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Young Children's Participation in Everyday Family and Community Activity
Abstract
Patterns of participation in everyday family and community activities are described for children from birth to 6 years of age. Parents or other primary caregivers completed a survey of either family life or community life as sources of children's learning opportunities and experiences. Rates of children's participation in 50 family activities and 50 community activities at different ages were identified and analyzed in terms of similarities and differences in participation patterns. Findings indicated considerable variability in involvement in 100 family and community activities by young children of different ages. Implications for using everyday family and community activities as sources of enriched learning opportunities that enhance children's development are discussed.
... The research foundations of the model include studies of the sources of young children's everyday learning opportunities (Dunst et al., 2000;Dunst, Raab, Trivette, & Swanson, 2010), patterns of children's participation in everyday activities (Dunst, Hamby, Trivette, Raab, & Bruder, 2002), the effectiveness of interest-based children's learning opportunities (Dunst et al., 2001), and the different outcomes that are associated with contrasting approaches to using everyday activities as the sources of children's learning opportunities (Dunst, Bruder, Trivette, & Hamby, 2005. This as well as other research was the focus of four meta-analyses conducted by CECLL staff, one for each of the practices in the different components of the CECLL model, to discern whether the premises of each component are supported by empirical evidence and to identify the conditions under which the practices are optimally effective (Dunst, Valentine, Raab, & Hamby, 2013;Raab, Dunst, Johnson, & Hamby, 2013;Trivette, Dunst, Simkus, & Hamby, 2013). ...
The language intervention model developed and evaluated at the Center on Everyday Child Language Learning (CECLL) is described. The model includes 4 components: interest-based child learning opportunities, the everyday family and community activities that are sources of interest-based child learning, the methods for increasing child participation in the everyday learning activities, and the use of responsive teaching for promoting child communication and language learning while children are engaged in the activities. Results from the evaluation of the relationship between fidelity of practitioners' use of an evidence-based coaching practice and the fidelity of parents' use of the CECLL intervention practices are presented. Implications for considering factors that influence the use of the CECLL intervention practices with fidelity are described. A CCORDING TO BRONFENBRENNER (1993), the personal characteristics likely to be most potent in affecting the course of child development [are] those that set in motion, sustain, and encourage processes of interaction between the [developing] person and two aspects of the proximal environment: first, the people present in the settings; and second, the physical and symbolic features of the settings that invite, permit, or inhibit engagement in sustained, progressively more complex interaction within an activity in the immediate environment. (p. 11) The interactive settings that occur within the immediate environment are described by Bronfenbrenner (1979) as microsys-tems and are the contexts for children to learn, acquire, and master culturally and functionally meaningful behavior and competencies. Microsystems, or everyday activity settings as they are described by social-cultural activity theorists (e.g., Engeström, Miettinen, & Punamäki, 1999; Göncü, 1999), "are made up of everyday experiences. .. that contain ordinary settings in which children's social interaction and behavior occur" (Farver, 1999, p. 99). These ordinary, everyday activities include such things as meal times, bath times, parent-child play, visiting relatives and friends, outside walks, and many other everyday family and community activities (Dunst, Hamby, Trivette, Raab, & Bruder, 2000). Findings from studies of child participation in everyday activities indicate that these settings are important contexts for child learning, including the development of social interaction skills, nonverbal communication, and both expressive and receptive language (Duchan, 1995).
... The parenting participation measures were categorized as either parents' efforts to engage their children in everyday, informal learning activities (e.g., Dunst, 2020a;Dunst et al., 2002;McConnell et al., 2013) or parental involvement in their children's formal early childhood intervention (e.g., Bower et al., 2020;Garvis et al., 2022;Korfmacher et al., 2008). Parenting engagement practices were ones where parents, without the direct encouragement of early childhood practitioners, engaged their children in different types of family or community activities that provided the children with informal learning opportunities. ...
... Previous studies found that young children had similar participation and environment scale scores regardless of their age (Khetani et al., 2015;Åström et al., 2018). In contrast, other studies found that participation scores were different according to age (Dunst et al., 2002;Law et al., 2012;Rosenberg et al., 2010). In our study, in home, daycare/preschool, and community sections, age had a significant effect on participation scale scores and environmental support scores. ...
We investigated the psychometric properties of a Turkish version of the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM-T). Our participants were 367 children (212 children with disabilities and 155 children without disabilities; M age = 40.76 months, SD = 20.33; range 0–71 months) and their parents, who were selected by a convenience sampling method. We translated and cross-culturally adapted the original YC-PEM from English to Turkish (YC-PEM-T). We found the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the YC-PEM-T to be good with a Croanbach’s alpha ranging from .68 to .94, and intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from .69 to .89 after the YC-PEM-T was administered twice to 100 parents within a three week period. In a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) we compared YC-PEM-T scores between children with and without the presence of a disability and found significant differences (p < .05). While we found significant differences between three different age groups, they did not follow consistently. To evaluate discriminant validity, we followed up these ANOVAs with post-hoc analyses when results were statistically significant. Regarding concurrent validity, there were strong to very strong relationships between scores on the participation part of the YC-PEM-T and both the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI; .701 < r < .854, p < .001), and the European Child Environment Questionnaire (ECEQ; - .632 < r < - .690, p < .001). We concluded that the YC-PEM-T is a valid, reliable, and culturally adapted tool for evaluating daily life participation and adaptation to environmental factors in young Turkish children. We can recommend the YC-PEM-T for use in clinical settings and for epidemiological research to assess young children’s participation in activities in the home, preschool and community. We also recommend that future investigators examine other psychometric properties of this scale, including its interpretation and capacity to differentiate varied diagnostic and disability groups.
... The programme is offered to children with CP starting at the age of 1.5-2 years and lasts until the age of 15 years. The BIP is theoretically grounded in the belief that children learn best through daily life activities that align with their interests, through opportunities to learn various skills through many repetitions, and through adaptation of both their activities and their environment [19,20]. The BIP's main goal is to promote function and participation in everyday activities in a natural adapted and enriched environment at home and in kindergarten, school and during leisure time [18]. ...
Purpose
Explore how youths with CP experience participation in everyday life, their experience of having participated in a periodical intensive rehabilitation programme and their expectations for the future.
Materials & methods
A qualitative design that included semi-structured interviews with 14 youths with CP (mean age 17 years).
Results
The qualitative content analysis exposed six themes, (1) Everyday life – to get the pieces of your life to fit together, (2) Participation means inclusion and belonging – the meaning of life, (3) Individual and environmental factors influencing participation, (4) Experience of physical and social activities away from home together with like-minded people, (5) To be continued locally, and (6) You do not know the future, anything can happen – visions for the future.
Conclusions
Participation in everyday life increases the meaning of life but takes energy. Periodical intensive rehabilitation programme enabled youths to try new activities, make friends and increase self-insight in their own strengths and limitations.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION
• Young people with cerebral palsy (CP) describe participation as the meaning of life and state that it is essential for inclusion and being able to contribute to society
• Adaptation of environmental factors including collaboration across service sectors and capacity building in young people within their preferred life situations appear to be essential
• A periodical intensive rehabilitation, including adapted physical activities in groups, is recommended to provide peer learning and mastery experiences in young people with CP.
• Young people with CP seem to have the same hopes for the future as their typically developing peers
... Çocukların ilgileri, öğrenmeye katkıda bulunan bir faktör olarak genellikle göz ardı edilebilmektedir. Fakat öğrenmenin kalitesi çocuğun ilgisiyle yakından ilişkilidir ve çocukların öğrenme etkinliklerine katılımı etkinlik türüne duydukları ilgiye göre farklılık gösterebilir (Dunst, Hamby, Trivette, Raab ve Bruder, 2002). Buna göre çocukları ilgilerine göre öğrenme ortamlarına dâhil etmek öğrenmeyi keyifli hâle getirir ve çocukların öğrenmeyi kendilerinin başlatmasını mümkün kılar (Guberman, 1999;Nelson, 1999;Pintrich ve Schunk, 2002). ...
Bu araştırma, erken çocuklukta öğrenmeye ilişkin ebeveynlerin görüşlerinin incelenmesi amacıyla karma desenin eşzamanlı iç içe geçmiş modelinde tasarlanmıştır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Antalya, Bursa, Eskişehir, Konya, Kayseri, Balıkesir, Mersin, Malatya, Erzurum, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Kars, Şanlıurfa, Van ve Ağrı illerinde okul öncesi dönemde çocuğu olan 355 ebeveyn oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak araştırmacılar tarafından hazırlanan “Erken Çocuklukta Öğrenme Anketi” kullanılmıştır. Verilerin analizinde anketteki kapalı uçlu sorular için ağırlıklı ortalama hesaplanmış ve ki-kare analizi yapılmıştır. Anketteki açık uçlu sorular için ise içerik analizi yapılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucuna göre, araştırmaya katılan ebeveynler erken çocuklukta öğrenmede en çok sosyal gelişime katkı sağlayan durumlara önem vermekte ve öğrenmenin gerçekleşmesi için en çok çocuğun bir şeye ilgi ve merak duymasını önemli görmektedir. Ayrıca ebeveynler çocuklarında en çok öğrenme sürecine katılım gösterme davranışını gözlemlemekte ve öğrenme davranışlarının geliştirilmesi için en çok çocukları dinlemek ve onların düşünce şekillerini anlamaya çalışmak gerektiğini belirtmektedir. Araştırmadan elde edilen sonuçlar ışığında öneriler şu şekilde sunulabilir: Ebeveynlerin erken çocuklukta öğrenmeyle ilgili bilgi ve faaliyetlerini artırmak amacıyla destekleyici eğitimler verebilirler. Çocukların ilgi ve merakları ebeveynler tarafından dikkate alınarak sosyal faaliyetlerde bulunmaları sağlanabilir.
... Children's better engagement in activities is associated with more learning opportunities (Dunst et al., 2002), and therefore helping children to cope with sensory challenges might facilitate their participation in activities that introduces more learning opportunities. The finding that parent education was a significant predictor of children's overall participation also highlights the contribution of family factors to what children actually do in their daily lives. ...
Past research has demonstrated the ubiquitous presence and early emergence of sensory patterns, including hyperresponsiveness (HYPER), hyporesponsiveness (HYPO), and sensory interests, repetitions, and seeking behaviors (SIRS) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as the potential role of sensory processing as a key building block for higher-level social and cognitive functions. Whereas previous findings highlighted the cross-sectional differences of sensory patterns across age and diagnostic groups, it remains unclear how the developmental trajectories of sensory patterns in ASD differ from those with other diagnostic outcomes. More evidence is needed to understand the developmental and heterogeneous nature of sensory patterns in young children with ASD among a general population, as well as how they are associated with broader developmental outcomes, such as adaptive/maladaptive behaviors and participation, in order to evaluate the contribution of sensory patterns to the early identification, diagnosis and prognosis of children with ASD and/or other developmental challenges.
To address these empirical gaps, this dissertation aimed to 1) model developmental trajectories of sensory patterns from infancy to school age in a community sample and explore the demographic and clinical factors that may account for their variability; 2) identify developmental trajectory subtypes of sensory patterns as associated with school-age outcomes, and 3) understand the specific longitudinal impact of sensory patterns on school-age outcomes. We followed up on a longitudinal cohort of children (N=1,517) from a large community sample whose caregivers completed surveys regarding their child’s sensory patterns and other developmental concerns at three time-points: infancy (Time 1: 6-19 months), pre-school years (Time 2: 3-4 years), and school years (Time 3: 6-7 years). At Time 3, we collected additional outcome data on autism symptoms, adaptive/maladaptive behaviors, and activity participation in a subsample (N=389) that included families who had reported any diagnoses or concerns (N=312) and those who had not reported any diagnoses or concerns at previous time-points (N=77).
In Study 1, we conducted multivariate latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) with demographic covariates to estimate sensory trajectories from Time 1 to Time 3 with the full sample (N=1,517) and the results revealed highly variable longitudinal patterns across the three sensory patterns. Such variability could be partially explained by demographic characteristics (i.e., child’s sex, race, and parent education) and clinical outcome status (ASD and non-ASD conditions). Particularly, the slopes of HYPER and HYPO were better able to differentiate ASD from other conditions, including non-ASD children with sensory issues. Parent education accounted for more of the variations in trajectories of children’s sensory responsiveness than child’s sex and race. Furthermore, the latent growth factors of the three sensory patterns were associated with each other, indicating their co-occurrence and co-development over time. These findings from Study 1 support the potential utility of longitudinal sensory patterns from infancy for early detection of ASD and the pivotal role of family-tailored approaches to address young children’s sensory challenges.
To further address the variability that could not be explained by the known factors (i.e., demographics and clinical outcome status) in Study 1, we performed latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to identify the sensory trajectory subtypes from infancy to school age among the full sample in Study 2. We also examined how children classified to these trajectory subtypes differ in their demographic characteristics, clinical outcome status (ASD and non-ASD conditions), and school-age outcomes, including autism symptoms, adaptive/maladaptive behaviors, and activity participation. As a result, we identified five distinct subtypes that vary in latent growth factors across sensory patterns. Particularly, there was a subtype (3% of the sample) characterized by elevated and worsening sensory patterns and highly associated with ASD and poor school-age outcomes. The other four subtypes were characterized by low to moderate levels of sensory patterns and generally stable/improving trajectories and were associated with strengths and weaknesses in school-age outcomes. These results indicated that profiling children based on their early sensory trajectories may help to identify children who are more likely to experience developmental challenges at school age and may thus introduce opportunities for early intervention.
In Study 3, we examined the specific impacts of sensory trajectories on each school-age outcome variable. Multivariate LGCM was performed with demographic covariates and latent growth factor regressions, and school-age outcome variables were included in the model by being regressed onto the latent growth factor of sensory patterns. Overall, the change rate of HYPER was the most significant predictor of school-age outcomes. The initial levels of sensory patterns had indirect effects on some distal outcomes via the change rates of HYPER and HYPO. Differential impacts of HYPER and HYPO were observed on maladaptive behavior: HYPER was more associated with internalizing behavior while HYPO was more with externalizing behavior. Also, the variations in autism symptoms and maladaptive behavior were explained to larger extents by sensory trajectories as compared to other behavioral domains. These results indicate that early sensory challenges may have cascading effects on other domains of behavior. Thus, sensory responsiveness during this period may be an important target for early intervention towards more optimal outcomes.
Overall, the findings of these three studies enhance our understanding of the developmental and heterogeneous nature of sensory patterns from infancy to school age in a large community sample with various clinical characteristics, including ASD and non-ASD conditions. The observed associations between early sensory trajectories and later school-age outcomes may indicate the critical role of personalized intervention or services for children with sensory challenges and their families across early development towards optimal outcomes.
... Attendance refers to being present in activities, and involvement refers to the experiences while attending activities [4]. In this study, we focus on exploring the attendance aspects of participation, as it is a starting point to provide opportunities for learning and development [5], building social friendships [6], and developing a sense of self-identity [7]. Therefore, participation is essential for early childhood development, particularly for children with disabilities and including them in their communities. ...
Participation in enjoyable activities is essential for the health and development of young children with and without disabilities. For preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is limited knowledge regarding their participation in play, learning, recreation, and social activities. This was a preliminary study that compares the participation between children 2–6 years of age with ASD (n = 25) and age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) (n = 25) children. The Chinese version of the Assessment of Preschool Children’s Participation (APCP-C) measures participation in play, skill development, active physical recreation, and social activities. Parents of the children in this study completed the APCP-C by structured interview. The results showed that children with ASD had lower participation diversity and intensity than TD children in play activities. A lower percentage of children participating in individual activity was found for children with ASD than TD children in most APCP-C activities. Professionals that serve young children with special needs are encouraged to partner with parents to provide playful and socially enhancing activities for preschool children with ASD.
Early intervention programs play an important role in supporting young children with disabilities and developmental disorders in acquiring various life skills before they reach school-going age. The present study aims to examine the current practices of the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) for young children with disabilities in Saudi Arabia using a quantitative design. A sample of 212 early intervention providers—males (n = 35; 16.5%) and females (n = 177; 83.5%)—were surveyed. The IFSP questionnaire was based on Maryland State’s IFSP form. The order of the dimensions employed in the study from the highest to the lowest was as follows: initial data, the present level of the child’s development, permissions, early intervention services, information about the child and the family, and transition services. The findings of the study revealed that the current practices of the IFSP for young children with disabilities in Saudi Arabia were at the ‘often’ level.
The relationships between several different person and environment characteristics of everyday natural learning opportunities and changes in both child learning opportunities and child behavior and performance were examined in an intervention study lasting 19 to 26 weeks. Participants were 63 parents or other caregivers and their infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities or delays. Findings showed that learning opportunities that were interesting, engaging, competence-producing, and mastery-oriented were associated with optimal child behavioral change. Implications for early intervention practices are discussed.
National surveys of nearly 3300 parents (and other caregivers) of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with or at-risk for developmental delays were conducted to ascertain the sources of naturally occurring learning opportunities afforded young children in the context of family and community life. One group of parents completed a survey about family life as sources of learning opportunities (N = 1723), and another group completed a survey of community life as sources of learning opportunities (N = 1560). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that both family and community life were each made up of 11 different categories of learning opportunities. Results indicate the 22 categories provide a framework for recognizing and identifying sources of learning opportunities providing children a rich array of experiences constituting natural learning environments.
Anthropological approaches to human development have been oriented primarily to the socialized adult, at the expense of understanding developmental processes. Developmental psychology, in contrast, has traditionally been concerned with a decontextualized, "universal" child. After a brief historical review, the "developmental niche" is introduced as a framework for examining the cultural structuring of child development. The developmental niche has three components: the physical and social settings in which the child lives; the customs of child care and child rearing; and the psychology of the caretakers. Homeostatic mechanisms tend to keep the three subsystems in harmony with each other and appropriate to the developmental level and individual characteristics of the child. Nevertheless, they have different relationships to other features of the larger environment and thus constitute somewhat independent routes of disequilibrium and change. Regularities within and among the subsystems, and thematic continuities and progressions across the niches of childhood provide material from which the child abstracts the social, affective, and cognitive rules of the culture. Examples are provided from research in a farming community in Kenya.
A major focus of the article is the idea that activity settings are in part social constructions of the participants. The socially constructed "meaning" of an activity setting is a complex mix of ecological, cultural, interactional, and psychological features. These features may be observed and assessed, directly and indirectly, in terms of personnel, cultural values, tasks, scripts for conduct, and motives and purposes of actors. Empirical illustrations and extensions to community psychology are drawn from research with different populations: Native Hawaiian children and families, Spanish-speaking children and Mexican and Central American immigrant parents, Euro-American families with a developmentally delayed child, and Euro-American families who intentionally adopted nonconventional child-rearing values and practices.
In this Monograph, we examine how toddlers and their caregivers from four cultural communities collaborate in shared activities. We focus both on similarities across communities in processes of guided participation-structuring children's participation and bridging between their understanding and that of their caregivers-and on differences in how guided participation occurs. We examine the idea that a key cultural difference entails who is responsible for learning-whether adults take this responsibility by structuring teaching situations or whether children take responsibility for learning through observation and through participating in adult activities with caregivers' support. We speculate that these two patterns relate to cultural variation in the segregation of children from adult activities of their community and in emphasis on formal schooling. The four communities of our study vary along these lines as well as in other ways: a Mayan Indian town in Guatemala, a middle-class urban group in the United States, a tribal village in India, and a middle-class urban neighborhood in Turkey. In each community, we visited the families of 14 toddlers (aged 12-24 months) for an interview that was focused on child-rearing practices, which included observations of caregivers helping the toddlers operate novel objects and put on clothes on our request as well as toddlers exploring novel objects spontaneously during adult activities. Results are based on systematic analysis of patterns of communication and attention in each family in each community, combining the tools of ethnographic description, graphic analysis, and statistics. The findings point to the importance of understanding not only how children learn through instruction that is managed by adults but also how they learn through keen observation and participation in adult activities. A major contribution of the study is an analysis of keen observation through sharing attention among complex ongoing events, an approach that was more apparent in the two non-middle-class communities, in which children are minimally segregated from adult activities.
This study investigated the differences and similarities in child-rearing practices among Chinese, immigrant Chinese, and Caucasian-American parents. The subjects of this study were the mothers and fathers of 138 children enrolled in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade in Taiwan and the United States. The child-rearing variables under study were: parental control, encouragement of independence, expression of affection, and emphasis on achievement. MANOVA yielded significant group effects on the parental variables. It was found that Chinese and immigrant Chinese parents tended to rate higher on parental control, encouragement of independence, and emphasis on achievement than Caucasian-American parents. The adaptability of the immigrant Chinese to the conditions of life and social structures of the United States, while maintaining traditional patterns of socialization, is discussed.
Widespread interest in the concept of inclusion for young children with disabilities has been focused primarily on inclusion in day care and classroom settings. While these contexts provide important opportunities for inclusion, many other community contexts are also important. Interviews with families of children with and without disabilities were analyzed to identify factors that facilitated or served as barriers to children's inclusion in community settings. These factors are described in terms of their application to children with and without disabilities and the extent to which they were reflected in communities of varying size and various income levels. Results are interpreted with respect to an ecological model and are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention.
The extent and nature of community activities of families of children with disabilities in comparison with their nondisabled peers were examined. Parents of 82 children with disabilities and 132 children without disabilities, ages 2 through 5 years, completed a Demographic Questionnaire, Community Activities Questionnaire (CAQ), and Parent Experience Survey (PES). The CAQ assessed frequency of child participation in age-appropriate community activities, and the PES was a retrospective self-evaluation by parents of the experience of introducing the child to common community settings. Both groups of parents reported highly similar experiences when shopping with their children, although parents of children with disabilities reported more fear and risk associated with public settings. Overall, parents of children with disabilities reported participation in fewer community activities than parents of children without disabilities. This difference was largely accounted for by a lower level of participation by families having children with disabilities in a subset of activities that reflect opportunities for family enrichment.