Non-accidental Trauma in Infants: a Review of Evidence-Based Strategies for Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention

Purpose of Review To provide a resource for providers that may be involved in the diagnosis and management of infant non-accidental trauma (NAT). Recent Findings Infants are more likely to both suffer from physical abuse and die from their subsequent injuries. There are missed opportunities among providers for recognizing sentinel injuries. Minority children are overrepresented in the reporting of child maltreatment, and there is systemic bias in the evaluation and treatment of minority victims of child abuse. Summary Unfortunately, no single, primary preventative intervention has been conclusively shown to reduce the incidence of child maltreatment. Standardized algorithms for NAT screening have been shown to increase the bias-free utilization of NAT evaluations. Every healthcare provider that interacts with children has a responsibility to recognize warning signs of NAT, be able to initiate the evaluation for suspected NAT, and understand their role as a mandatory reporter.

Multilingual education in an Italian public preschool: teachers and families among mobility processes and inclusive practices

This paper focuses on the integration of translanguaging practices in a public preschool situated in a small village in North-West of Italy. Mobility processes and local Italian families’ school choices have led to the raise of the number of students with an immigrant background enrolled at the studied preschool up to 85%. After a brief overview regarding mobility and translanguaging in education, particularly in relation to preschool domain, I describe the macro and micro contexts of this ethnographic case study. I then focus on the analysis of the main learning activities designed by teachers to engage children’s multilingual repertoires. Later, applying qualitative content analysis, I outline the main patterns and categories emerging from interviews and focus groups conducted with teachers and parents to investigate how they experienced the marginalization of immigrant minority children in their preschool and how they received the introduction of multilingual education approach. The results shows that the adoption of a translanguaging lens contributed to the educational legitimation of language diversity and to the acknowledgment of immigrant families. Finally, I discuss the results in terms of democratic language education and social justice, underlining their implications and relevance for preschools teachers’ professional development and agency.

Swimming for Life: The Emergency of Teaching Black Children to Swim

The purpose of this article was to provide relevant discussions and data related to the urgency of teaching Black and other minority children to swim. The findings in this report indicated that Black children tend to have a higher drowning rate when compared to other groups. Also, as high as 64 percent of Black children suffer from extreme fear when confronted with discussions pertaining to swimming. Researchers sometimes perceive this as a cultural issue manifested by parents who never learned to swim themselves. Our findings indicated that Black children have a six times likelihood for unintentional drowning when compared to their white counterparts. Among the reasons for low swimming priorities among Black children, included lack of facilities, affordability, fear of water, and hair concerns.

Perspectives of Black and Hispanic Children Living in Under-Resourced Communities on Meal Preparation and Grocery Shopping Behaviors: Implications for Nutrition Education

Minority children living in under-resourced communities are at the greatest risk for obesity and poor diet quality. Child involvement in meal preparation may be a helpful strategy to improve diet quality. This paper explores minority children’s perspectives regarding this. Eighteen children participated in a mixed methods study (online surveys, telephone interviews). Descriptive statistics were calculated for child demographic and psychosocial factors. Thematic analysis was used to code and analyze the interviews. Most children reported having cooking experience (83%) and cooking with family (94%) and exhibited high cooking self-efficacy (21.8 ± 2.9) and positive cooking attitudes (25.7 ± 4.4). Children reported helping with meal preparation (50%) and grocery shopping (41%) sometimes. The qualitative data further supported the results obtained from the children’s psychosocial factors. Most children noted the importance of learning to cook with an emphasis on life skills. Children also shared their level of involvement in cooking and grocery shopping. Most children reported using technology when cooking to find demonstration videos and recipes. These findings highlight that minority children participate in meal preparation and grocery shopping. Their perspectives are important for the development of nutrition education programs to achieve equitable dietary outcomes in minority families living in under-resourced communities.

The Impact of the Sociolinguistic Environment on the State Language Proficiency of Children from Ethnic Minorities in a Preschool Educational Institution

The article discusses the impact of the daily language choice of ethnic minority children on Latvian language skills in a preschool educational institution. The aim of the study is to explore the impact of the daily language choice of ethnic minority children on Latvian language skills in a preschool educational establishment, surveying the children’s parents. Within the project LAMBA (2015–2017), the researchers Olga Ureka, Dace Markus and Anna Vulane adapted a survey elaborated by Sharon Unsworth (Utrecht Bilingual Language Exposure Calculator (UBiLEC): Questionnaire and notes on Completing the Excel file) to Latvian for surveying bilingual parents. Sharon Unsworth has developed this method in Utrecht to use as a survey for parents of bilingual children. The set of questions is included in the survey which is based on the previous experience of educators and linguists in work with children. The questions included are about children’s linguistic surroundings at home, in preschool setting, in other activities and during free time. The answer options included in the tables allow to investigate parents’ opinions about children language comprehension and application quality and frequency, but in the survey tables we can obtain also quantitative data about the use of language and children’s linguistic environment. Employing UBiLEC, an internationally approbated survey adapted to Latvian for parents of bilingual children, the Latvian language skills of ethnic minority children are compared in the preschool groups where children daily use Latvian or Russian. The topicality of the issue is intensified by the requirement, in force from September 1, 2019, that in Class 1 of all ethnic minority schools 50% of learning must take place in the state language; therefore, it is important to make sure that preschool-age children are prepared for learning in Latvian. In recent years, there has been a tendency for the ethnic minority parents to enrol their children not only in the preschool groups taught in Russian, but also in Latvian. Parents’ survey data show that the ethnic minority children who attend a Latvian preschool group are linguistically ready to continue their education in Latvian or bilingually – the same as children with Latvian as their mother tongue, but if Russian is used as a language of instruction, the lack of Latvian sociolinguistic environment becomes a major obstacle for acquisition the necessary Latvian language proficiency. This research was done in National Research Programme “Latvian Language” Nr. VPP-IZM-2018/2-0002.

Dzimtās un otrās latviešu valodas prasme pirmsskolas vecumā: vārdu krājums

The study has been carried out within the subproject No. 8 “Latvian Language Acquisition” framework of the National Research Programme “Latvian Language”. The aim of this article is to analyse the results of Latvian language skills of the minority pre-school children who attend pre-school groups with Russian as the everyday communication language, the minority pre-school children who attend pre-school groups with Latvian as the everyday language, and Latvian pre-school children. The recordings of children’s speeches were made in Kurzeme pre-school education institu-tions during May and June of 2019 and 2020 before the children started to attend primary school. The findings obtained in this study are illustrated only with the results in vocabulary acquisition, taking into account that one of the most important tasks in learning a second language at pre-school age is vocabulary acquisition. Creating a conviction for beginning a new activity – communication in another language, not in the mother tongue, is of linguodidactic and psychological importance. Knowledge of a larger or smaller vocabulary is the basis for starting to speak a language. The study uses a picture-based conversation, with a maximum of 20 minutes spent in conversation with each child. The criteria proposed by Ingēra Tomme-Jukēvica (Tomme-Jukēvica 2018) have been used; they indicate the level of language skills (0 (insufficient level) – not showing or showing very minimal (<5%) knowledge and skills; 1 (low level) shows minimal (<25%) knowledge and skills; 2 (medium level) shows mediocre (>50%) knowledge and skills; 3 (high level) shows good (>75%) knowledge and skills. The article points out that each individual’s worldview forms with the mother tongue’s help and compares some striking linguistic lexical differences, paying particular attention to the comparative examples of Latvian and Russian languages. By referring to Latvian and Russian examples, the authors demonstrate that it may be necessary to divide the action expressed in one word in one language by creating a word group or even a phrase in another language. The Latvian language proficiency researchers should be aware that children with different native languages (Latvian or Russian) may have different worldviews, demanding additional actions of thinking and speech from the second language speaker. Therefore, second language acquisition at the pre-school age is an essential prerequisite for continuing bilingual studies or studies in Latvian at school. Observations made during the research in the National Research Programme testify that in pre-school education institutions, the process of education usually is interesting for children. However, as the analysis of the recordings of children’s speech in Kurzeme reveals, in those minority children groups where the everyday communication language is Russian and where Latvian is usually taught only two times a week for approximately 30–45 minutes, and also where the visual information in Russian dominates, insufficient skills of the state language and substantially worse experience of the Latvian language use have been observed. At the same time, it should be acknowledged that those minority children who attend groups with Latvian as the everyday language have learned Latvian sufficiently to continue education in the first grade of primary school. These children have not lost their native language, usually Russian, which they use actively at home. Therefore, they have the basis for several language acquisitions when they start learning at school. Learning Latvian as the second language requires optimization of this process in the pre-school education institutions, ensuring regular communication with the child in Latvian, and the use of appropriate methodologies in teaching activities. In this context, not only teaching and practicing Latvian lessons are particularly important, but also communication with other children and the possibility of talking Latvian with the staff of the pre-school educational institution. In accordance with earlier conclusions of linguists, the study conducted in Kurzeme shows that in the speech of pre-school children, independently of their mother tongue, nouns are dominating, but minority children attending groups with the dominant Russian language mostly use nouns in the nominative. Because of the task of preparing minority children for bilingual studies or studies in Latvian in the first grade, the authors of the article recommend ensuring bilingual communication on a day-to-day basis in minority groups of pre-school children.

Valodniecības pētījumu nozīmīgums logopēda profesijā

The study has been carried out within the subproject No. 8 “Latvian Language Acquisition” framework of the National Research Programme “Latvian Language”. The aim of the study is to research and describe the importance of linguistic research results to speech and language therapists. In the course of studying children’s speech in 2019 and 2020 in different cities of Latvia, it was found that children of pre-school age, regardless of their mother tongue, have widespread sound pronunciation disorders, e.g. elision of the sound r (bukāns, tīs) or substitution of the sound with another sound (klāsas, klūze, gjiež). However, minority children speaking in Latvian have additional difficulties pronouncing the sounds that are not present in their native Russian. Frequently, long vowels are pronounced as short vowels, e.g. when asked what it is/they are? (ābols, krūze, šķēres, grāmata, burkāns) and what it does/they do? (ēd) the children answer abols, kruze, šķeres, gramata, burkans ed, etc., because, in their native language, there are only short vowels. The substitution of broad vowel e [ae] with the narrow e, e.g. ed [ed], is caused by the same reason. Pronunciation of the diphthong o [uo] as a long vowel has also been observed, e.g. pōgas (pogas). When children are not sure of the proper ending of a word, they do not pronounce it, e.g. abol (ābols), putn (putni), žiraf (žirafe). The speech studies of minority children also showed a large number of grammatical and vocabulary errors, which affect the development of their language and may, in the future, lead to difficulties and disruptions in the learning of the language, which, in more severe cases, lead to a disruption in the learning of subjects at school. The study results showed that in Latvia, the bilingualism of the minority pre-school children is relative. In general, only children whose families are bilingual or who attend the pre-school education groups with Latvian as the communication language speak well both their native language and Latvian. Observations during the National Research Programme show that speech therapists increasingly face the demand for minority children to learn Latvian as the second language; however, speech therapists do not have information about implementing corrections in such cases. Therefore, research on the characteristics of bilingualism and results of language studies are useful for speech therapists in diagnosing, correcting, and preventing disorders. The speaking and language skills of many minority children of pre-school age are still insufficient to continue successful learning in Latvian or bilingually. There are many phonetical and grammatical errors in their speech, while a poor vocabulary interferes with expressing thoughts and engaging in conversation. Both teachers and speech therapists need modern theoretical and practical training to raise their qualifications and implement a common understanding of the problems. The lessons learned from this project are incorporated into the bachelor’s theses of Marta Jakušina, Valērija Krasovska, and Alise Valtere.

Pirmsskolēnu latviešu valodas apguves rezultāti Latvijā: Kurzemē, Rīgā un Latgalē

The issue of state language skills has been crucial in the Latvian education system since the renewal of the national independence in 1991, and important decisions have been taken in recent years, which could contribute to the learning of the Latvian language in the educational process. The main point is that minority pre-school education institutions should implement a bilingual learning methodology to ensure that children are able to speak Latvian in daily communication and successfully start learning at least bilingually in the first grade. The Cabinet Regulations No. 716 “Regulations Regarding the State Guidelines for Pre-school Education and the Model Pre-school Education Programmes” adopted 21 November 2018 and in force since 1 September 2019 (MK 2018, Nr. 716) state “to provide a child with a possibility to prepare for the acquisition of basic education” (section 3.5) and explain the differences in the content of pre-school education implementation programmes included in the pre-school education programme of the minority pre-school education programme, the special pre-school education programme, and the special pre-school minority education programme (see section 4). One of the tasks for pre-school language researchers in the sub-project No. 8 of the National Research Programme “Latvian Language” was to test Latvian and minority children’s real Latvian proficiency by performing the pre-school children’s Latvian proficiency test and analysis, taking into account the regional distribution, differences in pre-school education groups by the language of instruction and in children’s mother tongue. From 2018 to 2021, 1) a Latvian language proficiency test for children of pre-school age and its results’ assessment system were developed, 2) pre-school children’s language records were made in Kurzeme, Latgale, and Riga pre-school education institutions, 3) knowledge of Latvian and its usage skills were analysed and compared: a) for children with Latvian as the mother tongue, b) for minority children who attend pre-school groups with Latvian as the language of daily communication, c) for minority children who attend pre-school groups with Russian as the dominant language. During the study, in conversations with parents, the authors found out that in families of minority children whose knowledge of Latvian was insufficient, communication takes place in Russian, and in minority children’s groups in pre-school education institutions with Russian as daily communication language, Russian dominates in communication with children and their parents and visual information. The results of analysis of children’s language: Pre-schoolers who attend an educational establishment’s group with Latvian as daily communication language demonstrate good knowledge and skills of Latvian and are prepared to learn in Latvian at school. The Latvian proficiency of minority children attending pre-school education groups with the dominant Russian language is insufficient and does not comply with the requirements specified in the Cabinet Regulation No. 716 of 2018, that children should be prepared to start learning at school in Latvian or bilingually. This conclusion is not dependent on the region where the children live. Minority children who attend the groups with Russian as the dominant language have limited vocabulary, underdeveloped language of dialogue, impaired fluency of speech amplified by very minimal knowledge of grammar, and children’s reading skills do not meet the national requirements. Minority pre-schoolers are well able to imitate another language because in all regions studied, minority children have the best results in Latvian pronunciation. Insufficient Latvian language skills, in general, can be explained by insufficient daily use of Latvian. For minority children in pre-school age to successfully learn Latvian, it is not enough to have only a few Latvian language lessons a week; it is necessary to create a real bilingual language usage environment (communication, games, visual features, etc.) in pre-school education institutions.