The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of group thermal biofeedback training and relaxation as a means of changing locus of control. Additionally, the stability of the locus of control change, over time, was examined. Lastly, the proportion of achievement motivation which can be explained by locus of control was determined.Forty-nine ninth grade students were randomly assigned to biofeedback training, relaxation, or control. The nine treatment sessions were of 20 minutes duration and the students in the biofeedback group used mercury thermometers. Autogenic phrases were read as they attempted to increase their skin surface temperature. The relaxation group received the identical autogenic phrases as the biofeedback group, while the control group observed films during the treatment session.After the completion of the treatment, subjects were administered the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children and the Junior Index of Motivation (JIM) Scale.Hypothesis #1, which stated that the biofeedback group would change its locus of control toward internality, was rejected (P .7736). Hypothesis #2, which stated that the mean locus of control score for the biofeedback group would be significantly more internal than either the relaxation or control group, was similarly rejected (p .6353 and p .7736, respectively). Since the biofeedback group did not become more internal. Hypothesis #3, which was concerned with the stability of a shift in locus of control, was not tested. The multiple regression analysis resulted in an R of .4296 (p .0037). This suggests that a significant proportion of achievement motivation can be explained by locus of control. Males tended to score more internal than females, regardless of treatment, but not to a significant degree (p .0520). The biofeedback group had significantly increased their skin temperature as a result of the biofeedback ( p .001). It was concluded that while group thermal biofeedback training was effective in teaching the subjects to voluntarily control their skin surface temperature, it was not effective in altering their locus of control. Recommendations were made regarding using smaller group size or individual training, and pre-testing for initial locus of control levels to identify those with more external locus of control.

The Early Prevention of School Failure program purports to identify children ages 4 to 6 who are at risk for school failure and to remediate problem areas before the failure becomes apparent. Though the program enjoys widespread use and popular acclaim, its effectiveness has not been adequately demonstrated. Unlike many other preschool screening measures, EPSF has not been subjected to rigorous experimental scrutiny. This study was designed to (1) examine then assess the efficacy of the EPSF intervention component.Subjects were 116 kindergarten students in an Indiana public school district. Students were pretested on the PPVT-R, VMI, PLS, and MAS. Based on their test performance, students were classified at risk or not at predictive validity of the screening battery and risk in five skill areas: auditory perception, visual perception, language, fine motor, and gross motor. Experimental subjects received daily remedial instruction in each deficit area. Comparison subjects participated only in the regular kindergarten program. At the end of the year subjects were posttested on the EPSF battery. The Metropolitan Readiness Tests were administered as a measure of kindergarten success. In addition, teachers rated each student's overall achievement.Canonical analysis was performed to assess the predictive validity of the EPSF screening battery. Results indicated that 39% of the variability in kindergarten achievement could be explained by the synthetic predictor variable. The PPVT-R, PLS, and VMI were approximately equally weighted as predictors, with MAS scores adding little to the prediction equation.Analysis of covariance was applied to test the significance of the treatment effect after controlling for initial student differences. There was no difference at the .05 level between adjusted mean scores for experimental and comparison subjects. Children in regular kindergarten classes performed as well at the end of the year as those who received special remedial instruction in addition to the kindergarten curriculum.It was concluded that EPSF is as effective as many other kindergarten screening programs in predicting learning difficulty. Claims made regarding the program's prevention of such difficulty were not supported by the data.

Children enter kindergarten with many experiences and thoughts. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of preschool children concerning their entrance into kindergarten. A comparison of what children perceived and what parents and teachers have done to facilitate the children’s perception of kindergarten was completed. A treatment group of 31 students from a Head Start which provided a visit to the kindergarten classroom that their preschool children would be attending was compared to 29 students from a Title 1 early education program, the control group. The parents and teachers of these students were compared to determine what they had done to prepare these students for kindergarten. The quantitative aspect of the study compared the treatment student pre- and post- responses on the ‘What I Think about Kindergarten –R’ questionnaire to the control group, a Title 1 early education program. This questionnaire was adapted from the ‘What I Think about School’ (1998) used by Ramey, Lanzi, Phillips, & Ramey for the Head Start Public School Early Transition Demonstration Project in 1998. This study was not able to determine any difference in what the students perceived about kindergarten between and within groups. While there was no significant difference in what teachers had done to prepare their students for kindergarten, three individual questions had some difference in what the teachers from Head Start had done when compared to the Title 1 early education program. There was no significant difference in what parents did to prepare their children but differences within three questions on the parent surveys were found. A qualitative methodology was used to investigate what the students’ perceptions of kindergarten were. These perceptions included findings that most children were excited about attending kindergarten but a few anticipated kindergarten with negative feelings. Children also anticipated needing a backpack or lunchbox to attend kindergarten and looked forward to playing in the new school. Because this study was only done between Head Start and a Title 1 early education program, future research is needed to further understand what children think about going to kindergarten. / Department of Elementary Education

The purposes of the study were to determine the effects of a Home-Based program on the attainment of toddlers, to determine the effects of a Home-Based program on the attitudes and feelings of mothers, and finally, to study parent-child interaction.Subjects of the study consisted of fifty-nine Black mother-child dyads, and one Mexican-American mother-child dyad. All toddlers were born between October 1, 1971 and September 30, 1972 to mothers who were identified as indigent under Title I. The sample included males and females who were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in the tutoring sessions conducted by trained aides. Sessions, each lasting seventy minutes, were held twice a week from September 1973 through the middle of June 1974. Mothers of experimental group toddlers were present at all tutoring and testing sessions. Control group mothers did not participate in tutoring sessions. Tutoring and testing were conducted in the home of the toddlers.Three instruments were employed in the study. The Preschool Attainment Record was used to measure the effects of the Home-Based program on the physical, social, and intellectual attainment of toddlers. The Social Reaction Inventory was employed to assess the effects of the Home-Based program on parental internal locus of control. The instrument measured the extent to which parents felt a sense of self-esteem and potency of control. The Infant Education Research Inventory measured the interactive behavior between mother and child.Three null hypotheses were tested in the study:1) there will be no statistically significant difference in the attainment of toddlers who participate in a Home-Based program and toddlers who do not participate in a Home-Based program, 2) there will be no statistically significant difference in parental locus feelings of control of parents who participate in a Home-Based program and parents who do not participate in a Home-Based program, and 3) there will be no statistically significant difference in parent-child interaction between parents and toddlers who participate in a Home-Based program and between parents and toddlers who do not participate in a Home-Based program.A null hypothesis of no difference between the means of the groups was rejected if the computed statistics, the F ratio from an analysis o f variance or a t value from a t test, exceeded the appropriate tabled value for the .05 level of confidence.A statistically significant difference was found to exist between the experimental and control groups in the physical, social, and intellectual development of toddlers. No statistically significant difference was found to exist between the experimental and control groups on parental locus of control. No statistically significant difference was found to exist between the experimental and control groups on parent-child interaction.The following inferences may be drawn from this study: 1) education of young children need not be jeopardized by the ill effects of poverty, early intervention through a Home-Based program may increase the attainment of toddlers, 2) the role of parents is significant in the development of the young child. The role of parent as teacher may be strengthened through the acquisition of pedagogical skills necessary to stimulate more development in young children.

Photocopy of typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1979. / Bibliography: leaves [164]-176. / Microfiche. / x, 176 leaves 29 cm

Spirituality is discussed as seen in literature from the disciplines of psychology, religion, education, nursing, politics and philosophy. Special emphasis is placed on how spirituality is viewed in regard to young children. From the disciplines mentioned, an overall definition of spirituality - at least for adults - is derived: &quotSpirituality is an innate ability to show awareness or consciousness of the surrounding world shown through wonder, a sense of compassion, and love towards this world and everything in it, and for some people a relationship with a transcendent being, who can also be immanent in the individual." Findings are described from a field study of 12 months duration where 56 children, aged 3-7 years, from 4 different early childhood settings were followed on a fortnightly basis. The children were able to express aspects of spirituality in their play, discussions and artwork, such as paintings and drawings. The children were asked to paint and draw their experiences of selected pieces of chamber music, of a beautiful day, of love, and of dreams. In addition children were observed in their interactions with peers. The data were analysed using a combination of Grounded Theory methodology and Phenomenology. The main finding is that young children &quotlive in" their spirituality, and that young children are very aware of their surroundings and are able to express abstract concepts such as love, beauty, wonder and compassion. Young children's spirituality differs from adults in one major aspect: that they do not express a relationship with a transcendent being. It appears that spirituality may be innate as described by Montessori (1949), Hegel (1807) and Descartes (in Luria & Vygotsky, 1998). Suggestions for dealing with young children and their spirituality are made for the early childhood educator. Suggestions for further studies related to young children's spirituality are also made.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy / Preschool children frequently experience illness and consequently are significant users of health services. Despite children’s rights, children’s understandings of illness are rarely given due consideration in health care. Nursing practice tends to rely on adult accounts of the child’s illness. Children’s limited language ability is seen as a barrier to understanding their views. Thus this thesis is a search for what it means to preschool children to be ill. Careful analysis of the behavioural and cognitive literature on preschool children’s understandings of illness reveals a dependence upon abstract adult models of illness as a point of comparison. Despite being marginalized in the literature children’s kinaesthetic, intersubjective, situational, and spatial understandings of illness are uncovered. Existing research methodologies present barriers to understanding the world as children do. Drawing on the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Eugene Gendlin and other phenomenological scholars a new ethnographic phenomenological methodology is detailed. This methodology reveals a relational edge from which adults can begin to understand the world as children do. The methodology was used to identify how preschool children experience being ill from short-term illnesses and how they communicate those experiences to others. Field data was collected from 49 close observations with 10 children and eight parental interviews. Using field data and contemporary research, I explicate my thesis that preschool children understand illness inside-out, unimpeded by others. I examine how children, initially devoid of boundaries between inner and outer, and in advance of what they can say, articulate their meaning (‘inside’ experience/body sense) of the illness through movement and gesticulation (out) as expression. This inside-out expression of the illness experience is unimpeded by others. Adults in intimate situations with ill children can begin to understand children’s experience of illness by focusing on their own body-sense, which is related to the child’s body sense, because there is an incomplete differentiation between self and other. Knowing that children understand illness inside-out helps to understand the nature of preschool children’s experience of illness. Such understandings should influence adult interactions with sick children.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy / Preschool children frequently experience illness and consequently are significant users of health services. Despite children’s rights, children’s understandings of illness are rarely given due consideration in health care. Nursing practice tends to rely on adult accounts of the child’s illness. Children’s limited language ability is seen as a barrier to understanding their views. Thus this thesis is a search for what it means to preschool children to be ill. Careful analysis of the behavioural and cognitive literature on preschool children’s understandings of illness reveals a dependence upon abstract adult models of illness as a point of comparison. Despite being marginalized in the literature children’s kinaesthetic, intersubjective, situational, and spatial understandings of illness are uncovered. Existing research methodologies present barriers to understanding the world as children do. Drawing on the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Eugene Gendlin and other phenomenological scholars a new ethnographic phenomenological methodology is detailed. This methodology reveals a relational edge from which adults can begin to understand the world as children do. The methodology was used to identify how preschool children experience being ill from short-term illnesses and how they communicate those experiences to others. Field data was collected from 49 close observations with 10 children and eight parental interviews. Using field data and contemporary research, I explicate my thesis that preschool children understand illness inside-out, unimpeded by others. I examine how children, initially devoid of boundaries between inner and outer, and in advance of what they can say, articulate their meaning (‘inside’ experience/body sense) of the illness through movement and gesticulation (out) as expression. This inside-out expression of the illness experience is unimpeded by others. Adults in intimate situations with ill children can begin to understand children’s experience of illness by focusing on their own body-sense, which is related to the child’s body sense, because there is an incomplete differentiation between self and other. Knowing that children understand illness inside-out helps to understand the nature of preschool children’s experience of illness. Such understandings should influence adult interactions with sick children.

Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2007. / "Publication number AAT 3281729"

Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2007. / "Publication number AAT 3266328"