Young Children's Use Research Articles

National Trends in Psychotropic Medication Use in Young Children: 1994–2009

To examine recent national trends in psychotropic use for very young children at US outpatient medical visits. Data for 2- to 5-year-old children (N = 43 598) from the 1994-2009 National Ambulatory and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys were used to estimate the weighted percentage of visits with psychotropic prescriptions. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with psychotropic use. Time effects were examined in 4-year blocks (1994-1997, 1998-2001, 2002-2005, and 2006-2009). Psychotropic prescription rates were 0.98% from 1994-1997, 0.83% from 1998-2001, 1.45% from 2002-2005, and 1.00% from 2006-2009. The likelihood of preschool psychotropic use was highest in 2002-2005 (1994-1997 adjusted odds ratio [AOR] versus 2002-2005: 0.67; 1998-2001 AOR versus 2002-2005: 0.63; 2006-2009 AOR versus 2002-2005: 0.64), then diminished such that the 2006-2009 probability of use did not differ from 1994-1997 or from 1998-2001. Boys (AOR versus girls: 1.64), white children (AOR versus other race: 1.42), older children (AOR for 4 to 5 vs 2 to 3 year olds: 3.87), and those lacking private insurance (AOR versus privately insured: 2.38) were more likely than children from other groups to receive psychotropic prescriptions. Psychotropic prescription was notable for peak usage in 2002-2005 and sociodemographic disparities in use. Further study is needed to discern why psychotropic use in very young children stabilized in 2006-2009, as well as reasons for increased use in boys, white children, and those lacking private health insurance.

Young Children's Use of Laughter After Transgressions

Can very young children deploy laughter interactionally? Using data from video recordings of 52 interactions between six mothers and their young children, this article examines one particular kind of sequence in which interactionally ordered child laughter occurs. In that sequence, the young child commits some kind of potential transgression (e.g., breaking wind, standing on objects on the floor, or playing in a proscribed location). The child's mother then draws attention to the potential transgression in some way (e.g., by admonishing the child, requesting a change to the child's behavior, issuing a particular kind of child-directed gaze), thus treating the child's action as constituting a transgression. At some point following the potential transgression, the child laughs. What is shown is that even young children can fit their laughter to the ongoing interactional sequence. It is argued that the child's laughter provides for a display of affiliation from the mother.

Meta-Analysis

Objective: Although psychostimulants are commonly utilized to treat preschoolers with ADHD, side effects and parental preferences limit their use in younger children. The current meta-analysis examines the efficacy of parent interventions for the treatment of ADHD in preschoolers. Method: We searched PubMed and the Cochrane Library for randomized, controlled trials comparing behavioral interventions for preschool children with ADHD. Our primary outcome measure was mean improvement in an ADHD rating scale compared with control conditions. Results: Eight trials were included in the final analysis, totaling 399 participants. There was a significant benefit of parental behavioral interventions compared with control conditions (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.61, 95% confidence interval = [0.40, 0.83], z = 5.6, p < .001). Conclusion: The present meta-analysis provides preliminary evidence that parental interventions are an efficacious treatment for preschool ADHD. Future research is needed to compare the relative efficacy of parental interventions for ADHD with medication management and to determine if the combination of parental training and medication management is more effective than either condition alone.

Core foundations of abstract geometry.

Human adults from diverse cultures share intuitions about the points, lines, and figures of Euclidean geometry. Do children develop these intuitions by drawing on phylogenetically ancient and developmentally precocious geometric representations that guide their navigation and their analysis of object shape? In what way might these early-arising representations support later-developing Euclidean intuitions? To approach these questions, we investigated the relations among young children's use of geometry in tasks assessing: navigation; visual form analysis; and the interpretation of symbolic, purely geometric maps. Children's navigation depended on the distance and directional relations of the surface layout and predicted their use of a symbolic map with targets designated by surface distances. In contrast, children's analysis of visual forms depended on the size-invariant shape relations of objects and predicted their use of the same map but with targets designated by corner angles. Even though the two map tasks used identical instructions and map displays, children's performance on these tasks showed no evidence of integrated representations of distance and angle. Instead, young children flexibly recruited geometric representations of either navigable layouts or objects to interpret the same spatial symbols. These findings reveal a link between the early-arising geometric representations that humans share with diverse animals and the flexible geometric intuitions that give rise to human knowledge at its highest reaches. Although young children do not appear to integrate core geometric representations, children's use of the abstract geometry in spatial symbols such as maps may provide the earliest clues to the later construction of Euclidean geometry.

Young children's flexible use of semantic cues to word meanings: converging evidence of individual and age differences

A new test of children's flexible use of semantic cues for word learning extended previous results. In Experiment 1, three- to five-year-olds (N = 51) completed two tests of interpreting several novel words for the same stimulus arrays. Within-sentence phrasal cues implied different stimulus referent properties. Children's cue-using flexibility in the new Flexible Induction of Meanings [Words for Animates] test (FIM-An) was strongly correlated with an established test (Flexible Induction of Meanings [Words for Objects]; Deák, 2000). Individual children showed between-test consistency in using cues to flexibly assign words to different referent properties. There were large individual differences, as well as limited age differences, in the distribution of flexible and inflexible response patterns. The comprehensibility of specific cues, and perceptual salience of specific properties, explained much of the variance. Proportions of flexible and inflexible patterns shifted with age. Experiment 2 replicated these results in N=36 three- and four-year-olds, using a modified FIM-An with more distinctive cues.

Developing scales to measure parental mediation of young children's internet use

With children using digital media at ever younger ages, media-education becomes a pressing issue for parents. As there is hardly any research on how parents guide the online activities of toddlers and young children an internet-survey was held among 792 Dutch parents of children aged between 2 and 12 years. Factor analysis revealed that for the internet, parents partly use the same strategies they also apply for television and video games: ‘co-use’, ‘active mediation’, and ‘restrictive mediation’. In addition, they also utilise new strategies: ‘supervision’ and ‘technical safety guidance’. Mediation was mainly predicted by the child's age and online behaviour (e.g., gaming, social networking), as well as by the number of computers in the home and the parents' gender, education and computer/internet skills. Finally, parents also use more mediation when they expect that the internet has a positive effect and particularly when they believe that it has a negative impact.

Reading to learn: Prereaders' and early readers' trust in text as a source of knowledge.

Literacy gives children an opportunity to benefit from others' knowledge and experience that far exceeds what they can achieve when reliant on learning orally via personal encounters. Little is known about young children's understanding and use of print as a source of knowledge. Three experiments investigated children's use and understanding of printed names as sources of information about the identity of unfamiliar targets. Children in Experiment 1 (N = 34, ages 5 years 5 months to 7 years 5 months) proactively used printed labels to correct their guesses. In Experiment 2 (N = 86, ages 3 years 7 months to 6 years 2 months), early readers offered a picture strip with labels (illegible to them) rather than one without labels to help a doll identify the target. Younger prereaders showed no such preference. In Experiment 3 (N = 69, ages 3 years 2 months to 6 years 2 months), early readers believed oral suggestions backed up with labels (illegible to them) over suggestions without such backing. Younger prereaders less frequently showed such trust in the reliability of information gained via print. Children may treat print as a reliable source of knowledge as soon as they can decode print for themselves, but not before.

Purposes for literacy in children's use of the online virtual world Club Penguin

This paper reports on a study of the purposes for literacy discernible in young children's use of the virtual world, Club Penguin. Twenty‐six children aged between 5 and 11 took part in semi‐structured interviews in which their use of virtual worlds was explored. Further, three 11‐year‐old children were filmed using Club Penguin four times each over the period of 1 month in their own homes and they and their parents took part in interviews regarding their use of this virtual world. Findings indicate that the purposes for literacy in virtual worlds such as these are varied and have much in common with purposes for literacy in the off ine world. The virtual world Club Penguin provided a motivating and enjoyable context for reading and writing and enabled the construction and maintenance of online social networks. The implications for research, policy and practice are discussed.

Factors Affecting Computer Mouse Use for Young Children: Implications for AAC

More than 12% of preschoolers receiving special education services have complex communication needs, including increasing numbers of children who do not have significant motor impairments (e.g., children with autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, etc.). In order to meet their diverse communication needs (e.g., face-to-face, written, Internet, telecommunication), these children may use mainstream technologies accessed via the mouse, yet little is known about factors that affect the mouse performance of young children. This study used a mixed factorial design to investigate the effects of age, target size, and angle of approach on accuracy and time required for accurate target selection with a mouse for 20 3-year-old and 20 4-year-old children. The 4-year-olds were generally more accurate and faster than the 3-year-olds. Target size and angle mediated differences in performance within age groups. The 3-year-olds were more accurate and faster in selecting the medium and large targets relative to the small target, were faster in selecting the large relative to the medium target, and were faster in selecting targets along the vertical relative to the diagonal angle. The 4-year-olds were faster in selecting the medium and large targets relative to the small target. Implications for improving access to AAC include the preliminary suggestion of age-related threshold target sizes that support sufficient accuracy, the possibility of efficiency benefits when target size is increased up to an age-related threshold, and identification of the potential utility of the vertical angle as a context for training navigational input device use.

‘I am very good at computers’: young children's computer use and their computer self-esteem

Children frequently encounter computers in many aspects of daily life. It is important to consider the consequences not only on children's cognitive development but on their emotional and self-development. This paper reports on research undertaken in Australia with 52 children aged between 44 and 79 months to explore the existence or not of a relationship between computer use and computer self-esteem. The development and use of tools to identify computer self-esteem is also described. Findings suggest that computer use enhances computer self-esteem, especially for children with access to computers both at home and in preschool and the first year of schooling. Suggestions for further research and serious implications for early childhood are also noted.

Coarctation of Aorta-Management Options and Decision Making

Coarctation of the Aorta (CoA) is a congenital cardiac anomaly consisting of a constricted aortic segment with a prevalence of 5 to 8% of all Congenital Heart Defects (CHD). The classic CoA is located in the thoracic aorta distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery, at about the level of the ductal structure. Significant hypertension and/or congestive heart failure are indications of intervention. If hypertension (rather that heart failure) is the clinical problem, it is better to relieve the aortic obstruction promptly rather that attempting to “treat” hypertension with antihypertensive medications. Surgical relief of the aortic obstruction and catheter interventional techniques (balloon angioplasty and stents) are available alternatives. Since the introduction of surgical correction by Crafoord and Nylin and Gross and Hufnagel in early 1940s, surgical therapy has been the treatment of choice for aortic coarctation. Gruntzig’s technique of balloon angioplasty was adopted by Singer and Sperling and their associates to enlarge coarcted aortic segments in post-surgical recoarctation and native coarctation, respectively in early 1980s. This is followed by the application of the technique by other cardiologists to treat native CoA. The procedure consists of inserting a balloon angioplasty catheter across the site of coarctation and inflating the balloon with diluted contrast material. Both immediate and followup results are reasonably good. Residual and recurrent obstructions following surgery and prior balloon angioplasty are also amenable for balloon angioplasty. Despite reasonably good short-term and long-term results of balloon angioplasty, some problems remain and include restenosis, probability of aortic rupture, formation of aneurysms and inability to effectively treat long-segment tubular narrowing. Because of these and other reasons, endovascular stenting of aortic coarctation has gained acceptance over the last decade. The balloon catheter, with the stent mounted on it, is advanced over a stiff guide wire and positioned across the coarctation segment and the balloon inflated, thus implanting the stent. Most cardiologists use stents in adolescents and adults and restrict their use in younger children because of issues related to growth. Stent therapy appears to be an attractive method for treatment of native or recurrent coarctation, aneurysm formation following prior surgical or balloon intervention and for long segment hypoplasia. Role of covered stents to manage aortic coarctation is limited and are used when the assessed risk for development of aneurysm or dissection is high. A comparison of all available treatment modalities was made and while it is difficult to make a definitive statement, the overall data seem to indicate that transcatheter methods may be better than surgery. Selection of the method of therapy is largely based on the age at presentation and anatomy of the coarcted segment and surrounding structures; surgery for infants and long segment coarctations, balloon angioplasty for discrete native and post-surgical coarctations in children and stents for long segment coarctations as well as any type of coarctations in adolescents and adults seem to be the current trend.

The Social Organisation of Help during Young Children's Use of the Computer

This article examines some of the ways that young children seek and provide help through social interaction during use of the computer in the home. Although social interaction is considered an important aspect of young children's use of computers, there are still few studies that provide detailed analysis of how young children accomplish that social interaction. Conversation analysis of two young children's social interactions during help provides descriptions of the methods and resources used by them to mutually accomplish their activity. Discussion of specific ways of helping establishes how talk and interaction between children may contribute to computer use and acquisition of on-screen reading and writing practices.

The Role of Cultural Artefacts in Play as Tools to Mediate Learning in an Intercultural Preschool Programme

Starting with the research question ‘What is the role of play as a means of genuine inclusion of home language and cultural traditions in an intercultural early learning programme?’, the article focuses on the role of cultural artefacts in a programme in which the majority of the children were refugees from Africa. The sociocultural theory of learning of Vygotsky and the activity theory of Leontiev provided the theoretical framework for the study. From a sociocultural perspective, materials are cultural objects within the social context and their use and functions are adaptive, depending on the activities that are also social. By engaging in these habitual activities and interactions, children become a part of their cultural world. Ethnographic data collection methods were employed to address the research question. A description of a play episode was used as an example of a young child's use of her appropriated knowledge of a particular cultural practice (singing while doing housework) and a cultural object (artefact) as a tool to mediate her learning. The authors argue that the example demonstrates that the presence of cultural artefacts allowed the child's home culture to emerge as the dominant one in the early childhood setting. The authors believe that the mindful, deliberate introduction of cultural artefacts by the first-language facilitators and cultural brokers who were members of the classroom teaching team allowed the child to consolidate her learning from both her home and her school environments in a manner consistent with her cultural background. The study suggests possible tools and forms of analysis that provoke early childhood educators to extend themselves outside of their own knowledge systems so that they can better facilitate children's ongoing negotiations among their multiple worlds.

The impact of scaffolding and overhearing on young children's use of the spatial termsbetweenandmiddle

The primary goal was to specify the impact of scaffolding and overhearing on young children's use of the spatial terms between and middle. Four- and five-year-old children described the location of a mouse hidden between two furniture items in a dollhouse with assistance from a parent. Children's use of between and middle increased significantly across trials, and in concert, parents' directive scaffolding involving middle decreased across trials. In the second study, three common scaffolding types (Between Directive, Middle Directive, non-directive) were compared with a no prompt condition by having children receive prompts from a doll and with overhearing conditions in which children overheard conversations between two adult experimenters containing between or middle. Children's use of between and middle was much more frequent following directive prompting than following non-directive prompting, no prompting, or overhearing. Moreover, children showed some evidence of using between and middle in response to non-directive prompting and overhearing.

Evolution of paediatric off-label use after new significant medicines become available for adults: a study on triptans in Finnish children 1994-2007.

• Off-label use in children is widespread. New medicines lack marketing authorization for paediatric use, even when they represent significant therapeutic advantages and are intended for treatment of conditions common in children. • Until now no information exists on how off-label use in children develops over time after a significant new medicine is approved for adults and what happens when it is later labelled for one paediatric age group. • Off-label use of a new significant medicine begins in adolescents and extends to younger children with delay. First marketing authorization to adolescents, providing a more child-friendly formulation, results in increase of off-label use in younger children, and has limited effect on total off-label use. To investigate the evolution of paediatric off-label use after a therapeutically new group of medicines for a common condition becomes available for adults but is labelled for children with a delay of several years. Triptans were used as a model, because migraine is common in children, and is the only indication for triptans. Data on all triptan prescriptions 1994-2007 were extracted from the nationwide Finnish Prescription Register. Prescriptions for children were compared over time. Paediatric patients with triptan prescriptions increased from 204 in 1994 to 2618 in 2007. Sumatriptan accounted for 64% of all paediatric triptan prescriptions. When sumatriptan in a nasal formulation was labelled for children ≥ 12 years in 2003, off-label prescribing to younger children (6-11 years) doubled in 2003-2004. Sumatriptan on-label prescriptions increased to 728 adolescents (45% of sumatriptan in the age group) in 2007, but its off-label use continued also to increase to 1119 (61% of paediatric sumatriptan prescriptions) in 2007. In that year 72% of paediatric triptan use was off-label, 28% on-label. When a new significant medicine becomes available in adults, off-label use in children starts slowly but continues to extend to younger children reaching a market size which is little influenced by late appearance of a labelled product. Paediatric treatment remains dominated by off-label use despite labelling of a product in an age appropriate formulation to the most relevant age group.

High Level of SABA and OCS Use in Young Children with Poorly Controlled Asthma Prescribed Inhaled Fluticasone

High Level of SABA and OCS Use in Young Children with Poorly Controlled Asthma Prescribed Inhaled Fluticasone

Relationship between young children's habitual computer use and influencing variables on socio‐emotional development

This study investigates the relationship between young children's habitual computer use and influencing variables on socio‐emotional development. The participants were 179 five‐year‐old children. The Internet Addiction Scale for Young Children (IASYC) was used to identify children with high and low levels of habituation to computer use. The data for this study were collected using the Socio‐Emotional Development Scale and questionnaires regarding children's computer use at home and in the classroom. Results of this study show that for computer use both in the home and in the classroom, children with a higher score on the IASYC had a lower score on the Socio‐Emotional Development Scale. Conversely, children with a higher score on the Socio‐Emotional Development Scale had a lower score on the Internet Addiction Scale. Moreover, variables regarding children's computer use at home influenced the children's score on level of habituation more than variables of their computer use in the classroom.

A Contested Space: The Dialogic Intersection of ICT, Multiliteracies, and Early Childhood

If students are to be equipped with skills necessary to meet the challenging and diverse demands of different forms of communication brought about by the introduction of new technologies, then a broader definition of literacy is required. A pedagogy of multiliteracies recognises that there are multiple modes of representation that communicate meaning beyond language alone. As debate on information and communication technology (ICT) integration and literacy definition intensifies, early childhood teachers contemplate how they will accommodate these changes. How will early childhood education facilitate young children's use of ICT to support multiliteracies learning? This study investigated how two Western Australian teachers integrated ICT to support multiliteracies learning in early childhood classrooms. Two case studies, constructed over a nine-month period and employing ethnographic methodology, illustrated how different curricular, pedagogical, and classroom designs impact on children's early literacy experiences. An analysis across the two cases illuminated how different pedagogy, definitions, support, resources and curriculum shaped the dialogic intersection of ICT and multiliteracies in early childhood education.

Commentary on Lieven & Brandt and Roeper & Pérez-Leroux

Research on young children's language use and comprehension suggests that 2-year-olds are productive language users. Research on infant learning abilities suggests how that may come to be. The view that language knowledge is abstract and the view that language knowledge is learned from input are not incompatible.

Self‐regulated learning of basic arithmetic skills: A longitudinal study

Several studies have examined young primary school children's use of strategies when solving simple addition and subtraction problems. Most of these studies have investigated students' strategy use as if they were isolated processes. To date, we have little knowledge about how math strategies in young students are related to other important aspects in self-regulated learning. The main purpose of this study was to examine relations between young primary school children's basic mathematical skills and their use of math strategies, their metacognitive competence and motivational beliefs, and to investigate how students with basic mathematics skills at various levels differ in respect to the different self-regulation components. The participants were comprised of 27 Year 2 students, all from the same class. The data were collected in three stages (autumn Year 2, spring Year 2, and autumn Year 3). The children's arithmetic skills were measured by age relevant tests, while strategy use, metacognitive competence, and motivational beliefs were assessed through individual interviews. The participants were divided into three performance groups; very good students, good students, and not-so-good students. Analyses revealed that young primary school children at different levels of basic mathematics skill may differ in several important aspects of self-regulated learning. Analyses revealed that a good performance in addition and subtraction was related not only to the children's use of advanced mathematics strategies, but also to domain-specific metacognitive competence, ability attribution for success, effort attribution for failure, and high perceived self-efficacy when using specific strategies. The results indicate that instructional efforts to facilitate self-regulated learning of basic arithmetic skills should address cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational aspects of self-regulation. This is particularly important for low-performing students.