Learning from parents' stories about what works in early intervention

Using a multiple case study approach, this ethnography examined the experiences of parents of children deemed at risk for developmental delays or disabilities who had received early intervention (EI) services (birth to age 3 years) in a large urban location in Western Canada. Participants (11 adult parents and 7 children) were drawn from six families. Methods of data collection included focus groups (FG), face‐to‐face interviews and file reviews. Member check and expert reviews were conducted throughout data collection and data analyses as part of the validation process in this ethnography. Qualitative content analyses followed by thematic analyses highlighted the implementation of family‐centred practices (FCP) as a main theme. Parents identified how EI professionals using FCP embraced collaborative practices. FCP resulted in parents leading the EI process for their children. More specifically, EI professionals shared strategies and information to support parents in gaining a deeper understanding of their children's individual developmental characteristics. Parents expressed how empowering this level of understanding was for them as they learned to articulate what were their children's needs for developmental, health and educational services. Recommendations for future research include inquiring about parents' experiences for families of diverse constellations and/or residing in smaller urban or rural communities.     

The function of wisdom dimensions in ego‐identity development among Chinese university students

This study investigates the relationship between wisdom and ego‐identity among university students in China. Using Marcia's ego‐identity statuses and Ardelt's wisdom dimensions as the theoretical and conceptual framework, the study investigates 356 university students in China. After exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, four factors from wisdom and five factors from ego‐identity were retrieved. A structural equation model was then conducted to analyse the relationships. The findings were: (1) among wisdom dimensions, cognitive, and reflective wisdom, especially perspective‐taking best predicted achievement, (2) all three dimensions of wisdom predicted moratorium, but reflective wisdom was the most pronounced predictor, (3) all three dimensions of wisdom predicted diffusion, but resentment items from reflective wisdom were the most pronounced predictors, and (4) gender was a significant predictor of ego‐identity achievement and diffusion. These findings suggest that efforts to build reflective wisdom might contribute to healthier ego‐identity formation.     

Outcomes and intentions in children’s,adolescents’, and adults’ second- and third-party punishment behavior

Theories of morality maintain that punishment supports the emergence and maintenance of moral behavior. This study investigated developmental differences in the role of outcomes and the violator’s intentions in second-party punishment (where punishers are victims of a violation) and third-party punishment (where punishers are unaffected observers of a violation). Four hundred and forty-three adults and 8-, 12-, and 15-year-olds made choices in mini-ultimatum games and newly-developed mini-third-party punishment games, which involved actual incentives rather than hypothetical decisions. Adults integrated outcomes and intentions in their second- and third-party punishment, whereas 8-year-olds consistently based their punishment on the outcome of the violation. Adolescents integrated outcomes and intentions in second- but not third-party punishment.     

Revisiting Chinese‐speaking children's understanding of argument structure

A causative verb is likely to appear in a sentence with two noun arguments, whereas a noncausative verb tends to appear in a sentence with a single argument. The present research investigates from what point children learning Chinese begin to show this knowledge of argument structure. Two‐, 3‐, 4‐, and 5‐year‐old children were tested using a forced‐choice pointing task. The results showed that Chinese‐speaking children aged 2 years could associate a transitive construction with a causative event, whereas they were not able to map an intransitive construction to a noncausative event even after reaching 5 years of age. The reason why Chinese children have such difficulty in learning knowledge of intransitive construction is discussed, focusing on (a) the semantic properties of certain intransitive verbs, which have been found not only in Chinese but also in other languages, and (b) the ellipsis of arguments, which is characteristic of Chinese.     

Does movement proficiency impact on exergaming performance?

There is growing interest in the use of consumer level exergames in movement skill acquisition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between movement proficiency and performance in virtual exergaming. Twenty seven children, aged 10–15 years participated in an experiment completing the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2 (MABC-2) and a series of XBOX360 Kinect Sports exergaming tasks. Significant correlations were observed between MABC-2 aiming and catching percentile and exergame javelin and target kick, where the more proficient movers tended to perform better in the exergame. Statistically significant correlations were observed between MABC-2 balance percentile and exergaming sprint and target kick performance. In this study children who scored better in real life gross motor movement tasks performed better in most related exergaming activities. This suggests current exergaming technology has advanced to a point where body movement unencumbered by a physical or remote game device tether can extract movements resembling real life tasks, translate them into game play and reward proficient movers with higher in-game performance. It is possible that benefit gained in an exergaming environment by more proficient movers was a result of either their more proficient movement, or a greater ability to adapt to the exergame.     

Social environment elicits lateralized navigational paths in two populations of typically developing children

The current study provides the first evidence of human lateralized navigation of a social space within a naturalistic environment. We employed a quantitative, observational approach and report on a detailed set of nearly 700 independent navigational routes from two separate child populations consisting of over 300 typically developing children, aged five to fourteen years. The navigational path was considered across the sagittal plane (left, right) around three distinct target types (peer, adult and object). Both child populations expressed a significant bias for choosing a rightward navigational path around a human target (e.g. peer, adult) and no lateral preference for navigation around fixed, inanimate objects. A rightward navigational path provides an advantage for the left visual field and the right hemisphere, facilitating both the production and perception of social-emotion stimuli. The findings are consistent with evidence from studies of non-human animal species demonstrating that the social environment elicits predictable lateralized behavior, and support an early evolutionary delineation of functional processing by the two hemispheres.     

Professional Counseling in Hong Kong

The authors provide an overview of recent developments in professional counseling as related to schools, career counseling, and community services in Hong Kong. The strategic position of counseling professionals, counseling associations, and counselor certification is discussed. The future development of counseling in Hong Kong is also considered.     

脉理的阴阳和谐观研究--以《濒湖脉学》“缓脉”为中心论证

在《濒湖脉学》的脉理中,把无病的缓脉认为是有神、有胃气的平脉,无病的缓脉是脾胃这一人体后天之本正常运化的脉象。脾脉为缓脉,其余四脏脉以及四季脉也要兼有缓脉,才是阴阳和谐的脉象,脾脉拥有阴阳和谐的缓脉能为其余各脏腑提供精气,从而保证各脏腑的正常运化,只有各脏腑的正常运化才能维护人身体的阴阳和谐。当人身体的阴阳失去和谐出现病变的时候,脉象就会表现为太过或不及或各脏脉俱缓,少有或失去了缓和的脉象以及各脏脉均失去个性的病缓脉。     

An internet survey of emotional health,treatment seeking and barriers to accessing mental health treatment among Chinese-speaking international students in Australia

The present internet survey examined the demographic characteristics of Chinese-speaking international students in Australia, psychological distress levels as measured by the Kessler-10 (K-10) Item scale, help-seeking history and preferences, as well as treatment barriers. Of the 144 respondents, 54% reported high psychological distress (mean K-10 score?=?23.96; SD?=?9.03). However, only 9% of those who were highly distressed reported they had sought mental health services in the past year. While the majority preferred help from informal social networks, they tended to favour mental health services over traditional culture-specific forms of help. Common barriers to accessing mental health services reported by respondents with high psychological distress included costs or transportation concerns, limited knowledge of available services, time constraints, the perception that symptoms were not severe enough to warrant treatment, language difficulties and lack of knowledge of symptoms of psychological distress. Although the majority preferred face-to-face treatments over internet treatments, a considerable percentage of respondents were willing to try either treatment modality. Chinese-speaking international students are a high risk group for developing psychological distress, yet they tend to underuse mental health services. Education about the effectiveness of face-to-face and online treatments may increase treatment seeking by this population.     

迎接心理学发展的第三波

心理学自冯特始便存在两种类型,自然科学的心理学和人文的心理学.本土心理学依据“一种心智,多种心态”的原则,建构了儒家关系主义理论和自我曼陀罗模型,这种含摄文化的理论解决了冯特以科学方法研究文化的难题.批判实在论和多重哲学典范的结合,奠定了华人本土心理学科学哲学基础,在此基础上,华人本土心理学将迎来心理学发展的第三波.