Early Childhood Mathematics for Children who are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing: Amplifying Opportunities to Develop Foundational Math Skills

Mathematics is an integral part of early childhood education and development. Mathematic proficiency is not only foundational for success in school, but children also use mathematical knowledge in everyday experiences. The knowledge children gain in math concepts and language used is applicable across all domains of learning (Utah State Office of Education, 2013). Math concepts are developed early in life and preschoolers possess a natural curiosity for math, as well as a natural ability to do math (Linder, Powers-Costello, & Stegelin, 2011). Mathematical skills allow children the ability to make sense of the world, building a foundation for later success in school (NAEYC & NCTM, 2002; NCTM, 2007). Early experiences with math are different than traditional math instruction for children in a K-12 educational setting. The focus is not the worksheets of addition and subtraction commonly associated with math. Rather, it is the notion that math happens informally in every day events as children use mathematical concepts to make sense of their world (Pagliaro & Kritzer, 2013). Historically, children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) have shown slower achievement than their same-aged hearing peers across academic domains, including math proficiency (Pagliaro & Kritzer, 2013; Zarfaty, Nunes, & Bryant, 2004; Edwards, Edwards, &Langdon, 2013). In order to promote successful integration in a mainstream educational setting and minimize the risk of academic delays, it is essential that early learning experiences build on academic foundations (Yoshinaga-Itano, 2004, Cole & Flexer, 2011). This project focused on 1) the best practices of mathematics for early education, 2) delays children who are DHH face in mathematics, 3) improving math-based experiences for children who are DHH, and 4) the positive effects of parent involvement

The ‘Who’ and ‘How’ of Operational Alignment for Digital Innovation (Units)

To harness the value of digital technologies, incumbents establish digital innovation units (DIU). In pursuing digital innovation outcomes, DIUs follow activities along the innovation process that are carried out in collaboration with other organizational units. Collaboration has been identified as a specific DIU challenge. However, prior studies do not go beyond DIU-centric research on their setup, objectives, and challenges. In practice, DIUs become increasingly integrated with the organization as news and bad press about their performance up to discontinuance appears. The lack of knowledge on integrating DIUs with other organizational units, coupled with the practical relevance of realizing value from digital innovation, calls for an investigation into the operational alignment of DIUs. Rooted in digital innovation and business-IT alignment research, we analyze the digital innovation process, involved units, and corresponding aligning actions based on a multiple case study. We show that aligning for digital innovation happens in two modes depending on the DIU\u27s structural positioning and innovation orientation: a triangle (business-IT-DIU) and a dual mode (business-DIU). First, we go beyond a DIU-centric perspective and shed light on the interaction of multiple units pursuing digital innovation from initiation to exploitation. Second, we contribute to research on business-IT alignment by expanding it with the perspective of digital units and outlining operational aligning activities, enhancing our understanding of how organizations can exploit their explorative digital innovation activities

Exercise: An Antecedent Based Intervention to Address Sensory Motor Needs and Learning Readiness

“Exercise (ECE) is a strategy that involves an increase in physical exertion as a means of reducing problem behaviors or increasing appropriate behavior while increasing physical fitness and motor skills” “ECE can be used effectively to address behavior, school-readiness, academic, and motor skills.” NPDC Exercise Fact Sheet, 201

Exploiting Exploration: Reintegrating Digital Innovations from Digital Innovation Units

In digital transformation, incumbents are pressured to exploit their core business and simultaneously explore opportunities for digital innovation. When pursuing ambidexterity, organizations establish digital innovation units (DIUs) dedicated to digital innovation. Due to the novelty of the phenomenon, prior studies targeted DIUs' design, objectives, and challenges. However, their value lies in reintegrating digital innovations back into the operational organization for use and commercialization, which has been neglected so far. Thus, we analyze the reintegration based on a single-embedded case study of four heterogeneous DIUs. We identify three phases of reintegration activities and trace differences to the contextual factors: innovation orientation, number of involved entities, and ownership. Our contribution is twofold. First, we shed light on the reintegration of DIUs' innovation outcomes for the first time. Second, we extend research on digital innovation and ambidexterity by outlining drivers and inhibitors of reintegration, enhancing our understanding of how organizations can exploit exploration

Effects of Sertraline Treatment for Young Children with FXS

Phenotypic manifestations for young children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) include: anxiety, sensory processing challenges, global language and communication deficits and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Many of these symptoms can be treated with medications, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). However to date a clinical trial has not been conducted for children under five years old. This study investigated the following question: Are there group differences on developmental outcome measures for those children treated with sertraline compared to placebo

Strategies for detection of floodplain inundation with multi-frequency polarimetric SAR

Mapping of floodplain inundation patterns is a key element in developing hydrological and biogeochemical models for large tropical river basins such as the Amazon. Knowledge of the time sequence of inundation is necessary to determine both water routing and biogenic gas fluxes. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is uniquely suited for this application because of its ability to penetrate cloud cover and, in many cases, to detect flooding beneath a forest or herbaceous canopy. A procedure for discriminating flooded forest, flooded herbaceous vegetation, and open water from other cover types for a coastal wetland site on the lower Altamaha floodplain, Georgia, emphasizing robust classifiers that are not site-specific is currently being developed

You will take care of me when I am old: Norms on children's caregiver obligations - An analysis with data from the European Values Study

Objective: We explore gender differences in support of the norm that children must provide care for their parents. Background: Society's values and norms play a crucial role in deciding whether to provide family care. We investigate these values and norms on family care by analyzing which individual and country level factors affect them. Method: We use data from the European Values Study wave 5 and multilevel regression techniques. The question, "Adult children have the duty to provide long-term care for their parents", serves as our dependent variable. The explanatory variables at the individual level are gender and further socio-demographic variables. At the country level, we include expenditures on health care, and the female labor force participation rate. Results: The results show that women, as well as those living in countries with high expenditure on health care and high female labor force participation rates, are less supportive of the norm that children have an obligation to provide care for their parents. Furthermore, the gender effect is stronger in countries with a higher female labor force participation rate. Conclusion: Norms and values on family care are not fixed and can change, as suggested by the differences between countries. They are also not shared by all social groups equally, as the differences between women and men and along other socio-demographics show. Replication files: https://ubp.uni-bamberg.de/jfr/index.php/jfr/article/view/854/704

Assistive Technology Enhancement of Written Expression for Individuals with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

This study involves the use of computer software to assess the use of assistive technology (AT) in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. We will present an update of the subjects in the study, including research issues, subject diagnoses and diagnostic trends as assessed through baseline and follow-up testing