Student No:990801j Faculty:Humanities Degree:MA / Unable to copy the Abstract

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A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medicine (Child Health Community Paediatrics) Johannesburg 2014 / Study Aim: To identify the criteria used to diagnose childhood tuberculosis (TB) at two paediatric outpatient departments in Johannesburg between 01 November 1997 and 30 June 1998 and to compare the criteria used to those used by the World Health Organization in the diagnosis of childhood TB. Study Design: An observational descriptive, retrospective, hospital outpatient-based study. Setting: Paediatric outpatient departments of Coronation Hospital (CH) and Johannesburg General Hospital (JGH). Patients and Methods: Patients ranging from the ages of 3 months to 14 years who attended the two paediatric outpatient departments and were diagnosed and notified as having TB, comprised the study population. Criteria used to establish the diagnosis of TB for each patient were extracted from patient records. Clinical history and baseline clinical characteristics were analysed using standard statistical methods, and criteria used to make a diagnosis of tuberculosis were compared to those recommended by the World Health Organization. Results: One hundred and one patients were diagnosed with TB at the two outpatient departments during the eight month study period. The combination of symptoms suggestive of active TB, which included persistent cough >1 month associated with fever, weight loss and loss of appetite, was more common in the JGH cohort (32 of 51 patients; 63%) compared to the CH cohort (10 of 50 patients; 20%); Odds Ratio (OR) 6.74 (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 2.54-18.41), P<0.001. One third (32%) of the total group of children had a positive TB exposure history. Tuberculin skin test (TST) reactions were positive in 86% of the total cohort, with a similar result being seen at both hospitals. Submission of specimens for microbiological assessment was not a common practice in either outpatient department, with 95% (96 of 101 participants) not having any specimens collected. Overall, 93% (94 of 101 participants) were classified as having ‘Probable’ TB. Conclusion: Criteria being used to diagnose childhood TB in the two paediatric outpatient departments are comparable to the WHO criteria recommended for the diagnosis of childhood TB. The majority of children diagnosed were classified as ‘Probable’ TB. TST was the main diagnostic tool used in the two outpatient departments at the time of study conduct.

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Johannesburg, 2012 / Introduction: Diarrhoea is a major cause of mortality and morbidity amongst children under five years of age worldwide. Aim: To characterise the bacterial aetiologies and molecular characterises the pathogens associated with hospitalization for diarrhoeal disease among South African children aged less than 5 years Methods: Children aged < 5 years hospitalized with diarrhoea were enrolled. Standard microbiological methods (culture, biochemical tests, serotyping) and molecular methods (PCR) were used, targeting bacterial pathogens such as diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli (DEC), Salmonella species, Shigella species, Vibrio cholerae and Campylobacter species. Results: A total of 1816 stool specimens were processed, of which 633 (35%) were positive for enteric bacterial pathogens. Isolates in order of frequency included 562 DEC, 49 Shigella spp., 20 Salmonella spp., 2 Campylobacter spp. There were 48 (8%) enteric bacterial infections identified with more than one pathogen. Co-infections of bacterial pathogens with other organisms include 52 bacterial agents concurrent with Cryptosporidium co-infection, 128 with rotavirus coinfection and 9 episodes which included Cryptosporidium and rotavirus co-infections. Conclusion: The overall recovered bacterial pathogens from stool specimens was 35% with DEC being the most commonly identified.

The purpose of the study was to determine if there was a difference in parental perceptions of four-year-old children who have been cared for in home care or day care, and in child-rearing practices of parents who enrolled their children in day care or cared for them at home. / The 51 children were 46-60 months old and came from intact, middle-class, Caucasian families. The day care children were enrolled in commercial day care centers. The Perception of Parents interview schedule and the Child-Rearing Practices Questionnaire were used to gather the data. / "Mother" was the parent who was nicer, kissed, tucked children in bed, and cared for sick children. "Father" was the parent who yelled, punished, was smarter, and was the object of child's anger. Day care daughters named "mother" as the parent who gave ice cream cones, and to whom the child would go for help more often than home care daughters. Day care sons named "father" as the parent who played outside with the child more often than home care sons. / Daughters of employed mothers stated that "mother" was smarter, played outside with the child, and gave ice cream cones more often than daughters with nonemployed mothers. Sons of employed mothers gave "father" as the parent who played outside with the child more often than sons of nonemployed mothers. / Fathers of home care sons used fewer behavioral rules than fathers of day care sons. Fathers of home care daughters used more rewards with children than fathers of day care daughters. Fathers of day care children preferred schoolage children over younger children more often than fathers of home care children. / Fathers of sons with employed mothers used fewer behavioral rules than fathers of sons with employed mothers. Fathers of daughters with nonemployed mothers rewarded children more often than fathers of daughters with employed mothers. Fathers of children with employed mothers preferred schoolage children over younger children more often than fathers of children with nonemployed mothers. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: A, page: 4287. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children in a day care setting increase in their development of listening vocabulary, concepts about print, and oral language proficiency when exposed to a daily read-aloud program with language interaction, to a greater extent than those exposed to (1) a read-aloud program without language interaction, (2) no planned read-aloud program or (3) from interaction with an adult in a setting other than story time. / Thirty-six children, ages three to five, attending a day care center serving a minority, racial group in a low-economic area were randomly placed into three treatment groups and one control group. All of the subjects were administered three pre-tests and three post-tests. For ten weeks the researcher met with the three treatment groups on a daily basis. Groups One and Two heard the same stories, the difference between the groups being the amount of language interaction initiated by the researcher. Group Three worked freely with art materials. / The effect of the reading aloud, language interaction and the interaction of the two were each addressed by the three post-tests. Analysis of covariance was used to measure differences, the covariates being the three pre-tests and ages of the subjects. There were no statistically significant results from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test or Development of Oral Language test. The results from the Concepts About Print test did show a statistically significant effect from reading aloud. Results from the Concepts About Print test did not show statistically significant effects for language interaction or the combination of reading aloud and language interaction, however. / Subsequent analysis of the means and standard deviations for each of the four groups, on each of the post-tests, plus a look at the gains and losses made by the subjects from the pre-tests to the post-tests did provide some interesting insight into possible reasons for the lack of significance in this study. Some possible variables examined were: group dynamics, actual language interaction occurrences, size of groups, age variations in groups, length of study, and physical setting and situation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-05, Section: A, page: 1598. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The purpose of this study was to test the proposition that children of kindergarten age who had planned opportunities for enriched sociodramatic play would demonstrate increased levels of language performance. A 35 day study employing an Applied Behavior Analysis repeated measure multiple baseline design across subjects was undertaken to experimentally determine if there was a functional relationship between enriched sociodramatic play and an increase in levels of language performance. / Treatment conditions were enriched sociodramatic play which included (a) a shared background of information, (b) ample time, space, and realistic props, and (c) play tutoring by an adult; baseline conditions were unstructured free play. Forty-eight 15 minute language samples were collected and analyzed from three subjects matched for age, I.Q., ethnic background, and economic status, Major findings were as follows: (1) Use of words which were specifically related to a theme increased for all subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (2) Mean length of T-unit increased for all subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (3) Use of all words increased for two out of three subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (4) Use of words for concepts of color, shape, number, quantity, space, and time increased for two out of three subjects during enriched sociodramatic play. (5) Two subjects increased performance on measures of specific vocabulary words, mean length of T-unit, all words and concept words during enriched sociodramatic play. (6) One subject increased performance on measures of specific vocabulary words and mean length of T-unit during sociodramatic play; performance on measures of all words and concept words was inconclusive. (7) All subjects frequently used all seven functions of language during samples taken from both unstructured free play and enriched sociodramatic play; mean number of functions increased slightly for one subject and decreased slightly for two subjects during the treatment conditions. / Based on these findings, it was concluded that a functional relationship existed between sociodramatic play and language performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: A, page: 0079. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

The present study investigated whether the spontaneous play of young children reveals levels of precursory classificatory behavior that correspond with the range of chronological ages reported by Sugarman (1983). With the purpose of documenting the conditions and variables that may contribute to the identification of classificatory patterns as children play, the study also investigated whether play maturity (Hulme & Lunzer, 1966) correlated with a child's highest observed phase of classificatory behavior. / Twenty subjects (2 girls and 2 boys at 12, 18, 24, 30 & 36 months) individually were exposed to two settings: play and non-play. Children engaged in a minimum of 10 minutes of unstructured play in an indoor preschool play setting. They also were brought to a lab-like setting, devoid of toys, and exposed to four arrays of objects, each comprised of four items of one kind and four items of another kind. / Patterns of classificatory behavior used by the subjects as they arranged stimulus objects in the non-play setting and play materials in the play setting were identified. Ratings of each child's highest phase of classificatory behavior exhibited in each setting were derived by applying the Classificatory Behavior Inventory record form. Each child's highest level of play maturity then was correlated with his or her highest phase of classificatory behavior. / The study found that not only were the same classificatory patterns observed in the two settings, play and non-play, but these behaviors occurred at substantially the same age levels as indicated by Sugarman. A direct and positive correlation existed between highest phase of classificatory behavior and the child's level of play maturity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: A, page: 0555. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

High-quality school based learning practices are believed to have lasting effects on young children’s achievement. These practices include early mathematics instruction that now extend to promoting geometric and spatial sense in young children. The key contributors to these quality experiences are the early childhood teachers, whose developmentally appropriate practices are noted to shape future success of young learners. Therefore, the present study explored prekindergarten teachers’ instructional practices used to promote geometric and spatial sense in their classrooms. Additionally, this research examined the perceptions, understandings, and experiences that informed the VPK teachers’ geometric and spatial instruction. Participating in the study was a sample of five VPK teachers from three child development centers in a mid-sized county in Northern Florida. The data sources examined in the study consisted of classroom observations, video-stimulated recall interviews, and document analysis. The findings indicated that Voluntary prekindergarten teachers’ (VPK) emphasis on Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) emerged as a major theme that typically presented along with subthemes such as play, active/hands-on, and guided instruction during geometric and spatial activities. The data also suggest that VPK teachers’ instructional practices were informed by both their experiences working with mentors and their role as lead teacher. However, the data also suggest that the VPK teachers in the study had an incomplete knowledge of the VPK developmental standards and benchmarks for instruction, and demonstrated surface level understandings of geometric and spatial concepts in general. Finally, the findings from this study may be beneficial when considering professional development trainings for current VPK teachers in an effort to improve the quality of mathematics instruction. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 27, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Lindsay Dennis, Professor Directing Dissertation; Motoko Akiba, University Representative; Elizabeth Jakubowski, Committee Member; Ithel Jones, Committee Member.

The present study examined the relation between early educational experiences the year before kindergarten entry and students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes in kindergarten and first grade. Data were drawn from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K: 2011) (N ≈13,400). Associations of different types of early care arrangements prior to kindergarten entry were examined by using propensity score matching (PSM) analyses for trajectories of reading, mathematics, science, approaches to learning, self-control skills and externalizing behavior problems. In this study, types of pre-kindergarten early education included: center-based care, state-funded center-based care, Head Start, parental care, care provided in a home by relatives or non-relatives, and care in another home by relatives or non-relatives. The associations between the variables of interest were compared for children who had attended center-based care, state-supported center-based care, or Head Start and the reference group which included parental care, care in the home, and care in another home. The results indicated that the majority of children in the U.S. had experienced different types of early education and care arrangements during the year before kindergarten entry. Results of comparisons between the groups for children who had attended three different types of pre-kindergarten and their counterparts such as parental care, care in the home, and care in another home emerged differently in terms of children’s cognitive and social-emotional outcomes measured in the fall and spring of kindergarten and in the spring of first grade. The findings revealed that, in general, there were significant differences between scores obtained by children who had attended the three types of center-based care (i.e., center-based care, state-supported center-based care, and Head Start) and their peers who had been in some type of home based care arrangement (i.e., parental care, care in home, and care in another home). Specifically, the findings showed that children’s attendance in center-based care was associated with higher cognitive outcomes in the areas of reading, mathematics and science during the kindergarten year, in comparison to their peers who had been in parental care. Yet, these differences were negligible by the time the participants were in first grade. On the other hand, Head Start participation was associated with significantly lower scores on the cognitive measures of reading, mathematics and science, during the kindergarten year, when compared to children who had been cared for in another home by relatives or non-relatives. Further when it comes to comparisons between state-supported center-based care groups and their peers who had received parental care, former state-supported center-based care attendees had higher scores on the measures of reading and mathematics at the beginning of the kindergarten year. However, this was not the case by the end of kindergarten and first grade. In terms of children’s social-emotional outcomes, all of the significant differences on the social emotional measures between the focus and reference groups were for the fall and spring kindergarten assessments. There were no significant findings for the 1st grade social-emotional measures. Further, examination of the data with regard to the interaction between race and different types of early education revealed only one significant difference between race and participation in center-based care on the first-grade measure of externalizing problem behaviors. The findings provide information that should be of interest to researchers, teachers, parents, and policy makers in their efforts to understand the potential long-term consequences of children’s participation in different types of early education and care programs. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 7, 2018. / academic achievement, early educational experience, social-emotional outcomes / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Yanyun Yang, University Representative; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Lindsay Dennis, Committee Member.