Studies of early communicative development have shown a relationship between rates of communicative acts (CA) and the acquisition of words for typically developing children. Rates of CA provide a measure that predicts vocabulary growth. For children with cleft lip and/or palate, early vocabulary delays are common. Examination of rates of CA may provide a means for predicting which children show readiness for vocabulary expansion. The purpose of this study was to examine children’s rates of CA, canonical vocalizations (CV), and words during the transition from prelinguistic to linguistic development. This retrospective study included 15 participants from northeast Tennessee that were drawn from a previous longitudinal study of nonsyndromic children with cleft lip and/or palate. There were nine females and six males; nine of the participants had cleft lip and palate, while the remaining six participants had cleft palate only. Through video recordings, children were evaluated at 18, 24, and 30 months of age, during which time they transitioned from the prelinguistic level (< 10 words on CDI) to the linguistic level (> 10). Data was recorded on the number of CA [e.g., protodeclaratives (PD) and protoimperatives (PI) to determine the purpose of communication], CV, and words the child produced at each age. The data was then converted to a rate per minute ratio. The results show that from the prelinguistic to the linguistic level, the children’s average rate of CA overall increased from 1.94 to 3.08; PD from 18.86 to 19.45; words from 0.46 to 2.66 and both CV and PI decreased from 0.39 to 0.36 and 0.21 to 0.00 respectively. Results indicate that when compared to typically developing children, children with cleft lip and/or palate demonstrated delays when transitioning from prelinguistic to the linguistic level in rates of CA, CV, and words. This study did not show a significant correlation between CA at the prelinguistic level and word use at the linguistic level. When compared to the study of typically developing children conducted by Proctor-Williams, Dixon, Brown, Ringley, Barber, and Light-Newell (2007), the participants in this study demonstrated a delayed progression in the rate of CA, CV and word acquisition. Scores for PI and PD were not found to be statistically different across age groups for children with cleft lip and/or palate. Measurement of rates of CA at the prelinguistic level could assist clinicians in better assessing early communicative development in children with cleft lip and/or palate beyond traditional measures of vocalization. While this study did not find a significant difference between prelinguistic CA and linguistic CDI, CV, and words, a study with more participants is necessary to identify potential predictive relationships. This study identified differences in rates of CA, CV, and words, which suggest that early delays are not restricted to developmental parameters associated with sound production. Future studies should also incorporate testing at closer age intervals to more specifically determine their development and provide a better indication of rates of CA and CV per minute.

This session is developed by, and presenters invited by, Speech Sound Disorders in Children and Language in Infants Toddlers and Preschoolers. This invited session provides an overview of early speech/language development with a focus on identifying delay/disorders in toddlers. Types of speech/language behaviors in prelinguistic/ early linguistic development that serve as “red flags” for possible disorders will be discussed. The need for developmentally appropriate assessments will be highlighted.

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L'acquisition de la marche chez l'enfant comprend différents processus complexes, s'organisant de façon progressive mais non linéaire. Plusieurs étapes sont en effet nécessaires à l'enfant pour acquérir l'équilibre postural, puis la propulsion, ou encore l'activation musculaire anticipatrice. La compréhension du développement de la marche de l'enfant revêt un intérêt passionnant mais d'une grande complexité. Cependant, la plupart des études n'ont pas pris en compte l'effet que pourrait avoir la couche ou la tenue vestimentaire sur l'apprentissage de la locomotion bipédique chez l'enfant. L'écartement latéral des appuis, qui est relativement conséquent chez le marcheur débutant, est-il une stratégie afin d'augmenter sa surface d'appui pour mieux contrôler son équilibre ? Ou bien estce le port de la couche qui provoque une gêne au niveau de l'entrejambe de l'enfant et engendre ou accentue cette stratégie posturale ? Par ailleurs, en ce qui concerne l'acquisition de la marche, il est établit que l'enfant doit être bien chaussé afin d'éviter toute pathologie posturale et/ou locomotrice futures. La même approche peut être abordée pour le vêtement. Or, il est aisé de constater qu'actuellement la plupart des vêtements portés par les enfants ne sont que des répliques miniatures de vêtements d'adultes. Ceuxci ne tiennent pas compte des particularités morphologiques, posturales et motrices du jeune marcheur. Les travaux détaillés dans cette thèse ont pour objectif, non seulement d'évaluer l'impact d'une tenue vestimentaire sur la marche de l'enfant mais également de proposer des pistes de réponses et d'améliorations dans la conception de vêtements d'enfants. Ainsi, ces travaux s'organisent selon trois études portant sur des enfants ayant tous moins de 36 mois d'expérience de marche. La première a consisté en la vérification de l'impact du port d'une couche et/ou d'un pantalon sur la marche de jeunes enfants à partir de l'analyse de paramètres spatio-temporels. Ces travaux révèlent un effet plus prononcé du pantalon que de la couche sur la marche de l'enfant. Puis, nous nous sommes demandés à partir de combien de mois d'expérience de marche cet effet avait-il le plus d'impact. Cette question a fait l'objet de la seconde étude. Enfin, après avoir élaboré un prototype de pantalon prenant en considération les particularités de l'enfant et de l'apprentissage de la marche, celui-ci a été testé sur une vingtaine d'enfants. Cette dernière étude avait pour objectif d'évaluer et de comprendre l'impact de la tenue sur l'activité musculaire du membre inférieur. Les résultats obtenus avec le prototype sont concluants. Les contraintes sont amoindries et la locomotion avec un tel prototype se rapproche de celle observée en sous-vêtement. / The walking acquisition in toddlers involves different complex processes organized into a progressive but non linear way. The child requires several steps to acquire a postural balance, then the propulsion, and the anticipative muscle activation. To understand the gait development of a toddler is fascinating but a very complex work. Indeed, the most of current studies don’t take into account the effects of wearing diapers or clothes on the learning in bipedal locomotion. Regarding step width, which is relatively substantial for the beginner walker, we could wonder it's a strategy in order to improve the supports surface to best control the balance or on the other hand, does wearing diapers cause discomfort in crotch area children, and therefore bring out that postural strategy?Moreover, concerning the gait acquisition, it is known that the child needs well-fitting shoes to avoid any future postural or locomotive pathology. The same approach can be used for clothes. But, we can easily observe that currently most of children clothes are just a copy of adult models in miniature. These clothes don’t consider the morphological, postural and motor features of the beginner walker.The study introduced in this thesis manuscript will not only evaluate the importance of clothing on children walking but also propose possible solution and improvement for the conception of children clothes.Results are related to three studies all regarding children with less than 36 month of walking experience. First study is an analysis of the effect of wearing diaper or trousers on the children walking using spatiotemporal parameters. It has shown a greater influence from trousers than diapers. It has opened the second study. After how many months of experience the effect got the greater influence? Results show influence of trousers starting 3 month of walking but above all from 6 to 18 months. Finally, a prototype of trousers conceived in regards of children characteristics and walking acquisition has been used for around twenty children. Goal of this third study was to evaluate and to understand the importance of clothing on muscular activities of the lower limb. Utilization of the prototype has been conclusive. The muscular co-contractions which highlight the lack of experience in walking are less present when children use the prototype. Discomfort is reduced and walking with the prototype is close to the one performed with underwear.

Research has clearly demonstrated that variables associated with the family, child, and utilization of social supports relate to parent perceived competency. However, the research has failed to demonstrate which variable best predicts parent perceived competency. The primary goals of this study were to identify those variables that account for the most variability in parent perceived competency, to examine the relative effects of child characteristics on parental psychopathology, and to evaluate the moderating effects of social support on parent perceived competency based upon various parental characteristics. Participants for this survey study consisted of a convenience sample of 91 female primary caregivers of children (aged birth to three years) who received their initial evaluation at the University of South Florida Early Steps Program (ESP) clinic during a twelve-month data collection period. Inclusion criteria for this study required that participants were the female primary caregiver of the infant or toddler, all participants were primarily English speaking, and the infant or toddler had to be diagnosed with a medical and/or developmental diagnosis by an evaluator at the ESP clinic during the initial visit. Participants completed several questionnaires including assessments of female primary caregiver stress, depression, perceived sense of competency, utilization of social support, perception of child functioning, and perception of child behavior. Results of this study suggest that parent-reported stress and depression symptoms are significantly related to parent-perceived competency. Further, female primary caregivers whose child has medical and developmental disabilities report higher levels of stress and depressive symptoms compared to those whose child have developmental disabilities only. Similarly, female primary caregivers whose child has significant behavioral problems report higher stress and depression symptoms than those whose child does not have behavioral problems. Implications of these results as they relate to intervention development, limitations of this study, as well as future directions for research are also discussed.

The current research was developed from a review of the literature on the influence of parental control on children's eating and weight, and in particular the research examining parental restriction and poor self-regulation of energy. The impetus for the research was the confusion in the literature about the positive and negative aspects of control and the need to explore the influence of parental control at earlier periods of child development in socio economically diverse samples. The aim of the first study was to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) in an Australian sample of preschool children. Consistent with previous research, the factor structure was problematic with respect to the Restriction subscale. The two items that ask about the use of rewards showed poor cohesion with other items on the Restriction subscale, raising concerns about the conceptualisation of restriction as measured by the CFQ. The second study sought to determine whether currently available measures of restriction were appropriate for assessing parent behaviours with toddlers, and to explore the strategies that mothers use to control their toddlers' intake of energy-dense snack foods. A qualitative methodology was employed and interviews were conducted with 22 mothers who had toddlers aged between 18 and 24 months. A key finding was a lack of variability in responses to the CFQ Restriction subscale in contrast to the range of individual differences in parents' reported use of control. A thematic analysis provided the basis for the development of a questionnaire to quantify the key concepts that were identified. Exploratory factor analysis was then used to refine these concepts resulting in a five factor structure that has been named the Toddler Feeding Questionnaire (TFQ). The TFQ incorporates a broad range of measures of parental control over feeding, including how much parents allow access to energy-dense foods (Allow Access), the rules associated with managing intake of these foods (Rules), and flexibility in the way rules are applied (Flexibility). It also includes a measure of parental self-efficacy beliefs (Self-efficacy), which may influence the use of feeding practices, and a measure of toddlers' attraction to energy-dense foods (Child's Attraction), a characteristic of the child that may influence both parent feeding practices and energy intake. The factor structure was examined in a sample of mothers of toddlers, and replicated in a second sample of mothers of preschool children, who responded retrospectively about their feeding practices. Subsequent analyses were conducted to examine the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity of the TFQ factors to provide a preliminary validation of the instrument. To further examine the validity of the TFQ, feeding practices of normal weight, overweight and obese parents were compared. The relationship between the TFQ factors (based on retrospective reports) and BMI z scores in preschool children were also examined. In the preschool sample only, normal weight parents had significantly more rules compared to obese parents and were less flexible compared to overweight parents, and obese parents allowed their children more access to snack foods compared with overweight and normal weight parents. The TFQ factors were not associated with BMI z scores in preschool children. The final study investigated the association between feeding practices, including the TFQ factors and CFQ Restriction, and self-regulation of energy intake in toddlers. The main aim was to determine if the TFQ factor Allow Access would moderate the relationship between CFQ Restriction and ad libitum intake of snack foods, using an age appropriate adaptation of the Free Access Procedure developed by Fisher and Birch (1999a). The findings confirmed a moderating influence of Allow Access. Restriction was a significant predictor of intake only when Allow Access was high. The implications of this finding for the development of parental feeding advice and the conceptualisation of parental control are discussed. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331550 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2008

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p> / <p>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.</p><p>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.</p>

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>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.</p><p> </p>

<p>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.</p>