school regulations. Understanding children's perception and evaluation of these paths reveals the dynamic relationship between multiple environmental dimensions of paths and children's physical play. This study demonstrates the value of participatory research with children for identifying children's view of child–environment relationships.

‘It's good because my sister is young, and she knows what's going on’: Children's views about their young kinship carers

AbstractMuch literature about kinship care has focused on the issues facing grandparent carers. An Australian research project explored the experience and support needs of young kinship carers and children in their care through analysis of census data and in‐depth interviews with young kinship carers and children/young people. This article describes the views of 16 young people. These young people expressed satisfaction with their home life and spoke of improvement over time in their wellbeing, mental health, and schooling. While they appreciated their carers' attunement to the world of young people, they articulated many challenges for themselves and their carers, including the burden on their carers, the challenge of adjusting to their carers' parental role, and financial pressures. They wanted greater access to counselling and casework services in order to deal with the impacts of family trauma.