We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them.

Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka vilka möjligheter de yngsta barnen i förskolan har att ta del av bilderböcker. Genom observationer har jag studerat barn på två olika avdelningar i spontana och planerade situationer. Resultatet visar att det är vanligast med spontana situationer när det gäller de yngsta barnen i förskolan och detta sker varje dag. I de spontana situationerna utforskar barnen böcker själva och också tillsammans med pedagoger. Planerade situationer där barnen kommer i kontakt med böcker sker inte lika ofta i de yngre åldrarna, men förekommer vid några tillfällen i studien. I planerade situationer förekom till exempel dockteater tillsammans med hela barngruppen. / The purpose of this study is to examine which possibilities the youngest children in the preschool have, to take part of picture books. Through observations I have studied children in two different departments in spontaneous and planned situations. The results show that the most common situation is spontaneous reading when it comes to the youngest children in preschool, and this occurs every day. In the spontaneous situations the children discover books both by themselves and together with the pedagogues. Planned situations when the children get in contact with books doesn’t happen as often in the youngest ages but occurs in some occasions in the study. In planned situations, for example puppetry occur with the hole group of children at the same time.

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No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to compare expressive communication, receptive communication, and socialization achievement in 18- to 34-month-old ELD toddlers to the same skills in normally-speaking children. The questions this study sought to answer were, how do the three skill areas in ELD toddlers compare with the same skills in normal toddlers?, will ELD subjects evidence specific profiles of deficits involving not only expressive but receptive and social skills as well? and, within the ELD subjects will two subgroups emerge, one group having poor expressive skills only, and a second group having deficits in addition to expression.

The purpose of this study was to address gaps in the trauma treatment literature related to the expense and inaccessibility of evidence-based interventions for children with disabilities who have experienced trauma. Another aim of this study was to provide additional support for a newly piloted intervention for children with disabilities who have experienced trauma. This intervention is known as Smart Start: Parenting Tools for Children with Developmental Delay, Social-Emotional Concerns, and Trauma. A non-concurrent multiple baseline method was used to determine whether there was a functional relationship between the intervention and children’s challenging behaviors for five caregiver-child dyads. In addition, three of five caregiver-child dyads were assessed for improvements in child PTSD symptomatology, positive parenting practices, parenting stress, and treatment acceptability. Results from visual analysis, masked visual analysis, and hierarchical linear modeling were mixed, but generally supported a statistically and clinically significant relationship between participation in Smart Start and improved caregiver ratings of children’s challenging behaviors. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test did not show statistically significant changes in interventionists’ ratings of challenging behavior, but descriptively, four of five children were rated as improved. Reliable change index scores revealed statistically significant changes in trauma symptoms and parenting stress for two participants. Positive parenting practices improved significantly for all participants according to the reliable change index. The intervention was implemented with good fidelity. All caregivers found Smart Start highly acceptable. Future research with larger samples is warranted based on the extremely promising results of the present study.

I förskolans utemiljö är det vanligt att det finns en sandlåda på gården. Den är centralt placerad och barnen är där och leker. Enligt den nya Skollagen och förskolans reviderade läroplan ska verksamhetens innehåll vila på vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet. Detta gäller även den verksamhet som pågår i sandlådan. Men vad är det som sker när sanden, barnen och lekredskapen möts i sandlådan? Detta är en kvalitativ studie som utifrån ett intra-aktivt perspektiv syftar till att synliggöra hur sanden i sandlådan, lekredskap och de yngsta barnen (1-3 år) skapar möjligheter och villkor för lek och meningsskapande. Utifrån fotografier, anteckningar och videofilm har nya begrepp skapats för att kunna beskriva och förklara det som sker i sandlådan. Resultaten visar på en ständig rörelse där sand, barn och lekredskap förflyttas, förändras och förvandlas. Barn, sand och lekredskap leker tillsammans i ömsesidiga och sammanvävda intra-aktioner. Studiens resultat bidrar till att visa på dessa komplexa processer och hur små barn, med hela sin kropp och alla sinnen, medvetet tillsammans med sanden och lekredskapen skapar ny mening och nya möjligheter. / In the preschool outdoor environment, it is common that there is a sandbox. It is centrally located and the children are there and play. According to the new Education act and Curriculum for the Preschool Lpfö 98 (Revised 2010) the content should be based on scientific evidence and proven experience. This also applies to the activities being performed in the sandbox. But what is happening in the sand, when the children and play equipment come together in the sandbox? This is a qualitative study based on an intra-active perspective, whose purpose is to visualize how the sand in the sandbox, the playground equipment and the youngest children (1-3 years) create opportunities and conditions for play and meaning. Based on photographs, notes and video, new concepts are created to describe and explain what happens in the sandbox. The results show a continuous movement in which sand, children, and playground equipment is moved, changed and transformed. Children, sand and playground equipment play together in mutual and intertwined intra-actions. The findings in the study help to demonstrate how these complex processes and young children, with the whole body and the senses, consciously together with the sand and play equipment create new meaning and new possibilities.

An application of theory to various reality television shows in order to discuss the emergence and encouragement of the false self in our society is the focus of this work. Toddlers and Tiaras, Hoarders and Sister Wives are the three television shows that will be analyzed by using content analysis in order to examine the effects of consumerism, narcissism and the emergence of the false self. The limitless character of the economy coupled with narcissism and an increased focus on the self contributes to the development of the false self within the individual. People may not even be aware of the push to be narcissistic, focused on our own biographies and self-promotion, yet people are aware of their suffering and unhappiness. Many individuals are left questioning why it is that they are never completely satisfied even as they accumulate notoriety, success, material wealth and possessions. An ideology of greatness and being the best is found in so many avenues of our daily lives, and at times it can be overwhelming, and if we do not possess these skills and qualities we are encouraged to just fake it.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att tar reda på hur de yngsta barnens, 1-2 åringarnas inflytande i förskolan ser ut och detta sett utifrån ett förskollärarperspektiv. I undersökningen kommer barnen att kallas toddlare. För att få mer kunskap om toddlarnas inflytande i förskolan så intervjuades förskollärare som arbetar med toddlare ute i verksamheten. Metoden som användes till undersökningen var semistrukturerade intervjuer. Frågeställningarna som besvarades i undersökningen var vilka hinder och möjligheter ser förskollärare för toddlarnas inflytande i förskolan samt vilka erfarenheter har förskollärarna av att arbeta med toddlarnas inflytande i verksamheten. Resultatet i undersökningen visar att det är förskollärarnas förhållningssätt och deras syn på barn som påverkar toddlarnas möjligheter till inflytande. Som förskollärare krävs det att man läser av toddlarna mer genom kroppsspråket och att miljön ska vara utformad med möbler och material i toddlarnas nivå, det här kan annars bli hinder för toddlarnas inflytande. / The aim with this study is to find out what the youngest children’s, 1-2 years influence at the preschool looks like from a preschool teacher’s perspective. In this study the children will be referred to as toddlers. To get more knowledge on the toddlers influence at preschool, pre- school teachers were interviewed out in their natural environment. The method used for this study was semi-structured interviews. The questions asked in this study were to do with what obstacles and opportunities the preschool teachers can se for the toddlers influence at pre- school as well as the preschool teacher’s experiences when it comes to work with toddlers influence at preschool. Results from this study shows that it is the preschool teachers’ attitude and their view of children that affect the toddlers opportunities for influence. As a preschool teacher one is required to read the toddlers body language and to make sure the environment is designed with furniture and material at toddlers level, as this otherwise can cause obstacles for the toddlers influence.