Preschool Participation Research Articles

MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY MODELING IN CENTRAL JAVA, DI YOGYAKARTA, AND EAST JAVA PROVINCES

Indonesia has a National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) for 2020-2024 to reduce the poverty rate to 6 to 7 percent. However, the poverty rate has only declined by less than one percent in the past year, indicating the need for optimization to achieve the goal. Despite being located in Java, the center of development and economy in Indonesia, the poverty rate in Central Java, DI Yogyakarta, and East Java still exceeds the national average. This study used SUSENAS 2023 March KOR data to address this challenge and examine the multidimensional indicators affecting poverty. The Alkire-Foster method was used to obtain the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) number, which was then analyzed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) with the Asymptotically Distribution-free (AD-f) method approach. SEM is used to observe latent variables that cannot be measured and the relationship between variables that form a multidimensional poverty index. AD-f method approach is used to overcome data non-normality in SEM processing. The study revealed that the percentage of multidimensional poverty in the three provinces is higher than monetary poverty due to the household unit of analysis used. The standard of living dimension was the most deprived in most households, followed by the health dimension. To tackle this issue, the study recommends optimizing access to the Internet, assets, preschool participation, and nutrition.

The effects of a Teddybear Hospital project on prescool childrens' knowledge and medical students' professionalism: a prospective cohort study.

The Teddybear Hospital (TH) Project is an effort to increase children's knowledge and decrease their anxiety. It is also intended to improve medical students' pediatric communication skills. This study evaluated the educational effects on participating preschool children and medical students. Preschool children were offered to bring their stuffed toys to the TH at our tertiary academic medical center. Medical students who had completed the pediatric surgery rotation staffed the TH, performed examinations, and interacted with the children. The children's knowledge of anatomy, medical equipment, and healthy lifestyle, along with their level of anxiety towards hospitalization, was assessed using pre- and post-interventional validated survey tools. Preschool peers who did not participate in the TH served as controls. Participating medical students were tested on professionalism and pediatric surgical knowledge during, and 3 weeks after the intervention, and compared to their non-participating peers. A total of 131 children (63 intervention, 68 control) and 48 medical students (16 intervention, 32 control) participated in the study. Children's state anxiety decreased by 0.98 points (95% Confidence Interval [CI] -0.3 to -1.8, P<0.001), while knowledge increased significantly on "healthy lifestyle" by 1.4 points (95% CI 1.01 to 1.79, P<0.05), on "medical equipment" by 4.5 points (95% CI 3.8 to 5.2, P <0.0001), and on "anatomy" by 5.05 points (95% CI 4.73 to 5.73, P<0.01). No changes were detected in any of the outcome measures in the control group. Medical students' objective professionalism increased by 4.2 points (95% CI 1.58 to 6.80, P<0.01) compared to non-participant medical students. The tests did not show an increase in the medical students' pediatric surgical knowledge. Preschool participation in a TH increased knowledge and decreased anxiety regarding hospitalization and medical personnel. It also helped medical students to playfully acquire medical professionalism.

Synergistic Impacts of Expansions in Pre-K Access and School Funding on Student Achievement: Evidence from California’s Transitional Kindergarten Rollout

This paper investigates the extent to which expansions in public pre-K and increases in K12 funding improve student learning trajectories and narrow achievement gaps. I link school-and student-level information on public preschool participation with longitudinal student data for all public school students in California. The research design exploits Transitional Kindergarten's (TK's) age eligibility cutoffs and the 2013-2019 staggered implementation of California's school funding reform. This quasi-experimental variation is combined to investigate interactive effects between TK attendance and school resources in elementary school. I find positive synergistic effects of TK and elementary school spending on math and reading achievement.

Enhancing computational thinking in early childhood education through ScratchJr integration

A plethora of programming platforms purports to teach preschool-aged children computational thinking (CT) and coding skills. However, the empirical evidence to support their effectiveness is still in its early stages. A three-week didactic intervention using ScratchJr was conducted to investigate its effectiveness in fostering CT and rudimentary coding skills in a cohort of preschool children (N = 34, aged 4–6 years). While the initial performance mean of the control group (M = 7.07, SD = 2.58) exhibits a statistically significant elevation t (22.64 = 2.23, p = 0.036) vis-à-vis the experimental group (M = 5.35, SD = 1.58), t (22.64) = 2.23, p = 0.0 the terminal performance means of both groups converge closely. However, meticulous data analysis unveils a statistically notable enhancement among preschool participants exposed to the educational intervention involving ScratchJr. Notably, both instructional modalities appear commensurate in nurturing elementary computational tenets, namely modularity and control structures. The experimental cohort outperforms the control group with statistical significance in comprehending potent ideational constructs encompassing representation, algorithms, and hardware/software interplay. Conversely, the control group performs better in grasping the debugging concept than their experimental counterparts. The outcomes lend substantive credence to the efficacy of the distinct programming milieu offered by ScratchJr, underscoring its effectiveness in cultivating CT and coding proficiencies within the preschool demographic.

Speech-Language Outcomes in the COVID-19 Milieu for Multilingual Jamaican Preschoolers and Considerations for Telepractice Assessments.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility (i.e., how children use communication and how well they are understood across everyday life) of typically developing (TD) bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with functionally defined speech sound disorders (fSSDs) in the COVID-19 milieu. Findings were also compared to an existing corpus of baseline data to document and explore differences in children's speech-language outcomes secondary to pandemic-related social restrictions. Thirty bilingual Jamaican preschoolers, 21 TD and nine with fSSDs, were assessed during the pandemic via telepractice. Association and univariate mean testing were completed to characterize children's communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility. Data were then compared to an existing corpus of baseline data (collected in person between 2013 and 2019), which included direct child assessment and parent reports and consisted of TD (n = 226) Jamaican Creole-English-speaking preschoolers and those with fSSDs (n = 39) to compare performance profiles across data sets. All participants attended schools in Kingston, Jamaica. Measures of communicative participation remained stable in the context of the COVID-19 milieu for children in the TD and fSSD groups, but functional speech intelligibility outcomes for children with fSSDs deviated between in-person findings collected from children pre-pandemic. Between-groups differences were also found on measures of speech production accuracy but were no longer significant when considering telepractice as a covariate. Findings from this investigation serve to characterize the communicative participation and functional speech intelligibility of TD bilingual Jamaican preschoolers and those with fSSDs in the COVID-19 milieu. By extension, the results comparing data from preschoolers collected during the pandemic to an existing corpus of baseline data from a different group of preschoolers provide critical insights about multilingual children's speech-language outcomes in the context of acutely changing environmental circumstances. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25461505.

Vårdnadshavares uppfattningar av delaktighet i förskolan

Participation is an important factor for preschool quality and with participation comes both possibilities and challenges. The aim is to explore guardians’ perceptions of participation in Swedish preschool using Buber’s understanding of dialogue in interpersonal meetings. The research questions are: How do guardians describe participation in preschool? How do guardians perceive their participation in preschool teaching? Conducting interviews with 20 guardians resulted in the emergence of four themes. The results show that guardians have different perceptions about what participation implies. They describe that they want to be participating but settle with being informed. Guardians find it optional to participate in the decision-making concerning teaching. A conclusion is that preschool teachers need to be in dialogue with guardians about how participation can be understood in their specific context. Another conclusion is that competence regarding the importance of continuous dialogues needs to be addressed towards preschool teachers to promote guardians’ participation in teaching.

Narrative Intervention for Preschoolers Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Using Listening and Spoken Language: A Pilot Study.

This pilot study aimed to examine the effects of a caregiver-supported, narrative-based intervention program on the story retelling skills of a group of preschoolers who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) using listening and spoken language (LSL). A concurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to determine the effect of a narrative intervention on the story retelling skills of three preschool-age participants who demonstrated complex language delays. Their primary caregivers also functioned as participants. The 6-week narrative intervention program was implemented using a caregiver coaching model during individual therapy sessions. The dependent variable probes were administered twice per week across phases to assess the preschool participants' story retelling skills, including story grammar, complexity, and completeness. Social validity was also evaluated using a caregiver questionnaire. A functional relation was demonstrated between the intervention and story retelling across all three preschool participants with notable increases in the inclusion of story grammar elements and episodic completeness. All three participants maintained scores above baseline levels on dependent variable probes across the 6-week maintenance period. Social validity was strong according to the results of a caregiver questionnaire completed at the conclusion of the intervention. These findings offer preliminary support for the use of a caregiver-supported, narrative-based intervention program to improve storytelling and retelling skills in preschoolers who are D/HH using LSL.

A Meta-Analysis of Social Skills Interventions for Preschoolers with or at Risk of Early Emotional and Behavioral Problems.

Early social-behavioral intervention that emphasizes social skill training is critical to addressing emotional and behavioral problems in early childhood. In this meta-analysis review, we examined all the social skills intervention studies for preschoolers with, or at risk of, emotional and behavioral problems using group designs. This review included 25 studies that met the inclusion criteria. The robust variance estimation method was used to calculate the overall effect size of all the included studies, as this method can count for the pre-existing difference between the experiment and control groups. The included studies yielded an overall effect of 0.54 from the 151 effect sizes that were obtained for the 3484 preschool participants. Curriculum, integration, and treatment fidelity were identified as significant moderators of effects.

Unequal opportunities from the start: Socioeconomic disparities in classroom participation in preschool.

Why do socioeconomic disparities in achievement emerge so early in life? Previous answers to this question have generally focused on the perceived deficits of parents from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g., insufficient childrearing knowledge). Here, we instead focus on the structure of early childhood education and argue that early schooling contexts provide unequal opportunities for engagement to children of higher versus lower socioeconomic status (SES). As engagement is a longitudinal predictor of achievement, early SES disparities in engagement could serve to maintain or even exacerbate SES disparities in achievement. In Study 1 (1,236 observations; N = 98 children), we investigated preschool students' behavioral engagement during whole-class discussions-a core aspect of early childhood education. Low-SES children showed significantly lower engagement than their peers. Consistent with the claim of unequal opportunities for engagement, these differences were not accounted for by SES differences in language proficiency. As students' engagement in school is influenced by their peers' attitudes toward them, we also examined peer perceptions (Study 2, N = 94, and a meta-analysis, k = 2 studies). We found that preschoolers who show more engagement relative to others during whole-class discussions are perceived as possessing more positive qualities (e.g., intelligence). Given that higher-SES students are afforded more opportunities for engagement (see Study 1), they may be the ones benefiting from these positive peer perceptions as well, which might further boost their engagement. Our results suggest that aspects of early childhood education should be redesigned to foster engagement among all students, regardless of their SES. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Child-initiated informings and conversational participation in a bilingual preschool

This paper explores children's interactional competence in the context of bilingual early childhood education, looking specifically at how very young children initiate conversations with teachers by informing them about something interesting and new. Video recordings collected from ethnographic fieldwork in a Swedish–English preschool are investigated from the conversation analytic perspective, paying particular attention to multimodal aspects of naturally-occurring interactions. The analysis reveals that in initiating informings aimed at teachers in a multiparty institutional setting, children practice their bilingual skills in turn-taking and recipient design, and present their topic as relevant and coherent within the local material and conversational context. In so doing, children navigate institutional constraints on participation, secure teachers' recipiency, and establish themselves as knowledgeable speakers. Child-initiated participation in multiparty institutional settings provides a co-operative, transformative social process that constitutes an essential affordance for children's development of interactional competence in a bilingual educational context.

The Effects of Practice-Based Coaching on the Implementation of Shared Book Reading Strategies for Speech-Language Pathology Assistants and Paraeducators Working With Children With Language Delays

This study examined the effects of practice-based coaching with scripted supports designed to support paraeducators and speech-language pathology assistants (SLP-As) as they implement evidence-based shared book reading strategies with preschoolers with language delays. A single-case, multiple baseline across behaviors was employed. Five U.S. educators (three SLP-As and two paraeducators) participated in the study. The primary dependent variable was percentage of strategies correctly implemented; the secondary dependent variable was expressive and receptive vocabulary. Results demonstrate that all five educators were able to successfully implement the strategies with high and consistent levels of fidelity during the intervention and maintained similar levels of fidelity even after coaching and scripted supports were faded or removed. All five preschool participants showed gains in both expressive and receptive vocabulary. Social validity results support the feasibility and usefulness of the intervention. Implications for research and practice are provided.

The Effect of a Short-Term Occupational Therapy Intervention on the Participation and Personal Factors of Preschoolers with Developmental Disabilities.

Preschoolers with developmental disabilities are referred to occupational therapy due to their decreased participation in daily life occupations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the improvement in preschoolers' participation and sensory-motor abilities following an occupational therapy intervention. A prospective cohort study of 38 preschoolers and their parents was conducted using an interrupted time-series design, including assessments at three time points: base line (upon referral to an occupational therapy assessment), pre-intervention, and post-intervention after 9-12 sessions of occupational therapy interventions. Children were evaluated with the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, as well as the balance and fine motor precision sub tests of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Parents completed the Children's Participation Questionnaire and the Child Performance Skills Questionnaire. Each intervention session was documented by the therapists using the Documentation of Occupational Therapy Session Intervention form. Significant improvement in children's sensory-motor abilities were found in balance, visual integration, and fine motor precision post-intervention. There were also improvements in the measures of diversity, children's independence, and parental satisfaction. A short-term occupational therapy intervention applied to preschoolers with developmental disabilities is effective in improving their sensory-motor abilities, as well as in promoting their participation in daily activities.

English

This research will explore preschool children&rsquo;s metaphorical perceptions and views about the concept of &ldquo;global problem&rdquo; in the context of education for sustainable development. The study will involve 20 preschool children, who are aged between 60 and 70 months and are attending a public kindergarten in ?zmir, Turkey, during the Spring of 2021-2022 academic year. The data collection process involved semi-structured interviews. Interviews were carried out with 20 preschool children on their perspectives and perceptions of &lsquo;global problem,&rsquo; which was interpreted via content analysis. The findings of the qualitative analysis provided participants&rsquo; perceptions and views related to global problems. The sample group was formed via convenient and criterion sampling method. The data were collected through a demographic information form and a semi-structured interview form which includes a metaphor sentence and open-ended interview questions. The results suggest that the preschool participants created themes (pillars), sub-themes and eighteen metaphors regarding the concept of &quot;global problem&quot; during the metaphor formation process.&nbsp; It was found that children&#39;s metaphors and views regarding the global problem were placed under the themes named &ldquo;social-cultural&rdquo;, &ldquo;environmental&rdquo; and &ldquo;economic&rdquo;. It was also found that the participants placed their metaphors and views regarding the &ldquo;global problem&rdquo; under the &ldquo;social-cultural&rdquo; theme most frequently. &nbsp; Key words: Sustainable development, preschool education, global problem, metaphorical perception, opinions.

Factors associated with classroom participation in preschool through third grade learners on the autism spectrum

BackgroundAccess to mathematics instruction that involves opportunities for critical thinking and procedural fluency promotes mathematics learning. Studies have outlined effective strategies for teaching mathematics to children on the autism spectrum, however, the focus of these interventions often represent a narrow set of mathematical skills and concepts centered on procedural learning without linking ideas to underlying concepts. MethodsThis study utilized classroom video observations to evaluate the variability in and nature of mathematical learning opportunities presented to 76 autistic students within 49 preschool–3rd grade general and special education learning contexts. We examined teacher instructional practices and student participation across 109 mathematical tasks within larger mathematics lessons. ResultsStudents were most often presented with mathematical tasks that required low-level cognitive demand, such as tasks focusing on rote memorization and practicing predetermined steps to solve basic algorithms. Furthermore, the nature of the mathematical task was linked with the language that teachers used, and this in turn, was associated with students’ participation within the learning opportunity. ConclusionsOur findings indicate that features of talk within specific types of mathematical tasks, including math-related talk and responsive language, were associated with increased student active engagement and spontaneous communication. The knowledge gained from this study contributes to the development of optimized instructional practices for school-aged children on the autism spectrum—information that could be used to prepare both preservice and in-service teachers.

FEATURES OF NEURODYNAMIC AND SENSORIMOTOR REACTIONS IN CHILDREN AGED 5-7 YEARS

Abstract. The study presents the results of research on sensorimotor reactions and neurodynamic indicators in children aged 5-7 years, which serve as a necessary and essential criterion for assessing the psychophysiological development of preschool participants. The aim is to prevent maladaptive disorders and preserve the health of the future generation.&#x0D; Objective. To investigate and analyse the dynamics of neurodynamic and sensorimotor response features in children aged 5-7 years. Research Methods and Discussion. The study was conducted with children aged 5-7 years at the educational institution “Primary School — Preschool Educational Establishment” No. 42 in the city of Sumy. To study the age dynamics of neurodynamic and sensorimotor indicators, an instrumental diagnostic method was chosen using the “Diagnos-1M” device. Functional mobility of nervous processes (FMNP), strength of nervous processes (SNP), and balance of nervous processes (BNP) were evaluated. To identify individual characteristics of sensorimotor reactions of different complexity levels, latent periods of simple visual-motor reaction (PZMR), latent periods of choice reaction to one of three (CR 1–3) and two of three (CR 2-3) signals were determined.&#x0D; Conclusions: The study revealed that children at the age of 7, in comparison to children aged 5 and 6, have significantly higher indicators in all neurodynamic parameters (SNP, FMNP, BNP) and sensorimotor reactions (PZMR, CR (1–3), CR (2–3)). This may indicate not only the completion of the anatomical structure of the brain but also the morphological and functional development of subcortical structures and the cerebral cortex.

Virtual Post-Intervention Speech and Language Assessment of Toddler and Preschool Participants in Babble Boot Camp.

Babble Boot Camp (BBC) is a parent-implemented telepractice intervention for infants at risk for speech and language disorders. BBC uses a teach-model-coach-review approach, delivered through weekly 15-min virtual meetings with a speech-language pathologist. We discuss accommodations needed for successful virtual follow-up test administration and preliminary assessment outcomes for children with classic galactosemia (CG) and controls at age 2.5 years. This clinical trial included 54 participants, 16 children with CG receiving BBC speech-language intervention from infancy, age 2 years, five children receiving sensorimotor intervention from infancy and changing to speech-language intervention at 15 months until 2 years of age, seven controls with CG, and 26 typically developing controls. The participants' language and articulation were assessed via telehealth at age 2.5 years. The Preschool Language Scale-Fifth Edition (PLS-5) was successfully administered with specific parent instruction and manipulatives assembled from the child's home. The GFTA-3 was successfully administered to all but three children who did not complete this assessment due to limited expressive vocabularies. Referrals for continued speech therapy based on PLS-5 and GFTA-3 scores were made for 16% of children who received BBC intervention from infancy as compared to 40% and 57% of children who began BBC at 15 months of age or did not receive BBC intervention, respectively. With extended time and accommodations from the standardized administration guidelines, virtual assessment of speech and language was possible. However, given the inherent challenges of testing very young children virtually, in-person assessment is recommended, when possible, for outcome measurements.

Translanguaging and Learning Stories in preschool: Supporting language rights and social justice for Latinx children, families, and educators

This article focuses on elements of successful sociocultural inclusion and linguistic participation in a bilingual dual-language preschool for Latinx children. It presents a subset of findings from a three-year qualitative research project in which Latinx critical race theory and a translanguaging framework were used to illuminate critical intersections between children's funds of knowledge, their translanguaging talents, and their interests in play and social interaction. Learning Stories served as both the focus for documentation and the unit of analysis for understanding children's translanguaging experiences, as well as for promoting new forms of authentic assessment for family engagement.

Supplemental Material for Unequal Opportunities From the Start: Socioeconomic Disparities in Classroom Participation in Preschool

Supplemental Material for Unequal Opportunities From the Start: Socioeconomic Disparities in Classroom Participation in Preschool

Phonological Awareness and Working Memory in Mandarin-Speaking Preschool-Aged Children With Cochlear Implants.

Cochlear implants (CIs) provide significant benefits for profoundly deaf children in their language and cognitive development. However, it remains unclear whether Mandarin-speaking young children with early implantation can develop age-equivalent phonological awareness (PA) skill and working memory (WM) capacity as their normal hearing (NH) peers. The aim of this study was to investigate PA and WM in preschool-aged children with or without hearing loss and to examine the relationship between the two basic skills. The data were collected from 16 Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with CIs and 16 age-matched children with NH. All preschool participants were instructed to complete four phonological detection tasks and four digit span tasks. Linear mixed-effects modeling was performed to evaluate PA and WM performances between two groups across different tasks. CI preschoolers showed comparable performances on par with NH controls in phonological detections and visual digit spans. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between phonological detections and auditory digit spans in preschool-aged children with CIs. With early implantation, the congenitally deaf children were capable of developing age-appropriate PA skill and WM capacity, which have practical implications for aural rehabilitation in this special pediatric population.

An Experimental Comparison of In-Person and Remote Instruction for Preschoolers with Disabilities.

Remote instruction is becoming increasingly common, yet few studies have directly compared remote and in-person instruction in a controlled manner. We used a reversal design to compare the effects of in-person and remote instruction for six preschool participants with disabilities learning tacts and sight words. Distribution of instruction, methodology, and materials across in-person and remote conditions were equated so that the only difference across conditions was the modality of instruction. Across conditions, we measured (1) the rate of learning; (2) the rate of trial presentation; (3) number of targets mastered; and (4) percentage of correct responses during follow-up assessment. Results indicate that three of six participants reliably met acquisition criteria and completed instruction faster in-person, with mixed results for the other three participants. No consistent difference was observed in response maintenance or generalization across modalities. These findings add to existing literature suggesting that remote instruction should be considered in situations where in-person instruction is unavailable.