The purpose of this field based study is to analyze the linguistic and cognitive transactions of immigrant language minority kindergarten students in the context of classroom collaborative talk in their native language and conducted through the observations and reflections of a teacher-researcher. The research questions addressed in this study are; (1) How do children use prior knowledge to negotiate meaning and develop shared understandings? (2) How do cognitive and linguistic processes develop as children participate in classroom collaborative talk to co-construct new knowledge and negotiate meaning? (3) In what ways do children extend and internalize understandings of vocabulary and word meaning while engaging in classroom collaborative talk? This case study draws upon the data collected during a year-long inquiry I conducted in my own classroom in an urban school. Twenty-seven students, all from Hispanic origin, mostly recent arrivals from Mexico, participated in the research. The collaborative talk transactions were transcribed and translated into English from thirteen videotaped sessions from which I selected excerpts of varying lengths to examine. The findings are threefold. First, the collaborative talk transactions, framed within a cognitive and linguistic stance, demonstrate how meanings and new understandings are constructed and restructured; show how the teacher and the learners make use of their cultural values, assumptions, attitudes and experiences to construct new meanings and shared understandings; and reveal how learners engage in oral literacies in collaboration with the teacher and then begin to formulate and test hypotheses without the teacher's mediation. Second, the collaborative discourse, situated within an empowerment through voice perspective, show how culturally responsive modes of teaching and learning maximize the use of language minority students I linguistic, cultural and cognitive resources; reveal that these learners display high motivation and interest when the topics are relevant to their lives; and illustrate how learners make connections between the concepts embedded in discourse and their own experiences and understandings. Finally, our discursive practices reflect the importance of native language use in allowing culturally and linguistic diverse students to express their thinking and understandings in their more competent linguistic system and in the language of their culture and social worlds.

This study has the objective of examining parental perceptions, some home environmental factors, and SES on a child's cognitive development. Two groups were used to collect data, a high SES group and a low SES group. Twenty-six preschool children, 13 females and 13 males (24 Caucasian, one African American, and one Asian) were referred for giftedness. Parents responded to two surveys, one questionnaire, and an interview. The children were administered two cognitive skills tests: (a) The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1983), KABC and (b) the Qualitative Use of English and Spanish Tasks, QUEST, (Gonzalez, 1991). Qualitative analyses was used to: (a) describe parental perceptions about the meaning of giftedness; and (b) describe parental perceptions about the development of giftedness. A total of seven patterns were found. Quantitative analyses was used to: (a) explore any relationship between parental perceptions and their own child's cognitive abilities; (b) explore any relationship between some environmental factors and the child's cognitive abilities; and (c) explore any relationship between the parents socioeconomic status and their own child's cognitive abilities. Quantitative results suggest that some home environmental factors do influence a child's cognitive abilities. Quantitative results also suggest that the parents' SES influences the child's performance on cognitive skills tests.

The present dissertation is a synthesis of whole language education guided by an action research perspective with the main purpose of developing a series of articles to introduce whole language to Chinese teachers. It falls into two parts: the first part provides the background information about language and education in Taiwan, and the second part is a whole language program for Chinese teachers. Part I discusses the purpose and research questions of this dissertation with an emphasis on current issues of educational reform in Taiwan. Part II is designed to be a resource book of whole language education. It consists of four sections of two to three chapters each. Each chapter stands by itself and all together offer a whole language framework. Section one, Roots of Whole Language, focuses on general and specific philosophical elements of whole language. Section two, Connection to Related Theories, highlights the relationship between the theory of whole language and the practice of literacy education in Taiwan. Section three, Research Applying Whole Language to Chinese Literacy and Education, consists of three qualitative research studies. Section four, A Whole Language Classroom, discusses how a teacher translates her educational beliefs into classroom practices. The arguments are illustrated with examples from the Experimental Textbooks and instructional methodologies in Taiwan with the purpose of making connections between theoretical frameworks related to whole language and educational research in Taiwan. In summary, this dissertation explores whole language from interrelated perspectives. It offers a personal interpretation of whole language that builds up connections between the whole language movement as has been developed in the United States and Chinese literacy education as it is practiced in Taiwan. The major concern of this work is to share information about whole language with Taiwanese teachers and invite them to adapt whole language in their local contexts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the linguistic components of phonotactic and orthotactic probability affected children’s ability to fast-map orthographic information and whether orthographic processing explained unique variance on children’s literacy skills above and beyond that of phonological processing. Moreover, the current study examined whether kindergarten children with and without typical language abilities were differentially affected by linguistic processes on reading and spelling tasks. Fifty-six kindergarten children, 31 with typical language abilities and 25 with diagnosed language impairments, were exposed to novel nonwords through a computerized story format and asked to generate and identify these nonword spellings through a fast-mapping protocol. A battery of tasks also was administered which assessed the children’s phonological processing, rapid automatized naming, letter identification, vocabulary, reading, and spelling skills. The children fast-mapped orthographic information after minimal exposure to written words; children with typical language abilities performed significantly better on orthographic fast-mapping measures than children with language impairments. For all the children, more nonwords of high phonotactic and high orthotactic probability were fastmapped or generated, whereas more nonwords were identified in a low phonotactic probability condition. For children with typical language abilities, orthographic processing was found to explain unique variance above and beyond that explained by phonological processing on reading and spelling measures; for children with language impairments, neither phonological processing nor orthographic processing accounted for significant variance in their reading and spelling performance. The practical significance of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Many children in the foundation phase in rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa struggle to acquire early literacy skills. A review of the literature demonstrates the link between early communication development and academic achievement, including literacy skills (Rossetti, 2001). This study explored the beliefs and practices of caregivers regarding early communication development as a means to providing culturally appropriate early communication intervention. The study drew on phenomenological and interpretive viewpoints to inform the qualitative design. Fifteen caregivers with healthy infants in the age range of 0-12 months were recruited from a post-natal clinic in Inanda, a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal. The study took place in three phases. Phase 1) Nine of the participants were divided between two focus groups. Focus groups used photo elicitation as a method of stimulating discussion on subjects relevant to the topic. Phase 2) Data from the focus groups was used to inform the development of an individual guided interview schedule. One participant took part in a pilot study of an individual interview. Phase 3) The remaining five caregivers participated in individual guided interviews. Data obtained through both focus groups and individual interviews was analyzed for themes using Creswell’s Data Analysis Spiral (1998). Five themes were identified as falling within the two study objectives: Parenting beliefs and parenting practices. The themes under parenting beliefs included: the role of the parent; needs and abilities of the infant and communication. Themes included under parenting practices were: daily activities and language stimulation. The results show that caregivers’ beliefs are guided by the desire for their infants to be accepted by community members, thus prioritizing issues of respect and observable health as their parenting goals. Caregivers’ daily activities facilitate the development of the maternal bond which serves as the foundation for the development of communication and provides language stimulation. These practices are however noted to be intuitive and lack a formal knowledge base. Practice and research implications for these findings are discussed. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

<p> The 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami suddenly took the homes, family members, friends, and familiar neighborhoods away from the children of Iwate. In the midst of this difficult situation, early childhood development (ECD) programs provided protective environments for the young children to access continuous care and development opportunities. This case study examines how these daycare centers in Iwate prepared for, responded to, and coped with the severe natural disaster, providing physical, cognitive, and psychosocial protections to these children.</p><p> The study re-affirmed that daycare centers in Iwate had integrated the national standards for disaster risk reduction (DRR). On the day of the disaster, personnel safely evacuated the children while practicing monthly drills. Despite the challenges, the daycare programs quickly re-established normalcy in children&rsquo;s lives, ensuring continuous access to care. Not only did daycare personnel act in loco parentis for these children, but also re-installed daycare programs during the recovery.</p><p> The study revealed that local governments also faced serious challenges in their leadership and coordination roles. Their response capacities had been severely affected by the disaster. Governments&rsquo; appropriate and timely guidance was most beneficial for the daycare providers. Among other recommendations, I assert that in the future, local governments could take more active roles in coordinating the massive influx of humanitarian organizations. </p><p> This interpretivist research was based on my one-year fieldwork in Iwate immediately after the disaster, and employed a series of survey instruments (questionnaires and interviews). This case study contributes to the field of education and ECD in emergencies through the use of qualitative, ethnographic research. It also recognizes significant and complimentary contribution of qualitative inquiry methods, including on-site fieldwork, ethnographic analyses, and follow-up interviews, for better understanding of crisis situations.</p><p> While pre-school programs are not compulsory in Japan, the study calls attention to the valuable protection that they provide for both young children and their childhoods in emergencies. A recovery strategy that focuses on protective environments for children has great potential as a harmonizing approach, rather than as a parallel one, in the complex nature of humanitarian assistance. </p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sleep schedule on the learning trajectories, acquisition, and consolidation for preschoolers participating in a training program targeting attention. This study expanded on current literature by examining the effect of training attention skills and focused on sleep in preschoolers using an experimental design. Explorations of how changes in bedtime play a role in training attention in preschoolers were made. </p><p> Sleep is important for daytime functioning and sleep loss has many implications, including risk for poorer academic performance and learning. Early intervention and preventive measures addressing executive functions can help children better manage their behaviors in work and play situations. Studies have shown that attention skills in children can be trained. This study expanded on current literature by assessing the generalization of attention training to other executive function skills, such as inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Research has mainly focused on inhibition and working memory, and more recently, attention. To hopefully improve understanding of the attention skills in preschoolers, an additional variable of sleep restriction was evaluated. </p><p> Findings indicated, contrary to initial prediction, that children who were sleep restricted performed better during post-test assessment compared to children who followed their typical bedtime schedules. Sleep restricted preschoolers performed better in all executive function areas that were assessed in this study, which included inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and attention. Findings revealed that acute sleep restriction in preschoolers increased the effects of attention training. Differences in findings from this study and other studies are addressed.</p>

<p> Many preschool students enter kindergarten without the oral language and phonetic awareness skills necessary for academic success. Qualitative research is also limited about the instructional practices preschool teachers use to improve the literacy skills of their students. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers used developmentally appropriate instructional practices to improve the literacy skills of preschool students. The conceptual framework was based on the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky in relation to language development. A multiple case study research design was used. Participants included 6 teachers from 3 different preschool programs in an urban school district in the eastern United States. Data were collected from individual interviews with preschool teachers, observations of literacy instruction in classrooms, and related program documents. For the single case analysis, coding and category construction were used to analyze the interview data, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the observation data. A content analysis was used to analyze the documents. For the cross case analysis, data were examined across all cases for emerging themes and discrepant data. A key finding was that preschool teachers used developmentally appropriate instruction to improve oral language, phonological awareness, and written expression and supported play through learning centers; however, limited teacher&ndash;child interaction was found in relation to quality of feedback and language modeling. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators with a deeper understanding of the need to improve the literacy skills of young children.</p>

<p> The purpose of this research study was to better understand the learning process related to experiential learning that occurs for early childhood education students in the early childhood education capstone course. Limited research exists on the nature of learning that occurs in the early childhood education capstone experience. A basic interpretive qualitative design was used for this investigation. Seven students enrolled in an early childhood capstone course at a community college were interviewed for the study. Qualitative methods were used to collect data from the students via interviews. Each participant engaged in three interviews, resulting in a total of 21 interviews. Each participant was interviewed by phone and digitally recorded for accuracy. </p><p> An analysis of the data revealed that the nature of learning that occurs during the early childhood capstone course is experiential. The theoretical framework for this study was derived from the research on teacher education, early childhood education, and adult learning. The three concepts that emerged from this study are (a) influence on students' learning, (b) perception of students' learning, and (c) the nature of learning. </p>

<p> This study examined one mother's beliefs about reading, including the roles she assumed in the reading development of her three school-aged children, all of whom had diagnosed learning disabilities. The study focused on Lyn, a lower-middle class, suburban, Caucasian woman. Data collected from Lyn's children and five of Lyn's children's teachers broadened the perspective of Lyn's reading beliefs. </p><p> My role as portraitist in the study allowed me to develop intimate relationships with each of the study actors as I searched for meaning in data I collected over a period of 11 months from Lyn, each of Lyn's children, and five of Lyn's children's teachers. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations in multiple ecological environments. Collected artifacts, field notes, and conceptual memos further clarified the meaning of interview and observation data. </p><p> Analysis of data revealed that Lyn's beliefs were shaped by her early reading experiences in school. The reading beliefs Lyn developed as a child persisted into her adulthood and exerted substantial influence on the roles she assumed in her children's reading development. The completed portrait reveals tensions within and among the portrait actors' reading beliefs and reading behaviors. </p><p> Findings from the study demonstrate that a parent's beliefs may be the key that unlocks the door to a more comprehensive understanding of how her children develop as readers in multiple ecological environments.</p>