Preschool Children: Physical Activity, Behavioral Assessment and Developmental Challenges (Children's Issues, Laws and Programs)

225 Pages·2010·2.63 MB·English

by  Leone Colombo

CHILDREN'S ISSUES, LAWS AND PROGRAMS SERIES

P C : P
RESCHOOL HILDREN HYSICAL
A , B A
CTIVITY EHAVIORAL SSESSMENT
AND DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES

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CHILDREN'S ISSUES, LAWS AND PROGRAMS SERIES

Federal Programs for Troubled Youth
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2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-318-4

Federal Programs for Troubled Youth
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2009. ISBN: 978-1-60876-701-4 (Online book)

Child Sexual Abuse: Pitfalls in the Substantiation Process
Anna Aprile, Cristina Ranzato, Melissa Rosa Rizzotto and Paola Facchin
2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-427-8

Diet Quality of American Young Children
Calvin G. Parker (Editor)
2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-771-7

Diet Quality of American School-Age Children
Kelly B. Volkarsky (Editor)
2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-776-2

National School Lunch Program Assessment
Manuel P. Borges (Editor)
2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-972-8

Reading First Impact Study
Beth C. Games , Howard S. Bloom, James J. Kemple, Robin Tepper Jacob, Beth Boulay,
Laurie Bozzi, Linda Caswell, Megan Horst, W. Carter Smith, Robert G. St.Pierre,
Fatih Unlu, Corinne Herlihy and Pei Zhu
2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-529-9

Vulnerable and Disconnected Youth: Background and Policies
Dierk Neumann (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-60741-488-9

Foster Care and African-American Youth
Joanna Kaczmarek (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-60741-541-1

Preschool Children: Physical Activity, Behavioral Assessment and Developmental
Challenges
Leone Colombo and Rachele Bianchi (Editors)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-60876-026-8
Child Development and Child Poverty
Anselm Fiedler and Isidor Kuester
2010 ISBN: 978-1-60741-816-0

Child Protection, the Courts and Social Workers
Terrance R. Langely (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-60741-279-3

Child Labor in America
Ian C. Rivera and Natasha M. Howard (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-60876-769-4

Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act: Analysis and Law
Terrell G. Sandoval (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-61668-808-0

Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act: Analysis and Law
Terrell G. Sandoval (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-61668-878-3 (Online book)

Child Abduction Resources
Melanie H. Wilson (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-61668-247-7

Working with the Courts in Child Protection
Raymond T. Devon (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-61668-303-0

Working with the Courts in Child Protection
Raymond T. Devon (Editor)
2010 ISBN: 978-1-61668-426-6 (Online book)

CHILDREN'S ISSUES, LAWS AND PROGRAMS SERIES

P C : P
RESCHOOL HILDREN HYSICAL
A , B A
CTIVITY EHAVIORAL SSESSMENT
AND DEVELOPMENTAL CHALLENGES

LEONE COLOMBO
AND
RACHELE BIANCHI
EDITORS

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Preschool children : physical activity, behavioral assessment and developmental challenges /
editors, Leone Colombo and Rachele Bianchi.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-61668-350-4 (eBook)
1. Preschool children. 2. Behavioral assessment of children. 3. Child psychology. 4. Early
childhood education--Activity programs. I. Colombo, Leone. II. Bianchi, Rachele.
HQ774.5.P74 2009
155.42'30287--dc22
2009041975

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.   New York
CONTENTS

Preface ix
Chapter 1 Literacy Acquisition and Impairment in Young Children 1
Dan Lin, Juan Zhang and Catherine McBride-Chang
Chapter 2 Motor Performance Differences in Pre-School Aged Boys and Girls 19
Fotini Venetsanou and Antonis Kambas
Chapter 3 Oral Impacts on Quality of Life in Preschool Children 39
Luciana Butini Oliveira, Aubrey Sheiham and Marcelo Bönecker
Chapter 4 Invented Spelling and Perspectives on Spelling Development:
The Necessity of an Integrated Cognitive Model 59
Ana Cristina Silva, Tiago Almeida and Margarida Alves Martins
Chapter 5 Squelching the Gift: Unwrapping the Developmental Milestones of
the Gifted Preschoolers through Activity and Behavior Analysis 69
Kimberely Fletcher Nettleton and Sara J. Lindsey
Chapter 6 Assessment of Cognitive and Motor Development
among Rural Head Start Preschoolers 79
Melissa S. Atkins, Linda Li and Xiaoming Li
Chapter 7 Ophthalmological Assessment of Preschool Children:
Eye Blink and Pupillary Diameter 91
Marcelo Mendes Lavezzo and Silvana Artioli Schellini
Chapter 8 Assessment of Lung Function in Preschool Children 103
W. Tomalak
Chapter 9 Relationship of Objective Measurement of Physical Activity and
BMI in Preschool Children 115
Susana Vale and Jorge Mota
Chapter 10 Evaluation of a Whole-Class Token Economy to Manage
Disruptive Behavior in Preschool Classrooms 125
Holly A. Filcheck and Cheryl B. McNeil
viii Contents
Chapter 11 A Qualitative Comparison of Fruit and Vegetable Concepts and
Knowledge between Preschoolers and Their Primary
Care Providers and Childcare Providers 183
Sheila Fleischhacker, Katherine Cason and Cheryl Achterberg
Index 199
PREFACE

During infancy and preschool age, movement is an integral part of human life. This book
discusses the correlation between cognitive and motor functioning in preschoolers, as well as
the motor performance differences between boys and girls. Additionally, oral health problems
affect children's quality of life by impairing their physical and psychological and social
functioning well-being. The main oral health related problem in preschool children is
associated with dental pain that may affect sleep, cause difficulty in eating and affect
learning. This book explores how the mouth affects quality of life and the epidemiology of
dental pain including the determinants of oral diseases. In addition, the authors review
strategies to promote oral health in preschool children. Other chapters show methods and
techniques used for evaluation of lung function status in preschool children. Those techniques
are commonly used in preschool age and make possible not only to help in diagnosis, but also
in controlling and monitoring the disease progress or efficacy of the treatment.
Chapter 1 - In this chapter, we discuss three issues in relation to very early literacy
acquisition and impairment across cultures. First, we review some environmental influences
on literacy development, particularly in the pre-primary school years. Second, we focus more
specifically on parental impact on children‘s literacy acquisition. Finally, we talk about very
early markers of literacy impairment.
Chapter 2 - During infancy and preschool age, movement is an integral part of human
life. Children use movement to discover both themselves and the world and consequently, the
study of a child‘s motor performance can significantly contribute to the full understanding of
his/her entire personality. The research of pre-school aged children‘s motor performance
usually focuses on the motor characteristics that change with growth and differentiate, due to
environmental factors or particular features of the children. One of the most widely
considered issues is the motor performance differences between boys and girls. The review of
the literature revealed conflicting findings. Several researchers suggest that the motor
performance of boys and girls is quite similar while others report significant differences even
in pre-school aged children. In particular, boys have been found to perform higher than girls
in tasks that assess catching, throwing, jumping, kicking and short dashes. On the other hand,
girls outperform boys in tasks involving balance, flexibility and fine motor skills. Taking into
consideration that at the preschool age, the biological characteristics of boys and girls are
similar rather than different, a closer study of the factors that may have caused the
aforementioned inconsistency among the research findings was conducted. That study
showed that many of the differences are environmentally and culturally induced. It has been