Developmental Relationships Between Speech and Writing: Is Verb-Phrase Anaphora Production a Special Case?

Developmental relationships between speech and writing: Is verb-phrase anaphora production a special case?

Br J Educ Psychol. 2013 Sep; 83(3): 521-534
Donaldson ML, Cooper LS

Young children’s speech is typically more linguistically sophisticated than their writing. However, there are grounds for asking whether production of cohesive devices, such as verb-phrase anaphora (VPA), might represent an exception to this developmental pattern, as cohesive devices are generally more important in writing than in speech and so might be expected to be more frequent in children’s writing than in their speech.The study reported herein aims to compare the frequency of children’s production of VPA constructions (e.g., Mary is eating an apple and so is John) between a written and a spoken task.Forty-eight children participated from each of two age groups: 7-year-olds and 10-year-olds.All the children received both a spoken and a written sentence completion task designed to elicit production of VPA. Task order was counterbalanced.VPA production was significantly more frequent in speech than in writing and when the spoken task was presented first. Surprisingly, the 7-year-olds produced VPA constructions more frequently than the 10-year-olds.Despite the greater importance of cohesion in writing than in speech, children’s production of VPA is similar to their production of most other aspects of language in that more sophisticated constructions are used more frequently in speech than in writing. Children’s written production of cohesive devices could probably be enhanced by presenting spoken tasks immediately before written tasks. The lower frequency of VPA production in the older children may reflect syntactic priming effects or a belief that they should produce sentences that are as fully specified as possible. HubMed – eating

 

Potential risk and sodium content of children’s ready-to-eat foods distributed at major amusement parks in Korea.

Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2013 Jul 4;
Lee NY, Park SY, Lee YM, Choi SY, Jeong SH, Chung MS, Chang YS, Choi SH, Bae DH, Ha SD

This study was conducted to help better understand the current sodium intake of Korean children and to establish children’s good eating habits through investigation of the sodium content of ready-to-eat foods collected from nine major amusement parks in Korea. The sodium content of a total of 322 products was analysed by using ICP and then the potential risk based on the recommended daily intake of sodium as described in the Korean dietary reference intakes was determined. The results showed that sodium content was the lowest in muffins (245 mg/100 g) and the highest in seasoned dried filefish (1825 mg/100 g). The average amounts of sodium per serving of seasoned dried filefish, tteokbokki and fish paste were 1150, 1248 and 1097 mg, respectively. The values were above 50% of the daily intake of sodium recommended by the Korean dietary reference intake. The ready-to-eat foods were also classified into high, medium and low sodium content on the basis of standards recommended by the Korean Food and Drug Administration. Most snacks were classified as high sodium foods because they exceeded “300 mg (84.5% of the total daily allowance)”. Furthermore, the meal substitution foods such as kimbab, tteokbokki, mandus, sandwiches and hamburgers exceeded “600 mg (90.3% of the total daily allowance)” and were also classified as high sodium foods. In addition, ready-to-eat foods in amusement parks are similar to foods eaten on streets and foods around school zones, which contain high sodium content; thus, the intake frequency might be high, which would induce high risk to children health. Koreans already consume a high amount of sodium daily via their usual diets. So, the sodium content in snacks and substitution foods needs to be reduced. Consequently, this study noted that parents and guardians should carefully consider their children’s consumption of ready-to-eat foods from Korean amusement parks. HubMed – eating