Children's Representations Research Articles

It's harder for boys? Children's representations of their HIV/AIDS-affected peers in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACTThis study examines whether children in rural Zimbabwe have differing representations of their HIV/AIDS-affected peers based on the gender of those peers. A group of 128 children (58 boys, 70 girls) aged 10–14 participated in a draw-and-write exercise, in which they were asked to tell the story of either an HIV/AIDS-affected girl child, or an HIV/AIDS-affected boy child. Stories were inductively thematically coded, and then a post hoc statistical analysis was conducted to see if there were differences in the themes that emerged in stories about girls versus stories about boys. The results showed that boys were more often depicted as materially deprived, without adult and teacher support, and heavily burdened with household duties. Further research is needed to determine whether the perceptions of the children in this study point to a series of overlooked challenges facing HIV/AIDS-affected boys, or to a culture of gender inequality facing HIV/AIDS-affected girls – which pays more attention to male suffering than to female suffering.

Epistemology for Beginners: Two- to Five-Year-Old Children's Representation of Falsity.

This paper investigates the ontogeny of human’s naive concept of truth. Surprisingly, children find it hard to treat assertions as false before their fifth birthday. Yet, we show in six studies (N = 140) that human’s concept of falsity develops early. Two-year-olds use truth-functional negation to exclude one term in an alternative (Study 1). Three-year-olds can evaluate discrepancies between the content of a representation and what it aims at representing (Study 2). They use this knowledge to treat beliefs and assertions as false (Study 3). Four-year-olds recognise the involutive nature of falsity ascriptions: they properly infer ‘p’ from ‘It is not true that “It is not true that “p””‘ (Study 4), an inference that rests on second-order representations of representations. Controls confirm that children do not merely equate being mistaken with failing to achieve one’s goal (Studies 5 and 6). These results demonstrate remarkable capacities to evaluate representations, and indicate that in the absence of formal training, young children develop the building blocks of a theory of truth and falsity—a naive epistemology. We suggest that children’s difficulties in discarding false assertions need not reflect any conceptual lacuna, and may originate from their being trustful.

Children's belief- and desire-reasoning in the temporoparietal junction: evidence for specialization from functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

Behaviorally, children’s explicit theory of mind (ToM) proceeds in a progression of mental-state understandings: developmentally, children demonstrate accurate explicit desire-reasoning before accurate explicit belief-reasoning. Given its robust and cross-cultural nature, we hypothesize this progression may be paced in part by maturation/specialization of the brain. Neuroimaging research demonstrates that the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) becomes increasingly selective for ToM reasoning as children age, and as their ToM improves. But this research has narrowly focused on beliefs or on undifferentiated mental-states. A recent ERP study in children included a critical contrast to desire-reasoning, and demonstrated that right posterior potentials differentiated belief-reasoning from desire-reasoning. Taken together, the literature suggests that children’s desire-belief progression may be paced by specialization of the right TPJ for belief-reasoning specifically, beyond desire-reasoning. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis directly by examining children’s belief- and desire-reasoning using functional near-infrared spectroscopy in conjunction with structural magnetic resonance imaging to pinpoint brain activation in the right TPJ. Results showed greatest activation in the right TPJ for belief-reasoning, beyond desire-reasoning, and beyond non-mental reasoning (control). Findings replicate and critically extend prior ERP results, and provide clear evidence for a specific neural mechanism underlying children’s progression from understanding desires to understanding beliefs.

Children's understanding of Aesop's fables: relations to reading comprehension and theory of mind.

Two studies examined children’s developing understanding of Aesop’s fables in relation to reading comprehension and to theory of mind. Study 1 included 172 children from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 6 in a school-wide examination of the relation between reading comprehension skills and understanding of Aesop’s fables told orally. Study 2 examined the relation between theory of mind and fables understanding among 186 Junior (4-year-old) and Senior (5-year-old) Kindergarten children. Study 1 results showed a developmental progression in fables understanding with children’s responses becoming increasingly decontextualized as they were able to extract the life lesson. After general vocabulary, passage comprehension predicted fables understanding. Study 2 results showed a relation between young children’s theory of mind development and their understanding of fables. After general vocabulary, second-order theory of mind predicted children’s fables understanding. Findings point to the importance of developing mental state awareness in children’s ability to judge characters’ intentions and to understand the deeper message embedded in fables.

Foster children's attachment behavior and representation: Influence of children's pre-placement experiences and foster caregiver's sensitivity

Although the majority of foster children have been exposed to early adversity in their biological families and have experienced one or more disruptions of attachment relationships, most studies surprisingly found foster children to be as securely attached as children in low-risk samples. However, attention has been paid almost exclusively to attachment formation in young children up to two years of age, and the majority of studies solely investigated attachment behavior whereas few is known about foster children's representations about attachment relationships. To extend findings on attachment in foster children and its predictors, our study examined both attachment behavior and representations in foster children aged between 3 and 8 years. Diverse potential predictors including child variables, birth parents’ variables, pre-placement experiences, and foster caregiver's behavior were included in the analyses. Results revealed that foster children showed both lower attachment security and higher disorganization scores than children in low-risk samples. Attachment behavior and representation were found to be widely independent from each other. Different factors contributed to attachment behavior and representation: whereas foster children's attachment behavior was mainly influenced by foster parents’ behavior, pre-placement experiences did predict hyperactivation and disorganization on the representational level. The results indicate that, when intervening with foster families, it seems crucial to focus not exclusively on the promotion of secure attachment behavior but also to develop interventions enhancing secure and organized attachment representations.

Brief Report: Translation and Adaptation of the Theory of Mind Inventory to Spanish.

The Theory of Mind Inventory is an informant measure designed to evaluate children's theory of mind competence. We describe the translation and cultural adaptation of the inventory by the following process: (1) translation from English to Spanish by two independent certified translators; (2) production of an agreed version by a multidisciplinary committee of experts; (3) back-translation to English of the agreed version by an independent translator; (4) discussion of the semantic, idiomatic, and cultural equivalence of the final version; (5) elaboration of the final test; (6) pilot test on 24 representatives of the autism spectrum disorders population and 24 representatives of typically developing children. The steps were conducted satisfactorily, producing the final version in Spanish, which showed good psychometric properties.

Lexical restructuring in preliterate children: Evidence from novel measures of phonological representation

ABSTRACTThere is substantial debate in the literature surrounding the development of children's phonological representations (PRs). Although infant studies have shown children's representations to contain fine phonetic detail, a consensus is yet to be reached about how and when phonemic categories emerge. This study used novel implicit PR measures with preschool children (n= 38, aged 3 years, 6 months to 4 years, 6 months) to test predictions made by these competing accounts of PR development. The measures were designed to probe PR segmentation at the phoneme (rather than the phone) level without requiring an explicit awareness of phonemes. The results provide evidence in support of vocabulary driven restructuring, with PR segmentation found to be related to vocabulary when controlling for age.

A Review of Studies on Semantic Representationin Children in ASHA Journals

A Review of Studies on Semantic Representationin Children in ASHA Journals

An Interview with Lesléa Newman: A Punchy New Heather, Dolly Parton, and Orange is the New Black

This interview with Lesléa Newman took place on Monday, September 22, 2014. Newman, while quite prolific, is probably best known for her children's picture book, Heather Has Two Mommies, initially published in 1989. Heather became the cultural touchstone in discussions of not only lesbianism and children's literature, but book challenges and censorship, as well. In this interview, Newman speaks about the evolution of Heather and her various editions, new frontiers in both children's literature and representations of lesbians, identity politics and authorship, transgender issues and children's literature, and the continued need for diversity in literature for young readers.

Building phonological lexical representations

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on how much detail young children's word representations contain. We investigate early representations of place of articulation and voicing contrasts, inspired by previously attested asymmetrical patterns in children's early word productions. We tested Dutch-learning 20- and 24-month-olds’ perception of these fundamentally different contrasts in a mispronunciation-detection paradigm. Our results show that different kinds and directions of phonological changes yield different effects. Both 20- and 24-month-olds noticed coronal mispronunciations of labials, but not vice versa. The 24-month-olds noticed voiced mispronunciations of voiceless stops, but not vice versa, while the 20-month-olds failed to notice any voicing mispronunciations. We argue that early lexical representations are specified in very systematic ways, that not all phonological contrasts are encoded at the same time and that the phonological system of a language determines which contrasts are specified first in the representations of early words.

Do Young Children's Representations of Discipline and Empathy Moderate the Effects of Punishment on Emotion Regulation?

AbstractThis study examined whether children's representations of parenting (perceptions of authoritative discipline and empathy) moderated the association between harsh punishment—including corporal punishment (CP) and verbal punishment (VP)—and children's emotion regulation at the age of five years. Participants were 559 low‐income mother‐child dyads. Maternal self‐reports and home observations were used to measure punishment. Children's representations were assessed using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. Children's emotion regulation was assessed by observer rating via the Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that children's authoritative disciplinary representations moderated the effects of both VP and CP on children's emotion regulation. Empathic representations moderated the effects of VP only on children's emotion regulation. The current findings highlight the role of children's internal representations as potential protective factors in the context of harsher forms of punishment.

Parenting and children's representations of family predict disruptive and callous-unemotional behaviors.

Data from a large prospective longitudinal study (n = 1,239) was used to investigate the association between observed sensitive parenting in early childhood and children's representations of family relationships as measured by the Family Drawing Paradigm (FDP) in first grade as well as the extent to which these representations partially mediate the influences of early caregiving experiences on later conduct problems and callous-unemotional behaviors. A structural equation modeling approach revealed that less sensitive parenting at 24, 36, and 58 months predicts higher levels of conduct problems (CP) and callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors in first grade controlling for earlier measures of CP and CU behaviors. Results also indicated that greater dysfunctional family representations, as assessed with the FDP, are significantly associated with higher CU behaviors in the first grade, but not CP. Finally, a test of the indirect pathway suggests that children's dysfunctional family representations may, in part, account for the association between sensitive parenting and CU behaviors.

Confronting the language barrier: Theory of mind in deaf children

The current study addressed deaf children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development as measured by a battery of first- and second-order belief tasks. Both a chronological age-matched control group and a younger group of pre-school aged hearing children were compared to a group of deaf children born to hearing parents. A hearing native signer enacted each of the tasks, which were pre-recorded in video clips in English (SSE), British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English, in order to consider all communication preferences of the deaf children. Results revealed no differences in performance between the deaf and the young hearing children. However, despite the inclusion of ToM tasks based on their preferred mode of communication, the deaf children performed significantly worse at the unexpected-content and second-order belief task compared with their age-matched controls. These findings imply a delay rather than a deficit in ToM in deaf children that could be attributed to limited opportunities to converse and overhear conversations about mental states.Learning outcomes: None.

Researching with Children Theory and PracticeM.O'Reilly, P.Ronzoni, and N.DoraSage Publications Ltd, London, 2013, 295pp Price £21.59 ISN: 978‐1‐4462‐0848‐9

Journal of Research in Special Educational NeedsVolume 17, Issue 1 p. 74-75 Book Review Researching with Children Theory and Practice , O'Reilly, M., Ronzoni, P., and Dora, N. Sage Publications Ltd, London, 2013, 295pp Price £21.59 ISN: 978-1-4462-0848-9 Carmel Capewell, Corresponding Author Carmel Capewell carmel.capewell@northampton.ac.uk Address for correspondence Carmel Capewell, The University of Northampton, School of Education, Park Campus, CeSNER, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK. Email: carmel.capewell@northampton.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author Carmel Capewell, Corresponding Author Carmel Capewell carmel.capewell@northampton.ac.uk Address for correspondence Carmel Capewell, The University of Northampton, School of Education, Park Campus, CeSNER, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK. Email: carmel.capewell@northampton.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 June 2015 https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12113Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume17, Issue1January 2017Pages 74-75 RelatedInformation

Mother–Child Interaction as a Cradle of Theory of Mind: The Role of Maternal Emotional Availability

AbstractThe present longitudinal study investigated the relative importance of emotional availability (EA) in 56 mother–child dyads when the child was 7 months and four‐year old as predictors of child's Theory of Mind at 4 years while controlling for early maternal mind‐mindedness (MM). Dyadic EA at 7 months predicted the child's Theory of Mind, even when controlling for child temperamental and cognitive characteristics as well as dyadic EA at 4 years and early maternal MM. Results indicate the specific importance of high emotional connectedness between mothers and infants for preschoolers' Theory of Mind development.

“Chinese Children Rise Up!”: Representations of Children in the Work of the Cartoon Propaganda Corps during the Second Sino-Japanese War

During the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945), children were a major subject of propaganda images. Children had become significant figures in China when May Fourth intellectuals, influenced by evolutionary thinking, deemed “the child” as a central figure for the modernization of the country. Consequently, during the war, cartoonists employed already-established representations of children for propagandistic purposes. By analyzing images published by members of the Cartoon Propaganda Corps in the wartime magazine Resistance Cartoons , this article shows how portrayals of children fulfilled symbolic as well as normative functions. These images provide us with information about the symbolic power of representations of children, and about authorities’ expectations of China’s youngest citizens. However, cartoonists also created images undermining the heroic rhetoric often attached to representations of children, especially after the dismissal of the Cartoon Propaganda Corps in 1940. This was the case with cartoonist Zhang Leping’s (1910–1992) sketches of “Zhuji after the Devastation,” which revealed the discrepancies between propagandistic representations and children’s everyday life in wartime China.

Secret keepers: children's theory of mind and their conception of secrecy

In this mixed methods study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 3–5-year-olds (n = 21) in a university-sponsored preschool programme and children completed a theory of mind (ToM) task. After grouping children into pass/no pass groups for the ToM tasks, analyses using interpretive phenomenology indicated that preschool children explain their understanding of secrets and secret hiding places differently, depending on their ToM ability. Children in the ‘pass' group had more detailed narratives, showed more imagination, and required less prompting in their discussions of secret hiding places, regardless of age. Those in the ‘no pass' group had more concrete examples of secret hiding places and relied more heavily on their drawings to explain those places. Implications for children's social competence are discussed.

Development and Persuasion Understanding: Predicting Knowledge of Persuasion/Selling Intent From Children's Theory of Mind

Determining the approximate age that children are able to understand the purpose of advertising messages has been a concern of children and media researchers for over 40 years. However, other theorists have suggested that age is not the necessary determinant of persuasion understanding but that cognitive development is (via theory of mind). In addition, Kunkel (2010) has suggested that advertising knowledge represents a number of competencies. Working with elementary school children, this study tested whether children's theory of mind (ToM) capabilities predicted advertising knowledge. Results indicate that children's understanding of selling intent is significantly linked to ToM development beyond the influence of age and linguistic competence and that children showed stronger knowledge of selling intent than knowledge of persuasive intent.

Cumulative risk disparities in children's neurocognitive functioning: a developmental cascade model.

The current longitudinal study examined the role of cumulative social risk on children's theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF) across early development. Further, we also tested a cascade model of development in which children's social cognition at 18 months was hypothesized to predict ToM and EF at age 4.5 through intermediary language skills at age 3. We then examined whether this developmental mechanism varied as a function of social risk status. Participants were 501 children recruited when they were newborns, at which point eight psychosocial risk factors were assessed and combined into a metric of cumulative social disadvantage. Families were followed up at 18 months, at which point four social-cognitive skills were assessed using developmentally sensitive tasks: joint attention, empathy, cooperation, and self-recognition. Language was measured at age 3 using a standardized measure of receptive vocabulary. At age 3 and 4.5, EF and ToM were measured using previously validated tasks. Results showed that there were notable cumulative risk disparities in overall neurocognitive skill development, and these effects became more differentiated over time. Support was also found for a developmental mechanism wherein the effect of social cognition at 18 months on ToM and EF in the preschool period operated specifically through children's receptive language ability at age 3. This pathway functioned similarly for children with both low- and high-risk backgrounds. These results extend previous findings by documenting the role of cumulative social disadvantage on children's neurocognition and the pathways that link key neurocognitive abilities across early development.

Children's representations of relationships with mothers, teachers, and friends, and associations with social competence

This study describes the use of story stems in order to determine children's representations of relationships with mothers, teachers, and friends, and how these representations are related to mother- and teacher-rated social competence. Thirty preschool-aged children were administered the story stem tasks featuring three different interactional partners, which were then coded for quality of the portrayed relationship. Mothers and teachers were also asked to rate children's social competence. Findings suggest that children generally have similar, but not identical, working models of their relationships with mothers and teachers which are related to internal working models of their relationships with friends. Furthermore, elements of children's narratives about teachers and friends were related to teacher's ratings of children's social competence. Findings from this study demonstrate the dynamic and interactive nature of children's representations of relationships with their mothers, teachers, and friends.