Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, May 14, 1999" Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Psychology)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The single biggest change in every day life for toddlers over the last couple of years has been the introduction of interactive media in the form of phones and tablets. How this affects those children is yet mostly unknown. Many parents utter concerns that their children use it too much, yet they feel they have no other options when it comes to distracting their children. Using the design process this problem is tackled from a holistic point of view, looking at both the child, parent and context. The solutions presented in this project is a commercial product called “Interactimals”. It uses the parents phone as the brain and sensory organ of an interactive toy. This toy comes in different forms and feature-sets to cater to the needs of children ranging from ages of 1-3. The result shows the final design for two of these toys and a suggestion to what the app might look like.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / This study investigated the effects of training parents to administer a modified version of the focused stimulation intervention technique first reported by Girolametto, Pearce, and Weitzman (1996). Treatment was modified in a manner that increased reliance on a broader array of elements of responsive adult input (RAI), while eliminating reliance on a stipulated frequency of repetition. Prescriptive activity-based parent teaching was provided in the home by a team comprised of a speech and language pathologist (SLP) and a non-SLP early interventionist who was delegated responsibility for the majority of treatment. Eight parents and their toddlers with expressive language delay were randomly assigned to receive either prescriptive activity-based treatment (Treatment/PAT group) or traditional early intervention (Delayed-treatment Control/TEl group). Control group families received traditional early intervention services during the experimental period. Protocols for assignment of vocabulary targets and collection of outcome data were intended to replicate those of Girolametto et al. (1996). With one exception (Type Token Ratio), results indicate changes in the predicted direction for treatment group (PAT) parents and children receiving prescriptive activity-based treatment. Inferential statistics indicated a significant interaction for the Symbolic Play Test (Lowe & Costello, 1988). Results for measures that did not achieve statistical significance are attributed to the fact that the control group (TEl) received traditional early interventionist services during which non-SLP early interventionists modeled RAI elements. The study compares favorably with Girolametto et al. on numeric scores and magnitudes of effect. Following treatment, the language of parents receiving prescriptive activity-based treatment was slower, less complex, and more focused than those in the control group. Treatment group children used more target ords during naturalistic observations, used more words during free-play, and made substantial gains in vocabulary. Substantial gains were also identified in talkativeness and structural complexity of child language.

The aim of the study is to describe how toddlers at pre-school interact with each other during the free play. The following research-questions have been chosen: In which ways are made visible when toddlers interact with each other during the free play? Which repeated patterns are there in toddler’s interaction with each other? The method that was used was observation. Implementing of observations happened during five days on a pre-school. Observations show that the interaction makes visible in various ways when it comes to toddlers, for example through observing, laughing and using the verbal communication. Repeated patterns that are shown are for example eye contact and smile occurs when toddlers interact with each other

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine whether maternal sensitivity acts as a mediator in the associations between a mother‟s childhood history of care and her child‟s emotion regulation and attachment security at 2 ½ years of age. It was hypothesized that children of mothers who perceived their own childhood experiences with parents as caring and accepting would display more adaptive regulatory behaviors in fear-eliciting contexts and be more securely attached than children of mothers who recollected rejection in their own childhood experiences, with maternal sensitivity mediating these associations. Participants were 82 toddlers and their mothers. Mothers rated their childhood experiences of care and acceptance with their own parents prior to the laboratory procedure. Each child was presented with four novel stimuli, with mothers present, but not involved for the first two tasks and involved in the remaining two. Presentation of the novel stimuli was in pairs including one toy task (i.e., monster or robot) and one person task (i.e., clown or masks). Children‟s emotion regulation behaviors were coded continuously during the mother not involved condition, whereas observed maternal sensitivity was rated in the mother involved condition. Information about maternal sensitivity and children‟s attachment behaviors was reported by mothers using a diary technique. A path analysis was used to test the model examining the relationship between maternal history of care and sensitivity and children‟s attachment security and emotion regulation behaviors (i.e., distraction, withdrawal, contact with mother). Maternal sensitivity mediated the association between a mother‟s childhood history of care and acceptance and child attachment. Post-hoc analysis showed that this conditional indirect effect was significant only for children of mothers with less than a complete college education. In contrast, a childhood history of care and acceptance did not predict children‟s emotional regulation behaviors, although it interacted with education to predict distraction. Maternal sensitivity was associated positively with distraction and negatively with withdrawal, whereas children‟s attachment security was not associated with any emotion regulation behavior. Results are discussed in relation to attachment theory and continuities and discontinuities in the transmission process in mother-child relationships.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Judith Niemeyer; submitted to the School of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-211).

Thesis (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

A unique pattern of pedal loading from heel-strike at touchdown to hallucal propulsion at toe-off is a distinct feature of mature human bipedalism, however, its first appearance in the fossil record is debated. The main goal of this dissertation is to identify anatomical correlates to a modern human heel-strike, rigid foot, and propulsive hallucal toe-off. First, a biomechanical analysis of toddler walking is used as a 'natural experiment' to investigate the influence of non heel-strike (NHS, n = 11) and immature heel-strike (IHS, n = 7) on the location of the center of pressure and orientation of the ground reaction force resultant in relation to specific foot bones during stance phase. With an expanded knowledge of foot bone loading in toddlers, a microarchitectural approach is used to test the influence of a heel-strike, rigid foot, and propulsive hallucal toe-off on trabecular bone fabric properties in an ontogenetic series of human and African ape (chimpanzee, bonobo, and gorilla) calcanei, tali, first metatarsal heads and hallucal distal phalanges. This dissertation presents the first ontogenetic analysis of pedal trabecular bone in primates. Heel-strike and toe-off are developmentally independent from one another. Although most toddlers lack a hallucal toe-off, NHS and IHS apply equally high propulsive forces when the entire width of their forefoot is in contact with the ground. Biomechanical and fossil evidence suggest that a generalized active propulsion may have preceded the evolution of a propulsive hallucal toe-off. Although pedal trabecular fabric properties are more complex than predicted, trabecular correlates to heel-strike and hallucal toe-off are identified within adult human foot bones. Compared to toddlers and African apes, adult humans have a unique combination of relatively thick trabecular struts and an anteroplantar to posterodorsal primary trabecular orientation in the plantar aspect of the calcaneal tuber. In the calcaneal tendon volume of interest, adult humans have a unique anteroplantar to posterodorsal primary trabecular orientation associated with a propulsive hallucal toe-off. This dissertation provides the comparative context necessary to begin assessing the evolution and developmental timing of foot function and specific bipedal gait events in juvenile and adult fossil hominins. / text

Thesis (M. Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.