Macrostructure and microstructure in narratives of Spanish/English bilingual children with and without language impairment (LI)

There is limited research on character mention and noun phrase elaboration in the narratives of Spanish-English kindergarten and first graders. The current study was designed to determine whether typically developing (TD) Spanish- English bilingual children differed from children with language impairment (LI) in their use of character mentions, noun phrase elaboration, and noun modifier agreement in their English and Spanish narrative productions at kindergarten and first grade. The current study is a longitudinal study including 16 children with LI and 16 TD peers who were matched on age, sex, nonverbal IQ and language exposure. In kindergarten and first grade, the children retold a narrative using a wordless picture book in both Spanish and English. The findings revealed that the ability groups (LI and TD) significantly differed in their use of English character mention, English and Spanish noun phrase elaboration, use of Spanish type of noun phrase elaboration (level I), and noun-modifier agreement in narrative retells. Children in both groups (TD, LI) retold more complex narratives that vii included more characters and noun phrase elaboration at first grade than kindergarten. Despite these significant findings, the two groups did not develop character mention or noun phrase elaboration in their Spanish or English narratives at different rates across the two years. In the children’s Spanish retells, the children with LI committed more noun modifier agreement errors than the TD children; however, the two ability groups (LI, TD) did not develop noun modifier agreement at different rates. Similarity between the TD and the LI groups on character mention and noun phrase elaboration development may be due to the fact that both children were only beginning to incorporate noun phrase elaboration (i.e. adjectives, ENP) in their narrative retells.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Perceptual and acoustic gender differences in the speech of 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 year old children.

The linguistic factors which identify a speaker as being either male or female are reasonably well understood and documented when we are considering adult speakers. Many of these factors become apparent at puberty when the sexes diverge along predictable anatomical and physiological paths. It might be expected, therefore, that prepubertal children should appear relatively undifferentiated in terms of gender and that young boys' and girls' speech should be sexually homogenous. This study has confirmed, however, that adult listeners can correctly identify the sex of a prepubertal child from samples of speech. Results of the present study yielded correct identification rates which varied between 66% (using isolated vowels as the sample) and 76% (using sentences as the sample) - all of these rates were significantly greater than chance. Girls were shown to be better identified by listeners than boys and female listeners tended to be more accurate at identifying gender than male listeners. During the acoustic phase of the study, a number of parameters were selected for measurement which were regarded as likely to be involved in the gender-identification process. Overall, there was a surprisingly large number of negative results, with only a very few parameters yielding significantly sex-different outcomes. No differences were found in Fo between the sexes and only 5 out of 18 comparisons of formant frequency showed significant differences. An investigation into vocal breathiness indicated that, on the basis of this parameter, children could be assigned into perceptual groupings ('most / least male-like') better than into biological sex groupings ('boy / girl'). The conclusion reached is that listeners may use different acoustic cues to identify children's sex from speech than adult's sex, alternatively or additionally, they may be able to focus their perceptive skills more finely on the small acoustic inequalities that exist. The concept of gender-specific speech is discussed in a general commentary of the various influences exerted in the formation of gendered-identities

Affective issues in learning technologies: emotional responses to technology and technology's role in supporting socio-emotional skills

This paper focuses on some of the author's research studies over the past thirty years and places these in a wider context to reflect on research into affective issues in learning technologies over this period, and to consider whether and how the issues uncovered by research have changed as technologies have developed over time. Three issues are given particular attention: firstly the reasons for learners' use or lack of use of technologies for their learning; secondly adult learners' attitudes towards using technology for learning and thirdly how technology might support socio-emotional development and expression in children. The discussion of these issues is framed by two of the author's research projects. For the first two issues this is an early study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards using computers for tutorial learning in 1980. The factors that influenced the students' use of the computer tutorials are discussed (including access, assessment and anxiety about using computers) and also the extent to which some of these factors persist for many learners using (or not using) technologies today. The discussion of the third issue draws on a series of studies conducted in the 1990s to investigate whether educational technology could support children and young people's emotional expression and communication and development of socio-emotional skills. Finally the paper considers how these kinds of issues have been taken forward and how they are represented in contemporary research and suggests that trust is an important factor in using learning technologies

Affective issues in learning technologies: emotional responses to technology and technology's role in supporting socio-emotional skills

This paper focuses on some of the author's research studies over the past thirty years and places these in a wider context to reflect on research into affective issues in learning technologies over this period, and to consider whether and how the issues uncovered by research have changed as technologies have developed over time. Three issues are given particular attention: firstly the reasons for learners' use or lack of use of technologies for their learning; secondly adult learners' attitudes towards using technology for learning and thirdly how technology might support socio-emotional development and expression in children. The discussion of these issues is framed by two of the author's research projects. For the first two issues this is an early study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards using computers for tutorial learning in 1980. The factors that influenced the students' use of the computer tutorials are discussed (including access, assessment and anxiety about using computers) and also the extent to which some of these factors persist for many learners using (or not using) technologies today. The discussion of the third issue draws on a series of studies conducted in the 1990s to investigate whether educational technology could support children and young people's emotional expression and communication and development of socio-emotional skills. Finally the paper considers how these kinds of issues have been taken forward and how they are represented in contemporary research and suggests that trust is an important factor in using learning technologies

The development of emotion recognition from facial expressions and non-linguistic vocalizations during childhood

Sensitivity to facial and vocal emotion is fundamental to children's social competence. Previous research has focused on children's facial emotion recognition, and few studies have investigated non-linguistic vocal emotion processing in childhood. We compared facial and vocal emotion recognition and processing biases in 4- to 11-year-olds and adults. Eighty-eight 4- to 11-year-olds and 21 adults participated. Participants viewed/listened to faces and voices (angry, happy, and sad) at three intensity levels (50%, 75%, and 100%). Non-linguistic tones were used. For each modality, participants completed an emotion identification task. Accuracy and bias for each emotion and modality were compared across 4- to 5-, 6- to 9- and 10- to 11-year-olds and adults. The results showed that children's emotion recognition improved with age; preschoolers were less accurate than other groups. Facial emotion recognition reached adult levels by 11 years, whereas vocal emotion recognition continued to develop in late childhood. Response bias decreased with age. For both modalities, sadness recognition was delayed across development relative to anger and happiness. The results demonstrate that developmental trajectories of emotion processing differ as a function of emotion type and stimulus modality. In addition, vocal emotion processing showed a more protracted developmental trajectory, compared to facial emotion processing. The results have important implications for programmes aiming to improve children's socio-emotional competence

(In)visible Witnesses: Young people's views of images of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians on UK children's television from a gender perspective (Research Briefing)

This briefing is based on the (In)visible Witnesses study by a team of researchers led by Liz Whitelegg and Richard Holliman at the Open University. This project is one of five commissioned by the UKRC to explore issues around the role of the media and representations of women in STEM. This briefing looks at the (re)construction of gendered representations of STEM on children's television and investigates the ways in which these images affected children's and young people's perceptions of STEM. The content of two weeks of children's television was analysed. Following this, 45 children and young people were involved in a study which looked at how children and young people made sense of the STEM they watch on television. Several methods were used to elicit children's and young people's perceptions of STEM and their place within these fields in the future - a questionnaire, 'draw-a-scientist' test, reflective writing about their future selves as scientists and the creation of a 'storyboard' for a TV programme