Showing papers on "Disadvantaged published in 1974"

The effects of sociodramatic play on problem-solving behavior among culturally disadvantaged preschool children.

Abstract: ROSEN, CATHERINE ELKIN. The Effects of Sociodramatic Play on Problem-solving Behavior among Culturally Disadvantaged Preschool Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 920-927. After replicating with American kindergartners Smilansky's finding that disadvantaged youngsters are exceeded in amount and quality of sociodramatic play by advantaged youngsters, 2 classes of disadvantaged kindergartners were given 40 days of instruction and practice in sociodramatic play. Compared with 2 control classes, the experimentals showed significant improvement in posttest group problem-solving behavior, effectiveness in solving group problems requiring maximum cooperation and minimum competition, and role-taking skills. These results support the prediction that acquisition and performance of sociodramatic play improves the problem-solving behavior of culturally disadvantaged children.

Using preschool materials to modify the language of disadvantaged children.

Abstract: Although language remediation programs have generally been conducted with the use of special materials in structured group settings, traditional preschool practice emphasizes “incidental teaching” incorporated into children's free play. To determine if incidental teaching practices could be effective in improving children's speech, this study investigated the spontaneous speech of 12 disadvantaged children during free-play periods over eight months of a preschool program. Whenever the children selected a preschool play material, they were prompted and required to ask for it, first by name (noun), then by name plus a word that described the material (adjective-noun combination), then by use of a color adjuctive-noun combination, and finally by requesting the material and describing how they were going to use it (compound sentence). As each requirement was made, the children's general use of that aspect of language markedly increased, but little change was noted in the amount or nature of the children's interactions with teachers or their use of a set of materials to which they had free access. This study demonstrates that preschool free-play periods can be powerful “incidental teaching” periods by capitalizing on moments when children seek new play materials.

Training for thematic-fantasy play in culturally disadvantaged children: Preliminary results.

Abstract: Report of the preliminaryfindingssof a broader longitudinal study investigating the effects of fantasy play intervention on socially and economically disadvantaged preschoolers. Young children directed in the role-enactment of imaginary stories were found to be significantly superior to control group youngsters on a number of measures of social and cognitive development. Fantasy play training significantly related to a higher incidence of spontaneous sociodramatic play, higher scores on Borke's (1972) Revised Interpersonal Perception Test, and better performance on tasks designed to measure story sequence memory and story verbalization skills. On the other hand, fantasy play did not significantly improve performance on several subtest measures of _intelligence nor enhance ability to recall pictures as opposed to objects. The aOthors conclude by noting that fantasy play training is a promising and practical intervention method enjoyed greatly by both the children and the adult interventionist. Further use and study of this technique is encouraged.

Culture and Poverty in Appalachia: A Theoretical Discussion and Empirical Analysis

Abstract: The prevalent explanation for the persistence of poverty in Appalachia stresses the region's traditional culture which ill equips its population for participation in the modern world. This research casts doubt on the cultural explanation. A scale of "middle-class orientation" was produced from the secondary analysis of data gathered from several thousand respondents in North Carolina. Attitudinal differences bet ,een respondents from the Appalachian subregion of that state and from other regions including the urban, industrial piedmont were quite small and attributable to rurality. Analysis controlling for age suggests that attitudinal factors cannot be used to account for economic development as it occurred in the Appalachian region. An alternative approach for further research is discussed. Appalachia is a land of great natural wealth. Yet, despite its wealth, many of its people are poor-no matter whether income, health, educational attainment, or housing are the criteria (H. Lewis and Knipe, 1971). But it is not true, as John C. Campbell (1921) warned, that Appalachia is a homogeneous area. Despite its stereotype as an underdeveloped rural area with a distinctive regional subculture, many of its six million inhabitants enjoy typically urban, middle-class life styles.1 Yet few studies of Appalachian poverty have questioned the accuracy of the stereotypic description. In this paper I will discuss the theoretical implications of these studies. As with any complex phenomenon, explanations of poverty are strategically located at several conceptual levelscultural, social, and psychological. It is useful in particular to distinguish between cultural and situational theories of povery in reviewing the literature on Appalachia.2 Unlike situational explanations which see the behavioral characteristics of the poor as adaptations to environment and circumstance, cultural theories attribute to the poor a culture at variance with the rest of society. Their poverty is seen as an outcome (Spilerman and Elesh, 1971). Cultural theories predominate in the literature on Appalachia. By comparing the attitudes of respondents from the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina with those of respondents from the non-mountain regions of the same state, I will offer evidence which casts doubt on the distinctiveness and importance of the Appalachian subculture. THE PREVAILING THEORY OF THE APPALACHIAN SUBCULTURE The culture of poverty is the most common theory in the literature on poverty and Appalachia alike. (See Herzog, 1967; Irelan and Besner, n.d.) It has developed out of the anthropological research of Oscar Lewis. Although he is commonly criticized for mistaking behavior for culture (Leeds, 1971), Lewis has identified nearly eighty cultural traits which he claims are shared by the poor of all nations. Once it arises-and Lewis is not clear as to how this comes about-the culture of poverty tends to be self-perpetuating. Once socialized, the poor are "thereafter . . . psychologically unready to take full advantage of changing conditions or improved opportunities that may develop in their lifetime" (O. Lewis, 1966:19). This is because the "poverty of culture is one of the crucial traits of the culture of poverty" (O. Lewis, 1966:25). This illustrates the tendency for culture of poverty theorists to go beyond descriptions of maladaptive value orientations. Often they hypothesize cognitive and personality pathologies as well. (See Hess, 1970.) Culture of poverty explanations, when applied to Appalachia, take several forms. Usually they hypothesize a culture lag (Ford, 1 James Brown (1970) has observed that "the industrial composition of the region in 1960 was remarkably similar to that of the United States as a whole." 2 Situational and cultural explanations are not mutually exclusive. Culture is responsive to situation (see Stephenson, 1968). The distinction is a matter of emphasis and it is analytically useful in discussing problems of explanation.

Build Me A Mountain: Youth, Poverty, and the Creation of New Settings

Abstract: In the 1960s, the War on Poverty dramatized the plight of "the other America." Simultaneously helping professions in general and clinical psychology in particular grappled with redefined responsibilities to society's disenfranchised citizenry.Goldenberg advocates an alliance between social activist and clinician in the arena of community action. In this seminal case study of New Haven's Residential Youth Center (RYC), he examines the evolution of a new setting for human renewal and draws inferences for the creation of other non-self-defeating programs. The success of the RYC's innovations challenges and indicts orthodox clinical practices, training programs, and social research techniques.It would be sad, however, if this book were viewed within the narrow confines of the so-called War on Poverty. It is true that it deals with disadvantaged youth, the helping role of nonprofessional people, the orientation of the mental health professions, and the other matters of governmental and community policy. It is also true, that this book contains data supporting the conclusion that hard-core, inner city youth who were fortunate to live for varying periods of time at the Residential Youth Center -- which was conceived and directed primarily by Goldenberg -- became significantly less "hard core" than a control group that did not live there.Although all this and more are contained in this book, its significance lies elsewhere, and that elsewhere is an arena of thought that is fascinating as it is thorny and hardly recognized. In this arena of thought the central problem or question has two aspects: How do people go about creating setting, or organizations, or programs? How might people go about the creation of settings so that goals are not subverted by processes of growth that usually produce "organizational craziness," i.e., administrative structures, social atmospheres, and intra- and intergroup dynamics that cause individuals to suffer and organizations to become obsolete, or die.

Must we educate

Abstract: A or those who know of my earlier work on teaching disadvantaged children, some explanation is needed to relate what I am saying now with what I was saying seven years ago. The academic pre school that Siegfried Engelmann and I ran has been labeled a "pressure-cooker" and a "Marine drill sergeant" approach to teaching. Those are exagger ated characterizations of a program that aimed at giving children lively, direct training in basic aca demic skills. It is fair, however, to say that our approach represented the very antithesis of the informal child-centered approach so dear to educa tional liberals and radicals.

Standardized tests: objective/objectified measures of “competence”

Abstract: This chapter discusses standardized tests and its objective/objectified measures of competence. The chapter focuses on the knowledge of the students produced from standardized tests. Standardized tests are instruments which are intended to produce objective information. It is important to note that this form of knowledge is a necessary part of any large bureaucracy of which schools are among the most refined and proliferated examples. Criticisms of standardized tests usually revolve around the handicaps that slow workers, culturally different, and culturally disadvantaged students face. While these criticisms are important, the chapter focuses on the relationship among the idealized conception of testing which grounds the validity of any empirically obtained results and the social organization attendant to standardization in the classroom. When the social organization of teaching and learning are considered, the teacher is recognized as an integral part of the child's competence and the child an integral part of the teacher's. The teacher's competence as a teacher is known by the students' abilities to demonstrate their memory for information, to answer questions, and to follow rules, that is, to maintain order in the classroom. This is usually formulated as what the teacher knows about what the child has learned.

The Identification of Mentally Gifted, "Disadvantaged" Students at the Eighth Grade Level

Abstract: For as long as special funds have been provided for gifted programs, these funds have gone largely to affluent schools, rarely to inner-city schools. One reason for this must be sought in the method of defining the "mentally gifted" student. The criterion has generally been a score at or above the 98th percentile point on an individual intelligence test such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) or the Stanford-Binet (i.e., an IQ score of about 130+). Thus, all students were evaluated against the same kind of yardstick, a test standardized on a white population and subject to cultural influence. Few inner-city students qualified as mentally gifted. Moreover, since few were expected to qualify, programs for gifted students were rarely planned and counselor time and effort were directed elsewhere. The mentally gifted students in "ghetto" schools were ignored. Recently, however, concern for mentally gifted "disadvantaged" students has grown. In hearings on the gifted conducted by the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, answers were sought to the question "How can disadvantaged gifted children be identified?" In California a change in the State Code2 now allows up to 2 per cent of the "culturally disadvantaged" students in a school district to be designated mentally gifted under separate criteria which do not require a full-scale score above 130.

An Experimental Study of the Comparison of Pupil Achievement in the All Day Kindergarten and One Half Day Control Group.

Abstract: This dissertation report describes a 3-year study which compared the effectiveness of full-day kindergarten sessions (the experimental condition) and half-day sessions (the control condition) in promoting academic, achievement. A group of 20 5-year-olds was assigned to each condition; each group contained equal numbers of culturally disadvantaged, economically disadvantaged and middle-class children. Readiness scores and achievement test scores for children in both groups were obtained at the beginning and end of the kindergarten year. Subsequent first grade placement and reading level attainments at the end of first grade were recorded. Results indicated that there uas no statistically significant difference between full-day and half-day groups on any of these measures. When achievement test scores of the culturally disadvantaged were analyzed alone, there was still no statistically significant gain in achievement by the full-day over the half-day, indicating that the full-day program did not provide any special academic benefit to culturally disadvantaged children. It is suggested that on the basis of these results, the establishment of full-day kindergarten cannot be recommended on the grounds that it would measurably improve children's achievement. (Author/GO)

Issues in Predicting Black Student Success in Higher Education.

Abstract: The topic of predicting black student success in higher education has received a great deal of attention in the last several years. I would like to summarize where I feel the area is at the moment (1972) and point to some unresolved issues which might give some direction for the future. Stanley (1971) in summarizing the work on predicting the success of what he calls "disadvantaged" students, has concluded that admission to selective colleges and universities should be based substantially on test scores and high school grades, irrespective of whether the applicant is from a minority racial, ethnic or socioeconomic group. Stanley feels pessimistic about the possibility of remediation for disadvantaged students and states (1971, p. 642) "an admissions officer ignores test scores at his institution's peril." While there have been an increasing number of studies showing that the same predictors work about as well for Blacks or whites (e.g., Thomas and Stanley, 1969; Pfeifer and Sedlacek, 1971), there also exist studies with contrary or unexplained findings (e.g., Clark and Plotkin, 1964; Green and Farquhar, 1965; Cleary, 1968; Pfeifer and Sedlacek, 1970, 1971, 1974). There are many potential reasons why there seems to the writer to be at least a reasonable doubt that commonly employed predictors (e.g., tests and high school grades) can be universally applied to all racial groups. First, there never has been an adequate study of the issue. If we look closely at the literature we see that nearly every study done has repeated the same basic methodology.: sample a group of intact Blacks at one or more institutions, correlate their college grades with SAT or ACT scores and high school grades and reach a conclusion. There are many problems with such a procedure, some of which are obvious and some perhaps less

Transportation and the disadvantaged

Abstract: This book is about the transportation problems faced by the disadvantaged: the poor, the young, the aged, and the handicapped. These groups are transportation-disadvantaged primarily because they number amongst them the greatest incidence of autoless individuals. Their transportation problems are identified and analyzed within the context of an automobile-oriented society. The purpose of this book is to bring together the body of knowledge relative to the transportation problems of the disadvantaged. The consequences of a lack of transportation are examined relative to their effects on the groups affected. Transportation improvements are evaluated in terms of measurable impacts on specific goals and planning objectives. For the poor, an analytical model has been developed which permits the evaluation of economic benefits and costs of transportation improvements for an important component of this segment of the population. Current transportation planning methodology and criteria are reviewed and recommendations for improving the transportation planning process at the local level are provided. The material assembled to write this book comes from a wide range of sources, and represents typical examples of problems and solutions attempted in many areas of the United States. This book presents the issues of transportation problems of the disadvantaged in a manner which makes the material of interest to the general public and useful to the professional interested in planning and transportation. /Author/

Advocacy in practice

Abstract: and in the concept of advocacy. Advocacy is defined as the act or pro cess of defending or promoting a cause and the subsequent pleading of that cause.1 The advocate himself serves as a partisan in a social conflict and uses his expertise exclusively to meet his client's interests.2 He argues for, defends, maintains, or rec ommends a cause or a proposal.3 Brager chooses the phrase "advocate re former" to describe a person who identifies with the plight of the disadvantaged.4 His primary responsibility is the tough-minded, partisan representation of the interests of the disadvantaged, and this responsibility supersedes his allegiance to others. This role inevitably requires the practitioner to function as a political tactician. Brager does not rule out advocacy on behalf of clients, because he is concerned with an aggrieved class of people for whom social workers are to advocate their issues. Briar speaks about a "caseworker-advocate" who becomes his client's supporter, adviser, champion, and, if need be, representative in his dealings with the court, police, social agency, and other organizations that in volve his well-being.® This article raises questions about social work advocacy and reviews the conceptual framework of advocacy. It proposes posi tions that may be adopted by practitioners in social welfare and by schools training students for field service. This article also

Social background, speech and learning to read

Abstract: Summary. Samples of the speech of infant school children in a story recall task were analysed, and a moderately reliable measure of the structural complexity was devised. With this measure and with a standardised vocabulary test the language skills of children entering school from different social backgrounds were investigated. The relationship between speech and educational progress was explored with particular reference to learning to read. The speech of the socially disadvantaged children was rather less well developed than that of the advantaged, but at each testing during the first two years of schooling this difference lay in the frequency of use of various complex forms, not in their presence or absence. Differences between children within social groups were considerable. Reading ability was related to vocabulary skill; but there was no correlation with speech structuring skill, which was generally adequate in both groups to support early reading.

Whom do we reach? A study of health care utlilzation.

Abstract: Two groups of families, all eligible for a neighborhood pediatric program, were compared as to enrollment and utilization. It was hypothesized that, despite popular assumptions of homogeneity, the "urban poor" present a wide range of family characteristics, problems, and resource utilization patterns. Sample selection was based on 391 ranked "family functioning" scores derived from an earlier survey. The two study groups comprised the 27 highest need (HN) and the 27 lowest need (LN) families. Service records indicated that HN families completed fewer medical and dental registrations, basic examinations, appointments, and referrals. Moreover, the HN group featured significantly more fatherless homes, nuclear families, public welfare dependency, non-working mothers, residential mobility, and irregular school status. A matrix of several objective indicators is proposed for differentiating truly "high risk" families from other residents of "disadvantaged" neighborhoods. Recommendations cover special outreach and supportive services to families resembling the HN/low utilization profile.

The Social Responsibility of Psychology

Abstract: before his death, Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed a meeting of the American Psychological Association about the social and moral responsibility of psychologists.1 Dr. King urged his audience to use their training and skills to help solve the racial, political, educational, and economic problems facing the black community. He expressed hope that the profession of psychology would begin to address these problems and direct attention towards reforming the "power interests" in America who demonstrate little concern for the poor and disadvantaged. The need for psychologists to accept their social responsibility is even more urgent today. Speaking before a national meeting of the American Psychiatric Association on May 8, 1974, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young charged that the psychiatric profession is being misused by a racist society to justify the exploitation of blacks and the poor. Mayor Young suggested that instead of changing people's minds to conform to an unhealthy society, psychiatrists should work to change society. "Let's deal with the social disorders, let's deal with the cause, and maybe we can lessen the effects."2 Psychologists must become aware of the unhealthy social conditions affecting the physical and psychological well-being of minority and poor Americans.

The Impact of Interdisciplinary Teams on Organizational Relationships

Abstract: Based upon research in an alcoholism treatment organization, the study explores the impact of interdisciplinary team treatment on organizational participants and structure. The findings suggest that alternate organizational arrangements are necessary for organizations which use the team method. The implications of team treatment for professionals were confounded because of power relationships within the organization. Role bargaining between professionals was observed to be virtually non-existent because of the dominance of a single discipline. A surprising finding was the extent to which supervisory personnel were disadvantaged in the study. Caution is suggested for those organizations most likely to adopt the team method, large public health organizations.

Who shall hold the conch? Some thoughts on community control of mental health programs.

Abstract: Experience at an English day center for recovered psychotics led the writer to see a need for mental patients to be given considerable control over their own program or else succumb to the Queequeg Syndrome. This syndrome results from patients accepting and adapting to unrealistic roles that a prejudiced society has thrust upon them. It appears to the writer that the syndrome applies equally to other disadvantaged groups, notably to the poor, and he suggests that one appropriate form of treatment will be to give consumers a large measure of control over mental health programs.

Effects of a Compensatory Program on Self-Report, Achievement and Aspiration Level of "Disadvantaged" High School Students.

Abstract: The number of compensatory education programs for disadvantaged youth increased dramatically during the second half of the decade of the 1960s. Several influences converged to focus more national attention upon this segment of the population than at any time since the 1930s. As Goldstein (1967) noted: ... Chagrin at the high rate of rejection of young people from low-income families by the Selective Service leads to the question of education and its relation to family status, attitudes and values. The very affluence of American society in the 1960s serves to call attention to those who have seemed destined to remain in the backwaters rather than to move in the mainstream of American life.2 A major manifestation of this new awareness was the creation, in 1964, of the Office of Economic Opportunity and the subsequent funding of numerous programs whose interest was to break the cycle of poverty and to provide new opportunities for individuals in the lowest income range of the population. One of these, Project Upward Bound, was designed to develop the skills and motivation necessary for success in higher education among potentially capable high school students from low-income backgrounds and inadequate academic preparation. It attempted to remedy poorly developed academic skills, as well as motivational and aspirational deficits, and to thus increase the young person's probability of acceptance and success in a college or university