How Children Learn the Meanings of Words

How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
Author: Paul Bloom
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2002-01-25
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780262523295

How do children learn that the word "dog" refers not to all four-legged animals, and not just to Ralph, but to all members of a particular species? How do they learn the meanings of verbs like "think," adjectives like "good," and words for abstract entities such as "mortgage" and "story"? The acquisition of word meaning is one of the fundamental issues in the study of mind. According to Paul Bloom, children learn words through sophisticated cognitive abilities that exist for other purposes. These include the ability to infer others' intentions, the ability to acquire concepts, an appreciation of syntactic structure, and certain general learning and memory abilities. Although other researchers have associated word learning with some of these capacities, Bloom is the first to show how a complete explanation requires all of them. The acquisition of even simple nouns requires rich conceptual, social, and linguistic capacities interacting in complex ways. This book requires no background in psychology or linguistics and is written in a clear, engaging style. Topics include the effects of language on spatial reasoning, the origin of essentialist beliefs, and the young child's understanding of representational art. The book should appeal to general readers interested in language and cognition as well as to researchers in the field.

The Meaning of Children

The Meaning of Children
Author: Beverly Akerman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781550961485

Organized into three sections--appropriately titled "Beginning," "Middle," and "End"--the 14 stories in this collection approach the complexities of being human during those three distinct but interdependent stages of life. The author combines emotional depth and literary appeal to view the world through the eyes of children, the sorrow and ecstasies of child-bearing years, and the culmination of life in old age. Skillfully woven together, the narratives give an array of views through a medley of fascinating characters that include a girl who discovers a fear of heights as her parents' marriage unravels, a 30-something venture fund manager at odds with his daughter's paternity, an orphan accused of homophobia whose hands kill whatever they touch, and a mother of two who can only bear to consider abortion in the second person. Through an eclectic array of tales, this provocative anthology acknowledges that the world can be a very dark place while simultaneously longing for redemption through children.

Monitoring State Compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Monitoring State Compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Author: Ziba Vaghri
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 429
Release: 2022-01-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3030846474

This open access book presents a discussion on human rights-based attributes for each article pertinent to the substantive rights of children, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It provides the reader with a unique and clear overview of the scope and core content of the articles, together with an analysis of the latest jurisprudence of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. For each article of the UNCRC, the authors explore the nature and scope of corresponding State obligations, and identify the main features that need to be taken into consideration when assessing a State’s progressive implementation of the UNCRC. This analysis considers which aspects of a given right are most important to track, in order to monitor States' implementation of any given right, and whether there is any resultant change in the lives of children. This approach transforms the narrative of legal international standards concerning a given right into a set of characteristics that ensure no aspect of said right is overlooked. The book develops a clear and comprehensive understanding of the UNCRC that can be used as an introduction to the rights and principles it contains, and to identify directions for future policy and strategy development in compliance with the UNCRC. As such, it offers an invaluable reference guide for researchers and students in the field of childhood and children’s rights studies, as well as a wide range of professionals and organisations concerned with the subject.

The Sea Saw

The Sea Saw
Author: Tom Percival
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2019-01-10
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1471172457

A beautiful, emotionally satisfying look at how nothing is ever truly lost if you keep it in your heart... When Sofia loses her beloved teddy after a day at the beach, she is heartbroken. But the sea saw it all, and maybe, just maybe, it can bring Sofia and her teddy back together. However long it may take... Exquisite collage artwork is paired with an assured, moving text in this very special picture book.

We the Kids

We the Kids
Author: David Catrow
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2005-04-21
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0142402761

Brush up on the Preamble to the Constitution with this patriotic picture book—and have a couple of good laughs while you're at it! A long time ago some smart guys wrote the Preamble to the Constitution. You have probably read it before, but do you know what it means? And did it ever make you laugh? Now it will! Perfect for inspiring discussion in classrooms and around kitchen tables, this fun-filled and cheerfully illustrated look at the Preamble provides an accessible introduction to America's founding ideals for citizens of all ages. Includes a glossary of terms and a foreword by the artist. "This zany, patriotic paean offers kids lighthearted but meaningful incentive to reflect further on the relevance of those 'big words' and 'big ideas.'"—Publishers Weekly

Children at Play : Clinical and Developmental Approaches to Meaning and Representation

Children at Play : Clinical and Developmental Approaches to Meaning and Representation
Author: Arietta Slade Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the City College and Graduate Center City University of New York
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 330
Release: 1994-01-27
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 019802133X

As they play, children do more than imagine--they also invent life-long approaches to thinking, feeling, and relating to other people. For nearly a century, clinical psychologists have been concerned with the content and interpersonal meaning of play. More recently, developmental psychologists have concentrated on the links between the emergence of symbolic play and evolving thought and language. At last, this volume bridges the gap between the two disciplines by defining their common interests and by developing areas of interface and interrelatedness. The editors have brought together original chapters by distinguished psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists, social workers, and developmental psychologists who shed light on topics outside the traditional confines of their respective domains. Thus the book features clinicians exploring subjects such as play representation, narrative, metaphor, and symbolization, and developmentalists examining questions regarding affect, social development, conflict, and psychopathology. Taken together, the contributors offer a rich, integrative view of the many dimensions of early play as it occurs among peers, between parent and child, and in the context of therapy.

The Social Meaning of Children and Fertility Change in Europe

The Social Meaning of Children and Fertility Change in Europe
Author: Anne Lise Ellingsaeter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2013-03-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1135092133

Low fertility in Europe has given rise to the notion of a ‘fertility crisis’. This book shifts the attention from fertility decline to why people do have children, asking what children mean to them. It investigates what role children play in how young adults plan their lives, and why and how young adults make the choices they do. The book aims to expand our comprehension of the complex structures and cultures that influence reproductive choice, and explores three key aspects of fertility choices: the processes towards having (or not having) children, and how they are underpinned by negotiations and ambivalences how family policies, labour markets and personal relations interact in young adults’ fertility choices social differentiation in fertility choice: how fertility rationales and reasoning may differ among women and men, and across social classes Based on empirical studies from six nations – France, Scandinavia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Italy (representing the high and low end of European variation in fertility rates) – the book shows how different economic, political and cultural contexts interact in young adults' fertility rationales. It will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, demography and gender studies.

The Meaning Of Children

The Meaning Of Children
Author: Eulah Croson Laucks
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000303268

As more individuals delay having children or opt for childlessness, the question arises: What value do people place on children in contemporary U.S. society? Dr. Laucks studies this question through a survey designed to elicit attitudes regarding the purpose and desirability of raising children in the context of a depersonalized, fragmented, and alienating society. The survey – of a large group of university graduates – points to marked discrepancies between individual attitudes favoring procreation and parenthood and individual actions that contradict traditional notions. Purported aspirations and goals still include the hope of raising happy, healthy children. Yet, while individually valuing children and family, Americans widely approve of and use contraceptives and other birth control methods, endorse easy dissolution of marriage, and approve of relationships that exclude children. The author examines these diverging attitudes in relation to contemporary and historical sentiments toward the family. Extensive tables display the detailed results of Dr. Laucks’s survey, giving demographic information on the respondents, along with their attitudes toward sexual practices, parenthood, child rearing, and the family.

Carl and the Meaning of Life

Carl and the Meaning of Life
Author: Deborah Freedman
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 49
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0451474988

From the often Caldecott-buzzed Deborah Freedman, a sweet and funny story about finding your place in the world. Carl is an earthworm. He spends his days happily tunneling in the soil until a field mouse asks him a simple question that stops him short: "Why?" Carl's quest takes him on an adventure to meet all the animals of the forest, each of whom seems to know exactly what they were put on this earth to do, unlike the curious Carl. But it's not until the world around him has changed that Carl begins to realize everyone, no matter how small, makes a big difference just by being themselves.