


Archive for January, 2011
 
ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2010) — Effective reading requires recognizing words and also understanding what they mean. Between 7-10 percent of children have specific reading-comprehension difficulties. These children can read text aloud accurately but do not understand what they have just read. A new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, identifies a training program which may help children overcome reading-comprehension difficulties.
Psychological scientists Paula J. Clarke, Margaret J. Snowling, Emma Truelove, and Charles Hulme from the University of York in the United Kingdom conducted a study to see which of three intervention programs is most effective in improving children’s reading comprehension. Children (8- and 9-year olds) with reading-comprehension difficulties participated in one of three intervention programs: Text Comprehension training (TC), which emphasized metacognitive strategies (for example, re-reading and visualization) and involved working with written texts; Oral Language training (OL), which emphasized vocabulary and exclusively involved spoken language; and TC and OL training combined (COM) that integrated components from both training programs. Children’s performance was assessed before they started the training program, during the program, and 11 months after they completed their program.
The results showed that while all three of the training programs helped to improve reading comprehension, the largest long-term gains occurred for children who were in the OL training group. According to the authors, “The OL and COM groups also showed improvements in knowledge of the meanings of words that they had been taught and these improvements, in turn, helped to account for these children’s improved reading comprehension skills.” That children in the OL training group showed more improvement than did children in the COM training group indicates that the total amount of time devoted to oral-language training (the COM training program relied on half as much oral-language training than did the OL intervention) may be crucial for overcoming reading-comprehension difficulties. The authors note their findings suggest that “deficits in oral vocabulary may be one important underlying cause of children’s reading-comprehension problems.”
The results of this study have important implications for education and may help guide teachers in helping children overcome problems in reading comprehension.
Source:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100802125846.htm
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 3, 2010Â
While analyzing the relationship between siblings, researchers discovered something about having a sister helps 10- to 14-year-olds not be sad.
That’s one of several intriguing findings from a new study on the impact siblings have on one another. Brigham Young University professor Laura Padilla-Walker is the lead author on the research, which also sorts out the influence of siblings and the influence of parents within families.
“Even after you account for parents’ influence, siblings do matter in unique ways,†said Padilla-Walker, who teaches in BYU’s School of Family Life.
“They give kids something that parents don’t.â€
Padilla-Walker’s research stems from BYU’s Flourishing Families Project and will appear in the August issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.
The study included 395 families with more than one child, at least one of whom was an adolescent between 10 and 14 years old. The researchers gathered a wealth of information about each family’s dynamic, then followed up one year later.
Statistical analyses showed that having a sister protected adolescents from feeling lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious and fearful. It didn’t matter whether the sister was younger or older, or how far apart the siblings were agewise.
Brothers mattered, too. The study found that having a loving sibling of either gender promoted good deeds, such as helping a neighbor or watching out for other kids at school. In fact, loving siblings fostered charitable attitudes more than loving parents did.
The relationship between sibling affection and good deeds was twice as strong as that between parenting and good deeds.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/03/sibling-relationships-strengthen-mental-and-life-skills/16330.html
Â
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 3, 2010Â
While analyzing the relationship between siblings, researchers discovered something about having a sister helps 10- to 14-year-olds not be sad.
That’s one of several intriguing findings from a new study on the impact siblings have on one another. Brigham Young University professor Laura Padilla-Walker is the lead author on the research, which also sorts out the influence of siblings and the influence of parents within families.
“Even after you account for parents’ influence, siblings do matter in unique ways,†said Padilla-Walker, who teaches in BYU’s School of Family Life.
“They give kids something that parents don’t.â€
Padilla-Walker’s research stems from BYU’s Flourishing Families Project and will appear in the August issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.
The study included 395 families with more than one child, at least one of whom was an adolescent between 10 and 14 years old. The researchers gathered a wealth of information about each family’s dynamic, then followed up one year later.
Statistical analyses showed that having a sister protected adolescents from feeling lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious and fearful. It didn’t matter whether the sister was younger or older, or how far apart the siblings were agewise.
Brothers mattered, too. The study found that having a loving sibling of either gender promoted good deeds, such as helping a neighbor or watching out for other kids at school. In fact, loving siblings fostered charitable attitudes more than loving parents did.
The relationship between sibling affection and good deeds was twice as strong as that between parenting and good deeds.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/03/sibling-relationships-strengthen-mental-and-life-skills/16330.html
Â
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 3, 2010Â
New research suggests how positively you see others reflects how happy, kind-hearted and emotionally stable you are.
“Your perceptions of others reveal so much about your own personality,†says Dustin Wood, assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest and lead author of the study, about his findings.
By asking study participants to rate positive and negative characteristics of just three people, the researchers were able to find out important information about the rater’s well-being, mental health, social attitudes and how they were judged by others.
The study appears in the July issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Peter Harms at the University of Nebraska and Simine Vazire of Washington University in St. Louis co-authored the study.
The researchers found a person’s tendency to describe others in positive terms is an important indicator of the positivity of the person’s own personality traits. They discovered particularly strong associations between positively judging others and how enthusiastic, happy, kind-hearted, courteous, emotionally stable and capable the person describes oneself and is described by others.
“Seeing others positively reveals our own positive traits,†Wood says.
The study also found that how positively you see other people shows how satisfied you are with your own life, and how much you are liked by others.
In contrast, negative perceptions of others are linked to higher levels of narcissism and antisocial behavior. “A huge suite of negative personality traits are associated with viewing others negatively,†Wood says. “The simple tendency to see people negatively indicates a greater likelihood of depression and various personality disorders.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/03/your-take-on-others-reflects-your-own-emotional-stability/16327.html
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 3, 2010Â
New research suggests how positively you see others reflects how happy, kind-hearted and emotionally stable you are.
“Your perceptions of others reveal so much about your own personality,†says Dustin Wood, assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest and lead author of the study, about his findings.
By asking study participants to rate positive and negative characteristics of just three people, the researchers were able to find out important information about the rater’s well-being, mental health, social attitudes and how they were judged by others.
The study appears in the July issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Peter Harms at the University of Nebraska and Simine Vazire of Washington University in St. Louis co-authored the study.
The researchers found a person’s tendency to describe others in positive terms is an important indicator of the positivity of the person’s own personality traits. They discovered particularly strong associations between positively judging others and how enthusiastic, happy, kind-hearted, courteous, emotionally stable and capable the person describes oneself and is described by others.
“Seeing others positively reveals our own positive traits,†Wood says.
The study also found that how positively you see other people shows how satisfied you are with your own life, and how much you are liked by others.
In contrast, negative perceptions of others are linked to higher levels of narcissism and antisocial behavior. “A huge suite of negative personality traits are associated with viewing others negatively,†Wood says. “The simple tendency to see people negatively indicates a greater likelihood of depression and various personality disorders.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/03/your-take-on-others-reflects-your-own-emotional-stability/16327.html
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 2, 2010Â
Historically, researchers have used common tools to ensure that standardized tests are unbiased. Now, a new study suggests the tools used to check tests of “general mental ability†for bias are themselves flawed.
Indiana University researchers believe this finding challenges reliance on such exams to make objective decisions for employment or academic admissions even in the face of well-documented gaps between mean scores of white and minority populations.
The study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, investigated an amalgam of scores representing a vast sample of commonly used tests, including civil service or other pre-employment exams and university entrance exams.
“Test bias†means that two people with different ethnicity or gender, for example, who have the same test score are predicted to have different “scores†on the outcome (e.g., job performance); thus a biased test might benefit certain groups over others.
Decades of earlier research consistently found no evidence of test bias against ethnic minorities, but the current study challenges this established belief.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/02/some-standardized-employment-tests-may-be-biased/16295.html
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 2, 2010Â
Historically, researchers have used common tools to ensure that standardized tests are unbiased. Now, a new study suggests the tools used to check tests of “general mental ability†for bias are themselves flawed.
Indiana University researchers believe this finding challenges reliance on such exams to make objective decisions for employment or academic admissions even in the face of well-documented gaps between mean scores of white and minority populations.
The study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, investigated an amalgam of scores representing a vast sample of commonly used tests, including civil service or other pre-employment exams and university entrance exams.
“Test bias†means that two people with different ethnicity or gender, for example, who have the same test score are predicted to have different “scores†on the outcome (e.g., job performance); thus a biased test might benefit certain groups over others.
Decades of earlier research consistently found no evidence of test bias against ethnic minorities, but the current study challenges this established belief.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/02/some-standardized-employment-tests-may-be-biased/16295.html
 
July 30th, 2010 by Yen Yen
Born on a blue day: inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant: a memoir
 Daniel Tammet
 Call no: 616.858 TAM – [HEA]
 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 2006
This memoir brings us deeply into the life of an autistic savant. If you have seen ‘Rainman’ starring Dustin Hoffman, the term autistic savant should not be unfamiliar. Even after having seen the film, there is still so much that is unexplained and misunderstood. (If you are unclear about the definition, Tammet described it as the presence of impairments affecting social interaction, communication and imagination).
Through “Born on a blue dayâ€, 25-year old Tammet shares his experiences and life accounts since he was a baby. Tammet might possess incredible cerebral ability but human interaction is a difficult process. Some of his extraordinary capabilities include memorizing the numbers of ‘pi’ and learning a new language in a week. The social interaction impairment is evident when Tammet does not indulge in playtime with his younger brother even when they were toddlers. The extent of their sibling interaction is as such: “I had no strong feelings towards my brother and we lived parallel lives.â€
Read in Full:Â http://blogs.nlb.gov.sg/highbrowseonline/whos-reading-what/yen-yen-has-read-born-on-a-blue-day/
 
July 30th, 2010 by Yen Yen
Born on a blue day: inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant: a memoir
 Daniel Tammet
 Call no: 616.858 TAM – [HEA]
 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 2006
This memoir brings us deeply into the life of an autistic savant. If you have seen ‘Rainman’ starring Dustin Hoffman, the term autistic savant should not be unfamiliar. Even after having seen the film, there is still so much that is unexplained and misunderstood. (If you are unclear about the definition, Tammet described it as the presence of impairments affecting social interaction, communication and imagination).
Through “Born on a blue dayâ€, 25-year old Tammet shares his experiences and life accounts since he was a baby. Tammet might possess incredible cerebral ability but human interaction is a difficult process. Some of his extraordinary capabilities include memorizing the numbers of ‘pi’ and learning a new language in a week. The social interaction impairment is evident when Tammet does not indulge in playtime with his younger brother even when they were toddlers. The extent of their sibling interaction is as such: “I had no strong feelings towards my brother and we lived parallel lives.â€
Read in Full:Â http://blogs.nlb.gov.sg/highbrowseonline/whos-reading-what/yen-yen-has-read-born-on-a-blue-day/

By Han Wei Chou | Posted: 02 August 2010 1235 hrs
SINGAPORE: “Ocean Heaven” is action superstar Jet Li’s first film without a single fight scene.
Indeed, the only thing Li’s character Sam Wong does battle with in this film is liver cancer.
Set against the backdrop of a marine park, Li plays Wong, a terminally ill father who desperately tries to find a place where his 22-year-old autistic son David (Wen Zhang) will be taken care of after he succumbs to the disease.
While working as a handyman at the marine park, Wang teaches Dafu basic skills like cooking and riding the bus in preparation for a life without him.
“Ocean Heaven” is actually more of a ‘statement’ than ‘entertainment’. Wong’s fruitless journey to several special needs schools hoping for a place for his son highlighted the plight of the autistic in China and tries to shed light on the welfare situation in the country.
Li told the media he worked on this film pro bono because he was impressed by how it raised awareness about autism, even though the film’s entire production budget did not even amount to his usual acting fees.
However, being more a ‘statement’ also means that “Ocean Heaven” is not very fun to watch.
The film’s storyline is very bland. The 102-minute film just droned along, engineering situations to exhibit the challenges faced by the autistic, while leaving the truly emotional moments right at the end.
The storyline could do with some tweaking but the acting is really not bad.
Li turns in a reasonable performance as a man struggling to forge a future for his son and acted well in some scenes, such as one where he reluctantly turns down an admirer because he did not want to burden her with his autistic sun.
Read in Full:Â http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/reviews/view/1072807/1/.html
![]()
Related Article
Hong Kong: Ocean Heaven – Li Hopes Autism Film Alternative To Blockbusters

