The third voice: Do enhanced e-books enhance the benefits of shared story reading with preschoolers?

This study from which this paper draws examined the benefits of reading plain e-books (with parental instruction) compared to enhanced e-books (with limited parental direction) with 3- to 5-year-old children. Interaction was measured through parent-child verbal communication and eye contact. Engagement was measured through time spent visually focused on the story, and retention was measured through open-ended story event recall questions and multiple-choice story vocabulary questions. There were no differences between the enhanced and plain e-book conditions in children’s qualitative engagement with the story, or in the amounts of vocabulary or story events they retained. While enhanced e-books resulted in more time spent gazing at the device, parents and children were significantly more interactive when reading plain e-books. These findings suggest that while both plain and enhanced e-books are effective in aiding children’s retention of words and story events, plain e-books read by a caregiver are better at promoting meaningful conversation

More is more in language learning:reconsidering the less-is-more hypothesis

The Less-is-More hypothesis was proposed to explain age-of-acquisition effects in first language (L1) acquisition and second language (L2) attainment. We scrutinize different renditions of the hypothesis by examining how learning outcomes are affected by (1) limited cognitive capacity, (2) reduced interference resulting from less prior knowledge, and (3) simplified language input. While there is little-to-no evidence of benefits of limited cognitive capacity, there is ample support for a More-is-More account linking enhanced capacity with better L1- and L2-learning outcomes, and reduced capacity with childhood language disorders. Instead, reduced prior knowledge (relative to adults) may afford children with greater flexibility in inductive inference; this contradicts the idea that children benefit from a more constrained hypothesis space. Finally, studies of childdirected speech (CDS) confirm benefits from less complex input at early stages, but also emphasize how greater lexical and syntactic complexity of the input confers benefits in L1-attainment

Modular Distance Education: The Role of Socio Demographic Profile, Family Structure, and Parental Involvement on the Student’s Final Grade in Science

The current descriptive-correlational study focused on the role of socio-demographic profile, family structure, and parental involvement on the student’s academic achievement in science during the Modular Distance Education at Bugallon Integrated School. Correlation analysis showed that gender is highly related to the students’ final grade in science (r = 0.167, p < 0.05), number of devices available is highly related to final grade in science (r = 0.326, p < 0.01), and internet usage is highly related to final grade in science (r = 0.245, p < 0.01). For parents’ socio-demographic characteristics, correlation analysis showed that income is positively highly related to the students’ final grade in science (r = 0.241, p < 0.01), father’s educational attainment is positively related to the students’ final grade in science (r = 0.191, p < 0.05), and mother’s educational attainment is positively highly related to the students’ final grade in science (r = 0.332, p < 0.01). The student's Family Structure was not significantly related to the students’ final grade in science. The number of learners in household was also not significantly related to science grade. For parental involvement, retrieval of student’s modules in school (r = 0.251, p < 0.01), enquiring the teachers  on the student’s performance in their modules (r = 0.217, p < 0.01), encouraging the student to do their performance task (r = 0.390, p < 0.01), monitoring the student’s television watching habit and playing games (r = 0.272, p < 0.01), and involving the student in decision making regarding their education (r = 0.220, p < 0.01) were the only significantly related to academic achievement in science as manifested by science grade which was shown by the correlation analysis. Further, the study did not show any significant difference between the family structure (living with whom), and students’ final grade in science

Collecting Data from Children Ages 9-13

Provides a summary of literature on common methods used to collect data, such as diaries, interviews, observational methods, and surveys. Analyzes age group-specific considerations, advantages, and drawbacks, with tips for improving data quality

The linguistics of gender

This chapter explores grammatical gender as a linguistic phenomenon. First, I define gender in terms of agreement, and look at the parts of speech that can take gender agreement. Because it relates to assumptions underlying much psycholinguistic gender research, I also examine the reasons why gender systems are thought to emerge, change, and disappear. Then, I describe the gender system of Dutch. The frequent confusion about the number of genders in Dutch will be resolved by looking at the history of the system, and the role of pronominal reference therein. In addition, I report on three lexical- statistical analyses of the distribution of genders in the language. After having dealt with Dutch, I look at whether the genders of Dutch and other languages are more or less randomly assigned, or whether there is some system to it. In contrast to what many people think, regularities do indeed exist. Native speakers could in principle exploit such regularities to compute rather than memorize gender, at least in part. Although this should be taken into account as a possibility, I will also argue that it is by no means a necessary implication

The pattern of blood loss in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Background context Previous studies have shown that modern intraoperative blood-saving techniques dramatically reduce the allogeneic transfusion requirements in surgery for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). No studies have looked at the pattern of postoperative hemoglobin (Hb) in AIS patients undergoing corrective spinal surgery and correlated this with the timing of allogeneic transfusion. Purpose To describe the pattern of perioperative blood loss in instrumented surgery for AIS. We look at the recommendations regarding an ideal preoperative Hb, the need for preoperative cross-matching, and the timing of postoperative Hb analysis. Study design This was a retrospective case series. Surgeries were performed by one of four substantive pediatric spinal surgeons within a single regional center over a 3-year period. Patient sample A consecutive series of 86 patients who underwent posterior instrumented fusion for AIS were included: 10 males and 76 females. Mean age was 14 years (range 10–17 years). All patients had posterior instrumented fusion using various blood-saving techniques (eg, cell-saver). All patients were cross-matched preoperatively, and our transfusion trigger value (TTV) was 7 g/dL. Outcome measures Hemoglobin level was the outcome measure. Hemoglobin readings were obtained preoperatively, within 2 hours of surgery, and daily up to 5 days after surgery. This physiologic measure was assessed using routine blood sampling techniques and standardized laboratory processing. Methods Patient predictor variables (demographic and surgical) were assessed for association with Hb levels in a hierarchical model, with repeated Hb readings at the lower level being clustered within an individual patient at the upper level of the structure. The variation of Hb levels within individuals was compared with mean levels in different individuals via the variance partition coefficient of the model structure. Results No patients required intraoperative allogeneic transfusion. Only four patients (4.65%) received allogeneic transfusion, all within 2 days of surgery. A clinically important drop in Hb occurred within the first 2 postoperative days, rising thereafter. The average postoperative drop in Hb was 4.1 g/dL. Young males had lower postoperative Hb values. Neither the preoperative curve magnitude (Cobb angle of major curve) nor the number of vertebrae/levels fused significantly affected the blood loss. Conclusions We recommend setting a minimum preoperative Hb value that is 5 g/dL higher than your TTV. Because no patients required an intraoperative transfusion when using modern blood-saving techniques, preoperative cross-matching is unnecessary and potentially wasteful of blood reserves. Hemoglobin analysis beyond the second postoperative day is unnecessary unless clinically indicate

A Transcendental Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of Parents\u27 Motivational Influence Behind Their Children\u27s Screen Time Usage

The purpose of this transcendental qualitative phenomenological study explores the lived experience of parents in managing their children\u27s screen time on mobile devices. The study used 10 parents between 25 and 40 years of age of children ages one to five who attend a public school district and regularly use smartphones and related mobile technological devices. The study describes the essence of children\u27s screen time on digital devices, such as smartphones and tablets, by examining the experiences of a specific group of parents. Parents have experienced conflicts in managing their children\u27s screen time usage for as long as screens exist. Overusing digital devices such as smartphones and tablets concerns stakeholders such as parents, educators, psychologists, pediatricians, policymakers, and researchers, who worry about whether too much screen time will benefit children. The theory that guided this study is the social learning theory proposed by Bandura, which focuses on imitation. The phenomenological research design examined parents\u27 experience of mobile devices that motivate children to screen time. Data were collected by three different methods: interviews, focus groups, and e-journals, which capture the participants\u27 information and developmental themes based on the responses. The data was analyzed and triangulated by coding and determined themes emerged. Four themes emerged: technology saturation, parental influence, behavior modification, parent interest in media platforms, and three sub-themes: home environment, the convenience of mobile devices, and older sibling influences. The study found that parents in the home environment are the motivation behind their children\u27s screen time over usage. Future research recommendations include studying the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on children aged 2 to 5 years

Examining the Phenomenon of Juveniles Digital Addiction in Rural China

Digital addiction among China's rural juveniles escalates and hampers the harmony and stability of families and society. This paper investigates digital addiction among rural juveniles in China. Semi-structured interviews selected six relevant respondents in rural Shaanxi Province as samples. The study explores the degree, characteristics, causes, effects, and prevention and control of rural juveniles' digital addiction. The findings reveal the importance of digital literacy education, parent-child cognitive dislocation, and the complexity of rural juveniles' digital addiction. The study has limitations, including its limited research perspective and the need for more typical cases for analysis and discussion. Keywords: Digital addiction; Rural juveniles; Social work; Digital literacy eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2023. The Authors. Published for AMER & cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia DOI