Tuesday 26 February 2013

Attachment Through the Lifetime


To promote positive growth as a society, we need to foster healthy well-adjusted children. Secure attachments are impacted by the prenatal health of the mother and early parent/child interactions. Parents can develop attachments through primarily intersubjectivity, where parents are highly responsive to their children. As a result, children learn to trust adults to help  meet emotional and physical needs.  This promotes secure attachments. Insecure attachments have lifelong impacts including circumscribed interpersonal relationships and reduced academic ability into adulthood. Some of the outcomes of unhealthy relationships can be changed when here are people who foster positive skills and healthy bonds.


Still Face Experiment

 
 

The Role of Attachment in Infancy on Later Mental and Physical Health Outcomes

 

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) in Babies, Children and Adults!

 

Attachment Activities

 

Friday 15 February 2013

Is IQ the Only Way to Measure Intelligence?


Within the education systems across the world, standardised tests establish an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) for the examinees. Tests compare children and youth to their cohorts. A performance score may indicate how that child preforms in comparison to 100 other children of the same age. A high IQ score correlates with a high IQ score. However, many standardised tests are reflective of measures that are specific to our culture. Standardised tests may be biased reflective of culture, language, communication abilities, sex and race. They do not consider societal or social economic factors.
Globally assessors recognise that standardised assessments have biases. Modifications to some standardised tests reduce bias. An example of bias can include a picture of a sled on a nonverbal test. This item would be meaningful in North American or cold weather countries. In Africa, it may have not meaning, whereas a picture of a Bambara (baby rattle) would not be accurately labelled by most North American Children. English Language Learners (ELL) in North America, should be engage in assessments that reflect their knowledge in heritage language as well as English.
A test score that determines an IQ in the gifted, borderline or  severe range, may help families and educators to determine the level of supports that are optimal for the child to reach their maximum potential.  Locally, standardised intelligence or adaptive functioning assessments may be conducted by school systems on a three year basis.  They identify level of  intervention for children who require more targeted or intensive levels of support. Often, limited supports are for children who are determined to be int he gifted to  average to low average range even when adaptive functin is determined to be an area of concern.  It is anticipated that with universal strategies the capacity of the child will improve.  Optimally,  as the child develops, tests will be able to reflect areas of improvement and identify areas that continue to require more supports.  We want to always consider a child’s education in respect to their future dreams and wishes.

There are other government directed assessments that are implemented to determine how well children are learning curriculum information.  The results from these scores are also analysed in respect to teacher ability. These test score may not allocated an IQ score, but are attempts to reflect the child’s knowledge of local measures in comparison to cohorts within predetermined district. Test scores in high school dictate eligibility for post-secondary education.


Standardised tests may be one factor in establishing an individual’s learning needs and strengths. Each child has strengths and weakness that influence the formation of their self-identity. There are many other measures that can reflect one’s intelligence. Emotional Intelligence or the ability to understand and connect with those around you is critical skills for individuals to have. Standardised IQ tests, only give us insight into a small part of that child. Standardised test do not tell us how many a friends a child has or how kind they are. We do not lean about the child’s special talents and interests.
 
Science has shown us that we learn in many different ways, multimodal learning.  We many all have a dominant learning style, with the other domains supporting learning as well. Some people are auditory learners and need to hear the information before they can totally understand it. Others are visual learners. Some individuals are kinesthetic learners and retain information bests while they are moving and active. Other learners may be considered tactile, requiring hands on approach to understand and absorb information. In addition to these considerations, intelligence is a unique as individuals and their learning style.

Howard Gardner is one individual instrumental in identifying learning styles. There are many on-line questionnaires that can be completed to determine learning styles of students and adults.  For young children, we complete observations and interview parents to establish the areas of dominance.

 
 
To understand how to support the child that you work with, you must first understand how you learn. For the most part, young children are tactile and kinesthetic learners. It is our job to determine whether they understand better with verbal feedback or visual cues. In the case of the latter, copying should be encouraged. Understanding how others learn allows us to make accommodations for that learning style.





Sources:
Benson, E. (2003). Intelligence across cultures: Research in Africa, Asia and Latin America is showing how 
 
            culture and intelligence interact. American Psychological Association Monitor, 34(2), 56.
Born, M. P., Bleichrodt, N., & Van Der Flier, H. (1987). Cross-Cultural Comparison of Sex-Related Differences
  
            on Intelligence Tests A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 18(3), 283-314.
Hambleton, R. K., & de Jong, J. H. (2003). Advances in translating and adapting educational and
 
             psychological tests. Language testing, 20(2), 127-134.
Jencks, C. (1998). Racial bias in testing. The Black-White test score gap, 55, 84.
Kathuria, R., & Serpell, R. (1998). Standardization of the Panga Munthu Test-A nonverbal cognitive test 
            developed in Zambia. Journal of Negro Education, 228-241.
Siller, J. (1957). Socioeconomic status and conceptual thinking. The Journal of Abnormal and Social
           Psychology, 55(3), 365.
Tellegen, P., & Laros, J. (1993). The construction and validation of a nonverbal test of intelligence: the revision
           of the Snijders-Oomen tests. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 9(2), 147-157.
 
 
Multiple Intelligence Assessment.  Retrieved from:
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.  Retrieved from:
Quiz: what’s Your learning Style? – Edutopia. Retrieved from: