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A question that is of central significance but has been largely ignored in the literature is whether learners of different age groups benefit from corrective feedback in different ways. This chapter seeks to discuss the theory, research, and pedagogy pertaining to the role of age in mediating the incidence and effects of corrective feedback. The chapter begins with a theoretical explanation of the relationship between age and corrective feedback. It then zeroes in on descriptive research investigating feedback provided to children by their parents or caregivers while acquiring their first language. It proceeds to discuss feedback in second language learning, summarizing descriptive research conducted in the language classroom and laboratory contexts. The effects of input-providing and output-prompting feedback from descriptive and experimental research were analyzed through the lens of participants’ ages. One pattern that emerged from the research is that output-prompting feedback leads to greater linguistic gains than input-providing feedback among child learners. The chapter concludes with implications for researchers and teachers, proposing ways to carry out research to examine the various issues surrounding the role of age through research and ways to maximize the effects of feedback for learners of different ages in the second language classroom.
Treatment of depression during childhood and early adolescence frequently involves numerous challenges, including co-morbidity, stress and mental health problems within the family. Given the embeddedness of youth within family structures during this developmental period, a family-based model may be particularly advantageous. Family-focused treatment for childhood depression (FFT-CD) is a developmentally-informed intervention that specifically targets family interactions to build strengths and resiliency within the family system to better manage and combat depression. By incorporating an interpersonal model, family members are assisted in identifying both ‘upward’ (helpful and positive) and ‘downward’ (unhelpful and negative) interactional spirals. This model provides a powerful and positive rationale for family inclusion in treatment and specifies the goals of the intervention. In further family sessions, psycho-education, communication enhancement, behavioral activation and problem-solving skills development are then used to build on existing strengths and disrupt negative transactions. In this chapter we describe the conceptual roots and intervention strategies of FFT-CD, illustrate its implementation using case descriptions and discuss core clinician competencies and approaches to common challenges in its implementation (e.g., co-morbidity, sibling inclusion, family stress). FFT-CD provides a flexible and efficacious intervention for depressive symptoms and disorders during a crucial period of development.
The first part of the introduction describes the historical context in which the authors of the book were born (World War II) and educated (from the 1950s to the 1970s), as well as the context in which they made their most important scientific contributions (from the 1980s to 2020). The advantages of being at the forefront of the baby boom are highlighted. The second part of the introduction describes the history of research on the development of aggressive and violent behavior, starting with the philosophical contributions of Aristotle, Seneca, Saint Augustine, Erasmus, Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The chapter goes on to describe the first scientific studies that were initiated in the early part of the 18th century by Adolphe Quetelet and Charles Darwin, as well as the early prevention efforts of Mary Carpenter. The history of the main longitudinal and experimental studies of the 20th century are then presented with a focus on the work of William Healy, Richard C. Cabot, Sheldon and Eleanore Glueck, Joan McCord, and D. J. West.
Systematically review the literature with the primary aim of identifying behavioural interventions to improve vitamin D stores in children from at-risk ethnic groups.
Design
Review based on PRISMA guidelines. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42017080932. Health Behaviour model and Behaviour Change Wheel Framework constructs used to underpin evaluation of interventions. Methodological quality evaluated using Cochrane Risk of Bias, Cochrane ROBINS-I, and NHLBI tools.
Setting
Databases Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL with secondary search of Google Scholar. No country limits set. Papers between 1990-February 2018, published in English included. Anticipating study heterogeneity, outcome measures not pre-specified and identified from individual full papers. Updated literature search November 2020.
Participants
Patient or population including pregnant women, new-borns and children aged under 18 years, from Asian or African ethnic groups.
Results
Of 10,690 articles screened, 298 underwent full text review, with 24 ultimately included for data extraction. All identified studies conducted a vitamin D pharmacological supplementation intervention, with two also incorporating a behavioural intervention strategy. No study explicitly defined a primary aim of evaluating a behavioural intervention, undertaken to study its effect on Vitamin D supplement uptake.
Conclusions
There is a need to address the paucity of data in ethnic at-risk children on how behavioural interventions, ideally developed and co-produced with the community under study, affect and help improve Vitamin D uptake, within the ante-natal and pregnancy phase as well as during childhood.
While voicing contrasts in word-onset position are acquired relatively early, much less is known about how and when they are acquired in word-coda position, where accurate production of these contrasts is also critical for distinguishing words (e.g., dog vs. dock). This study examined how the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts are realized in the speech of 4-year-old Australian English-speaking children. The results showed that children used similar acoustic cues to those of adults, including longer vowel duration and more frequent voice bar for voiced stops, and longer closure and burst durations for voiceless stops along with more frequent irregular pitch periods. This suggests that 4-year-olds have acquired productive use of the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts, though implementations are not yet fully adult-like. The findings have implications for understanding the development of phonological contrasts in populations for whom these may be challenging, such as children with hearing loss.
The present study examines the association between mild and moderate-to-severe household food insecurity and school readiness among a nationally representative sample of preschool-aged children.
Design:
Cross-sectional data pertaining to household availability of food as well as four domains of school readiness – early learning skills, self-regulation, social-emotional development, and physical health & motor development – were employed.
Setting:
The United States.
Participants:
15,402 children ages 3 to 5 from the 2016-2018 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH).
Results:
Both mild and moderate-to-severe food insecurity are associated with an increase in needing support or being at-risk in each of the four school readiness domains, particularly Self-Regulation (IRR = 4.31; CI = 2.68-6.95) and Social-Emotional Development (IRR = 3.43; CI = 2.16-5.45). Furthermore, while nearly half of children in food-secure households are on-track across all four school readiness domains (47.49%), only 1 in 4 children experiencing moderate-to-severe household food insecurity are on track across all domains (25.26%).
Conclusions:
Household food insecurity is associated with reductions in school readiness among preschool-aged children.
Following hurricanes, there can be increases in exacerbations of chronic diseases, such as asthma. Asthma is common among children, and many asthma exacerbations can be prevented. This systematic literature review assessed literature describing the impact of hurricanes on children with asthma in the United States. Medline, Embase, Global Health, PubMed, and Scopus databases were searched for peer-reviewed, English-language articles published January 1990 to June 2019 that described the effect of a hurricane on children with asthma. This search identified 212 articles; 8 met inclusion criteria. All 8 were related to Hurricane Katrina, but research questions and study design varied. Articles included information on asthma after hurricanes from cross-sectional surveys, retrospective chart review, and objective clinical testing. Four articles described discontinuity in health insurance, asthma-related health care, or asthma medication use; and 3 articles examined the relationship between mold exposure and asthma symptoms and reported varying results. The eighth study quantified the burden of asthma among people visiting mobile medical units but did not describe factors associated with asthma symptoms. These results highlight opportunities for future research (eg, on more recent hurricanes) and disaster preparedness planning (eg, strategies to prevent health-care discontinuity among children with asthma).
To assess the efficacy and safety of captopril, simvastatin, and L-carnitine as cardioprotective drugs in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus on different echocardiographic parameters, electrocardiographic parameter, lipid profile, and carotid intima–media thickness.
Methods:
This randomised controlled trial was conducted on 100 children with type 1 diabetes mellitus for more than 3 years during the period from September 2018 to June 2020. Fifty healthy children of matched age and sex served as a control group. The patients were randomly assigned into four groups (25 children each): no-treatment group who received no cardioprotective drug, simvastatin group who received simvastatin (10–20 mg/day), captopril group who received captopril (0.2 mg/kg/day), and L-carnitine group who received L-carnitine (50 mg/kg/day) for 4 months. Lipid profile, serum troponin I, carotid intima–media thickness, and echocardiographic examinations were performed on all included children before and after the treatment.
Results:
Total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein were significantly decreased in children who received simvastatin or L-carnitine. Triglycerides significantly decreased only in children who received simvastatin. High-density lipoprotein significantly increased in simvastatin and L-carnitine groups only. Serum troponin I decreased significantly in all the three treatment groups. Carotid intima–media thickness showed no significant change in all treatment groups. Echocardiographic parameters significantly improved in simvastatin, L-carnitine, and captopril groups.
Conclusion:
Captopril, simvastatin, and L-carnitine have a significant beneficial effect on cardiac functions in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, only simvastatin and L-carnitine have a beneficial effect on the lipid profile. The drugs were safe and well tolerated.
Clinical trial registration: The clinical trial was registered at www.clinicaltrial.gov (NCT03660293).
This study investigated the production of the four Mandarin tones by a group of school-aged Spanish learners of Chinese (n=12) and a group of native Chinese children (n=4) with a mean age of 9.5 years. The participants were recorded in a quiet room at the school premises while performing an imitation task in which they produced 32 monosyllabic words embedded in a carrier phrase. Time-normalized pitch contours were extracted at 20 consecutive points, converted to logarithmic Z-scores to normalize F0 variation across talkers and submitted to growth curve analysis to compare the surface F0 contours of the four tones. A significant difference in the F0 shapes produced by the two groups was found for all four tones, but a significant difference in F0 height was found only for Tones 2 and 3. The findings suggested that native-like production of pitch contour may be more challenging than pitch height due to their relatively more complex f0-related laryngeal muscle activities and lesser attention to the former than the latter F0 dimension among non-native tone listeners.
This chapter reports preliminary results of an acoustic analysis of fricatives in American English produced by native Japanese-speaking adults and children. The data were from 16 native Japanese (NJ) adults and 16 NJ children as well as 16 native English-speaking (NE) adults and NE children. All 64 participants were tested twice, one year apart, to study NJ adults’ and children’s learning of English. Their production of /s/ in the word ‘six’ was acoustically analyzed. Noise duration (absolute and normalized), fricative intensity, and center of gravity (CoG) were measured. For duration, the NJ adults’ /s/ was longer than the NE adults’ /s/ in both absolute duration and normalized duration. The CoG values were greater in the NE adults’ and children’s /s/ than in the NJ adults’ and children’s /s/. Noise amplitude was greater in the NE speakers’ /s/ than in the NJ speakers’ /s/. These results suggest that the NJ speakers’ /s/ was slightly more back than the NE speakers’ /s/ productions and that the NE speakers’ /s/ was more sibilant than the NJ speakers’ /s/. In addition, the noise amplitude increased significantly over the course of one year in the NJ children’s productions.
Research in postconflict settings indicated that children's exposure to war and natural disaster is a significant predictor of experiencing violence within their families. However, it is unclear if this effect is driven by characteristics of traumatized children or their parents. To disentangle these different factors we conducted a survey in a children's home in Sri Lanka. A total of 146 institutionalized children (aged 8 to 17) were interviewed using standardized questionnaires administered by local senior counselors in order to assess children's exposure to mass trauma, family violence, and violence in the institution as well as their mental health. Linear regression analyses revealed that, controlling for potential confounds, previous exposure to civil war was a significant predictor of violence by guardians in the children's home. In addition, previous exposure to family violence was a significant predictor of violence by peers in the institutions. A mediation analysis showed that children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems partly mediated the relationship between violence prior to the admission to the children's home and violence in the children's home. The findings of our study provide evidence for the assumption that the transmission of mass trauma into interpersonal violence can occur independently from parents through children's psychopathology.
This book describes the lives of 12 people born in Europe and North America during the Second World War. They became leading scholars on the development and prevention of violent human behavior. From the first to the last page, the book introduces contrasting life-stories and shows how their paths crossed to create a relatively unified body of knowledge on how human violence develops and possible prevention methods. The authors describe the similarities and differences in their family background, university training, theories, and collaborations. Not to mention how they differ in research methods, scientific conclusions, and their influence on the research published today. These comparisons celebrates the diversity of their experience and, in turn, their achievements. By knowing this, you can stand on the shoulders of these giants to look to the future of this subject and potentially contribute to its next steps.
Vitamin D supplementation in infancy is recommended to prevent rickets. At the population level, its effects on bone mineralisation are largely unknown. We aimed to explore whether adherence to national vitamin D supplementation guidelines (10 µg/day up to age 2 years), supplementation at ages 5 and 7 years, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (s-25(OH)D) at various time points associated with bone mineral density (BMD) at age 7 years in the Odense Child Cohort, Denmark (n=1,194). High adherence was defined as supplementation with 10 µg vitamin D 6-7 times per week during ≥ 80 % of the observation time. S-25(OH)D was analysed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Total-body-less-head (TBLH) BMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. At median age 18.1 months, 53.9 % (n=475/881) reported high adherence. The median s-25(OH)D was 64.7, 78.8, 46.0, and 71.8 nmol/l in early pregnancy, late pregnancy, cord blood, and at 5 years, respectively. The mean (SD) TBLH BMD at median age 7.1 years was 0.613 (0.049) g/cm2 (z-score +0.363 (0.824)). In adjusted analyses, vitamin D supplementation up to 18 months, and at 5 and 7 years, was not associated with TBLH BMD. Similarly, no robust associations were found between TBLH BMD and s-25(OH)D at any time point. No associations were found for TBLH bone mineral concentration or bone area. In this population with relatively high s-25(OH)D concentrations, no consistent associations were found between adherence to vitamin D supplementation recommendations or vitamin D status in pregnancy or childhood, and bone mineralisation at age 7 years.
This study assesses the prevalence of childhood undernutrition from 2001 to 2016 and estimate projections of undernutrition for 2016–2030 in Nepal.
Design:
The study used data from four rounds of a cross-sectional survey of Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016. Descriptive analyses were conducted to calculate prevalence, binary logistic regression was used to test the significance of trends over time and autoregressive integrated moving average model was used to forecast the prevalence of childhood undernutrition.
Settings:
The children and household member datasets from four NDHS were merged to assess the trends of childhood undernutrition in Nepal.
Participants:
A total of 16 613 children (8399 male and 8214 female) under 5 years of age were selected for anthropometric measurements using a stratified cluster random sampling method.
Results:
Overall results show a decline in prevalence of stunting from 57·2 % to 35·8 % (P < 0·001), underweight from 42·7 % to 27 % (P < 0·001) and wasting from 11·2 % to 9·7 % (P < 0·05) from 2001 to 2016. However, different population subgroups have a higher prevalence of undernutrition than national average. Further, the analyses show that the prevalence of stunting will decline to 14·3 % and wasting to 8·4 % by 2030.
Conclusion:
A remarkable decrease in the prevalence of stunting and underweight has been observed over the last 15 years. Nepal is likely to achieve the nutritional targets for stunting but not for wasting by 2030. Given large subpopulation variations, further improvement in undernutrition require more specific, targeted and localised programmes.
Whole-grain foods have been reported to affect body weight and satiety. However, we are aware of no study in this regard among children. The present study aimed to determine the effects of whole grain consumption on anthropometric measures in overweight or obese children. In this randomised crossover clinical trial, forty-four overweight or obese girls participated. After a 2-week run-in period, subjects were randomly assigned to either intervention (n 44) or non-intervention (n 44) groups. Subjects in the intervention group were given a list of whole-grain foods and were asked to obtain half of their grain servings from these foods each day for 6 weeks. Individuals in the non-intervention group were asked not to consume any of these foods. A 4-week washout period was applied. Then, participants were crossed over to the alternate arm. The measurements were done before and after each phase. Mean age, weight and BMI of participants were 11·2 (sd 1·49) years, 51·2 (sd 10·2) kg and 23·5 (sd 2·5) kg/m2, respectively. Despite the slight reduction in weight and BMI, there were no significant differences in changes in these anthropometric measures. We found a significant effect of whole grain intake on waist circumference (−2·7 v. 0·3 cm, P = 0·04). No significant changes in hip circumference were observed. Changes in the prevalence of overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity were not significantly different. This study indicated a beneficial effect of whole-grain foods on waist circumference in overweight children; however, these foods did not influence weight and BMI.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether self-efficacy predicted pediatric concussion symptom severity and explore whether affective mood states (e.g., depression) influenced this relationship.
Method:
Children (8–17 years) who were diagnosed with a concussion within 30 days of injury participated in the study (n = 105). Following a clinical assessment, participants and caregivers completed questionnaires that assessed overall concussion symptom severity and current depression symptoms. Participants also completed ratings capturing self-efficacy for managing concussion recovery.
Results:
Linear regression models revealed that greater levels of self-efficacy predicted lower parent- (R2 = 0.10, p = .001) and youth-rated (R2 = 0.23, p < .001) concussion symptom severity. Interestingly, depression symptoms moderated the relationship between self-efficacy and concussion symptom severity.
Conclusions:
Findings provide initial support for a relationship between self-efficacy and concussion outcomes and highlight the influence of depressive symptoms. Interventions that optimize youth’s self-efficacy have the potential to increase treatment adherence, reduce concussion symptom severity, and improve recovery prognosis.
The present study examined the developmental value of parsing different forms of children's risky involvement in interparental conflict as predictors of children's subsequent psychological adjustment. Participants included a diverse sample of 243 preschool children (Mage = 4.6 years) and their mothers across two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Three forms of risky involvement (i.e., cautious, caregiving, and coercive) were identified using maternal narratives describing children's emotional and behavioral reactivity during and immediately following interparental conflict. Utilizing a multimethod, multi-informant design, findings revealed that each form of involvement prospectively predicted unique configurations of children's developmental outcomes. Greater coercive involvement was associated with higher levels of externalizing problems, callous and unemotional traits, and extraversion. Higher levels of caregiving involvement were linked with greater separation anxiety. Finally, cautious involvement predicted more separation anxiety and social withdrawal.
Prevalence estimates of neurodevelopmental disorders (ND) are essential for treatment planning. However, epidemiological research has yielded highly variable rates across countries, including Spain. This study examined the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of ND in a school sample of Spanish children and adolescents.
Methods
The Child Behaviour Checklist/Teacher's Report Form/Youth Self-Report and the Conners' Rating Scales were administered for screening purposes. Additionally, teachers provided information on reading and writing difficulties. Subjects who screened positive were interviewed for diagnostic confirmation according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria. The final population comprised 6834 students aged 5–17. Multivariate analyses were performed to determine the influence of gender, age, educational stage, school type, socioeconomic status (SES), and ethnicity on the prevalence estimates.
Results
A total of 1249 (18.3%) subjects met criteria for at least one ND, although only 423 had already received a diagnosis. Specifically, the following prevalence rates were found: intellectual disabilities (ID), 0.63%; communication disorders, 1.05%; autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 0.70%; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 9.92%; specific learning disorder (SLD), 10.0%; and motor disorders, 0.76%. Students of foreign origin and from low SES evidenced higher odds of having ID. Boys were more likely to display ASD or a motor disorder. Age, SES, and ethnicity were significant predictors for SLD, while communication disorders and ADHD were also associated with gender.
Conclusions
The prevalence of ND among Spanish students is consistent with international studies. However, a substantial proportion had never been previously diagnosed, which emphasise the need for early detection and intervention programmes.
It is important to understand the temporal trend of the paediatric severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral load to estimate the transmission potential of children in schools and communities. We determined the differences in SARS-CoV-2 viral load dynamics between nasopharyngeal samples of infected asymptomatic and symptomatic children. Serial cycle threshold values of SARS-CoV-2 from the nasopharynx of a cohort of infected children were collected for analysis. Among 17 infected children, 10 (58.8%) were symptomatic. Symptomatic children, when compared to asymptomatic children, had higher viral loads (mean cycle threshold on day 7 of illness 28.6 vs. 36.7, P = 0.02). Peak SARS-CoV-2 viral loads occurred around day 2 of illness in infected children. Although we were unable to directly demonstrate infectivity, the detection of significant amount of virus in the upper airway of asymptomatic children suggest that they have the potential to shed and transmit SARS-CoV-2. Our study highlights the importance of contact tracing and screening for SARS-CoV-2 in children with epidemiological risk factors regardless of their symptom status, in order to improve containment of the virus in the community, including educational settings.
This study aimed to assess whether the long-term effectiveness of the Melbourne Infant, Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial (INFANT) at 2 and 3·5 years post-intervention varied according to maternal education and age.
Design:
Two and 3·5 years post-intervention follow-up of the INFANT cluster-randomised controlled trial. Outcomes at both follow-ups included children’s BMI z-scores, physical activity (ActiGraph), television viewing (parental report) and dietary intake (3 × 24-h dietary recalls). Dichotomous moderator variables included maternal education (university v. no university) and age (< 32 v. ≥ 32 years).
Setting:
Population based.
Participants:
Families completing the 15-month programme (n 492) were invited to participate in the follow-ups when their child was 3·6 and 5 years old.
Results:
At the 2-year follow-up, the intervention effects on vegetable (positive) and sweet snack (negative) intake were greater in children with higher educated mothers, whereas water consumption (positive) was greater in children with lower educated mothers. At the 2-year follow-up, the intervention was more effective in increasing water consumption in children with younger mothers and decreasing sweet snack intake in children with older mothers (opposite result observed at the 3·5-year follow-up). At the 3·5-year follow-up, children with younger and older mothers increased and decreased their consumption of savoury snacks, respectively.
Conclusions:
Moderation by maternal education and age were observed for some outcomes; however, clear patterns were not evident at both follow-ups, with little consistency across outcomes. This indicates that INFANT was more-or-less equally effective in children irrespective of their mother’s education level or age, which is important in community-based interventions.