Call number: LD2668 .T4 1958 M12

Call number: LD2668 .P7 1974 H55

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1925 D598 / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The present study was conducted to explore further the general hypothesis that prolonged deficit in one perceptual modality during growth may have implications for the development of the residual intact modalities. Specifically, the absence of audition was hypothesized as having a retarding effect on the development of tactile-kinesthetic discrimination. A subsidiary aim was to clarify the interpretation of previous findings with the congenitally blind (Menaker, 1965) which indicated a four year developmental delay on one of the tasks administered (the size-weight illusion) in this investigation. A total of 192 children ranging in age from six through fourteen years served as subjects in the study; of this numb er, 84 were congenitally deaf, while 108 had normal hearing. The groups were matched solely for chronological age, although borderline children with respect to I. Q. , visual defect, and behavioral disorder were excluded. They were administered two tactile-kinesthetic tasks, a standard test of weight discrimination and the size-weight illusion, in counterbalanced order. [TRUNCATED] / 2031-01-01

Thesis advisor: Rebekah Levine Coley / Emerging research suggests that children's physical health may account for some of the variability in developmental competencies at school entry, which are the cognitive, learning, and behavioral skills necessary for long-term academic achievement. Most studies on children's health find that neonatal risks, like low birth weight and premature birth, impair children's early functioning, but little is known about other domains of children's health, like global health or acute and chronic conditions, which may be associated with functioning at school entry. Moreover, it is unclear what role physical health may play in children's access to and engagement in home and early childhood education center-based learning contexts, which may function as pathways linking early health disparities with later development. This dissertation tested direct associations between a range of childhood health problems and school readiness skills at kindergarten entry, as well as indirect and interacted associations with early learning contexts. Given the well-established socioeconomic gradient in both health and development, analyses also explored whether associations linking health and development were conditional on family socioeconomic status. Data were drawn from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Birth Cohort; N = 5,900), which follows a cohort of children born in 2001 from infancy through kindergarten entry. Linear regressions and path analyses revealed that four of five health conditions were associated with lower school readiness skills, most consistently in the domains of cognitive and learning skills. Neonatal risks, poor health, and hospitalization functioned directly to predict lower cognitive and learning skills, where as asthma diagnosis predicted heightened learning skills. Only poor health functioned indirectly through more restricted home learning activities. Children's time in ECE functioned in a compensatory role to attenuate associations between hospitalization and lower school readiness skills. Across all models, there was no evidence that measured associations varied across the family socioeconomic spectrum. Findings highlight the importance of interdisciplinary research on child well-being and draw attention to potential avenues for prevention and intervention. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

This thesis explores the role of youth workers who utilize the arts in Soacha, Colombia. Through a historical and anthropological lens the findings reveal the objectives of the workers and the impact the work has as an intervention with the children. Through the case study of nine youth workers and two administrators of the local NGO, La Fundación Proyecto de Vida, I show how a comprehensive approach strengthens youth's social and personal capacities. This Colombian model of intervention includes workshops that cover areas such as music, visual arts, movement, physical health, and the environment. In addition to the workshops the organization provides psychological resources through family counseling, art and psychodynamic therapy, along with onsite cafeteria service. Ultimately I illustrate how this comprehensive, arts-based approach to support the youth can break the cycle of violence that is otherwise perpetuated by the lack of governmental social programs.

Solving proportion problems in schools is a very difficult task for most children. Too often children are taught to use techniques for solving fractions when working with ratio and proportion problems. Although these techniques may prove useful for obtaining a solution to a proportion problem, they do not provide rich learning opportunities for students to construct proportional relationships. Individual interviews, problem solving episodes, and personal journals were the primary tools used in collecting data for this study. The problem solving episodes became the key components in observing and interacting with the participants as they solved ratio and proportion problems. The researcher found that individuals must have many elaborated constructions to solve proportion tasks. Without these elaborated constructions the individual is unable to effectively coordinate the information needed to solve proportion tasks. That is, the individual is unable to reason proportionally. Another outcome of this study was the importance of finding meaningful and doable proportion tasks for the informants to complete. Unexpected outcomes of the study included the effect of engaging in problem solving on the identity of the child and the role of language in giving meaning to the tasks. / Typescript. / "Summer Semester, 1992." / "Submitted to the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." / Advisor: Grayson H. Wheatley, Professor Directing Dissertation. / Includes bibliographical references.

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Recent work has shown that paranoia - excessive suspiciousness of others - exists on a spectrum of severity in the adult general population. Yet little is known about either the nature of mistrust in children or whether studying paranoia in children could increase our understanding of the aetiology of adult paranoia and inform early prevention strategies. The current thesis, comprised of three main studies, adopted a hitherto lacking developmental perspective to examine social mistrust in middle childhood. The first goal was to assess the structure, prevalence, correlates and short-term stability of childhood mistrust in nonclinical samples drawn from two different countries (the UK and Hong Kong). Classroom-based surveys of 8- to 14-year-olds from the UK (N = 1,086) and Hong Kong (N = 1,470) were carried out between 2011 and 2014. A new measure developed for the study was administered: The Social Mistrust Scale. The second goal was to examine children’s definitions and reasons for social trust and mistrust. This was a large qualitative examination of interviews with children, in order to learn more about the phenomenon at this age and generate future research questions to test. The final main goal was to test the association with childhood mistrust and a number of potential causal factors identified from the adult literature. Cognitive processes (i.e., reasoning bias, theory of mind and executive function) and psychosocial risk factors (i.e., bullying, loneliness, peer-rated social status, and hostile attribution bias) were studied. Overall, this thesis presented evidence that: (i) Social mistrust is prevalent in a minority of children, and it is associated with both internalising and externalising problems; (ii) Qualitative interviews indicated that mistrust was often well-justified but that a minority of children may well be having excessive suspiciousness about being targeted; (iii) Mistrustful children (especially with mistrust about school) report persistent victimisation and hostile attribution bias but do not show biases in non-affective cognitive performance compared with trusting peers; and (iv) There is moderate agreement between self-report and interviewer assessments of paranoia, child and peer ratings of mistrust but not with parent ratings. This thesis began the task of researching a developmental perspective on childhood suspiciousness, extending the work in adults. Mistrust is present in children and associated with symptoms of mental health problems and adverse experiences. The extent to which the fears were unfounded (i.e. true paranoia was assessed) was not established in the thesis nor the causal direction of the associations found. Continued research on social mistrust in community children and beyond may provide promising avenues to earlier preventions and better treatments of paranoia.