Antecedent stimulus control: using orienting cues to facilitate first-word acquisition for nonresponders with autism

Although considerable progress has been made in improving the acquisition of expressive verbal communication in children with autism, research has documented that a subpopulation of children still fail to acquire speech even with intensive intervention. One variable that might be important in facilitating responding for this nonverbal subgroup of children is the use of antecedent orienting cues. Using a multiple baseline design, this study examined whether individualized orienting cues could be identified, and whether their presentation would result in the production of verbal expressive words. The results showed that this antecedent stimulus control procedure produced improvements in responding to verbal models in all of the children, and subsequent gains in speech for some of the children. Theoretical and applied implications of orienting cues as they relate to antecedent stimulus control for children with autism are discussed.     

Between Dream Cities and Reality: Personal Narratives of Ex-Soviets in Israel

Domestication of space is a major problem for migrants, particularly when they settle in a geographically remote country with a markedly different climate and culture. This paper analyzes attitudes to city life in the country of origin and in the new homeland in personal narratives of immigrants to Israel from the countries of the former Soviet Union. The material was drawn from in-depth unstructured interviews conducted in 1999–2002 and 2005–2006, and Israeli Russian-language Internet forums. Soviet Jews were predominantly city dwellers, and their immigration stories are permeated with explicit and tacit comparisons of the space of the two countries. The cities of origin are idealized, and their image has disintegrated into hospitable and warm cities of pre-emigration life on the one hand, and unfamiliar, alien cities of post-Soviet period on the other. In Israel many ex-Soviets chose to live in the so-called development towns. Attracted by relatively inexpensive apartments, the newcomers found themselves trapped in places where jobs are scarce and the quality of life has been recently dropping. In reflecting on various towns, interviewees focus on physical and symbolic dimensions, the most frequent being: big–small, center–periphery, exposed–protected, and powerful–weak. In contemporary Russian culture center is associated with job opportunities and entertainment, with high social status and good quality of life. In Israel the opposition center–periphery has retained its significance, yet the whole country is considered by many immigrants as deeply provincial, cut off from the rest of the world and devoid of opportunity for the young, the conviction that is supported by publications in the Russian-language media.

Enduring Positivity: Children Of Incarcerated Parents Report More Positive Than Negative Emotions When Thinking about Close Others

ABSTRACT

Millions of children in the United States experience parental incarceration, yet it is unclear how this experience might shape social cognition. We asked children of incarcerated parents (N = 24) and children whose parents were not incarcerated (N = 58) to describe their parents. Both groups of children also rated the extent to which they agree that they feel positive and, separately, negative emotions when thinking about their parent and best friend. This approach allowed us to test between two alternative hypotheses. On the one hand, cultural narratives in the United States convey negative messages about incarcerated people, and these messages could prompt children to report negativity when thinking about their incarcerated parents. On the other hand, children’s positivity toward close others is robust. Thus, when thinking about their incarcerated parents, children may report a great deal of positivity. Consistent with the latter possibility, children were more likely to describe their incarcerated parents using positive rather than negative terms. Moreover, children of incarcerated parents were more likely to agree that thinking about close others made them feel positive emotions than they were to agree that thinking about close others made them feel negative emotions. A similar pattern of results emerged among children whose parents were not incarcerated. These findings demonstrate the robustness of children’s positivity and can inform debates regarding contact between incarcerated parents and their children.