Children's Reflections Research Articles

Acquisition of nominal and verbal number agreement in Brazilian Portuguese

This study aims to investigate the acquisition of number agreement by Brazilian children. Since there is variation in expressing number agreement in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), it seeks to analyze the impact of linguistic variation on language acquisition. To this end, an experimental study was carried out. An elicited production task was conducted with monolingual children from three to five years of age acquiring BP, aiming to investigate how they produce number agreement in nominal elements and in verbs. Following Yang’s (2002) proposal, I suggest that the variation found in participants’ productions for the noun phrase could concern the acquisition of two grammars, with parameters set differently. On the other hand, the results found for verbal agreement seem to suggest that the variation observed in child production is a reflection of children’s linguistic development process.

Museum-based tinkering and engineering learning opportunities among Latine families with young children

This study addressed whether and how tinkering experiences in a children's museum can provide informal engineering learning opportunities for Latine families. Forty-two Latine parents and their children (20 girls, 22 boys; Mage = 8.00, SD = 1.59) were observed tinkering to make something that rolls. Immediately after tinkering, researchers elicited the children's reflections on their learning. Parents' formal schooling was positively associated with parents' engineering conversations during tinkering. In the children's post‑tinkering reflections, older children, and children of parents with higher schooling, included more engineering talk in their reports. Finally, parents and children who during tinkering referenced the engineering information reviewed during a pre‑tinkering orientation talked the most about engineering during and after tinkering. These results suggest ways that Latine families engage in tinkering to advance children's learning about engineering, and how museum practices can support early engineering learning in informal educational settings.

Leveraging Virtual Reality for Bullying Sensitization

Virtual reality games are known for creating the feelings of presence, ethical reasoning, and reflection in their users. In what ways can we use the design and gameplay of a virtual reality game to make moral demands of players and encouraging them to reflect on their negative behavior? In this article, the authors propose an ethically notable game as one that provides sensitization opportunities through both design and gameplay for encouraging ethical reasoning and reflection in children. To measure success, they present the results of two participatory design workshops with children and a user study carried out at Japanese elementary schools. The results underline the effectiveness of game-based learning to raise awareness of children on bullying victimization and eventually producing bystander intervention behavior.

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.

Parental Attitudes Determining Children’s Roles and Reflections of Children’s Roles on Adult Life: A Qualitative Study

This study aims to examine the role of the children in the family of origin and the definition of these roles, the parent attitudes that affect the formation and perpetuation of these roles, and the manner in which childhood roles are carried into adult life. The phenomenological model, a qualitative research method, was used in this study to obtain in-depth information about the subject. “Personal Information Form” and “Open-ended Questions List” were used as data collection tools. The study group consisted of 110 people, of whom 91 (82.7%) were women and 19 (17.3%) were men. The obtained data were analyzed using the MaxQDA – Version 2018 software. The observations resulting from the study included that the hero child role comes with assuming responsibility, parent-like attitudes, and a mediator role in the family system and that the attitudes of such children’s parents attribute more power and responsibility to the child in question. It was observed that the scapegoat children describe themselves as problematic, rebellious, and a burden, and their parents treat them with neglect, abuse, emotional absence, and incrimination. On the other hand, lost children are those who are ignored, easy going, and inhibited. Mascot children regard themselves as the ones who give joy and lighten the mood in the family, who are enthroned, and who are the little ones. Parental attitudes determining children’s roles and reflections of children’s roles on adult life are discussed.

Releasing the socio‐imagination: children's voices on creativity, capability and mental well‐being

With increasing concerns in the UK about the positive mental well‐being and flourishing of children, this research, using drama and creative writing with primary school teachers, children and a theatre company, looks at the links between creative processes and children's well‐being. This pedagogy applies a capability approach and we use this lens to examine children's critical reflections on the project. Interview data highlight the link between agency, social imagination and subjective well‐being. The study offers some concrete examples of the ways in which creative processes can move beyond an outcome‐based understanding of the curriculum by offering a legitimate space for children to explore their values and develop competencies which are crucial for well‐being in the 21st century.

Using creative research methods and movement to encourage reflection in children

Reflection is a vital part of learning, and yet in early childhood, research work on reflection is most commonly on that undertaken by teachers, and not children. This article draws from a participatory study showing how creative research methods and somatic movement enabled 22 children aged 4–11 to reflect on their experiences and document their reflections, and report findings for children aged 4–8. The aim of the research was to encourage the children to reflect deeply on their experiences, and to generate rich data. These data were used at the end of the study to stimulate discussion. The children demonstrated that they were able to reflect and articulate their experiences of the pressure to be right, the processes of journaling and drawing and reflection itself. The study used a variety of methods including journaling, drawing, mark-making and modelling as part of regular sessions of somatic movement exploration and education over 2 years within the school day.

What Do We Know about Diet and Markers of Cardiovascular Health in Children: A Review.

Chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the main health concerns in the 21st century, with CVD as the number one cause of mortality worldwide. Although CVD hard endpoints such as stroke or heart attack do not usually occur in children, evidence shows that the manifestation of CVD risk factors begins in childhood, preceding clinical complications of CVD in adulthood. Dietary intake is a modifiable risk factor that has been shown to make a substantial contribution to the risk of CVD in adulthood. However, less is known about the association between dietary intake and markers of cardiovascular health in children. This review summarises the current evidence on the relationship between dietary intake and markers of cardiovascular health including traditional CVD risk factors, physical fitness, and indices of arterial stiffness and wave reflection in children. Original research published in English, between January 2008 and December 2018 fulfilling the objective of this review were screened and included. Findings show that adaptation of a healthy lifestyle early in life can be beneficial for reducing the risk of CVD later in life. Furthermore, keeping arterial stiffness low from a young age could be a potential CVD prevention strategy. However, limited studies are available on diet-arterial stiffness relationship in children, and future research is required to better understand this association to aid the development and implementation of evidence-based strategies for preventing CVD-related complications later in life.

Воспоминания как комментарии к стихотворениям друга (на материале мемуаров В. И. Прохоркина о В. Д. Берестове)

The article is devoted to Vadim Prokhorkin's memories of the childhood written as the comment to poems by the poet Valentin Berestov. Keywords: comments to verses, the lyrical hero, memoirs, reflection of children's impressions in creativity, Valentin Berestov. DOI 10.31860/2304-5817-2018-2-14-278-287

Quantifying wave reflection in children: Invasive vs non-invasive central augmentation index and reflection magnitude and their association with left ventricular mass

ObjectiveThe aims of this study in children were to 1) evaluate two brachial oscillometric devices for estimating central augmentation index (AIx) and reflection magnitude (RM), and 2) test whether AIx or RM are associated with left ventricular mass index (LVMI).MethodsIntra-aortic (IA) AIx was calculated from high-fidelity pressure measured with a Verrata wire (Philips Volcano) in 60 children (9.2 ± 4.7 years) with unobstructed aorta undergoing clinically-indicated catheterisation. AIx was also obtained from SphygmoCor XCEL (SC, AtCor) and/or Mobil-o-Graph (MB, IEM) brachial oscillometric devices. RM(IA) was calculated via wave separation using a representative normalised flow waveform obtained from MRI in a separate group of normal adolescents, RM(SC) via the triangulation method, and RM(MB) provided by the proprietary software. LVMI was estimated via echocardiography.ResultsInvasive vs non-invasive AIx and RM are compared in the Table. AIx(IA) correlated weakly with AIx(SC) (R = 0.27, P = 0.04) but not AIx(MB) (P = 0.4). Neither RM(SC) nor RM(MB) correlated with RM(IA) (P = 0.13 and P = 0.96 respectively). RM(IA) was moderately correlated with AIx(IA) (R = 0.69, P < 0.001) and weakly correlated with AIx(SC) (R = 0.36, P = 0.007) but not AIx(MB) (P = 0.7). In a multivariable regression, height (P < 0.001) and RM (IA) (P = 0.04) were independently and positively associated with LVMI (adjusted R2 = 0.24), whereas there were no associations of any AIx or non-invasively estimated RM with LVMI.ConclusionCentral AIx and RM were poorly estimated by SC and MB in children. Unlike RM(IA), none of the non-invasive indices of wave reflection correlated with LVMI, likely due to inadequate estimation of the central pressure waveform shape in this age group.TableMean±SD (range) of augmentation index and reflection magnitudeInvasiveSphygmoCorMobil-o-GraphAugmentation6.8 ± 8.341.0 ±14.5*23.5 ±17.8*Index(−17.4, 26.2)(2.5, 82.0)(0.9, 58.0)Reflection0.34 ± 0.070.56 ±0.11*0.65 ±0.13*Magnitude(0.22, 0.61)(0.32, 0.94)(0.05, 0.79)* P < 0.001 compared with invasive

Correction to: Does the Realisation of Children’s Rights Determine Good Life in 8-Year-Olds’ Perspectives? A Comparison of Eight European Countries

The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child forms a normative basis for the understanding and measurement of child well-being. Nevertheless, there is still the question of how far the rights are reflected in the everyday lives of children. This study is aimed at constructing a bottom-up approach to study reflections of rights in children’s perceptions of a good life. It tries to demonstrate the relationships between the indicators of subjective well-being in the rights framework (such as feeling safe, being heard and cared for and treated fairly) and the subjective perception of good life measured among eight-year old children. Three sources of well-being – family, school and friends are put in focus. The empirical basis of the paper comes from the second wave of the Children’s Worlds study. Its sub-sample of over 8000 eight-year old children from eight European countries is used. Sub-indices of rights reflections in four rights domains (protection, provision, participation and non-discrimination) and a general index of a rights reflection in children’s well-being assessments are constructed as an operational model for data analysis. The analysis revealed that provision (being cared for) and protection (feeling safe) are the leading determinants of a good life in children’s perspectives, while participation (being heard and listened to) and non-discrimination (being treated fairly) are the most diverse determinants of a good life across countries.

Refugees and Theır Acculturatıon Strategıes in Chıldren’s Books

Defined as the movement and inhabitance of people to a new area due to social, economic, political, or some other reasons, migration has been in effect since the existence of human. Whether it is forced by the natural environment as it was in primitive ages or it is complicated as the today’s samples, immigration results from people’s effort to search and find what is better. Although it is based on the desire to reach better, deciding to migrate, the process of migration, and adapting to new environments are full of difficulties. Children should encounter with samples of social problems so that they could be a part of the globalized world, aware of different people, lifestyles, and cultures, and get rid of biases. It is seen that Turkish children’s literature has focused on issues such as immigrant and refugees for the last couple of years. These books are seen to be written by considering the social acceptance of refugees in order to create a social awareness. The existence of works that can enable children to emphasize is pleasing. In this study, children’s books (Umut Sokağı Çocukları, Kömür Karası Çocuk, Kuş Olsam Evime Uçsam, Juju Beni Unutma, Halepli Zeynep) were evaluated in terms of acculturation model. The common focus of these books can be stated to be on making effort to understand the refugees. The experiences, emotions, and thoughts of refugees during their immigration and adaptation to Turkey were expressed by the words of children’s perspective. Moreover, the attitudes of Turkish people towards refugees and its reflection of children’s souls were described realistically.

Harmony or Discord? Understanding children's valuations of a Sistema-inspired initiative

This article explores children's reflections on the value of their participation in In Harmony, a social and music education programme whose approach and philosophy derives from the Venezuelan ‘El Sistema’ (‘The System’) model. More specifically, through an analysis of participating children's accounts (n=111) and an exploration of the key patterns evident within children's attribution of value to their In Harmony participation, the article highlights a series of ways in which the initiative's approach to music and musical learning threaten to undermine its core aims.

Development of children's understandings of physical disabilities and stigmatization in a Japanese cultural context: Reflections of children in second through sixth grades

Stigmatization associated with disability is a culturally widespread social justice issue. Elementary school age is an important period for children to develop positive attitudes toward people with disabilities. This study examines Japanese elementary school-aged children's developing perceptions of disability and stigmatization. Following interactions and discussion about disabilities with the author, a guest teacher who uses a wheelchair, 118 typically-developing Japanese children in second through sixth grades provided written reflections on physical disability and stigmatization. Children in all grade levels described both positive and negative aspects of disability. Younger children's responses, however, were relatively positive, focusing on concrete examples of life in a wheelchair. Older children's responses focused more on challenges, and articulated their feelings and thoughts about disability in greater detail. Some older children also used the author's disability narratives to describe how they had overcome their own challenges that were not necessarily related to disability. Such differences in children's responses by grade levels are discussed in the context of Japanese socialization practices that emphasize sensitivity to stigmatization as well as empathy to maintain interpersonal relationships. Implications of Japanese cultural cases to professionals in Western countries also are discussed.

Dialogic literary gatherings and out‐of‐home child care: Creation of new meanings through classic literature

AbstractResearch on out‐of‐home child care has revealed that foster care programmes focused on educational attainment and reading have the potential to improve the academic outcomes of children in care. However, no studies have examined which elements of these programmes positively benefit children's emotional well‐being. This article presents evidence of the positive effects of implementing a successful educational action, dialogic literary gatherings, in a children's residential care institution. A qualitative study using a communicative‐oriented methodology was conducted and involved five participant observations and eight daily life stories with children in out‐of‐home care in Catalonia (Spain). The children's reflections demonstrated that reading classic books, such as Dickens' Oliver Twist, deeply influenced their feelings and self‐conceptions and created new and exciting meaning in their lives.

CHILDREN'S QUESTION AS A FORM OF LINGUISTIC CREATIVE THINKING

The subject of the article is the specificity of metalinguistic reflection in children's speech. The article analyzes the linguocreativе nature of children's questions, particularly broadcasting the image of the world of the child and the nature of the processing of linguistic information in the light of cognitions formed. Metalinguistic reflection is characterized as one of the naturally evolving strategies of language acquisition in ontogeny, showing the analytical instinct and cognitive activity of the child. The purpose of the research is to identify unique children's innovations related to the reflection of their form and content, in terms of the associative and functional content. The main method is discourse analysis of metalinguistic statements recorded in the spontaneous speech of children in the form of a question. Particular emphasis is laid upon the interdependence of compensatory and deliberate creativity of the child, exhibiting the ability to make a conscious violation of the language of the canon. Metalinguistic component of children's issues provides an opportunity to assess the child's creativity, speech acts in terms of fluency, flexibility, originality. Children's questions are classified into those regarding the logic of things and the logic of language nomination, their correlation is established. This analysis reveals the following features of metalinguistic reflection in the formation of the language person: 1) development of linguistic abilities in "reading" motivational word forms and application of derived algorithms in creative word activity; 2) the expression of a child's uniqueness in the perception of aspects of the world and the language of processed information; 3) modeling function in the formation of dynamic subsystems child's speech, allowing the child to realize their nominative and communicative needs.

Getting a Grasp on Children’s Representational Capacities in Pantomime of Object Use

ABSTRACTThis study examined how 5- and 9-year-old children (N = 40) produce pantomimes of object use on verbal request. The task required participants to enact an action with an imagined object. Results showed that with age, children (a) proceeded from body part as object to imaginary object and (b) incorporated into their pantomimes more distinctive features of the object and its use. While the first result replicated previous findings with more items and a more sophisticated coding procedure, the latter result revealed new insights. Children’s selection of distinctive features in pantomime was related to their performance on a semantic odd-one-out task that requires the abstraction of specific features without situational support. The discussion focuses on the cognitive requirements of the task and the potential of pantomime being a reflection of children’s representational development. We suggest an explanation of the findings within the more general developmental model of Karmiloff-Smith.

Classifying sensory profiles of children in the general population.

The aim of this study was to subtype groups of children in a community sample with and without developmental conditions, based on sensory processing patterns. We used latent profile analysis to determine the number of sensory subtypes in a sample of n = 1132 children aged 3-14 years with typical development and developmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities. A five-subtype solution was found to best characterize the sample, which differed on overall degree and differential presentation of sensory processing patterns. Children with and without developmental conditions presented across subtypes, and one subtype was significantly younger in age than others (P < 0.05). Our results show that sensory subtypes include both children with typical development and those with developmental conditions. Sensory subtypes have previously been investigated in ASD only, and our results suggest that similar sensory subtypes are present in a sample reflective of the general population of children including those largely with typical development. Elevated scores on sensory processing patterns are not unique to ASD but rather are reflections of children's abilities to respond to environmental demands.

Embodied urban health and illness in Cape Town: children's reflections on living in Symphony Way Temporary Relocation Area

This paper explores ideas about health and illness held by six children who live in the Symphony Way Temporary Relocation Area in Cape Town, South Africa. The research shows that solutions to illness and health problems held by low-income populations are critically shaped by various characteristics of society — the surrounding neighbourhood, the family and the experience of the individual child. This contests current policy assumptions that solutions to wellness are not located within the lived experience of local populations. The findings are part of continued efforts to investigate how health is negotiated in low-income areas, what challenges people face and how they overcome such challenges. The research discusses ideas of health embodiment in relation to both the socio-economic and natural environment, and illustrates the impact that poor housing-quality and access to health care services have on health and ideas of health and illness.

Positive Parenting: An Ethnographic Study of Storytelling for Socialization of Children in Ethiopia

IntroductionStorytelling is a positive way of communication with children. My children listen to me when I tell them folktales, but they do not give their attention to my words when I speak to them in ordinary ways. I train them by saying, Give honor to cattle. Take the cattle to the grazing field in the morning and bring them to their shelter in the evening. Adorn your farm in the summer and your home in the winter. Do not stand in cattle's way, and avoid keeping cattle in others' way. Make peace, speak peace, and live in peace. Respect your elders, grandparents, and parents. Keep up with your equals. Grandparents and have wisdom to share with you, but you have energy to support them.This statement was delivered by Waqoo (male, age 70) one evening at his home during my fieldwork. He made it to explain the purpose of intergenerational storytelling among the Guji-Oromo. According to Waqoo, storytelling from adults to children facilitates intergenerational communication, knowledge transmission, and socialization.Among the Guji-Oromo, various forms of folklore such as storytelling, songs, riddles, and proverbs are performed as elements of everyday communication and knowledge transmission (Jirata, Children and Oral Tradition). The Guji-Oromo perform four main of verbal folklore: qexala (singing folksong), duriduri (storytelling), mammaksa (telling proverbs), jecha (proverbs), hibbo (riddling), and xapha (performing games). This classification system shares some similarities with what Bernth Lindfors termed genres of folklore in Africa. Of these genres, qexala, mammaksa, and jecha are performed by adults in rituals, ceremonies, neighborhood social events, and conversations among elders. These are considered to be adult of communication, and the social situations in which they are performed are not the prerogatives of children. Hibbo and xapha, in contrast, are performed by children in peer play interactions (see Jirata, Learning through Play). Duriduri (storytelling) crosses categories and fosters intergenerational interaction. In storytelling, children collaborate with adults as initiators, listeners, and inquirers, while adults act as tellers, entertainers, interpreters, and educators.The purpose of this article is to discuss how the storytelling process draws (the term parents in this article includes extended family members such as grandparents, uncles, aunts, and in-laws) and children together and serves as a site of intergenerational communication and socialization, transcending children's immediate experiences. I analyze the process of storytelling with an emphasis on how children initiate storytelling in a family social event, how tell folktales to children, how children listen to stories from parents, how interpret folktales for children, and how children react to those interpretations, as well as parent's and children's reflections on the tradition of intergenerational storytelling.I draw connections between Guji-Oromo customs of intergenerational hierarchy and parents' relationships with children, and I discuss how adults introduce children to communal values through the interactive interpretation of folktales such that children are both entertained and steeped in local mores. I also observe how storytelling is conducted and how folktales are interpreted as part of the web of intergenerational relationships. Following the notion that folktales arise in the context of performance and are linked to culture and society through interpretation ( Jirata and Benti; Kuyvenhoven), I analyze how children are connected to the values and norms of their society through these interrelated processes.Storytelling in AfricaThe study of storytelling as an important part of African oral tradition has been a focus of folklorists and anthropologists since the beginning of the twentieth century. Among others, Pauline Davis, Donna Eder, Ruth Finnegan, and Ageliki Nicolopoulou have advanced our understanding of how folktales are performed, interpreted, and valued as folk knowledge. …