The goal of this assignment is for you to carefully examine and describe an article in the field of human development. The paper will also introduce you to APA style (6th ed.), which is the accepted format for publication in the social and human sciences. This assignment is an individual assignment that should not be completed with other students.
Article- Sleep Disturbance and Expressive Language Development in Preschool-Age Children With Down Syndrome by Jamie O. Edgin, Ursula Tooley, Bianca Demara, Casandra Nyhuis, Payal Anand, and Goffredina Spano.
1) Write you critique based on Edgin et al. (2015) which you can find below. Attached, there is also an "Article Critique Example" for your information.
2) Print out the article; then highlight and take notes on it as you read. You may have to read it several times to fully understand it. Also don't hesitate to use Wikipedia to look up terms that you are uncertain about.
3) After you feel that you have an understanding of the article, you can begin to write about it. Your critique will be evaluated on the basis of 8 sections outlined below. You must write your article critique in your own words, using formal English. You might consider yourself to be in the role of "Newspaper Reporter," where your job is to take the science and put it into standard English so that the average person can understand it.
Follow the guide below to better understand what belongs in each section of your critique.
1. Reference Information
Correctly cite the article following APA (6th ed.) format. Here is the format for correctly citing a journal article (pay attention to punctuation, spacing, what words are capitalized, what parts are italicized, etc.).
Here is an example of a correct APA citation for a journal article (pay attention to punctuation, spacing, what words are capitalized, what parts are italicized, etc.):
Smith, C. L., Calkins, S. D., Keane, S. P., Anastopoulos, A. D., & Shelton, T. L. (2004). Predicting stability and change in toddler behavior problems: Contributions of maternal behavior and child gender. Developmental Psychology, 40, 29-42. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.40.1.29
2. Research Question and Hypotheses
NOTE: Always remember to paraphrase your answers. Copying directly from the article is plagiarism, which is a violation of the honor code. Write a paragraph responding the following questions:
- Paraphrase the research question(s) being asked in this article.
- What area of development does the article address?
- What is the goal of this research?
- What arethe hypotheses, that is, what did researchers expect to find in this study?
3. Literature Review
The literature review is the first section of the paper. The authors should have presented past literature to support the need for their study. First, briefly summarize the previous literature. Then write your reflections responding the following questions:
- What is yourimpression of the literature review section?
- Did the author(s)make a case for the importance of their research? If so, what is it?
- Did they give anysupportfor their hypothesis (i.e. Did they cite prior studies that led them to expect a certain outcome in their own work?)
- Did you feel informed as a reader?
4. Method
An important part of an empirical journal article is for the author(s) to state explicitly how the study was conducted in order for the study to be replicated in the future.
- What was the research method used?
- Was it a longitudinal or cross-sectional study?
- After reading the methods section do you feel confident that you could replicate this study?
- Explain why or why not and elaborate on areas that were not clear enough for replication.
5. Results
- What findings were detailed in the result section?
- Were the findings in line withtheir hypotheses????
6. Discussion
In the discussion section, the authors interpret their results. State what the author(s) interpretation is. Then, reflect on the basis of following questions:
- Do you agree or disagree with this interpretation? Why or why not?
- Could there be other explanations for the results? If so, what?
7. Future Research
Researchers make a point to discuss limitations within their study. Paraphrase a limitation presented by the researchers and give your own examples of how this limitation could be met in future research. Good research tends to lead to more questions and future directions.
- If you were to conduct another study based on this research, what would your research question be?
8. Professional Writing and Format
The format of your critique is explained below. Also , you can see an example of an article critique posted below. Please follow the format in the attached article.
Include your name and ID number in the heading of your paper.
Include the question number and heading before your answer.
Single space your answers and double space between each answer.
Use one inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman or 11-point Arial font.
Your critique should be two-pages. You should not exceed the two-page limit; however, in order to completely answer each question, you should plan to use the majority of the two pages allowed.