2 p. / Many parents struggle with getting their preschool age children (3 to 5 years of age) to eat fruits and vegetables, or having them try a fruit or vegetable that is new to them or prepared in a new way. Reluctance to eat certain foods or try new foods may be a way for children to express some control over at least this one small part of their lives. As with other aspects of parenting, it’s important not to turn the situation into a power struggle. Rather, it is best to be patient and realize that it may take many attempts before a child will try a new fruit or vegetable, or go back to eating a fruit or vegetable they claim not to like. Some basic suggestions are to continue to offer a variety of fruits and vegetables, eat fruits and vegetables yourself, and allow your children to participate in selecting and preparing fruits and vegetables for them to eat. Below are a few tips to encourage your children to eat fruits and vegetables, some things to avoid doing, and a few strategies you might choose to employ.

The effectiveness of attention and working memory (A/WM) training programs in improving executive functions (EFs) is heavily debated. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of a game-based process-specific cognitive intervention program (Dino Island; DI), on improving attention, working memory (WM), and pre-literacy skills in preschoolers. A secondary objective was to evaluate the feasibility of delivering DI intervention in community settings. Dino Island is an intervention program that consists of five hierarchically structured tasks that target attention and WM. The intervention also involves the teaching of metacognitive strategies to facilitate transfer effects to daily activities. The DI intervention was delivered to preschoolers (ages four to six years) during regular school days. Ten preschoolers were randomly assigned to either an active DI intervention group, or an educational games control group, with five participants in each group. All participants completed 12 hours of intervention over an eight to ten-week period. Children’s attention, EF and school readiness was assessed pre and post intervention using cognitive measures, rating scales and interviews. Non-parametric test results found significant changes in working memory for the DI intervention group (p = .03), however, results did not show significant gains in other abilities. A case study approach was then utilized to further explore outcomes for children in the DI intervention condition. The results suggest that DI training can potentially lead to gains in WM among preschool children, providing preliminary evidence of its efficacy within this age groups. DI is also feasible to be delivered within school settings during regular school hours. / Graduate

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The Hispanic population is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States, facing not only many sociodemographic risks, but academic risks as well. A large number of Hispanics are entering school unprepared to learn. While the importance of school readiness for academic success and achievement has been established, research focusing on school readiness in the Hispanic population has been limited. Furthermore, while research has established the importance of social-emotional skills for school readiness, these have been insufficiently studied in this population in how they relate to school readiness. This study examined school readiness in Hispanic preschoolers and the impact of sociodemographic, cultural, and socio-emotional variables on school readiness. A total of 162 children ages 3 to 5 years old were assessed by a school readiness measure in a Head Start program in central Texas. Children were assessed during the first 45 days of school. Teachers and caregivers completed a social-emotional rating scale on each student’s social skills and problem behavior during the first 45 days of school. In addition, caregivers completed a questionnaire that addressed cultural and sociodemographic factors. The purpose of this study was to fill the gaps of the literature by examining factors that impact school readiness among Hispanic preschoolers. The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which cultural variables can predict school readiness and social-emotional competence, above and beyond sociodemographic factors. This study also sought to determine the extent to which social-emotional competence can predict school readiness above and beyond sociodemographic factors and cultural factors. This study hypothesized that cultural factors and social-emotional competence would have an impact on school readiness, above and beyond sociodemographic factors. This study used hierarchical regression analyses. Results suggest that cultural variables were not good predictors of school readiness or social-emotional competence. Sociodemographic variables were good predictors of social-emotional competence. In addition, social skills were significant predictors of school readiness. Results suggest that Hispanic preschoolers are not that unlike other preschoolers when it comes to factors that have an impact on their school readiness and social-emotional competence.

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Counting is the first formal exposure for children to learn numerals, which are constructed with a set of syntactic rules. Young children undergo many stages of rote-memorization of the sequence and eventually count through 100. What core knowledge is necessary to expand their number knowledge to higher numbers? The compositionality of numerals is a key to understanding the natural number system as in learning languages. Higher numbers (e.g., two hundred five) are constructed with the lexical items such as earlier numbers (e.g., one to nine) and multipliers. If children develop their understanding of the compositionality of numerals, they might comprehend complex numerals far beyond their count list. In a novel task, the Number Word Comparison task, we tested whether children’s skill to compare the ones (e.g., five versus eight) can extend to complex numerals (e.g., two hundred five versus two hundred eight). Sixty-eight preschoolers completed three tasks, which measured counting fluency, number word comparison skills, and their cardinal principle knowledge. Children who were capable of comparing the ones performed above chance on average in comparing complex numerals. The performance in comparing complex numerals was strongly associated with their counting fluency. Based on these empirical results, we discuss a linguistic account of number acquisition in early childhood, proposing a link between learning the syntax of numerals and understanding the meaning behind them.

Bullying in schools is largely discussed when referring to middle and high school students. Students in preschool are often considered to be too young to carry out acts of bullying. Unfortunately, this is contrary to the truth. Bullying among children aged 2-5 is very common, although it can easily be dismissed as a normal stage in child development. Educators and observers argue that bullying in preschool occurs when a child or a group of children intimidate another child or group of children to the point that it becomes a behavioral pattern. Evidence shows that 2-5 year-olds engage in acts intended to cause physical or emotional harm on their peers. Young children exposed to bullying display similar symptoms as older children, including sleeping problems, stomach pains, headaches and fear to attend school. The qualitative phenomenological method was chosen, as this research was exploratory in nature. The data collected for the research was conducted utilizing several methods such as surveys, phone calls, and in-person interviews. The goal was to gain more information regarding preschool bullying, as there is currently very limited information on this topic, as well as to determine whether this behavior was seen as child-play or bullying by adult caregivers. The experience freely and graciously shared by the participants led to five themes, which provided a conceptual framework for the study, and allowed the 20 participants to share their experiences.

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Our everyday lives are surrounded by gadgets and digital devices that help us perform our daily chores with ease and efficiency. However, these digital devices can also separate us from what we should do ourselves. Although children who are exposed to high levels of technology might become attuned to the latest and the best gadgets, they might not learn to use their physical abilities. Another implication of a child’s over dependence on technology is that parental interactions such as encouragement, tutoring and reinforcement are provided by gadgets rather than living, breathing parents. Research done by Padma Ravichandran and Brandel France de Bravo, revealed the importance of child interaction with live people and games noting that “Very young children learn best by relating to real live people, but they also learn by moving and doing. Part of the problem with screen time is that young children who watch TV and DVDs or use computer games may be substituting these activities for free play”. The aim of this project is to reduce the gap between young children and the tactile world by creating toys that are attractive for the children, but are low-tech and involve parental interaction. Thus, the primary goal that this thesis seeks to achieve is the stimulation of children toward tactile games, while the secondary goal is to allow and encourage parental involvement in the playtime of the child. The research is guided by the premise that children can absorb substantial knowledge through the tactile world and that such tactile centered play will broaden the horizon of their knowledge and experience.

This methods-oriented dissertation focuses on the psychometric evaluation of the Feeding Your Preschooler Questionnaire (FYPQ) designed to assess the eating habits and diet quality of young children. Parental proxy reports (n=135) were obtained through pen and pencil administration of the FYPQ and an in-person interview using a 24- hour food recall (24HR).Test-retest reliability (n=82) was determined using a repeated measures design with Wilcoxon signed rank tests and Spearman correlations for the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) portion of the survey, parental self-efficacy, parental role modeling, parental practices, and parental perception of child food preference regarding fruits and vegetables scales. Test-retest reliabilities ranged from r=.53 for water to r=.84 for vegetables for the FFQ and from r=.64 for role modeling to r=.71 for parental perception of child preference for the psychosocial measures. Concurrent construct validity (n=107) was examined with a cross-sectional study design using the Wilcoxon signed rank test, Spearman correlations, and cross-classification analysis into quartiles of food group intakes. Spearman’s correlations between the FFQ and the 24HR were .46 for milk, .22 for fruit, .22 for vegetables, .11 for grains and .07 for protein. Cross-classification analysis revealed that 29% of children were classified in the same quartile and 69% in the same or within one quartile, and gross misclassification ranged from 2% to 10%. Nomological validity was examined using weighted least squares regression. Two regression analyses with fruit and vegetable intake on first the FFQ and second the 24HR as the dependent variable examined the influences of psychosocial environmental predictors and food insecurity. The FFQ regression model explained 28% (p<.05) of the variance in fruit and vegetable intake, with the significant predictors of parental role modeling and food insecurity. The 24HR regression analysis predicting fruit and vegetable intake explained 11% (p<.05), with parental perception of child preference and parental role modeling as significant predictors. In summary, the FYPQ demonstrated good test-retest reliability. The study provides evidence of concurrent validity for the FFQ for assessment of milk consumption and fruit and vegetable variety in preschool children's diets and of nomological validity in the prediction of fruit and vegetable consumption. / text