Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality

Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure

Living and Learning With New Media: Summary of Findings From the Digital Youth Project

Summarizes findings from a three-year study of how new media have been integrated into youth behaviors and have changed the dynamics of media literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge. Outlines implications for educators, parents, and policy makers

Increasing appropriate social communication and pragmatic language skills in young adults with autism spectrum disorders

This report seeks to explore intervention methodologies that can be adapted for use with young transitional adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to increase appropriate social communication. No interventions have been developed explicitly for use in speech-language therapy with young adults with ASD. As a result, existing interventions have to be adapted to use with this population. The interventions that were adapted were Behavioral Interventions, Developmental Social Pragmatic Interventions, and Enhanced Milieu Teaching. The adaptations of the reviewed interventions were illustrated by creating an instructional video to highlight how to use the interventions and their adaptations with an adult with ASD. The author and participant consider the video development and final product to be a success; however, until peer-reviewed efficacy studies that explore the effects of these intervention adaptations with young-adults with ASD are conducted, the author cannot assert that the intervention adaptations discussed will be effective therapy strategies for young adults with ASD.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Introducing Identity

This chapter provides an introductory overview of theories of identity and indicates some of the broad ways in which they might be applied to young people's interactions with digital media. The first part of the chapter offers a brief account of five major areas of theory: social-psychological theories of adolescence; sociological theories of youth culture; theories of social identity, and the relations between individuals and groups; notions of identity politics; and theories of subjectivity and modernity. The second part of the chapter covers three major themes that are at stake in the analysis of young people and digital media: theories of technology; the notion of young people as a "digital generation"; and the place of learning, both in and beyond schools. In this course of this broad-ranging overview, the chapter also prefigures some of the more specific themes addressed in the chapters that make up the remainder of the volume

Community Instruction and Vocational Learning

This meta-synthesis on community-based instruction and vocational learning in special education explores the training and skills individuals with disabilities require need to survive and thrive in employment and post-school activities designed to improve self-reliance, personal responsibility, and increase exposure to the community and all of the activities and opportunities that exist there. Substantial barriers must be addressed for all individuals with disabilities, but particularly for those individuals with moderate to more severe disabilities. Through proper trainings, and the utilization of the necessary tools and equipment, individuals with disabilities will continue to increasingly transition into meaningful employment and community-based programs intended to build self-sufficiency

Listening to young children talking on the telephone: a reassessment of Vygotsky's notion of 'egocentric speech'.

In this article the author explores aspects of young children's private speech, examining characteristics of their development of discourse knowledge in utterances that are not directed to actual conversants. Two routes are taken, which the author tries to interlink without seeking a hard and fast juncture. The first is a study of what children are doing when they talk into a toy telephone, with reference to a transcript taken from empirical research. Knowledge of the essential structure of telephone discourse is displayed, as are emotional motivations behind the construction of pretence talk. The second is the notion of 'egocentric speech' as coined by Piaget and developed, within his sociocultural perspective to language acquisition, by Vygotsky. The author argues that dominant contemporary presentations of Vygotsky's notion of 'egocentric speech' tend to stress the self-regulatory or planning function at the expense of its role in expression of the imagination. The two discussions come together in the suggestion that the deployment of the imagination in reassembling sociocultural knowledge for the creation of pretence play, sometimes expressed in private speech, can be a significant factor in the exercise of discourse competencies for young children

Child-mediated health communication: A conceptual framework for increasing stroke literacy in hard to reach populations

Effectively engaging economically-disadvantaged ethnic minority communities for promoting health has proved to be challenging for a variety of reasons, including factors related to healthcare access, literacy, inadequate or ineffective cultural appropriateness of materials, and the relatively low priority for health due to competing demands related to economic hardship. We have developed a framework of Child-Mediated Health Communication (CMHC), which focuses on children as channels for carrying out health promotion interventions to parents and other caregivers. CMHC is an innovative, alternative strategy for engaging this underserved population, where traditional methods of health promotion have not been successful. We discuss the theoretical foundation, development, and effectiveness of a CMHC framework in our stroke preparedness communication intervention, Hip Hop Stroke

Preventing suicide by young people

Introduction In 2013, 2,522 people died by suicide in Australia. Twenty-two of these were children aged 5- 14 years, 148 were adolescents aged 15-19 years, and a further 200 were young people aged 20-24 years. Although the suicide rate for children and adolescents is lower than that for some older age groups, suicide is the leading cause of death in children and young people. Suicide has immense effects on the families, friends, and communities of people who die by suicide, causing long lasting grief and guilt. Arguably, these effects are even greater when the person who died by suicide is young. It is estimated that suicide costs the Australian economy more than $17 billion per year. Researchers and policy makers recognise that suicide is preventable, yet suicide rates have changed little in the past 10 years. This discussion paper aims to focus a spotlight on the unique experience of young people. It does this by providing a critical analysis of existing policy and evidence based responses relevant to young people