Does Counting Count for 3‐ to 4‐year‐olds? Parental Assumptions about Preschool Children's Understanding of Counting and Cardinality

Research indicates that children do not typically understand the connection between counting and cardinality for several months after learning to count, yet parents speak to 3‐year‐olds as though they already understood the significance of counting. The present research was designed to investigate mothers’ awareness of the discrepancy between children's procedural and conceptual mastery of counting. In Study 1 mothers of a hundred 3‐ to 4¹/₂‐year‐olds completed an anonymous questionnaire asking them to anticipate how their child would respond to a series of real‐life vignettes based on widely used experimental measures of cardinal understanding. Most anticipated that their child, irrespective of age, would (1) understand the significance of the last word of a count, and (2) be able accurately to give a specified non‐subitizable number of objects. Comparison with the performance of 54 children from the same local population supported the hypothesis that parents overestimate children's understanding of the cardinal significance of counting. Mothers reported a range of impromptu number‐related activities in which their child had recently participated at home; most of these involved simple procedural counting. In Study 2, 35 mothers of 3‐ to 4¹/₂‐year‐olds completed a modified questionnaire concerning procedural aspects of counting as well as cardinality; their responses were then compared with the performance of their own children. Again, mothers overestimated their children's cardinal understanding, but this was shown not to be a result of a general tendency to overestimate their counting abilities. It is suggested that preschoolers’ counting generally occurs during joint activities in which caregivers may be unaware of the support that they provide, and, provided that the jointly executed count procedures are error‐free, parents implicitly assume a ‘common knowledge’ regarding the cardinal significance of counting.     

A Longitudinal Study of Belief and Desire State Discourse During Mother–Child Play and Later False Belief Understanding

There is considerable interest in the role of mental state language in theory of mind development. This study examines cognitive and desire state discourse of 43 mothers during play interactions with their two‐year‐old children and theory of mind as indicated by a battery of false belief tasks around the age of five. Desire state comments of mothers during free play which were appropriate to the conversational context were significantly related to children's later theory of mind, and this relation was independent of other confounding variables, including a home‐based measure of maternal sensitivity, and socio‐economic status, and an estimate of child language. The child's desire state language was concurrently related to the mother's desire state language used appropriately, and the child's cognitive state language was related to the mother's appropriate cognitive state language. Although cognitive state language was not predictive of later theory of mind, this may be because this kind of language plays a later role in theory of mind development.     

The Understanding and Use of Reflection in Family Support Social Work

ABSTRACT

Previous research emphasizes the need for reflection in complex, dynamic practices, like social work. However, increased governance of the public sector and welfare state has caused a reform, which in turn has affected the layout and conditions of work. Private sector control ideals and ideas from the auditing system have led to a new focus. It is argued that we should subordinate practice approaches – characterized by reflection, proven experience, and tacit knowledge – to manual-based treatment, evaluations, and assessments. This study aims at understanding the role of reflection in social work by investigating its use and valuation by family support social workers. Opportunities and resources for reflection are another focus. Focus group interviews (n = 40) were used to produce data. The need for reflection to conduct highly qualitative social work became evident. The question is not whether to reflect or not, rather how this best can be done, given current time constraints. Reflection was considered a coping mechanism, offering a sense of professional legitimacy. Organizational changes seem to impact on time for reflection. However, when enabling process, learning, and development, it can be argued that reflection is beneficial for several parties. Therefore, reflection requires continued emphasis, highlighting its potential benefits.     

False Belief and Emotion Understanding in Post-institutionalized Children

Deficits in social cognition may impair the ability to negotiate social transactions and relationships and contribute to socio emotional difficulties experienced by some post‐institutionalized children. We examined false belief and emotion understanding in 40 institutional care‐adopted children, 40 foster care‐adopted children and 40 birth children. Both groups of adopted children were adopted internationally. Controlling for verbal ability, post‐institutionalized children scored lower than birth children on a false belief task. Almost half of the post‐institutionalized children performed below chance levels. The foster care group did not differ from either group on false belief understanding. The groups did not differ on emotion understanding after controlling for verbal ability. The results suggest that some post‐institutionalized children are delayed in false belief understanding.     

Social Support for Mothers of Children With Disabilities in China

ABSTRACT.

This article analyzes the gendered parenting experiences of mothers of children with disabilities in China. These mothers struggle to meet their children's needs, including daily care, financial security, and child development. In the context of China's social welfare development, are social services responding to their needs, so that mothers can share responsibility for the needs of their children with disabilities? The research analyzed qualitative data about 6 case-study children in rural and urban China. The data were derived from observation and interviews with their parents and other family and community members. The analysis revealed that the capacity of the mother, community, and local social services had an impact on the rights of the children and mothers. They experienced social discrimination, insufficient social support, and local failure to implement central policy social services and income support. These findings are consistent with international research about disability rights. They reinforce the importance of economic redistribution to enable local implementation of the national disability rights policies, rather than merely relying on ephemeral concepts of cultural change. Further research about the comparative impact of economic and social change in China on mothers and children with disabilities would extend these findings.     

Stability of Maternal Autonomy Support between Infancy and Preschool Age

The goals of this article were to examine (1) the relative and absolute stability of maternal autonomy support between infancy and preschool age, and (2) the moderating role of child gender, maternal attachment state of mind, and stressful life events. Sixty‐nine mother–child dyads participated in five visits when the child was 8, 15, and 18 months, as well as 2 and 3 years. The results suggested that maternal autonomy support is stable in relative terms, but that its mean level decreases over time. Moreover, there was significant relative stability only for mothers of girls, mothers who showed greater coherence of mind with respect to attachment, and mothers who experienced fewer stressful life events. These results speak to the relevance of investigating parent, child, and contextual factors when examining the conditions that promote or hinder stability in parenting behaviors.     

Helping Children Help: The Relation between Maternal Scaffolding and Children's Early Help

Theory and empirical research suggest that parental scaffolding of children's participation in chores may contribute to the development of early helping. Sixty mother–child dyads with toddlers between 18 and 24 months of age were assessed on two measures of scaffolding (during a cleanup chore; reading an emotionally laden book together). Children's helping was assessed in five tasks with an experimenter, and children were also assessed for social approach to an unfamiliar adult as a measure of sociability, and for internal state language as a measure of social understanding. Both mothers' scaffolding of everyday helping and children's sociability uniquely predicted individual differences in children's helping. Thus, individual differences in children's helping appear early, and are associated with both temperament and with parents' efforts to support and encourage young children's helpfulness.     

A Support Group for Caregivers of Children with Craniofacial Differences

ABSTRACT

Caregivers of children with craniofacial differences (CFD) experience psychosocial stressors; however, few groups are described for this population. The authors outline an eight-session group and qualitative analysis of caregivers’ experiences. The majority of participants (n = 100) were mothers (76%) of children who were female (75%) and identified as Latino (79%). Children’s mean age was 10.6 (SD = 2.8) years, and they were born with cleft lip/palate (56%) along with other CFD diagnoses. Themes included: group appreciation (21%), mutual acceptance (18%), coping (18%), parenting skills (17%), learning (9%), resiliency (7%), empathy (4%), diagnosis information (3%), and self-care (3%). Caregivers’ reported experiences largely corresponded with group goals.     

Paternal and Maternal Experiences in Caring for Chinese Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Hong Kong

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study that (i) identified parental stress and competence, parents’ perception of their children's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and the parent‐child relationship in caring for children with ADHD; (ii) compared paternal and maternal experiences in these areas; and (iii) examined the effect of children's ADHD behavior on paternal and maternal experiences in Hong Kong Chinese parents. Seventy‐two (59.5%) mothers and 49 (40.5%) fathers participated in the study, in which data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The results showed that: (i) mothers’ level of parental stress was higher than fathers’, but paternal and maternal competence in child‐rearing did not significantly vary; (ii) mothers perceived the child's ADHD behavior more seriously than fathers; (iii) both mothers and fathers had positive perceptions of their parent‐child relationship; and (iv) gender, employment, ADHD symptoms, and parental satisfaction explained the significant variance in parental stress but did not explain the significant variance in parental competence. Implications for social work practice and service development are discussed.     

Understanding Others, and Individual Differences in Friendship Interactions in Young Children

Links between individual differences in 4-year-olds' social understanding, language abilities, temperament, behavioral adjustment and family background and the quality of their interaction with a close friend were investigated. 64 pairs of friends were filmed playing together on two occasions, and each child tested on a battery of assessments of theory of mind, emotion understanding and language. Teachers and mothers reported on children's adjustment and temperament respectively. There were marked differences in children's interactions with their friends; the sociocognitive abilities and behavioral characteristics of both child and friend contributed significantly to cooperative shared pretend, to low frequency of conflict and to successful communication between friends; behavioral adjustment and family background also contributed independently to friendship quality. The similarity between friends in behavioral adjustment and sociolinguistic skills was notable.     

Sponsored Places: The Use of Independent Day-Care Services to Support Children in Need

Correspondence to: Dr June Statham, Project Director, Thomas Coram Research Unit, 27-28 Woburn Square, London WC1H OAA Summary The implementation of the Children Act 1989, with its emphasison family support through the provision of non-stigmatizinglocal services and on local authorities working in partnershipwith voluntary and private service providers, has given a newfocus to the use of independent day-care services to supportchildren in need and their families. This article uses datafrom research in England and Wales on the implementation ofthe Children Act as it affects early years services, to considerthe extent of sponsored day-care, the circumstances in whichit is used, and the issues it raises for local authorities,independent day-care providers and the children themselves.     

Maternal and Paternal Mental‐state Talk and Executive Function in Preschool Children

The present study examined the relationship between parents’ mental‐state talk and preschoolers’ executive function. Seventy‐two children participated in the present study, as well as their mothers and fathers. When children were enrolled in the second preschool year, mothers’ and fathers’ use of mental‐state references were assessed during a shared picture‐book reading task with the child. Later, four months before admission to the first grade, preschoolers’ executive function was measured. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that maternal, but not paternal, mental‐state talk was a significant predictor of children's executive function composite, even after accounting for child gender, age, verbal ability, and parental education. When looking at each of the EF components, maternal mental‐state talk proved to be a predictor of set‐shifting whereas no significant relations emerged with inhibitory control or working memory. These findings add to prior research on parenting quality and executive function in preschoolers.     

Measuring Family Caregiver Perceptions of Support in Caring for Children and Youth With Mental Health Concerns

ABSTRACT

This correlational study assessed how families of children with mental illness perceived the levels of support they received from informal and formal resource providers and the associations between perceived support and child outcomes. Adult caregivers (N = 904) of youth receiving public mental health care services were administered the Family Caregiver Perceptions of Support Scale developed by the authors to assess family caregiver perceptions of support prior to and at termination of services. Factor analysis identified three types of caregiver anticipated supports: informal support resources, support for treatment plan influence, and health care resources. The domains were significantly and positively associated with one another but did not uniformly correlate with youth mental health outcomes. The study provides preliminary evidence that treatment gains in youth mental health outcomes are observed when caregivers perceive support in treatment processes. Suggestions for future research are made, stressing the importance of caregivers and providers working together and describing needs related to future scale improvements.     

Strategic Planning for Support Services for Children with a Parent or Close Relative in Prison

It has long been recognized that children with a parent or close relative in prison are more likely to experience educational difficulties, emotional distress, family breakdown and a substantial reduction in family income (Boswell 2002; Smith et al. 2007; Morgan et al. 2013b; Morgan and Gill 2013). Consequently, children with a parent in prison are more likely to require support from statutory services, especially education and social care. However, statutory support for this group of children is sparse, and children of prisoners tend not to be identified as a priority group. The demand on local authorities to spend their limited budgets wisely means tough decisions have to be made. These decisions are not taken in a vacuum: they are taken in a context of local need, consumer representation, central and local politics; underpinned by the values and attitudes of individual members as well as by the ethos or culture of the local authority itself. In this article we apply Axford's typology (2009) of the different cultures which underpin local authority service provision to data from a research study carried out in 2011 in one local authority which explored support provision in schools for children of prisoners. We examine the contradictions and gaps within the local authority's attempts to synergize the different modules of service delivery into a coherent pattern of provision, and we explore how changes in strategic culture might lead to improvements being made in terms of service delivery to this group of ‘vulnerable’ children.     

Individually-Tailored Support for Ethnically-Diverse Caregivers: Enhancing Our Understanding of What Is Needed and What Works

Family caregivers play a crucial role in maintaining older adults in the community, often at great cost to themselves. We discuss a program serving ethnically-diverse caregivers in New York, offering, on average, 11 case-management hr per client. Participants reported statistically significantly reduced stress and burden. Respite was the most requested service, belying an assumption underlying policies and services that families, particularly among minority populations, can and will care for their older members. Thus, services must be carefully tailored to meet actual caregiver needs, including provision of alternatives that reduce caregiver involvement. We discuss practice and policy implications.     

Evaluation of a Support Group for Parents of Children Hospitalized for Cancer and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

ABSTARCT

Social isolation and high levels of psychosocial stress are common among parents of children who are hospitalized for cancer treatment. Many hospital-based programs offer support groups for parents, however there is little published guidance or systematic evidence on their effectiveness. This study describes the development and program evaluation of a 16-week parent support group offered to parents (N = 10) of children hospitalized for pediatric cancer or bone-marrow transplant. A summary of the pilot evaluation is provided and successes, barriers, and areas for future improvement are discussed.