R. Fukkink

Effects of Instruction in Deriving Word Meaning from Context: A Meta-Analysis:

A meta-analysis of 21 instructional treatments aimed at enhancing the skill of deliberately deriving word meaning from context during reading shows a medium effect size of 0.43 standard deviation units (p < .000). An exploratory multilevel regression analysis shows that clue instruction appears to be more effective than other instruction types or just practice (β = 0.40). Effect size correlates negatively with class size (β = .03). Implications for instruction and future research are discussed. Future studies should investigate the effect of instruction on both the skill of deriving word meaning from context and incidental word learning to evaluate its contribution to vocabulary growth.

Video feedback in widescreen: A meta-analysis of family programs

A meta-analysis of 29 studies (n=1844 families) shows statistically significant positive effects of video feedback interventions on the parenting behavior and attitude of parents and the development of the child. Parents become more skilled in interacting with their young child and experience fewer problems and gain more pleasure from their role as parent. Shorter programs appeared to be more effective in improving parenting skills. The intervention effects were smaller for the attitude domain at parent level. The experimental outcomes were smaller at child level if the parents belonged to a high-risk group.

The relevance of delivery mode and other programme characteristics for the effectiveness of early childhood intervention

Although it is generally believed that early intervention programmes are an effective means to stimulate children’s cognitive development, many questions remain concerning programme design and delivery. This article reviews 19 studies into the effectiveness of early intervention programmes published from 1985 onward. The database comprised 85 different outcomes or effect sizes (71 in the cognitive domain, 14 in the socioemotional domain). The overall effect size estimate was d 1/40.32 (SE 1/4 0.05) in the cognitive domain, and d 1/4 0.05 (SE 1/4 0.02) in the socioemotional domain. Effect sizes were found to depend on delivery mode. Centre-based interventions and interventions following the combined home- and centre-based delivery mode produced greater effect sizes than did home-based programmes in the cognitive domain, but not in the socioemotional domain. The programme inclusion of coaching of parenting skills was also positively related to outcomes in the cognitive domain. Several other programme characteristics, including age of onset, programme length and intensity, continuation after kindergarten, and the inclusion of social or economic support, appeared not to be uniquely related to outcomes.

Child Care in The Netherlands: Trends in Quality Over the Years 1995-2005

The authors assessed the quality of child care in a representative national sample of 42 child-care centers in the Netherlands and compared it with the quality of care that researchers have found using similar samples in 1995 (M. H. van IJzendoorn, L. W. C. Tavecchio, G. J. J. M. Stams, M. J. E. Verhoeven, & E. J. Reiling, 1998) and 2001 (M. J. J. M. Gevers Deynoot-Schaub & J. M. A. Riksen-Walraven, 2005). In the present study, results showed a low level of overall process quality for the 2005 sample, measured by the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised (T. Harms, D. Cryer, & R. M. Clifford, 2003) and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (T. Harms, R. M. Clifford, & D. Cryer, 1998). The present authors found a significant decline in process quality in comparison with the 1995 and 2001 findings. They concluded that, from an international perspective, the Netherlands has lost its leading position in child-care quality compared with that from 10 years ago.

Children's experiences with chat support and telephone support

BACKGROUND In line with the wider trend of offering support via the Internet, many counseling and referral services for children have introduced online chat, often in addition to a traditional telephone service. METHODS A comparative study was conducted between the telephone service and the confidential one-on-one online chat service of the Dutch Kindertelefoon. The design included a concise pretest and a posttest (n = 902). The study also comprised a follow-up test (n = 213), which included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS Children experienced a higher sense of well-being and a reduced severity of their problems after consulting the Kindertelefoon. The results were slightly more favorable for the chat service than for the telephone service. The follow-up survey showed that many of the children who contact the Kindertelefoon suffer from relatively severe emotional problems. CONCLUSIONS Both the telephone and the web-based support improved the childrens well-being and decreased their perceived burden of problem. The results of this study underline the need for closer cooperation between child helplines and mental health and child welfare services.

Peer and Professional Parenting Support on the Internet: A Systematic Review

The Internet offers many opportunities to provide parenting support. An overview of empirical studies in this domain is lacking, and little is known about the design of web based parenting resources and their evaluations, raising questions about its position in the context of parenting intervention programs. This article is a systematic review of empirical studies (n=75), published between 1998 and 2010, that describe resources of peer and professional online support for parents. These studies generally report positive outcomes of online parenting support. A number of recent experimental studies evaluated effects, including randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs (totaling 1,615 parents and 740 children). A relatively large proportion of the studies in our sample reported a content analysis of e-mails and posts (totaling 15,059 coded messages). The results of this review show that the Internet offers a variety of opportunities for sharing peer support and consulting professionals. The field of study reflects an emphasis on online resources for parents of preschool children, concerning health topics and providing professional support. A range of technologies to facilitate online communication is applied in evaluated Web sites, although the combination of multiple components in one resource is not very common. The first generation of online resources has already changed parenting and parenting support for a large group of parents and professionals. Suggestions for future development and research are discussed.

Peer counseling in an online chat service: a content analysis of social support.

In a recently launched one-on-one chat service for young people with psychosocial problems, young peer volunteers (ages 16-23) have a leading role in the conversations, comparable to the role of counselors in web-based and telephone-based child help-line services. A content analysis of the chat conversations showed that the contribution of the peer counselors in the confidential chat sessions satisfied the various quality criteria of the service. Moreover, the peer counselors offered the young people who visited the site varied types of social support. The variety of types of social support appeared a stronger predictor of the quality ratings than the length of the conversation or the quantity (instead of variety) of social support, which emphasizes the importance of multidimensional social support in online conversations.

Measuring the Interactive Skills of Caregivers in Child Care Centers: Development and Validation of the Caregiver Interaction Profile Scales

Research Findings: High-quality caregiver–child interactions constitute the core of high-quality child care for young children. This article describes the background and development of the Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales to rate 6 key skills of caregivers for interacting with 0- to 4-year-old children in child care centers: sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. Each interactive skill is rated on a 7-point scale based on observation of video-recorded caregiver–child interactions. Together, the 6 scale scores constitute an Interaction Profile for individual caregivers that may serve as a starting point for education and training to improve the quality of caregiver–child interactions. This article also presents the results of a 1st study with the CIP scales, in a sample of 145 caregivers from 75 child care groups in 47 child care centers in The Netherlands. Practice or Policy: Results provide promising preliminary evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the CIP scales.

Child care quality in The Netherlands over the years: a closer look

Research Findings: We assessed the quality of child care in a nationally representative sample of 200 Dutch child care centers using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised and/or Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised and compared it with a previous assessment in 2005. The Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales were used to rate the quality of caregiver–child interactions. Results showed a significant and substantial decline in quality compared to 2005, with 49% of the groups now scoring below the minimal level. The CIP scales showed relatively high scores for the basic caregiver interactive skills of sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, and structuring and limit setting but much lower scores for the more educational skills of verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. Caregiver sensitive responsiveness was significantly lower in infant groups (0–2 years) than in preschool groups (2–4 years); caregiver respect for autonomy, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions were significantly lower in infant groups than in preschool groups and mixed-age groups (0–4 years). Practice or Policy: Quality of child care is not stable across the years, and regular quality assessments are therefore needed to monitor child care quality. The low scores on the more educational versus the more basic caregiver interactive skills indicate that these skills deserve more attention in caregiver education and training. Training programs should be attuned to the individual interaction skill profile of caregivers.

The internal validity of aphasiological single-subject studies

Abstract The internal validity of 25 recent studies investigating the efficacy of language therapy for aphasic patients making use of single-subject designs is sometimes low due to experimentally weak designs, an insufficient amount of assessments, and the use of observational measurement without a blind procedure. The internal validity can be increased by the application of ABAB, crossover, and multiple-baseline designs, increasing the assessments, including control tests, using objective tests, and applying a blind procedure with observational measurement. Negative comments in methodological literature about the internal validity of AB, ABC, and ABA designs without reversal should be qualified in the context of aphasiological research, because the influence of history and maturation (with patients who are more than 1 year post-onset) is small.