Accumulation of Risk and Promotive Factors Among Young Children in US Military Families

In the families of the new cohort of war veterans now entering the civilian population in the United States are over two million young children (Cozza, Haskins & Lerner, 2013; Institute of Medicine, 2013). Several noteworthy studies have shown that children exposed to separation from a parent due to combat‐related deployment are at elevated risk for a variety of negative consequences (Lester & Flake, 2013). Cozza et al. (2013) argue that existing studies of military children focus too much on the stresses or deficits they experience, failing to give sufficient attention to their strengths, the strengths of their families, or the supports around them. In the current study we focus on risk and promotive factors in the lives of children aged 0–10 in military families. We examine the likelihood of negative outcomes as functions of additive, cumulative, and interactive relationships between risk and promotive factors and children's outcomes. Risk factors, particularly parental depression, community poverty, and cumulative risk, were more strongly associated with children's outcomes than promotive factors. There was, however, a significant risk‐protective relationship between accumulations of risk and promotive factors, consistent with promotive conditions operating in a protective fashion under conditions of elevated risk.     

Properties of bootstrap tests for N‐of‐1 studies

N‐of‐1 study designs involve the collection and analysis of repeated measures data from an individual not using an intervention and using an intervention. This study explores the use of semi‐parametric and parametric bootstrap tests in the analysis of N‐of‐1 studies under a single time series framework in the presence of autocorrelation. When the Type I error rates of bootstrap tests are compared to Wald tests, our results show that the bootstrap tests have more desirable properties. We compare the results for normally distributed errors with those for contaminated normally distributed errors and find that, except when there is relatively large autocorrelation, there is little difference between the power of the parametric and semi‐parametric bootstrap tests. We also experiment with two intervention designs: ABAB and AB, and show the ABAB design has more power. The results provide guidelines for designing N‐of‐1 studies, in the sense of how many observations and how many intervention changes are needed to achieve a certain level of power and which test should be performed.     

Using the Reverse Order Technique with Non‐Native Speakers or Through an Interpreter

We examined whether the reverse order technique can be implemented when people speak through an interpreter. A total of 40 Chinese, 40 Korean and 30 Hispanic participants were interviewed in English or in their own native language through an interpreter. Interviewees were asked to tell the truth or lie about a secret meeting they viewed. They were asked to recall what they saw in chronological order and then in reverse order. The reverse order technique revealed two cues to deceit (detail and commissions) when an interpreter was present, whereas no cues to deceit emerged when interviewees spoke in English. This suggests that the reverse order technique can be used with an interpreter but possibly not with non‐native speakers. Perhaps the combined task of speaking in a non‐native language and reporting in reverse order is mentally taxing for liars and truth tellers, thus making differences between them unlikely to emerge. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing Continuous and Discontinuous Data Collection during Discrete Trial Teaching of Tacting by Children with Autism

The present study compared continuous and discontinuous data collection systems on acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of tacts, and on‐task behavior, during discrete trial teaching with three children with autism. A constant prompt‐delay procedure was used to teach tacts. Performance across data collection systems was compared using continuous measurement collected daily in the presence of teaching, discontinuous measurement of the first trial only, and discontinuous measurement collected weekly in the absence of teaching (i.e., probe data). An adapted alternating treatments design was used. For two of the three participants, tacts were acquired most rapidly in the continuous measurement condition, although the differences were small. For the third participant, no systematic differences were found in skill acquisition across the three data collection systems. For all three participants, minimal to no differences were found across data collection systems with regard to generalization and maintenance of tacting, and on‐task behavior. Additionally, procedural integrity was high and comparable across all data collection procedures. Overall, these results suggest the use of continuous data collection for teaching tacts to children with autism, as it provides the most sensitive measure of change in performance. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Comparison on Inclusive Practices for Children with Special Needs in Faith-Based Kindergartens in Hong Kong

This qualitative study aimed to examine the inclusive practices implemented in three faith-based kindergartens in Hong Kong. A questionnaire was used to collect information about school backgrounds, students’ special needs, teacher training, special education services, curriculum design, school policy, parental involvement, and challenges faced by these schools when implementing their inclusive practices. The primary focus of this study was the influence of faiths on the provision of inclusive services for children with special needs. The results indicated that faiths, along with other factors, have played a significant role in contributing to the inclusive education services provided to children in these schools.     

Tactile enumeration of small quantities using one hand

Our study explores various aspects of enumerating small quantities in the tactile modality. Fingertips of one hand were stimulated by a vibro-tactile apparatus (for 100/800 ms). Between 1 and 5 stimuli were presented to the right or the left hand and applied to neighboring (e.g., thumb–index–middle) or non-neighboring (e.g., thumb–middle–pinkie) fingers. The results showed a moderate increase in RT up to 4 stimuli and then a decrease for 5 stimuli. Right hand stimulation evoked more accurate performance than left hand stimulation only under short exposures (100 ms). Importantly, when the stimuli were presented to neighboring fingers, the accuracy rate was higher and the RT was faster than when presented to non-neighboring fingers. We discuss the results and suggest that when the stimuli are presented to one hand the subitizing range is 4 rather than 3. Furthermore, the right hand advantage and the efficiency for neighboring fingers are further support for the association between number and spatial arrangement of the fingers.     

Symbouki: a meta‐analysis on the emergence of sound symbolism in early language acquisition

Adults and toddlers systematically associate pseudowords such as “bouba” and “kiki” with round and spiky shapes, respectively, a sound symbolic phenomenon known as the “bouba‐kiki effect”. To date, whether this sound symbolic effect is a property of the infant brain present at birth or is a learned aspect of language perception remains unknown. Yet, solving this question is fundamental for our understanding of early language acquisition. Indeed, an early sensitivity to such sound symbolic associations could provide a powerful mechanism for language learning, playing a bootstrapping role in the establishment of novel sound–meaning associations. The aim of the present meta‐analysis (SymBouKi) is to provide a quantitative overview of the emergence of the bouba‐kiki effect in infancy and early childhood. It allows a high‐powered assessment of the true sound symbolic effect size by pooling over the entire set of 11 extant studies (six published, five unpublished), entailing data from 425 participants between 4 and 38 months of age. The quantitative data provide statistical support for a moderate, but significant, sound symbolic effect. Further analysis found a greater sensitivity to sound symbolism for bouba‐type pseudowords (i.e., round sound‐shape correspondences) than for kiki‐type pseudowords (i.e., spiky sound‐shape correspondences). For the kiki‐type pseudowords, the effect emerged with age. Such discrepancy challenges the view that sensitivity to sound symbolism is an innate language mechanism rooted in an exuberant interconnected brain. We propose alternative hypotheses where both innate and learned mechanisms are at play in the emergence of sensitivity to sound symbolic relationships.