The perceptions of dogs and cats as held by children were studied in six areas of interest. The subjects were twenty-one males and twenty-one females ranging in age from 3 years 3 months t o 5 years 0 months selected from the Utah State University Nursery School. Responses to six areas of interest: identification, sex characteristics, love and affection, cornparionship , and therapeutic value, were elicited during interviews using a color picture of a mature German Shepard and mature Siamese cat as visual stimuli. A telephone interview with one parent of the subject was made to assess pet contact of the subject. Little difference was found between males and females and their perceptions of the animals. Females, however, were found to be more aware of sibling relationships of the animals than were the males, and were, in general, more verbally responsive. Little difference in perception was found between the older three and four year old subjects. A significant difference was found between the age groups in relation to the animals being friends and playmates with the older subjects stating that the animals could be their friends and playmates more often than the younger subjects. Those subjects who were assessed as having high pet contact were found in general to be less responsive than those with low pet contact. The types of responses given by those subjects with high, medium, or low pet contact, not controlling for sex or age , were found not to differ significantly. However, those with high pet contact i 2 the area of sex characteristics evidenced a lesser degree of knowledge about from where the babies of the animals came. In general the findings gave support to the conclusions of other authors t hat a dog as a pet may be perceived as a therapeu tic device.

The effects of tokens as reinforcers on IQ test performance was investigated in 45 preschool Head Start children. There were 63 children assessed using the Slosson Intelligence Test for Children (SIT), and based upon these scores, were divided into three IQ groups: low, average and high. There were 15 children randomly selected from each group and within each of these groups, subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Control (C) , Pretest experimental (E1), and no pretest experimental (E 2). The C and E1 groups were administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), Form A, according to standardized procedures. Three weeks later all groups were assessed using the PPVT, Form B, with a token being contingent on correct responses. Three weeks later all children were assessed with a standardized administration of the PPVT, Form A. Results showed that tokens given contingent upon each correct response increased the IQ scores for the initially low IQ subjects, but had no significant effect on the scores of the average and high IQ subjects. The increase in the IQ scores of the low IQ subjects was stable over time. The effectiveness of the reinforcer was empirically demonstrated.

Many preschool children exhibit a number of problematic, acting-out behaviors. Parents of preschoolers exhibiting behavior problems often experience a great deal of stress associated with these problem behaviors. Consistently robust improvements have been found in the use of stress management for adult stress, pain, and medical wellbeing. Likewise, studies have shown parent training decreases the severity of child behavior problems. However, only a few studies have examined effects of parent training on both child behavior and parent stress. Some studies have found that parents who complete parent training also report lowered stress levels commensurate with improvement of child behavior. It is unclear, though, whether adding stress management would provide additional benefits to parents and their children. The purpose of this study was to look at effects of providing both parent training and stress management training to parents of preschoolers, and to look at the effects of providing treatment in a different order to two groups of parents. Parent volunteers completed seven weeks of parent training and four weeks of stress management training, with half of the parents receiving stress management first and half receiving parent training first. It was found that overall improvements in measures of parent stress and chi Id behavior were not significantly different between the two groups. Improvement in child behavior was attributed to parent training; improvement in parent stress was attributed to both parent training and stress management training, with larger improvements in parent-related stress generally attributed to stress management training and larger improvements in child-related stress attributed to parent training. However, child behavior temporarily worsened while parents received stress management training. Stress management did not enhance effects of parent training, but parents were better off on measures of stress and parenting efficacy after receiving both training components than they were after receiving only one treatment component. Parents felt more effective as parents after treatment and rated the overall treatment package highly; however, parents who received their prefened treatment first were slightly more satisfied than parents receiving prefened treatment second. Teachers reported general improvement in children whose parents received treatment and those whose parents did not receive treatment.

The purpose of this study was to determine if four-year-old children are able to conserve and to investigate the influence of social class and sex on the development of this capacity. Collection of data was accomplished by interviewing forty preschool children on three conservation tasks, discontinuous quantity, continuous quantity, and mass. From the findings of this study, it was concluded that the development of the capacity to conserve is so limited among four-year-old preschool children that the influence of social class and sex of the child on conservation ability remains unknown.

This research investigates the relationship between temperament and sociometric status utilizing a sociometric picture technique and the Parent Temperament Questionnaire for CHildren o3-7 Years of Age, a measurement instrument from the New York Longitudinal Study. The study population consists of sixty-one preschool age children. In the final stage a discriminant function analysis was employed to determine if there was a relationship between the measures of temperament and sociometric status. Although no significant functions emerged, two functions approached significance. The results indicate that popular and amiable children score higher on adaptability and approachability than isolated and rejected children. Also, distractibility appeared to discriminate amiable and rejected children from popular and isolated peers. Collectively, these data suggest temperamental factors may discriminate children according to sociometric status.

The block building, Lego construction, pen drawing, and painting of four preschool children were analyzed in terms of the construction of form diversity and new form production. Social descriptive reinforcement, contingent on the production of any form not previously constructed within the current session and overt modeling of forms never seen produced during the study, increased form diversity scores per session and new form production (forms never seen before in the child's total prior sequence of blockbuilding sessions). The results indicated that after training, form diversity scores generalized to topographically similar and dissimilar media of expression. New form production generalized to topographically similar and dissimilar media in the majority of the children.

The objective of this study was to aid in discovering whether or not the sex differences in language development are at least partially a result of the differential effect of the environment on the two sexes by determining whether the sex orientation of stimulus objects presented to preschool children would influence the quantity and quality of verbal responses emitted by the children. Twenty preschool children, 10 boys and 10 girls, were each presented with neutral, masculine oriented, and feminine oriented stimulus objects and were asked to respond to them in the form of a story. Quantity of verbal responses was measured by the number of words and number of expression units produced by the subjects in response to the stimulus objects. Quality of language was measured by the mean length of expression units produced in response to the stimulus objects. No significant sex differences were found in the quantity or quality of verbal responses to stimulus objects in the three stimulus categories. There was a significant difference in the quantity of language produced by the total group of subjects in response to stimulus objects in the three stimulus categories, the quantity of language produced in response to the masculine oriented stimulus objects being greater than that produced in response to neutral or feminine oriented stimulus objects. The quality of language produced by the total group of subjects in response to stimulus objects in the three stimulus categories showed no significant differences.

The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-IV), specifically the disruptive behavior module for preschool-age children. The participants were 128 children (M = 4.43 years, SD = .54; Girls = 63) of African American (n = 37), European American (n = 41), Latino American (n = 38), and Mixed Ethnic (n = 12) background from Western Massachusetts. The overall internal consistency, concurrent validity, and predictive validity of the ADHD and ODD subsections were examined. Gender and ethnicity were examined as potential moderators of those as well. The DISC-IV and a behavior rating scale for teachers were administered at the beginning of the school year and the administration of the rating scale occurred again at end of the school year. The DISC-IV ADHD and ODD subsections exhibited acceptable overall internal consistency. The concurrent validity of the ADHD subsection was also found, but not for the ODD subsection. Most importantly, both DISC-IV subsections exhibited overall predictive validity, above initial teacher ratings. Partially supporting our hypotheses, ethnicity moderated the concurrent validity of the DISC-IV ADHD subsection, with DISC-IV scores of African American children having a stronger association with teachers’ ratings; boys also exhibited a stronger association than girls although not reaching significance. Also approaching significance, the DISC ADHD subsection appeared to predict year-end teacher ratings better for African American children than for European American and Latino American children. Overall, the DISC-IV was found to be a psychometrically reliable and valid diagnostic instrument for preschool-age children.

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