The quality of caregiver–child interaction is predicted by (caregivers’ perception of) their child’s interests

This current study examines the extent to which children’s interests and caregivers’ sensitivity to their children’s interests are associated with the quality of caregiver–child interaction, and subsequent learning. Eighty-one caregiver–child dyads (24–30-month old children) completed an online shared book-reading task where caregivers and children read two e-books with pictures and descriptions of objects from different categories—one previously determined to be of low and one of high interest to the child (with one novel word-object mapping introduced in each book). We also obtained separate behavioural indices of children’s interests and children’s later recognition of newly introduced word-object mappings. Our findings highlight that the quality of caregiver–child interaction is predicted by children’s interests and caregivers’ perception of children’s interests, although we find only limited overlap between our behavioural indices of children’s interests and caregiver perception of children’s interests. Neither of these factors predicted later novel word recognition. Thus, while the dynamics between higher quality of caregiver–child interaction, children’s interests and learning remain inconclusive, caregivers and children appear to be more attentive, enthusiastic and engaged in reading about topics that (caregivers believe) interest the child. Furthermore, learning in itself seems to be successful, regardless of factors involved, through the mere task of shared book reading

The quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by (caregivers’ perception of) their child’s interests

This current study examines the extent to which children’s interests and caregivers’ sensitivity to their children’s interests are associated with the quality of caregiver-child interaction, and subsequent learning. 81 caregiver-child dyads (24-30-month-old children) completed an online shared book-reading task where caregivers and children read two e-books with pictures and descriptions of objects from different categories – one previously determined to be of low and one of high interest to the child (with one novel word-object mapping introduced in each book). We also obtained separate behavioural indices of children’s interests and children’s later recognition of newly-introduced word-object mappings. Our findings highlight that the quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by children’s interests and caregivers’ perception of children’s interests, although we find only limited overlap between our behavioural indices of children’s interests and caregiver perception of children’s interests. Neither of these factors predicted later novel word recognition. Thus, while the dynamics between higher quality of caregiver-child interaction, children’s interests and learning remain inconclusive, caregivers and children appear to be more attentive, enthusiastic and engaged reading about topics that (caregivers believe) interest the child. Furthermore, learning in itself seems to be successful, regardless of factors involved, through the mere task of shared book-reading

Children’s individual interests are sustained across development and predict later vocabulary development

The current study examines how children’s interests in particular natural object categories emerge and sustain over time, and how these interests influence later vocabulary development. Children’s knowledge and interest in various object categories were indexed by parent estimates of children’s category-specific vocabulary size and interests, and children’s pupillary dilation responses. Data from sixty-seven children tested at eighteen and twenty-four months of age suggested that (i) parent estimates of children’s categorical interests at 18-months was sustained at 24-months; (ii & iii) children’s pupillary arousal to objects from these categories at 18-months was not associated with either their pupillary arousal or parent estimates of children’s interest in those categories at 24-months; and (iv) children’s category-specific vocabulary knowledge at 24-months was significantly associated with parent estimates of children’s interests at 18-months. Taken together, this study documents the longitudinal relationship between children’s interests, parents’ awareness of their children’s interests and later vocabulary development

The quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by (caregivers’ perception of) their child’s interests

This current study examines the extent to which children’s interests and caregivers’ sensitivity to their children’s interests are associated with the quality of caregiver-child interaction, and subsequent learning. 81 caregiver-child dyads (24-30-month-old children) completed an online shared book-reading task where caregivers and children read two e-books with pictures and descriptions of objects from different categories – one previously determined to be of low and one of high interest to the child (with one novel word-object mapping introduced in each book). We also obtained separate behavioural indices of children’s interests and children’s later recognition of newly-introduced word-object mappings. Our findings highlight that the quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by children’s interests and caregivers’ perception of children’s interests, although we find only limited overlap between our behavioural indices of children’s interests and caregiver perception of children’s interests. Neither of these factors predicted later novel word recognition. Thus, while the dynamics between higher quality of caregiver-child interaction, children’s interests and learning remain inconclusive, caregivers and children appear to be more attentive, enthusiastic and engaged reading about topics that (caregivers believe) interest the child. Furthermore, learning in itself seems to be successful, regardless of factors involved, through the mere task of shared book-reading

Supplementary materials S1 to S11 from The quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by (caregivers’ perception of) their child’s interests

R3_RSOS-231677.R1_Supplementary_c-c_interaction

An examination of measures of young children's interest in natural object categories

Developmental research utilizes various different methodologies and measures to study the cognitive development of young children; however, the reliability and validity of such measures have been a critical issue in all areas of research practices. To address this problem, particularly in the area of research on infants’ interests, we examined the convergent validity of previously reported measures of children’s interests in natural object categories, as indexed by (1) parents’ estimation of their child’s interest in the categories, (2) extrinsic (overt choices in a task), (3) intrinsic (looking time toward objects), and (4) physiological (pupil dilation) responses to objects of different categories. Additionally, we also examined the discriminant validity of all the aforementioned measures against the well-established and validated measure of parents’ estimations of children’s vocabulary knowledge. Children completed two tasks: (a) an eye-tracking task, where they were presented with images from a range of defined categories, which collected indices of looking time and pupillary activity; (b) a sticker-choice task, where they were asked to choose between two sticker-images from two different categories belonging to the range of categories assessed in the previous task. Parents completed two questionnaires to estimate (i) their child’s interests and (ii) vocabulary knowledge in the categories presented. We first analyzed the discriminant validity between the two parent measures, and found a significant positive association between them. Our successive analyses showed no strong or significant associations between any of our measures, apart from a significant positive association between children’s looking time and parents’ estimations of children’s vocabulary knowledge. From our findings, we conclude that measures of infants’ interests thus far may not have adequate reliability to adequately capture any relationship between these measures (if present), or index different components of interest in young children. We suggest next steps for further validation studies in infant research

An examination of measures of young children's interest in natural object categories

Developmental research utilizes various different methodologies and measures to study the cognitive development of young children; however, the reliability and validity of such measures have been a critical issue in all areas of research practices. To address this problem, particularly in the area of research on infants' interests, we examined the convergent validity of previously reported measures of children's interests in natural object categories, as indexed by (1) parents' estimation of their child's interest in the categories, (2) extrinsic (overt choices in a task), (3) intrinsic (looking time toward objects), and (4) physiological (pupil dilation) responses to objects of different categories. Additionally, we also examined the discriminant validity of all the aforementioned measures against the well-established and validated measure of parents' estimations of children's vocabulary knowledge. Children completed two tasks: (a) an eye-tracking task, where they were presented with images from a range of defined categories, which collected indices of looking time and pupillary activity; (b) a sticker-choice task, where they were asked to choose between two sticker-images from two different categories belonging to the range of categories assessed in the previous task. Parents completed two questionnaires to estimate (i) their child's interests and (ii) vocabulary knowledge in the categories presented. We first analyzed the discriminant validity between the two parent measures, and found a significant positive association between them. Our successive analyses showed no strong or significant associations between any of our measures, apart from a significant positive association between children's looking time and parents' estimations of children's vocabulary knowledge. From our findings, we conclude that measures of infants' interests thus far may not have sufficient reliability to adequately capture any potential relationship between these measures, or index different components of interest in young children. We suggest next steps for further validation studies in infant research

Egocentricity in infants’ play with familiar objects in caregiver-child interactions

Parents and children appear to coordinate their attention to objects in their environment, often via mutual gaze. Children, however, display a novelty bias in interacting with objects, looking longer at novel objects relative to familiar objects. This may allow parents to follow in on their child’s focus of attention and label the novel objects, creating moments of optimal learning. The current study examined this with regard to whether children are more likely to lead instances of joint attention to novel relative to familiar objects and how they learn from periods of child-led or adult-led joint attention. In particular, we investigated whether (i) parents lead more instances of joint attention when playing with novel relative to familiar objects, (ii) parents preferentially label novel relative to familiar objects, and (iii) children's learning of novel word-object associations is affected by the frequency of labelling and children's sustained attention towards the objects. We found that not only do children lead more instances of joint attention, but, relative to their caregivers, children lead more instances of joint attention to familiar objects relative to novel objects. Parents also appeared to follow in on their child’s attention and labelled familiar objects more often than novel objects. Furthermore, we found no evidence for children’s recognition of the novel word-object associations. Our findings highlight the contingent nature of social interactions between caregivers and infants, with children leading and parents following their child’s lead, especially with regard to more familiar objects in the child’s environment

Studies on standardization and purification processes of VEERAM

330-339In Siddha system of medicine Veeram is one of the toxins among the sixty four known toxins. Geologically it is called Calomel. It is a very toxic material therapeutically, these arsenic based medicines are used in Siddha system. Natural substances of milk, tender coconut water, bitter guard and lemon juice are used to purify the veeram. This research work analyzed the raw veeram and products obtained after purification. Geochemical, physico-chemical analysis, instrumentation techniques of XRF, TG-DTA, FE-SEM, EDAX and particle size analyzer. Among physicochemical parameters total ash value was low. Loss on drying increased in the products in the various intermediate stages which due to the impact of plant agents used in the process. XRF results revealed mercury is present in major concentration. Raw veeram showed 77.14% of mercury. In the raw veeram particles observed were distributed within the range of 0.0920 μm–0.948 μm. FE-SEM analysis suggested that the bitter gourd treated veeram consisted of individual particles with a size ranging from 94 nm to 144 nm. Milk treated samples when subjected to analysis revealed increased particle size which may be attributed to aggregation. Lemon juice treated samples showed particle size in the range of 82 nm to 96 nm and in tender coconut range was 78 nm to 91 nm. In the EDAX raw and other samples showed peak for mercury and chloride. TG-DTA analysis showed that the raw veeram sample had a sublimation temperature of 220C where as in other treated samples sublimation temperature was reduced compared to raw veeram. The from the stydy depict that these purification processes forms new organic substances and transformation of the starting toxic metal. These processes have an important role in the formation of complexes and in altering toxic state to non-toxic state

Research

All research projects of the Psychology of Language Group that have an OSF page are linked here