Child Development

Epigenetic mechanism mediating the impact of child adversity on life-long adverse behavior

by Andrés Ginestet

Although epidemiological data provide evidence that early life experience plays a critical role in human development,... more Although epidemiological data provide evidence that early life experience plays a critical role in human development, the mechanism of how this works remains in question. Recent data from human and animal literature suggest that epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation, are involved not only in cellular differentiation, but also in the modulation of genome function in response to early life experience affecting gene
function and the phenotype. Such modulations may serve as a mechanism for life-long genome adaptation.
These changes seem to be widely distributed across the genome and to involve central and peripheral systems. Examining the environmental circumstances associated with the onset and reversal of DNA methylation will be critical for understanding risk and resiliency.

Psychology in ordinary lives

by Sardar Anwaruddin

Do children understand man's best friend? Classification of dog barks by pre-adolescents and adults

by Csaba Molnar

Play back experiments compared the ability of children (aged 6, 8, and 10 years) and adults to discriminate dog barks... more Play back experiments compared the ability of children (aged 6, 8, and 10 years) and adults to discriminate dog barks recorded in three different contexts. Participants had to categorize barks according to recording context, and to characterize the inner states of dogs by relating barks to facial expression of humans. It was found that older children classified more barks correctly. Children in all groups classified barks at a Stranger significantly above chance level, however, only the ten-year-old children and adults could classify Play barks over the chance level. There were no significant differences between the groups performances in the inner state characterization task. Stranger barks were considered as more angry, while Alone barks were indicated as being more fearful. In the case of Play barks, participants had more difficulties in characterization. Overall we found only slight differences between the performances of preschoolers and adults. This shows that the ability of understanding basic inner states of dogs on the basis of acoustic signals is present in humans from a very young age. These results are in sharp contrast with other reports in the literature which showed that young children tend to misinterpret canine visual signals.

Colic: A Culture-Bound Syndrome

by Bridget McGann

This paper discusses the evolutionary, physiological, and cultural dimensions of the long-evolved infant communication... more This paper discusses the evolutionary, physiological, and cultural dimensions of the long-evolved infant communication system, in particularly with regards to the tendency of Western infants towards excessive crying. Is there some kind of reason that millions of parents must lose so much sleep during their childbearing years? It draws on the work of Ronald Barr of the University of British Columbia, James McKenna of the University of Notre Dame, Sarah Hrdy of UC Davis and others to discuss how the development of the bipedal pelvis and the increasing size of the cranium resulted in a human infant that is uniquely vulnerable among mammals, and the adaptations that it developed in order to survive.  I explore the finely-tuned communication system wherein the infant regulates it's internal state by making noise (crying) to attract the attention of caregivers.  This particular adaptation has come into conflict with the Western lifestyle, manifesting itself as colic, which I believe to be not a pathological condition as it is considered by Western biomedicine, but a culture-bound system unique to that culture. Understanding infant behavior from an evolutionary perspective and applying more biologically appropriate caregiving strategies may be therapeutic for infants who are diagnosed with colic.  This research has implications in the field of Applied Anthropology, in the clinical practice of pediatricians and, possibly most importantly, aiding in the prevention of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Developmental expectations of preschoolers by Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean urban mothers.

by Airil Haimi Mohd Adnan

(2012) - refereed proceedings.
Co-authored with Nurulhayati Ilias.

Second International Congress of Interdisciplinary Research and Development (INRIT) / May 31st to June 1st, 2012, Bangkok, THAILAND.

Enhancing learning and retention through ‘cognitive linkages’: a case study of Malaysian children.

by Airil Haimi Mohd Adnan

(2012) - refereed proceedings.
Co-authored with Nurulhayati Ilias (lead).

Second International Congress of Interdisciplinary Research and Development (INRIT) / May 31st to June 1st, 2012, Bangkok, THAILAND.

Like a Kid in a Candy Shop: Truth and Discourse in DeLillo’s White Noise

by Beau Wuthrich

During the Enlightenment Period of the 19th Century, Immanuel Kant rejected the belief in the ability of the human... more During the Enlightenment Period of the 19th Century, Immanuel Kant rejected the belief in the ability of the human mind to understand the universe in its entirety with his Critique of Pure Reason. Kant’s claim was that human perception was in fact a unity of manifolds which determinately synthesized experience, binding the human subject into time, space and causality and separating him or her from the ontological, or “real” world. For Kant, there were aspects of the universe entirely indecipherable to and unintelligible by human subjects. Kant termed this transcendental spirit numen. In his breakout novel, White Noise, Don DeLillo explores Kant’s numen and the role it plays in the postmodern age. The perceptions of DeLillo’s characters reflect a certain detachment from and estrangement to the world of the objective. In this era, it is the signs and symbols man has created for himself which transcend and override the ontological cosmos and in effect replace it, attaining a higher order of valence for the individual. For DeLillo’s protagonist, Jack Gladney, the antithesis of this world of Baudrillardian simulacra is the abyss, death, the intangible and unsignafiable state of human consciousness. Death is a state of non-existence, hostile and intangible to the psyche; in other words, the perfect historical expression of Kant’s undetected numen or, as allegorized by Jack’s son Heinrich via scientific narrative, the invisible “neutrinos [that] go right through the earth” (DeLillo, 34), imperceptible “waves and radiation” (38). DeLillo’s novel gestures toward the authoritative systems and structures erected to barricade humanity against death: the abstract and discursive institutions Mark Conroy describes as the “master narratives of cultural transmission in Jack Gladney's universe: the familial, the civic, the humanist and the religious” (“From Tombstone to Tabloid.” 97), or, to use a more concrete example, the psychically-invested dams against death, the Pyramids of Giza or the Great Wall of China invested in by their dead erectors (DeLillo, 159). The rising question relates to the actual nature of truth and whether there truly is a Real-Real to go back to.

Kotler,Schiffman,Hanson.2012.the influence of media on food preferences

by Katherine G. Hanson

What Were These Characters Thinking?! Using Sufi Tales to Cultivate Critical Thinking in Children (co-author)

by Jurgis (George) Brakas

The purpose of this essay is to help elementary school teachers use picture storybooks to develop their students’... more The purpose of this essay is to help elementary school teachers use picture storybooks to develop their students’ critical thinking skills, arguably the most important skill students can learn. To achieve that purpose, we selected four delightful Sufi tales written for Western children, tales in which the thinking of the characters has gone or does go awry. Each story raises its own perplexing question: Why would an old woman insist an eagle is a pigeon? How could five men—in the same situation and confronted with the same object—arrive at five widely different and incorrect identifications of that object? How does a chicken frighten a group of townspeople to the point where they want to escape from the earth? Why would villagers be terrified by a fruit? These are all questions that involve critical thinking issues. The framework we use for analyzing the stories is a modified version of Paul and Elder’s Elements of Thought and the work of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge. Our approach is to summarize the stories; to systematically apply our framework to each story, thereby providing teachers with a tool for helping children comprehend them; to offer, on that basis, a brief, narrative account of the significance of each story, indicating in what way the thinking of the characters has gone awry and what principle of thinking would have prevented it; and, finally, to add a few open-ended questions to illustrate how the principles of thinking in each story can be applied to the personal lives of the children. Our approach integrates teaching philosophy and reading comprehension in a way that makes it fit naturally into the elementary school curriculum, literacy activities being an integral part of it. What the children learn can serve as a foundation for them as they begin to develop a system of thought for decision-making and problem-solving that will serve them well throughout their lives.

BOOK RELEASE

by Katie Thomas

Early Childhood: Laying the Foundations for Life

by Katie Thomas

Language development and cultural identity evolution of children from multilingual families in Taiwan.

by Shin-Mei Kao

Kao, Shin-Mei. (2008). Language development and cultural identity evolution of children from multilingual families in Taiwan. In A. Nicolaev & J. Niemi (Eds.), Two or more languages: Proceedings from the 9th Nordic Conference on Bilingualism, August 10-11, 2006, Joensuu, Finland. Studies in Languages, 43: 94-102. Joensuu: University of Joensuu.

ADHD and attention seeking behaviour problems (this paper explains how to distingush the two)

by Nigel Mellor

Attention seeking behaviour problems: paradoxes (this is the first paper on attention seeking behaviour in children - it covers the curious paradoxes surrounding the topic)

by Nigel Mellor

Attention seeking behaviour problems : a time-limited service (this paper describes a structured approach to working with parents in a time-limited way)

by Nigel Mellor

La cooperación al desarrollo y la infancia. Apuntes estratégicos para el caso de España

by Alberto Castillo

Co-authored with Alonso, José Antonio y Aguirre, Pablo y Castillo, Alberto

The aim of this work is to support a strategic approach to the cooperation on the childhood field. For this purpose,... more The aim of this work is to support a strategic approach to the cooperation on the childhood field. For this purpose, the article starts analyzing the relations between childhood and development and proposes a comparative study of the international approaches adopted by different donors. By using a methodology elaborated for this purpose, the study provides an impact assessment, considering both direct and indirect effects, of the Spanish aid in this field. Finally, it elaborates a strategic definition proposal to childhood policies within the framework of the international aid planning systems. Even when the impact assessment and the strategic proposal are related to the Spanish cooperation, the methodology for measurement elaborated in this study and the discuss about the strategic approach could be generalized to other donors.

Treatment of Early Onset Schizophrenia: Recent Trends, Challenges and Future Considerations

by Nora S Vyas

Nora S. Vyas, Nitin Gogtay (2012)

Frontiers Psychiatry, Vol 3 (Article 29), 1-5
doi:10.3389/fpsyt2012.00029

Early onset schizophrenia (onset before adulthood) is a rare, severe and chronic form of schizophrenia. The clinical... more Early onset schizophrenia (onset before adulthood) is a rare, severe and chronic form of schizophrenia. The clinical presentation of schizophrenia at this unusually early age of onset has been associated with premorbid developmental abnormalities, poor response to neuroleptic treatment, greater admission rates, and poor prognosis. This is a brief, condensed review of current treatment strategies for the early onset population highlighting the need for novel treatment strategies for these generally treatment refractory cses. Based on the current literature, second generation antipsychotics remain the mainstay of treatment, although current medications provide suboptimal response at best. Based on the adult literature, combining antipsychotic treatment with psychotherapeutic intervention may be a more comprehensive treatment strategy. Indeed, early detection, identification of relevant biomarkers, coupled with advancing knowledge of the neurochemical and neuroanatomic pathways may help design informed and novel treatment strategies.

Educational Transitions within the UK: What is known and what needs to be investigated?

by Katherine Cartmell

Cartmell, K. M. (2011) Educational Transitions within the UK: What is known and what needs to be investigated? The Psychology of Education Review, 35 (1). pp. 27-32.

Hanafin, S., Brooks, A-M., Macken, A., Brady, G., McKeever, R., Judge, C., Ryan, B., Nic Gabhainn, S. & Gavin, A. (2008). State of the Nation’s Children: Ireland 2008. Dublin: Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Department of Health and Children.

by Saoirse Nic Gabhainn

Anxiety and Fear in Children’s Films

by Halil Eksi

Rıdvan ŞENTÜRK
Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice - 11(3) • Summer • 1122-1132

Children’s movies bear so many significant features that it should be studied from many aspects. In fact, one ofmore Children’s movies bear so many significant features that it should be studied from many aspects. In fact, one of
the issues very often encountered in researches and analyses done so far, is the element of terror exposed in
children’s movies. Nevertheless, first how the basic feelings such as fear and anxiety are produced and formed
in children’s movies should be discussed so that the concept of terror can be fully perceived and evaluated. In
this context, the production and formation of terror and anxiety in children’s movies cause much more serious,
shocking and permanent influences than terror from the aspect of the psychology and education of children. As
a matter of fact, the feelings of fear and anxiety are not only the psychical influences caused by the applied violence
but also an essential reference nourished and expressed. In this respect, the issue how the feelings of fear
and anxiety are produced should be carefully analyzed and evaluated so that the scenes of violence in children’s
movies can be elaborated upon in depth. For this reason, in this study the concepts of fear and anxiety are defined
and again the historical traces of current culture of horror in movies are pursued, first to prepare the platform
for discussion. Moreover, the research includes the study of a children’s film, Harry Potter, which was chosen
as an example in light of the conceptual definitions mentioned here, whereby the techniques of expression
used in the production and formation of the feelings of fear and anxiety are revealed and expatiated upon. In the
last section of the research, we present suggestions on forming and sharing the conscience of responsibility as
well as on the realization of possible measures required for the protection of children against the potential dangers
pointed at in the field of movies and media.