Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2007. / Thesis directed by John G. Borkowski for the Department of Psychology. "April 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-75).

Children’s ability to manipulate objects is the end-point of several important developments. To imagine objects in different positions greatly improves children’s action capabilities. They can relate objects to each other successfully, and plan actions involving more than one object. We know that one-year-olds can insert an object into an aperture. Earlier research has focused on the start and goal of such actions, but ignored the way in between. This thesis shows that children are unable to fit an object into an aperture unless they can imagine the different projections of the object and rotate it in advance. The problem of how to proceed with an object-aperture matching was studied in 14- to 40-month-old children with a box, different holes and a set of fitting wooden blocks. Study I focused on how to orient a single object to make it fit. Studies II and III added a second object or aperture, introducing choice. In Study I there was a huge difference between 18 and 22 months in solving the fitting problem. Successful insertion was related to appropriate pre-adjustments. The older children pre-adjusted the object orientation before arriving at the aperture(s). The younger used a feedback strategy and that did not work for this task. To choose was more difficult than expected; one must not only choose one alternative, but also inhibit the other. Fifteen-month-olds were unable to choose between sizes and shapes, 20-month-olds could choose between sizes, 30-month-olds could choose between sizes and shapes, but not even 40-month-olds could choose between objects with different triangular cross-sections. Finally, the relationships between an object and an aperture, supporting surface or form were investigated. When comparing tasks requiring relationships between an object’s positive and an aperture’s negative form, between a 3D and a 2D, and between two 3D-forms, we found that the main difficulties is relating positive and negative form.

Abstract In this work, I have chosen to write about children in grief. Since children in grief is a large area, I have chosen to focus on how preschool handles and works with children who has loosed a parent, siblings or a play-mate by death. The aim of this work is to contribute knowledge about how you in preschool can handle and work with children in grief. To get answers to my questions, I have studied the current literature in the field. I have also interviewed five people with experience and knowledge of work with preschool-children affected by grief.  In my work, I have come to the conclusion that preschool has a great influence to children affected by grief. The preschool-child can get the everyday routines that are important for the child confidence. It is also important that as a preschool teacher be there for the child and to really listen and show understanding when the child tells about their experiences and feelings.

Syftet med denna undersökning har varit att ta reda på vilket sätt förskollärare använder dans som ett pedagogiskt verktyg med barn i åldern 1-3år. Jag använde mig av en kvalitativ metod och undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av intervjuer av fyra förskollärare som var slumpmässigt utvalda. Därefter drogs det paralleller mellan intervjuernas svar och den valda litteraturen. Resultatet visade att samtliga förskollärare ansåg att dans var mycket viktigt för barnens utveckling. De använde sig av dans på något sätt i sin verksamhet men det var inte alla som ansåg att de använde dansen som ett pedagogiskt verktyg. / The purpose of the examination has been to find out in which way preschool teachers use dance as an educational tool for children in the age of 1-3 years. I’ve used a qualitative method and the examination was carried out with help of interviews with four preschool teachers who were randomly chosen. Then the interview answers were compared to the chosen literature. The results showed that all the preschool teachers thought that dance was very important for children’s development. They were all using dance in some way in their activities but it was not all of them who considered that they used dance as an educational tool.

Young children’s attention to a variety of object features has been studied. However, very few studies have examined young children’s understanding of object weight. In order to investigate developmental changes in perception and categorization of weight, three tasks were given to 59 18-month-old to 3-year-old children. Three age groups (20; 27 and 34 months old) were analyzed for the final results. The first two tasks used a familiarization and novelty preference paradigm in which attention was assessed by measuring each child’s looking time. The first task’s goal was to evaluate young children’s ability to discriminate objects on the basis of weight. Children were familiarized with an object of one weight and then tested with an identical looking object that had a novel weight. Half of the subjects were familiarized to a heavy weight and half to a light weight object. Results showed a decrease in looking time over the familiarization trials (p = .0001) and an increase in attention to the novel weight (p = .0001). Thus, all children in the first task were able to discriminate object weight. Additional analyses for the first task assessed physical discrimination of object weight by examining the amount of arm movement each child exhibited within 250 milliseconds after taking an object. A significant difference in arm movement was found between the last familiarization and novel weight trials of the heavy (p = .0097) and light (p = .0001) conditions. The second task’s goal was to evaluate children’s ability to attend to object weight when appearance varies. Children were familiarized to four objects that had the same weight but differed in appearance. Half of the subjects were familiarized to heavy objects and half to light objects. After familiarization, the children were tested with one object that had the same weight but a different appearance and another object that had the same appearance but a different weight. Results revealed that the children’s looking time decreased over the familiarization trials (p = .0001). Analyses of test trials revealed that only the two older age groups had significant novelty preference scores for both the new weight and new appearance trials. The third task used a balance scale to measure understanding of weight by observing a child’s ability to pick a heavy object to make a balance scale tip. Children were given a light and heavy object with the same appearance and asked to choose which one would tip the balance scale. Results showed that only 34 month olds had significantly more correct trials (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the study’s results indicated that all young children are capable of discriminating object weight when familiarized to one object but that only the two older age groups were significantly capable of doing this when familiarized to more than one object. Results also indicated that only 34 month olds were capable of using weight differences in a more functional way, namely to tip a balance scale.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-109).

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2002. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-55). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ71578.

Much research has been done in the area of toddler compliance/defiance and emotion regulation from a socialization perspective, and although some of this research has used attachment theory as a theoretical basis, there is little empirical literature that measures both attachment in infancy and parental limit-setting in toddlerhood as predictors of toddler compliance, emotionally negative defiance, or emotion regulation. In addition, few studies include fathers’ attachment and limit-setting along with mothers, or examine the different combinations of parenting units’ influence on toddler behavior. The goals of the current study are to assess how infant-parent attachment and parental limit-setting with mothers and fathers separately predict toddler behavior both with the same parent and with the other parent, and how different combinations of parental units, including mother-infant and father-infant attachment and maternal and paternal limit setting, relate to toddler behavior. This study uses longitudinal data, with the infantparent attachment relationships assessed using the Strange Situation at 12 and 15 months, and at 24-months the toddlers were brought into the lab and videotaped in a 20-minute play session, clean-up, and two teaching tasks with each parent. The parents were rated individually on their use of developmentally appropriate, permissive, and harsh/controlling parenting styles, and the toddlers were rated on compliance and emotionally negative defiance; the toddlers were also rated on emotion regulation in a separate task with an experimenter. Using OLS regression analyses, this study found parental limit-setting to be a stronger predictor of toddler behavior than attachment, and toddler behavior can only be predicted in the interaction with the same parent--maternal limit-setting does not predict toddler behavior with father or vice versa. Combinations of parent-infant attachment classifications were then assessed using ANOVAs, and different combinations of infant-parent attachment were related to toddlers’ emotion regulation. Hierarchical clustering techniques were implemented to determine how to create parenting units based on the different parenting styles, and four distinct clusters emerged: both parents developmentally appropriate, both parents are harsh/controlling and permissive, mother is appropriate and father is permissive, mother is permissive and father is appropriate. ANOVAs were then used to relate these clusters to the toddler behaviors. / text

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of learning gender and age labels on toddlers' toy preferences. Many researchers (e.g., Arthur, Bigler, Liben, Ruble, & Gelman, 2008; Martin & Halverson, 1981) have suggested that the acquisition of such labels should cause increased in-group preferences, and thus, increased interest in same-category toy preferences. In this study, we used feminine and masculine toys (e.g., a purse, a hammer) to test gender typed preferences and adult and child objects (e.g., toy keys, real keys) to test age typed preferences. Forty 18-20 month old children (M = 19.1 months) from primarily upper-middle class families participated in the study. After taking pre-test measures of their children's social label understanding and toy preferences, parents were randomly assigned with their children, to one of two conditions: the age condition (in which they were asked to practice "grown-up" and "kid") and the gender condition (in which they were asked to practice "boy" and "girl"). Parents practiced the labels with their children for approximately two weeks and returned to the lab. In the post-test session, children's social label understanding and toy preferences were again assessed. Additionally, parents were asked about their attitudes about other-gender toys and behaviors and about the toys their children had at home. The results indicated an interaction between test time and comprehension of the gender and age labels. Children in the age condition's performance on the age labels in the target word comprehension task improved from pre- to post-test. Children in the gender condition's performance on the gender labels also improved from pre- to post-test. However, there were no main effects of condition at post-test. As predicted, comprehension of labels was related to toy play in the age condition. Children who were more successful on the age labels on the word comprehension task also played more with toy items than real items at post-test. Comprehension of labels was not related to toy play in the gender condition. However, at pre-test, girls in the gender condition already exhibited strong sex typed behavior, so it is possible that the manipulation was not enough to change these extant preferences. These data partially support Bigler and Liben's (2006) Developmental Intergroup Theory and work by Martin and Halverson (1981) on role of cognitive processes in the formation of social stereotypes, preferences, and prejudice. / text

Children with cerebral palsy that have severe motor impairments, and often co-occurring visual impairments, may often have an impaired ability in prelinguistic forms of communication. In order for children to establish intentional communication, research suggests that prelinguistic communicative competence must be in place. Access to alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) is not sufficient to enhance interaction if motivation to communicate intentionally does not exist. The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the important aspects of early assessment and intervention for children with cerebral palsy who have severe motor impairment. There is a wealth of information about the development, assessment, and intervention of prelinguistic communication in typically developing children and children with developmental delays; however, limited empirical research focuses on children with severe physical impairments. The aim of this project will be to draw conclusions from the available research in order to formulate a protocol for speech-language pathologists to use in assessment and intervention of prelinguistic communication in young children with cerebral palsy. / text