Parents Talk Research Articles

Baby Cry Detection in Domestic Environment Using Deep Learning

Automatic detection of a baby cry in audio signals is an essential step in applications such as remote baby monitoring. It is also important for researchers, who study the relation between baby cry patterns and various health or developmental parameters. In this paper, we propose two machine-learning algorithms for automatic detection of baby cry in audio recordings. The first algorithm is a low-complexity logistic regression classifier, used as a reference. To train this classifier, we extract features such as Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients, pitch and formants from the recordings. The second algorithm uses a dedicated convolutional neural network (CNN), operating on log Mel-filter bank representation of the recordings. Performance evaluation of the algorithms is carried out using an annotated database containing recordings of babies (0-6 months old) in domestic environments. In addition to baby cry, these recordings contain various types of domestic sounds, such as parents talking and door opening. The CNN classifier is shown to yield considerably better results compared to the logistic regression classifier, demonstrating the power of deep learning when applied to audio processing.

Family Correlates of False Belief Understanding in Early Childhood: A Meta-Analysis.

This meta-analysis seeks to integrate findings from 25years of research on family correlates of young children's false belief understanding (FBU). Using data from 93 studies of 3- to 7-year-old children, we examined the correlations between FBU and four of the most widely studied family factors: parental socioeconomic status, number of siblings, parental mental-state talk, and mind-mindedness. FBU exhibited modest associations with each family variable and these associations held even when individual differences in verbal ability were taken into account. Moderator analyses revealed key child-related factors (e.g., age, gender) as well as methodological factors that amplified or attenuated the relations between FBU and each family variable. Crucially, available longitudinal data highlight the importance of family factors in the development of FBU.

Parental embodied mentalizing: how the nonverbal dance between parents and infants predicts children’s socio-emotional functioning

ABSTRACTParental mentalizing – the parent’s ability to envision the child’s mental states (such as desires, thoughts, or wishes) – has been argued to underlie a parent’s ability to respond sensitively to their child’s emotional needs, and thereby promote advantageous cognitive and socio-emotional development. Mentalizing is typically operationalized in terms of how parents talk to or about their infants. This work extends research on mentalizing by operationalizing parental mentalizing exclusively in terms of nonverbal, bodily based, interactive behavior, namely parental embodied mentalizing(PEM). The purpose of the current research was twofold: (1) to establish the reliability and validity of the PEM coding system; and (2) to evaluate whether such measurement predicts infant and child cognitive and socio-emotional functioning. Assessing 200 mother–infant dyads at 6 months using the coding of PEM proved both reliable and valid, including predicting child attachment security at 15 and 36 months, and language abilities, academic skills, behavior problems, and social competence at 54 months, in many cases even after taking into consideration traditional measures of parenting, namely maternal sensitivity. Conceptual, empirical, and clinical implications are discussed.

Social media as a platform for health-related public debates and discussions: the Polio vaccine on Facebook.

BackgroundSocial media can act as an important platform for debating, discussing, and disseminating information about vaccines. Our objectives were to map and describe the roles played by web-based mainstream media and social media as platforms for vaccination-related public debates and discussions during the Polio crisis in Israel in 2013: where and how did the public debate and discuss the issue, and how can these debates and discussions be characterized?MethodPolio-related coverage was collected from May 28 to October 31, 2013, from seven online Hebrew media platforms and the Facebook groups discussing the Polio vaccination were mapped and described. In addition, 2,289 items from the Facebook group “Parents talk about Polio vaccination” were analyzed for socio-demographic and thematic characteristics.ResultsThe traditional media mainly echoed formal voices from the Ministry of Health. The comments on the Facebook vaccination opposition groups could be divided into four groups: comments with individualistic perceptions, comments that expressed concerns about the safety of the OPV, comments that expressed distrust in the Ministry of Health, and comments denying Polio as a disease.In the Facebook group “Parents talk about the Polio vaccination”, an active group with various participants, 321 commentators submitted 2289 comments, with 64 % of the comments written by women. Most (92 %) people involved were parents. The comments were both personal (referring to specific situations) and general in nature (referring to symptoms or wide implications). A few (13 %) of the commentators were physicians (n = 44), who were responsible for 909 (40 %) of the items in the sample. Half the doctors and 6 % of the non-doctors wrote over 10 items each. This Facebook group formed a unique platform where unmediated debates and discussions between the public and medical experts took place.ConclusionThe comments on the social media, as well as the socio-demographic profiles of the commentators, suggest that social media is an active and versatile debate and discussion-facilitating platform in the context of vaccinations. This paper presents public voices, which should be seen as authentic (i.e. unmediated by the media or other political actors) and useful for policy making purposes. The policy implications include identifying social media as a main channel of communication during health crises, and acknowledging the voices heard on social media as authentic and useful for policy making. Human and financial resources need to be devolved specifically to social media. Health officials and experts need to be accessible on social media, and be equipped to readily provide the information, support and advice the public is looking for.

Building trust in children

Previous fear of crime studies have rarely considered how fear of crime is learned or the messengers who teach fear of crime to others. This is especially important with children, who often learn about the world from social influences such as parents and teachers. While some work has been done on children’s fear of crime, this work lacks a consideration of the messages parents give children. Further, this research has been restricted to countries such as the US and England. The current research focuses on a country rarely considered in the fear of crime literature – Sweden. In-depth interviews with 14 parents and 10 children are consulted to determine how parents talk to children about safety and what children hear when receiving such messages. Thus, the interplay between parents and their children in the social learning process of safety precautions are considered.

Issues Arising in Psychological Consultations to Help Parents Talk to Minor and Young Adult Children about their Cancer Genetic Test Result: a Guide to Providers.

The defining difference between genetic and traditional medicine is that genetic findings have implications not just for the patient, but also for their relatives. Discussion of a test result between parent and child is both a transformative and a translational moment in the life of a family. Parents report wanting help in talking to their children. The challenge for genetic counselors and other providers is to be able to recognize which issues are at the core of parental distress and be able to offer recommendations to empower and support parents. The complexity of potential genetic findings, including variants of uncertain significance (VUS) and incidental findings have vastly increased, requiring considerable explanation and leaving less time for discussion of emotional issues. While the nature of the testing (single gene to multigene panel and genomic testing) is dramatically changing, the nature of parent concerns remains remarkably constant. Families differ in many respects, so no "recipe" suffices to answer parents' questions about how this important task should be approached in each family. Successful consultation to parents requires true counseling, matching parents' fears and questions with information, exploration and advice specific to their concerns, their circumstances and strengths.

Parental Mediation in the Improvement of Narrative Skills of High-Functioning Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) produce impoverished personal narratives. We developed an intervention to improve parental talk with their son/daughter with ASD which would thereby improve the child’s narration. In this pilot study, we randomly assigned parents to an intervention group who received information about the importance of personal narratives and techniques for improving narration, or a wait-list control group. We compared changes in narration of those with ASD whose parents were in the intervention group versus the wait-list control group. Two recordings of parent–child conversations were scored for elaboration and topic-maintenance versus off-topic remarks. Elaboration skills showed significant improvement among intervention parents, which was related to child elaboration in the same conversation and several months later. Parents in the intervention group, but not control group, reported significant improvement in their son/daughter’s narration. Narrative skills intervention w...

The Benefits of Reminiscing With Young Children

Parents talk about the past with their young children from the time their children can talk. There is robust evidence that when parents discuss the past in a detailed, emotional, and collaborative way (elaborative reminiscing), their children have stronger autobiographical memory skills. We review recent research showing that elaborative reminiscing also has significant benefits for children’s language and socioemotional skills. Importantly, these findings show that elaborative reminiscing is effective with children at risk of compromised development in the context of poverty, maltreatment, or psychopathology. Elaborative reminiscing appears to foster development by providing children with practice using challenging language, encouraging them to put their experiences into words, and optimizing memory for the information gained during conversations. Although further research in diverse cultures is required, reminiscing is a promising tool—available to all families—for promoting children’s cognitive and socioemotional development.

Gendered Innovations in Orthopaedic Science: Family Planning: An Orthopaedic Issue.

Gendered Innovations in Orthopaedic Science: Family Planning: An Orthopaedic Issue.

Associations Between Fathers' and Mothers' Psychopathology Symptoms, Parental Emotion Socialization, and Preschoolers' Social-Emotional Development.

In this study we tested whether the relation between fathers’ and mothers’ psychopathology symptoms and child social-emotional development was mediated by parents’ use of emotion talk about negative emotions in a sample of 241 two-parent families. Parents’ internalizing and externalizing problems were measured with the Adult Self Report and parental emotion talk was observed while they discussed a picture book with their children (child age: 3 years). Children’s parent-reported internalizing and externalizing problems and observed prosocial behaviors were assessed at the age of 3 years and again 12 months later. We found that mothers’ use of emotion talk partially mediated the positive association between fathers’ internalizing problems and child internalizing problems. Fathers’ internalizing problems predicted more elaborative mother–child discussions about negative emotions, which in turn predicted more internalizing problems in children a year later. Mothers’ externalizing problems directly predicted more internalizing and externalizing problems in children. These findings emphasize the importance of examining the consequences of parental psychological difficulties for child development from a family-wide perspective.

The effect of parent education program for preschool children with developmental disabilities: A randomized controlled trial

AimThis study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a parent education program, the Happy Parenting program, for Chinese preschool children with developmental disabilities. MethodsThis study adopted randomized controlled trial design without blinding. Participants were randomized into intervention group (n=62) who were offered the Happy Parenting program delivered by educational psychologists and trainee educational psychologists, and a control group (n=57) who were offered a parent talk after the intervention group had completed treatment. Parent participants were requested to complete questionnaires on their children’s behavior, their parenting stress, and discipline strategies. ResultsAnalysis was by intention-to-treat. The results indicated significant decrease in child problem behaviors, parenting stress and dysfunctional discipline strategies in the intervention group at post-intervention. ConclusionThis study provided promising evidence on the effectiveness of a parent education program, the Happy Parenting program, for Chinese preschool children with developmental disabilities.

Shared decision-making in pediatric otolaryngology: Parent, physician and observational perspectives

ObjectiveTo describe physician and parent behavior during pediatric otolaryngology surgical consultations, and to assess whether perceptions of shared decision-making and observed behavior are related. MethodsParents of 126 children less than 6-years of age who underwent consultation for adeontonsillectomy or tympanostomy tube insertion were prospectively enrolled. Parents completed the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire-Patient version (SDM-Q-9), while surgeons completed the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire-Physician version (SDM-Q-Doc) after the consultation. Visits were video-recorded and analyzed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System to quantify physician and parent involvement during the consultation. ResultsPerceptions of shared decision-making between parents (SDM-Q-9) and physicians (SDM-Q-Doc) were significantly positively correlated (p = 0.03). However, there was no correlation between parents' perceptions of shared decision-making and observations of physician and parent behavior/involvement (proportion of physician socioemotional talk, task-focused talk, or proportion of parent talk). Surgeons' perceptions of shared decision-making were correlated with physician task-focused talk and proportion of parent talk. ConclusionsParents and physicians had similar perceptions of the degree of shared decision-making to be taking place during pediatric otolaryngology consultations. However, there was variability in the degree to which parents participated, and parent perceptions of shared decision-making were not correlated with actual observed involvement.

Volubility of the human infant: Effects of parental interaction (or lack of it)

ABSTRACTAlthough parental volubility, or amount of talk, has received considerable recent attention, infant volubility has received comparatively little attention despite its potential significance for communicative risk status and later linguistic and cognitive outcomes. Volubility of 16 typically developing infants from 2 to 11 months of age was longitudinally investigated in the present study across three social circumstances: parent talking to infant, parent not talking to infant and parent talking to interviewer while the infant was in the room. Results indicated that volubility was least in the Interview circumstance. There were no significant differences in volubility between the parent Talk and No Talk circumstances. Volubility was found to reduce with age. These results suggest that infants vocalise in a variety of circumstances, even when no one talks to or interacts with them. The presence of a stranger or perhaps overhearing adults speaking to each other, however, may significantly reduce infant volubility.

Parent–child conversations regarding the ontological status of a robotic dog

Prior research shows that children’s reasoning about robots tests the boundaries of their ontological commitments. In this study, we investigated the potential role of parent–child conversation in guiding children’s developing understandings about robots. Parents and children (3- and 5-year-olds) engaged in a play session in which they talked about a robotic dog, a live animal (a rodent), and a human-made artifact (a toy car). Afterwards, participants reasoned about whether each item had a set of animate (e.g., biological, psychological, sensory) and artifact (e.g., human-made, breakable) properties. Findings revealed that parents and children spontaneously talked about the robotic dog using both animate and artifact properties during the play session. Furthermore, parent talk in the play session had the most influence on children’s reasoning when the properties under consideration were less well-established in children’s thinking and/or not easily identified by visual cues (i.e., psychological and sensory).

‘Who is in Your Family?’ Italian Children with Non‐heterosexual Parents Talk about Growing Up in a Non‐conventional Household

The paper presents findings from explorative research conducted in Italy with seven 9‐ to 12‐year‐old children with non‐heterosexual parents. The aim was to find out how children describe their family structure, how they talk about their family with peers, and how they experience peers' attitudes towards non‐heterosexual families. Findings show that children have a flexible and inclusive representation of family and they disclose selectively with their peers who don't always consider homosexuality normal and homoparental families ‘real families’. The paper concludes by suggesting that institutional recognition for same‐sex parenting would support children in the everyday work of negotiating diversity.

¿Confías en mí? The Impact of Latino Parent Characteristics on Discussions With Their Adolescent About Sexual Health and Pregnancy Prevention

The purpose of the study ¿Confías en mi? (Do You Trust Me?) was to identify three characteristics—expertise, trustworthiness, and accessibility—of Latino parent–adolescent communication. We examined how these characteristics may influence communication about romantic relationships and sexual risk reduction strategies (i.e., abstinence, contraception). A total of 21 parent–adolescent dyads ( N = 42) completed a brief demographics survey and a set of scales to obtain quantitative measures related to parental characteristics that may influence the adolescent’s perception of parental advice. An in-depth, semi-structured interview was then conducted with each parent, followed by the adolescent. Findings demonstrate that parents talk to their children, but overall conversations are not specific or comprehensive enough to support adolescents’ informed decision making about sexual health or building positive romantic relationships. Community organizations such as churches, schools, and medical settings can support families by providing brief seminars that not only provide technical information about sexual health but also allow parents to practice how to initiate communication about sex and how to gauge their child’s receptivity to discuss the topic further. Recommendations include encouraging parents to actively engage their adolescent in shared communication over time, respond to questions openly and accurately, and demonstrate concern in the teen’s life happenings.

Does pedagogical documentation support maternal reminiscing conversations?

AbstractWhen parents talk with their children about lessons learned in school, they are participating in reminiscing of an unshared event. This study sought to understand if pedagogical documentation, from the Reggio Approach to early childhood education, would support and enhance the conversation. Mother–child dyads reminisced two separate times about preschool lessons, one time with documentation available to them and one time without. Transcripts were coded extracting variables indicative of high and low maternal reminiscing styles. Results indicate that mother and child conversation characteristics were more highly elaborative when documentation was present than when it was not. In addition, children added more information to the conversation supporting the notion that such conversations enhanced memory for lessons. Documentation could be used as a support tool for conversations and children’s memory about lessons learned in school.

“All teenagers have problems, whether they’re adopted or not”: Discourses on adolescence and adoption among parents of transnationally adopted teens

Adopted children’s arrival at adolescence is an object of interest and concern among researchers, professionals, and politicians. In this article, I offer an analysis of parental talk among 24 families about their concerns related to their transnationally adopted teens. The majority of the adoptive parents reported having concerns about their children, which they attributed to their children’s entry into adolescence and their children’s inherent personality traits. In this article, I focus on the first of these attributions, which places the “blame” on adolescence. I do this from a perspective integrating a theoretical view from social anthropology that analyzes social discourses and a more applied view from social work that explores how these discourses influence family practices. The results of this analysis can guide family and professional practices and public policies on adoption.

Predictors of treatment attrition and treatment length in Parent‐Child Interaction Therapy in Taiwanese families

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been used successfully in the United States and in other countries around the world, but its use in Asian countries has been more limited. The present study is the first of its kind to examine the predictors of treatment attrition and length in a sample of Taiwanese caregivers and their children. It is also the first to examine PCIT outcomes in Taiwanese families. Maladaptive personality characteristics of the caregiver were the best predictor of attrition, followed by single-parent, removal of the child from the home, and lower levels of caregiver education. Treatment length was predicted by child minority status and parent–child interactions (i.e., parent commands and negative parent talk). In terms of outcomes, statistically significant treatment changes were noted for all treatment outcome variables at post-treatment and at 3-month follow-up. These findings suggest that PCIT is a promising intervention for this population. The predictors of treatment attrition and length can be used when Taiwanese caregiver–child dyads present for services so that additional assistance can be provided prior to or during treatment to increase adherence to the recommended number of treatment sessions for maximal impact. Future studies may replicate the present study with a larger clinical sample to examine the long-term effects of PCIT and to include a no-treatment control condition to afford a more robust empirical evaluation.

When parents talk about college drinking: an examination of content, frequency, and associations with students’ dangerous drinking

This project examines alcohol messages exchanged between college students and their parents, as well as how such messages associate with college students’ dangerous drinking. Undergraduate students ages 18 to 25 years were recruited for the study and asked to recruit a parent. The sample included 198 students and 188 parents, all of whom completed an online survey. This study found parents tended to emphasize the negative aspects of drinking, particularly the dangers of drinking and driving and the academic consequences of too much partying. Results indicated that parent–student alcohol communication has various dimensions, including negative aspects of drinking, rules about drinking, drinking in moderation, and benefits of drinking. Parents’ reports of discussing alcohol rules had a significant, negative association with students’ alcohol consumption, whereas parents’ reports of discussing the negative aspects of alcohol use had significant, positive associations with students’ dangerous drinking.