More Like this

1. Caregivers’ Role-taking during the Use of Discussion Prompts in At-Home Engineering Kits

   Kim, Soo Hyeon; Kim, Jungsun (January 2021, International Society of the Learning Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   This study presents a video-based case study of families who used discussion prompts in the at-home engineering kits. We examine different roles that caregivers took on during the implementation of the prompts to organize families’ engineering learning activities. Narrative accounts and transcriptions were analyzed to investigate the different roles that caregivers took. Three roles emerged: caregivers as monitor; caregivers as mentor; caregivers as partner. We further coded families’ talks to investigate how three different caregivers’ roles influenced families’ engineering practices and caregiver-child talk types. Preliminary findings illustrate how three caregivers’ roles enabled and constrained different types of engineering practices and caregiver-child talk types. Findings contribute to future considerations in designing discussion prompts for at-home engineering kits. 

   more » « less
2. Caregivers’ positive emotion socialization tendencies are associated with positive affect in preschool age children

   https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.22036  

   Hill, Kaylin E.; Kujawa, Autumn; Humphreys, Kathryn L. (February 2023, Infant Mental Health Journal)

   Abstract Longstanding theories of emotion socialization postulate that caregiver emotional and behavioral reactions to a child's emotions together shape the child's emotion displays over time. Despite the notable importance of positive valence system function, the majority of research on caregiver emotion socialization focuses on negative valence system emotions. In the current project, we leveraged a relatively large cross‐sectional study of caregivers (N = 234; 93.59% White) of preschool aged children to investigate whether and to what degree, caregiver (1) emotional experiences, or (2) external behaviors, in the context of preschoolers’ positive emotion displays in caregiver–child interactions, are associated with children's general positive affect tendencies. Results indicated that, in the context of everyday caregiver–child interactions, caregiver‐reported positively valenced emotions but not approach behaviors were positively associated with child general positive affect tendencies. However, when examining specific caregiver behaviors in response to everyday child positive emotion displays, caregiver report of narrating the child's emotion and joining in the emotion with their child was positively associated with child general positive affect tendencies. Together, these results suggest that in everyday caregiver–child interactions, caregivers’ emotional experiences and attunement with the child play a role in shaping preschoolers’ overall tendencies toward positive affect. 

   more » « less
3. Caregiver–child proximity as a dimension of early experience

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579421001644  

   Barnett, Whitney; Hansen, Clare L.; Bailes, Lauren G.; Humphreys, Kathryn L. (May 2022, Development and Psychopathology)

   Abstract Human infancy and early childhood is both a time of heightened brain plasticity and responsivity to the environment as well as a developmental period of dependency on caregivers for survival, nurturance, and stimulation. Across primate species and human evolutionary history, close contact between infants and caregivers is species-expected. As children develop, caregiver–child proximity patterns change as children become more autonomous. In addition to developmental changes, there is variation in caregiver–child proximity across cultures and families, with potential implications for child functioning. We propose that caregiver–child proximity is an important dimension for understanding early environments, given that interactions between children and their caregivers are a primary source of experience-dependent learning. We review approaches for operationalizing this construct (e.g., touch, physical distance) and highlight studies that illustrate how caregiver–child proximity can be measured. Drawing on the concepts proposed in dimensional models of adversity, we consider how caregiver–child proximity may contribute to our understanding of children’s early experiences. Finally, we discuss future directions in caregiver–child proximity research with the goal of understanding the link between early experiences and child adaptive and maladaptive functioning. 

   more » « less
4. At-home engineering: Caregivers’ support during problem-solving.

   Penney, L. (November 2023, Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2023)

   Blikstein, P. (Ed.)

   The home environment is a critical context in which children engage in STEM activities. Caregivers serve as key influencers on their children’s engagement in these activities. This case study of four families explored how caregivers support their child(ren) during moments of problem-solving while completing engineering activities at home and illustrated the variation in caregiver support, caregiver participation/child agency, problem-solving strategies used, and integration of activities into the home. Our findings suggest we need to be purposeful in designing kit activities and supports for caregivers that will contribute to meaningful interactions during STEM activities that draw upon the unique relationship between caregivers and their children in the home. 

   more » « less
5. Dinos and GoPros: Children’s exploratory behaviors in a museum and their reflections on their learning

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1110612  

   Weisberg, Deena Skolnick; Dunlap, Lucretia C; Sobel, David M (February 2023, Frontiers in Psychology)

   Research in both laboratory and museum settings suggests that children’s exploration and caregiver–child interaction relate to children’s learning and engagement. Most of this work, however, takes a third-person perspective on children’s exploration of a single activity or exhibit, and does not consider children’s perspectives on their own exploration. In contrast, the current study recruited 6-to 10-year-olds (N = 52) to wear GoPro cameras, which recorded their first-person perspectives as they explored a dinosaur exhibition in a natural history museum. During a 10-min period, children were allowed to interact with 34 different exhibits, their caregivers and families, and museum staff however they wished. Following their exploration, children were asked to reflect on their exploration while watching the video they created and to report on whether they had learned anything. Children were rated as more engaged when they explored collaboratively with their caregivers. Children were more likely to report that they learned something when they were more engaged, and when they spent more time at exhibits that presented information didactically rather than being interactive. These results suggest that static exhibits have an important role to play in fostering learning experiences in museums, potentially because such exhibits allow for more caregiver–child interaction. 

   more » « less