Does Poor Handwriting Conceal Literacy Potential in Primary School Children?     

Debra McCarney  Lynne Peters  Sarah Jackson  Marie Thomas  Amanda Kirby 《International Journal of Disability, Development & Education》2013,60(2):105-118

Handwriting is a complex skill that, despite increasing use of computers, still plays a vital role in education. It is assumed that children will master letter formation at a relatively early stage in their school life, with handwriting fluency developing steadily until automaticity is attained. The capacity theory of writing suggests that as automaticity develops, the proportion of working memory dedicated to the mechanics of handwriting is reduced, releasing capacity for the planning, composing and editing of content. This study examined the handwriting ability of 284 mainstream primary school children and explored possible associated factors. Correlations were found between poor handwriting, lower cognitive and literacy scores, and a longer duration for handwriting tasks. Giving children the opportunity to practise their handwriting sufficiently to increase the level of automaticity may release working memory to be applied to the cognitive demands of the task and may potentially raise their level of attainment.  相似文献   

Effects of Home Literacy,Parents' Beliefs,and Children's Task-Focused Behavior on Emergent Literacy and Word Reading Skills     

Kathy A. Stephenson  Rauno K. Parrila  George K. Georgiou  John R. Kirby 《Scientific Studies of Reading》2013,17(1):24-50

We examined the effects of home literacy (shared book reading, teaching activities, and number of books), children's task-focused behavior, and parents' beliefs and expectations about their child's reading and academic ability on kindergarten children's (N = 61) phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge and on Grade 1 word reading. The results showed that, after controlling for nonverbal IQ and vocabulary, home literacy instruction prior to kindergarten, parents' beliefs about their children's reading ability, and children's task-focused behavior were significant predictors of two or more of the dependent variables. Storybook reading did not account for unique variance in any of the dependent variables.  相似文献   

Flexibility in young second‐language learners: examining the language specificity of orthographic processing     

S. Hlne Deacon  Lesly Wade‐Woolley  John R. Kirby 《Journal of Research in Reading》2009,32(2):215-229

This study examines whether orthographic processing transfers across languages to reading when the writing systems under acquisition are sufficiently related. We conducted a study with 76 7‐year‐old English‐first‐language children in French immersion. Measures of English and French orthographic processing (orthographic choice tasks) and standardised measures of English and French word reading (Woodcock and FIAT) were taken, in addition to verbal and nonverbal ability, and phonological and morphological awareness. Analyses reveal significant contributions of orthographic processing to reading both within and across the two languages, despite the inclusion of control variables. Findings of the transfer of orthographic processing skills to reading across languages suggest that orthographic processing may not be as language specific as previously hypothesised. We discuss the several similarities between English and French, such as a shared alphabet and cognates, that may drive transfer across languages in the context of current theories of second‐language reading development.  相似文献   

Strategies for widening access in a quasi-market higher education environment: recent developments in Canada     

Dale Kirby 《Higher Education》2011,62(3):267-278

Under the Canadian constitution, authority over all levels of education, including higher education, rests with each of the individual provinces and territories. Although Canada has one of the highest levels of per capita educational attainment in the world, student access continues to be one of the most dominant policy areas in Canadian higher education. In recent years, a number of significant access policy reforms have been put in place by governments at the national and provincial levels. These initiatives are demonstrative of the continued and growing influence of marketization in Canada’s quasi-market system. This analysis provides some insight into these recent reforms and the influence that market principles have come to have in Canadian policies on both the supply-side and the demand-side of the country’s higher education sector.  相似文献   

Associations between reading achievement and independent reading in early elementary school: a genetically informative cross-lagged study     

Harlaar N  Deater-Deckard K  Thompson LA  Dethorne LS  Petrill SA 《Child development》2011,82(6):2123-2137

This study used a cross-lagged twin design to examine reading achievement and independent reading from 10 to 11 years (n = 436 twin pairs). Reading achievement at age 10 significantly predicted independent reading at age 11. The alternative path, from independent reading at age 10 to reading achievement at age 11, was not significant. Individual differences in reading achievement and independent reading at both ages were primarily due to genetic influences. Furthermore, individual differences in independent reading at age 11 partly reflected genetic influences on reading achievement at age 10. These findings suggest that genetic influences that contribute to individual differences in children's reading abilities also influence the extent to which children actively seek out and create opportunities to read.  相似文献   

Elementary School Children's Reasoning About Social Class: A Mixed‐Methods Study          下载免费PDF全文

Rashmita S. Mistry  Christia S. Brown  Elizabeth S. White  Kirby A. Chow  Cari Gillen‐O'Neel 《Child development》2015,86(5):1653-1671

The current study examined children's identification and reasoning about their subjective social status (SSS), their beliefs about social class groups (i.e., the poor, middle class, and rich), and the associations between the two. Study participants were 117 10‐ to 12‐year‐old children of diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds attending a laboratory elementary school in Southern California. Results indicated that children's SSS ratings correlated with indicators of family socioeconomic status and were informed by material possessions, lifestyle characteristics, and social and societal comparisons. Children rated the poor as having fewer positive attributes and more negative attributes than the middle class, and fewer positive attributes than the rich. Lower SSS children held less positive attitudes toward the poor than children with middle SSS ratings.  相似文献   

Enhancing sensitivity and specificity in rare cell capture microdevices with dielectrophoresis     

James P. Smith  Chao Huang  Brian J. Kirby 《Biomicrofluidics》2015,9(1)

The capture and subsequent analysis of rare cells, such as circulating tumor cells from a peripheral blood sample, has the potential to advance our understanding and treatment of a wide range of diseases. There is a particular need for high purity (i.e., high specificity) techniques to isolate these cells, reducing the time and cost required for single-cell genetic analyses by decreasing the number of contaminating cells analyzed. Previous work has shown that antibody-based immunocapture can be combined with dielectrophoresis (DEP) to differentially isolate cancer cells from leukocytes in a characterization device. Here, we build on that work by developing numerical simulations that identify microfluidic obstacle array geometries where DEP–immunocapture can be used to maximize the capture of target rare cells, while minimizing the capture of contaminating cells. We consider geometries with electrodes offset from the array and parallel to the fluid flow, maximizing the magnitude of the resulting electric field at the obstacles'' leading and trailing edges, and minimizing it at the obstacles'' shoulders. This configuration attracts cells with a positive DEP (pDEP) response to the leading edge, where the shear stress is low and residence time is long, resulting in a high capture probability; although these cells are also repelled from the shoulder region, the high local fluid velocity at the shoulder minimizes the impact on the overall transport and capture. Likewise, cells undergoing negative DEP (nDEP) are repelled from regions of high capture probability and attracted to regions where capture is unlikely. These simulations predict that DEP can be used to reduce the probability of capturing contaminating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (using nDEP) from 0.16 to 0.01 while simultaneously increasing the capture of several pancreatic cancer cell lines from 0.03–0.10 to 0.14–0.55, laying the groundwork for the experimental study of hybrid DEP–immunocapture obstacle array microdevices.  相似文献   

Childrearing discipline and violence in developing countries     

Lansford JE  Deater-Deckard K 《Child development》2012,83(1):62-75

The present study examined the prevalence and country-level correlates of 11 responses to children's behavior, including nonviolent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical violence, as well as endorsement of the use of physical punishment, in 24 countries using data from 30,470 families with 2- to 4-year-old children that participated in UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. The prevalence of each response varied widely across countries, as did the amount of variance accounted for by country in relation to each response. Country-level indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment, and economic well-being were related to several responses to children's behavior. Country-level factors are widely related to parents' methods of teaching children good behavior and responding to misbehavior.  相似文献   

Homelessness in the elementary school classroom: social and emotional consequences     

Kirby A. Chow  Vanessa L. Melchor 《International journal of qualitative studies in education》2013,26(6):641-662

This study examined elementary school teachers’ experiences working with homeless students. Specifically, we focused on the psychosocial impacts of homelessness on students and their teachers. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 teachers who worked at designated public schools for family homeless shelters. A prominent theme that emerged from teachers’ accounts was how the instability tied to homelessness affected students’ behavioral, social, and emotional adjustment in the classroom (e.g. externalizing problems, difficulty developing peer relationships, and withdrawn behavior). Teachers’ own social and emotional competencies (e.g. fostering positive teacher–student relationships, and perspective taking) influenced the manner in which they responded to their students’ needs. Findings suggest that critical components may be lacking articulation in the McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program such as guidelines for teacher responsibilities, supports for teachers, and an emphasis not only on children’s academic but also social and emotional needs.  相似文献   

Reliability of the Straight-Arm Hang for Testing Muscular Endurance among Children 2 to 5     

Carl Gabbard  Tim Kirby  Patrick Patterson 《Research quarterly for exercise and sport》2013,84(4):735-738

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