Young children's research: children aged 4-8 years finding solutions at home and at school

Children's research capacities have become increasingly recognised by adults, yet children remain excluded from the academy, with reports of their research participation generally located in adults' agenda. Such practice restricts children's freedom to make choices in matters affecting them, underestimates children’s capabilities and denies children particular rights. The present paper reports on one aspect of a small-scale critical ethnographic study adopting a constructivist grounded approach to conceptualise ways in which children's naturalistic behaviours may be perceived as research. The study builds on multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives, embracing 'new' sociology, psychology, economics, philosophy and early childhood education and care (ECEC). Research questions include: 'What is the nature of ECEC research?' and 'Do children’s enquiries count as research?' Initially, data were collected from the academy: professional researchers (n=14) confirmed 'finding solutions' as a research behaviour and indicated children aged 4-8 years, their practitioners and primary carers as 'theoretical sampling'. Consequently, multi-modal case studies were constructed with children (n=138) and their practitioners (n=17) in three ‘good’ schools, with selected children and their primary carers also participating at home. This paper reports on data emerging from children aged 4-8 years at school (n=17) and at home (n=5). Outcomes indicate that participating children found diverse solutions to diverse problems, some of which they set themselves. Some solutions engaged children in high order thinking, whilst others did not; selecting resources and trialing activities engaged children in 'finding solutions'. Conversely, when children's time, provocations and activities were directed by adults, the quality of their solutions was limited, they focused on pleasing adults and their motivation to propose solutions decreased. In this study, professional researchers recognised 'finding solutions' as research behaviour and children aged 4-8 years naturalistically presented with capacities for finding solutions; however, the children's encounters with adults affected the solutions they found

The power of improvisational teaching

In this study we examine how improvisation can facilitate understanding how teachers respond to children\u27s multiple resources, interests, experiences, and skills in early childhood programs. Improvisation is conceptualized as a responsive, partnered activity through which teachers and children generate meaning and knowledge together. In our analysis we show improvisation is taken up differently in two classrooms and how it variably provides opportunities for learning. Two cases from a professional development program designed to support culturally and developmentally appropriate early mathematics are used to demonstrate the possibilities improvisation creates in era of increasing standardization of curriculum

Imprint of past and present environmental conditions on microbiology and biogeochemistry of coastal Quaternary sediments

To date, North Sea tidal-flat sediments have been intensively studied down to a depth of 5 m below seafloor (mbsf). However, little is known about the biogeochemistry, microbial abundance, and activity of sulfate reducers as well as methanogens in deeper layers. In this study, two 20 m-long cores were retrieved from the tidal-flat area of Spiekeroog Island, NW Germany. The drill sites were selected with a close distance of 900 m allowing to compare two depositional settings: first, a paleo-channel filled with Holocene sediments and second, a mainly Pleistocene sedimentary succession. Analyzing these cores, we wanted to test to which degree the paleo-environmental imprint is superimposed by present processes. <br><br> In general, the numbers of bacterial 16S rRNA genes are one to two orders of magnitude higher than those of <i>Archaea</i>. The abundances of key genes for sulfate reduction and methanogenesis (<i>dsr</i>A and <i>mcr</i>A) correspond to the sulfate and methane profiles. A co-variance of these key genes at sulfate-methane interfaces and enhanced ex situ AOM rates suggest that anaerobic oxidation of methane may occur in these layers. Microbial and biogeochemical profiles are vertically stretched relative to 5 m-deep cores from shallower sediments in the same study area, but still appear compressed compared to deep sea sediments. Our interdisciplinary analysis shows that the microbial abundances and metabolic rates are elevated in the Holocene compared to Pleistocene sediments. However, this is mainly due to present environmental conditions such as pore water flow and organic matter availability. The paleo-environmental imprint is still visible but superimposed by these processes

Health related quality of life after extremely preterm birth: a matched controlled cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The majority of infants born before the last trimester now grow up. However, knowledge on subsequent health related quality of life (HRQoL) is scarce. We therefore aimed to compare HRQoL in children born extremely preterm with control children born at term. Furthermore, we assessed HRQoL in relation to perinatal and neonatal morbidity and to current clinical and sociodemographic characteristics.</p> <p>Method</p> <p><it>The Child Health Questionnaire </it>(CHQ-PF50) and a general questionnaire were applied in a population based cohort of 10 year old children born at gestational age ≤ 28 weeks or with birth weight ≤ 1000 grams in Western Norway in 1991-92 and in term-born controls, individually matched for gender and time of birth. The McNemar test and paired t-tests were used to explore group differences between preterms and matched controls. Paired regression models and analyses of interaction (SPSS mixed linear model) were used to explore potential effects of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics on HRQoL in the two groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All 35 eligible preterm children participated. None had major impairments. Learning and/or attention problems were present in 71% of preterms and 20% of controls (odds ratio (OR): 7.0; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.2 to 27.6). Insufficient professional support was described by 36% of preterm vs. 3% of control parents (OR: infinite; CI: 2.7 to infinite). Preterms scored lower on eight CHQ-PF50 sub-scales and the two summary scores, boys accounting for most of the deficits in areas of behavior, psychosocial functioning and parental burden. HRQoL was associated with learning and/or attention problems in both preterm and control children, significantly more so in preterms in areas related to health and parental burden. Within the preterm group, HRQoL was mostly unrelated to perinatal and neonatal morbidity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>HRQoL for children born extremely preterm, and particularly for boys, was described by parents to be inferior to that of children born at term, and sufficiently poor to affect the daily life of the children and their families. Learning and/or attention problems were reported for a majority of preterms, strongly influencing their HRQoL.</p

Health-related quality of life of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder versus children with diabetes and healthy controls

The impact of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is reported to be similar to that of other mental health and physical disorders. In this cross-sectional study, we hypothesized that children with ADHD and children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) would have significantly worse HRQoL compared with healthy children, and that better clinical status in ADHD and T1DM would be associated with better HRQoL. Children were recruited from three outpatient services in Scotland. Responses to two frequently used validated HRQoL instruments, the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) and Child Health and Illness Profile-child edition (CHIP-CE), were obtained from parents/carers and children (6–16 years) with/without ADHD or T1DM. Child and parent/carer-completed HRQoL measurements were evaluated for 213 children with ADHD, 58 children with T1DM and 117 healthy children (control group). Significantly lower self and parent/carer ratings were observed across most PedsQL (P < 0.001) and CHIP-CE (P < 0.05) domains (indicating reduced HRQoL) for the ADHD group compared with the T1DM and control groups. Parent/carer and child ratings were significantly correlated for both measures of HRQoL (PedsQL total score: P < 0.001; CHIP-CE all domains: P < 0.001), but only with low-to-moderate strength. Correlation between ADHD severity and HRQoL was significant with both PedsQL and CHIP-CE for all parent/carer (P < 0.01) and most child (P < 0.05) ratings; more ADHD symptoms were associated with poorer HRQoL. These data demonstrate that ADHD has a significant impact on HRQoL (as observed in both parent/carer and child ratings), which seems to be greater than that for children with T1DM

Imagining a Future in PreK: How Professional Identity Shapes Notions of Early Mathematics

This article describes how early childhood teachers engaged in a public preK professional development program. We examine how developing teacher identities mediated engagement with the discourses of developmentally appropriate practice, early mathematics, and funds of knowledge and how they connected present practice to an imagined future. We found that helping them to connect practice experience and new mathematical content knowledge through play allowed them to envision a meaningful place for math with young children

A systematic review of interactive multimedia interventions to promote children's communication with health professionals: implications for communicating with overweight children

Background: Interactive multimedia is an emerging technology that is being used to facilitate interactions between patients and health professionals. The purpose of this review was to identify and evaluate the impact of multimedia interventions (MIs), delivered in the context of paediatric healthcare, in order to inform the development of a MI to promote the communication of dietetic messages with overweight preadolescent children. Of particular interest were the effects of these MIs on child engagement and participation in treatment, and the subsequent effect on health-related treatment outcomes. Methods: An extensive search of 12 bibliographic databases was conducted in April 2012. Studies were included if: one or more child-participant was 7 to 11 years-of-age; a MI was used to improve health-related behaviour; child-participants were diagnosed with a health condition and were receiving treatment for that condition at the time of the study. Data describing study characteristics and intervention effects on communication, satisfaction, knowledge acquisition, changes in self-efficacy, healthcare utilisation, and health outcomes were extracted and summarised using qualitative and quantitative methods. Results: A total of 14 controlled trials, published between 1997 and 2006 met the selection criteria. Several MIs had the capacity to facilitate engagement between the child and a clinician, but only one sought to utilise the MI to improve communication between the child and health professional. In spite of concerns over the quality of some studies and small study populations, MIs were found useful in educating children about their health, and they demonstrated potential to improve children’s health- related self-efficacy, which could make them more able partners in face-to-face communications with health professionals. Conclusions: The findings of this review suggest that MIs have the capacity to support preadolescent child-clinician communication, but further research in this field is needed. Particular attention should be given to designing appropriate MIs that are clinically relevant