TRAINING PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TO RECRUIT NATURAL COMMUNITIES OF REINFORCEMENT1

Four normal and four deviant children aged four-to-six years were taught to judge the quality of their academic work in a preschool classroom, and to prompt or cue their teachers to comment about the quality of that work. When these skills did not generalize spontaneously to other teachers in concurrent natural situations, generalized responding was taught by the experimenter, in multiple-baseline design across subjects. This generalization programming enabled the children to contact a sometimes dormant, but readily available natural community of teacher praise and reinforcement, i.e., to recruit an increase in cued praise and schedules of praise for their good work. These behaviors may be important to young children who find themselves bereft of attention in classrooms.     

THE WORK ATTACHMENT OF MOTHERS WITH PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The aim of this article is to describe the derivation and use of an index representing mothers'attachment to the workforce. This index is based on the proportion of time (equivalent full-time) the mother had worked since the birth of her first child and can be used as both a continuous and categorical variable. The sample comprised 166 Sydney-area families, each of which had at least one preschool-aged child. Relationships were examined with the mother's current work status and with various demographic characteristics of the women, with the aim of providing some validation for the index. More years of education and smaller family size distinguished between women with high versus low work attachment. In addition, women with high work attachment married at a significantly later age than those with moderate or low work attachment. The usefulness and limitations of the new index are discussed.     

TEACHING BEHAVIORALLY HANDICAPPED PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TO SHARE

We examined the effectiveness of Barton and Ascione's (1979) package for training sharing in a classroom setting with six behaviorally handicapped preschool children, four of whom were also developmentally delayed. Individual responses in sharing and not sharing were examined. Training consisted of initial instructions, modeling, and behavioral rehearsal, followed by teacher prompts and praise regarding sharing directly in a classroom free play period. Introduction of training in a multiple-baseline design across three pairs of children resulted in substantial increases in sharing for five of the six children. Results for negative interactions were less clear but suggested that concomitant decreases occurred for the same five children. The response analysis indicated that (a) individual components of sharing (offers, requests, and acceptances) all increased with training; (b) most children were more likely to initiate sharing through requests than through offers; (c) the proportion of sharing initiatives accepted by peers increased with training despite a much greater absolute number of initiatives; and (d) of the three negative behaviors (opposing play, taking without asking, and aggression) examined as incompatible with sharing, the most prevalent response was opposing other children's play. Individual differences in initial social repertoires and responsiveness to training were examined with respect to their implications for research and practice. Overall, the findings provide an encouraging indication of an intervention program for children with behavioral, social, and developmental handicaps.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CORRECT TOOTHBRUSHING TECHNIQUE IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

This study examined the effects of an intensive training program on the toothbrushing skills of three preschool children, using both performance measures and outcome (plaque level) indicators. Toothbrushing was broken into 16 steps that involved actual manipulation of the brush in the mouth. Correct brushing included four criteria: (a) appropriate angle of bristles, (b) appropriate motion of brush, (c) appropriate tooth surface, and (d) minimum duration of brushing. Training included instructions, a three-phase modeling procedure, physical guidance, and reinforcement. Results of a multiple baseline design across subjects showed that the children completed an average of 8.6% of the steps prior to training, as compared with an average of 95.8% of the steps following training. Plaque levels decreased from an average of 58% during baseline to 24.6% after training. Follow-up measures revealed that 86.6% of the steps were maintained. The study demonstrated that the effectiveness of the procedures in teaching very young children a complex motor skill that is essential to their future health.     

THE LANGUAGE OF PARTICIPATION AND THE LANGUAGE OF RESISTANCE1

Language and gestures define the involvement of low-status groups with authorities either as joint participation in policymaking or as conflict. Policies that seriously deprive non-elites are often politicized, encouraging the perception that all affected by them participated in their formulation. This perception is problematic and often misleading, for formal decision-making procedures chiefly reflect extant inequalities in the ability of participants to achieve their values and to influence public opinion. It is those who can exercise influence outside the context of formal proceedings who wield real power; but formal proceedings remain vital rituals, for they symbolize participation and democracy and so marshal public support and compliance. The poor lack the informal sanctions and other resources that confer influence, with the important exception that they can create disorder and thereby threaten elites; but in becoming politicized they renounce that political weapon.     

INCREASING THE IMMUNIZATION OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN; AN EVALUATION OF APPLIED COMMUNITY INTERVENTIONS

We evaluated the relative impact of four procedures designed to encourage parents to obtain immunizations for their children. In a public health setting, the families of 1,133 immunization-deficient preschool children were randomly assigned to six conditions: (a) a general prompt; (b) a more client-specific prompt; (c) a specific prompt and increased public health clinic access; (d) a specific prompt and monetary incentives; (e) contact control; and (f) no contact control. All interventions, except the general prompt, produced some evidence of improvement when compared with the control groups. The monetary incentive group revealed the largest effect, followed by the increased access group, specific prompt group, and general prompt group, respectively. The data suggest that relatively powerful and immediate effects on preschoolers' clinic attendance for immunization may be produced by monetary incentives in conjunction with client-specific prompts. However, client-specific prompts alone appear to be the most cost-effective of the interventions.     

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TEACHER GUIDANCE AND CONTINGENT ACCESS TO PLAY IN DEVELOPING PREACADEMIC SKILLS OF DEVIANT PRESCHOOL CHILDREN1

Token-mediated access to play and snacks was made contingent on completion of academic tasks in the Baseline Experiment. This contingency produced stable completion rates that were subsequently doubled, and then tripled, for four deviant children in a special preschool. A reversal design demonstrated that the contingency was functional in maintaining the children's rates of task completion. The Guidance Experiment examined the role of a social event, teacher guidance, in the acquisition of task-completion skills, in a multiple-baseline-across-tasks design (with reversals). The analysis demonstrated that teacher guidance was an important supplement to the token-mediated contingency in establishing significant increases in task completions for a second group of three deviant children in the special class. The importance of teacher guidance was related to the difficulty level of the children's tasks.     

DEVELOPMENT OF BASIC AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract— Intensity (loudness), frequency (pitch), and duration discrimination were examined in 41 normal-hearing children, aged 4 to 6 years, and 9 adults. A second study retested 25 of the youngest children 12 to 18 months later. Intensity discrimination showed the least improvement with age and was adultlike by age 5 for most of the children. In contrast, frequency and duration discrimination showed highly significant improvement with age, but remained poorer than adults' discrimination for many 6-year-olds. Large individual differences were observed within alt tasks and age groups.     

TEACHING SELF-PROTECTION TO CHILDREN USING TELEVISION TECHNIQUES

This study compared the effectiveness of a videotape training program with other methods of teaching children self-protection to prevent child abduction. Subjects were kindergarten and first-grade students. Four experimental conditions were presented: videotape with behavior rehearsal, videotape only, a standard safety program, and no training. Acquisition of self-protective behaviors was measured at posttraining and follow-up by having confederate adults entice the children near their schools and homes. Results revealed that the videotape program with behavior rehearsal was highly effective in teaching children safe responses to potential abductors. The standard safety program was effective with fewer than half of the children. Three fourths of the children who received no training immediately agreed to go with the confederate suspects. The videotape program can be easily used with groups of young children in a classroom setting.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE SETTING EVENTS ON THE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

We examined the effects of four combinations of setting events on the social interactions of 7 preschool children with social delays. In Study 1, the status of the teacher, activity materials, and peer varied across conditions. In Study 2, the status of the teacher and materials varied across conditions. Within the combinations of setting events, we also examined teacher behavior. Teacher presence and absence was varied in both studies. The type and rate of teacher prompting were varied in Study 2. The four combinations of setting events produced different rates of social behavior by the children with social delays. The optimal combination of setting events for promoting peer interaction and reducing teacher—child interaction included teacher absence from the activity, a limited number and form of materials, and children paired with a socially skilled partner.     

1—5岁儿童使用双宾结构状况的考察

本文对1—5岁汉族儿童使用双宾结构的状况进行了考察。首先对儿童语言中双宾结构的结构类型、句法功能及其发展状况进行了描述分析;在此基础上,讨论了儿童习得汉语双宾结构的机制。     

CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARABILITY OF TEMPERAMENT AMONG JAPANESE AND AMERICAN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The generalizability of temperament, as measured by the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R) (Windle and Lerner 1986), was investigated through a series of data analytic procedures comparing the item responses of Japanese and American preschool children. Consistent with the results of an American preschool sample, a nine-factor model emerged for the sample of Japanese preschool children. Configurational similarity of salient and non-salient factor loadings for the nine temperament constructs across the two cultural groups was supported via congruence coefficients which ranged from 0.73 to 0.98 (Mdn = 0.91). Restricted (confirmatory) simultaneous group models for each of the nine temperament constructs indicated that the factor loading patterns were invariant across the two preschool samples, thus supporting the equality of scale metrics or units of measurement across groups. Statistical tests of differences in factor means between the two cultural samples suggested that the primary caregivers of Japanese preschoolers, relative to the primary caregivers of American preschoolers, rated their children as higher in Activity Level - Sleep and lower in Approach - Withdrawal, Flexibility - Rigidity, Quality of Mood, and Rhythmicity-Sleep; no statistically significant differences in mean levels were reported for Activity Level - General, Task Orientation, Rhythmicity-Eating and Rhythmicity-Daily Habits.     

儿童早期自尊的行为观察研究

以自尊情感模型为理论起点,采用行为事件取样法,对58名1.5-4岁婴幼儿的掌控感和归属感事件进行系统观察。结果表明：早期掌控感源于以动作为基础的掌控行为,包括掌控自我、掌控外物和掌控他人。而归属感一方面源于儿童以不同的行为方式寻求归属,即主动归属感;另一方面源于不同情境下成人的行为使儿童获得了归属,即被动归属感。掌控感和归属感事件均随年龄增长而逐渐减少,反映了个体自尊的早期形态。     

学前数学教法和儿童智能发展的追踪研究

本研究从儿童心理发展的特点和数学学习之间的内在规律出发,综合考查了各类教学法在学前施教的利弊;同时,在活动教法、指导操作法、演示法和讲授法之间做了对比实验,并设计了一整套以指导操作法为主的学前数学教法,以演示为主的数学教法之间进行了长期、深人的跟踪对比实验。结果表明,在其他变量基本被控制的条件下,指导操作法优于其他的教法;实验班儿童的智能发展,特别是数学能力的发展,明显好于对照班的儿童。这个优势一直持续到小学毕业。     

THE VOCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE DISADVANTAGED AMERICAN GIRL

This paper is concerned with aspiration and level of aspiration of 415 girls drawn from the incoming population of an urban Job Corps Center. The paper indicates that there are both ethnic and educational considerations to be given in the employment counseling of the disadvantaged young person. The paper also points out the paucity of professional material devoted to the vocational counseling of the less-than-college prepared individual.     

DEVELOPMENT OF SPONTANEOUS MANDING IN LANGUAGE DEFICIENT CHILDREN

Six institutionalized children, aged 7–11, with little or no spontaneous vocal manding, were trained to request food items under appropriate natural conditions when snacks were presented. “I want a” was appropriate when an adult presented food in the playroom. “Out” was appropriate when the items were displayed in the hallway, across a half-door barrier from the child. A sequence of steps was trained, through increasingly naturalistic setting and cuing conditions. The two mands were trained in sequence, not concurrently. To encourage “spontaneous” productions, no vocal cuing was provided by the adult. After criterion performance in each step, several probe sessions were conducted for various cuing conditions, adults, and settings. Probes after imitation training showed no spontaneous manding. Thus, failure of manding was not due to production difficulties. In probes after training for “approximately” natural cues, most children showed little transfer to the natural cues. This implies that training for the specific appropriate cues may often be required. However, good transfer generally occurred across persons, and from training room to playroom. Probes also showed that most children did not use one of the trained mands in the stimulus conditions that were appropriate for the other mand. Thus, adding a second mand did not generally disrupt use of the first. However, significant disruption occurred for two children. Finally, at the end of training, extinction training was given for one mand in one setting. Performance of the other mand was litle affected. In sum, the appropriate form of a mand depends on specific stimulus and setting characteristics, and these characteristics must be considered in training.     

THE USE OF ADVOCACY AND CONFRONTATION COUNSELING THE DISADVANTAGED

Middle-class counselors and disadvantaged clients appear to be alienated due to a basic difference in values. This alienation can be overcome by the counselor assuming the role of “social advocate.” Several examples are given to illustrate how social advocacy might be utilized. As the counseling relationship develops, and the client's trust and confidence strengthen, the counselor can begin to assert himself and confront the client concerning the unsolvable problems he presents as reasons for his unemployment and failure. Some differences exist as to counseling needs on the basis of sex and ethnic background. The confrontation program described would seem to be more effective with disadvantaged men than with disadvantaged women.