Search results for: rural migrant children

Authors: Mehravar Javid, Stacey Dershewitz, Shohreh Hashemighoochani, Artin Yousefi

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One of the most common reasons for destroying relationships is infidelity. This study was conducted to understand children's experience of infidelity in Iran. In this qualitative research, the interpretive phenomenological approach and theoretical (purposive) sampling method were used, and the data was saturated by conducting semi-structured interviews with eight offspring of families affected by infidelity. All interviews were audio recorded and analyzed on paper after implementation. Acceptability and homogeneity of data were confirmed by different methods. Eight main themes were identified from the participants' statements: description of the family atmosphere, lack of security and distrust, emotional reactions, behavioral reactions, worry about the future, financial problems, mother's physical-psychological state, and mother's coping strategies and offspring's proposed solutions. The children's experiences showed that in addition to causing irreparable harm to the wife, infidelity affected the whole family and caused the children to suffer crucial consequences such as emotional, behavioral, educational, and economic consequences and mistrust.

Keywords: consequences and hurt, infidelity, offspring, phenomenology, qualitative research

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Authors: Meherun Nahar

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Background:The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is one of the most diverse regions in Bangladesh in terms of geography, ethnicity, culture and traditions of the people and home of thirteen indigenous ethnic people. In Bangladesh indigenous children aged 6-10 years remain out of school, and the majority of those who do enroll drop out before completing primary school. According to different study that the dropout rate of indigenous children is much higher than the estimated national rate, children dropping out especially in the early years of primary school. One of the most critical barriers for these children is that they do not understand the national language in the government pre-primary school. And also their school readiness and development become slower. In this situation, indigenous children excluded from the mainstream quality education. To address this issue Save the children in Bangladesh and other organizations are implementing community-based Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education program (MTBMLE) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) for improving the enrolment rate in Government Primary Schools (GPS) reducing dropout rate as well as quality education. In connection with that Save the children conducted comparative research in Chittagong hill tracts on children readiness through Mother tongue-based and Non-mother tongue ECCD center. Objectives of the Study To assess Mother Language based ECCD centers and Non-Mother language based ECCD centers children’s school readiness and development. To assess the community perception over Mother Language based and Non-Mother Language based ECCD center. Methodology: The methodology of the study was FGD, KII, In-depth Interview and observation. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were followed. The quantitative part has three components, School Readiness, Classroom observation and Headteacher interview and qualitative part followed FGD technique. Findings: The interviews with children under school readiness component showed that in general, Mother Language (ML) based ECCD children doing noticeably better in all four areas (Knowledge, numeracy, fine motor skill and communication) than their peers from Non-mother language based children. ML students seem to be far better skilled in concepts about print as most of them could identify cover and title of the book that was shown to them. They could also know from where to begin to read the book or could correctly point the letter that was read. A big difference was found in the area of identifying letters as 89.3% ML students of could identify letters correctly whereas for Non mother language 30% could do the same. The class room observation data shows that ML children are more active and remained engaged in the classroom than NML students. Also, teachers of ML appeared to have more engaged in explaining issues relating to general knowledge or leading children in rhyming/singing other than telling something from text books. The participants of FGDs were very enthusiastic on using mother language as medium of teaching in pre-schools. They opined that this initiative elates children to attend school and enables them to continue primary schooling without facing any language barrier.

Keywords: Chittagong hill tracts, early childhood care and development (ECCD), indigenous, mother language

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Authors: Dorottya Horváth, Andras Lang, Diana Varro-Horvath

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This research activity and study is part of a major research effort to gain an integrative, neuropsychological, and personality psychological understanding of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and thus improve the specification of diagnostic and therapeutic care. In the past, the neuropsychology section has investigated working memory, executive function, attention, and behavioural manifestations in children. Currently, we are looking for personality psychological protective factors for ADHD and its symptomatic exacerbation. We hypothesise that secure attachment, adaptive emotion regulation, and high resilience are protective factors. The aim of this study is to measure and report the results of a Hungarian sample of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children (CERQ-k) because before studying groups with different developmental differences, it is essential to know the average scores of groups with neurotypical devel-opment. Until now, there was no Hungarian version of the above test, so we used our own translation. This questionnaire has been developed to assess children's thoughts after experiencing negative life events. It consists of 4-4 items per subscale, for a total of 36 items. The response categories for each item range from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). The subscales were self-blame, blaming others, acceptance, planning, positive refocusing, rumination or thought-focusing, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, and catastrophizing. The data for this study were collected from 120 children aged 9-14 years. It was analysed using descriptive statistical analysis, where the mean and standard deviation values for each age group, as well as the Cronbach's alpha value, were significant in testing the reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that the questionnaire is a reliable and valid measuring instrument also on a Hungarian sample. These developments and results will allow the use of a version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for children in Hungarian and pave the way for the study of different developmental groups such as children with learning disabilities and/or with ADHD.

Keywords: neurotypical development, emotion regulation, negative life events, CERQ-k, Hungarian average scores

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Authors: Sadhana Ghnayem

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This article examines the relationship between several socio-economic and background variables of Arab-Israeli families and their effect on the conflict management style of forcing, where teenage children are expected to obey their parents without questioning. The article explores the inter-generational gap and the desire of Arab-Israeli parents to force their teenage children to obey without questioning. The independent variables include: the sex of the parent, religion (Christian or Muslim), income of the parent, years of education of the parent, and the sex of the teenage child. We use the dependent variable of “Obedience Without Questioning” that is reported twice: by each of the parents as well as by the children. We circulated a questionnaire and collected data from a sample of 180 parents and their adolescent child living in the Galilee area during 2018. In this questionnaire we asked each of the parent and his/her teenage child about whether the latter is expected to follow the instructions of the former without questioning. The outcome of this article indicates, first, that Christian-Arab families are less authoritarian than Muslims families in demanding sheer obedience from their children. Second, female parents indicate more than male parents that their teenage child indeed obeys without questioning. Third, there is a negative correlation between the variable “Income” and “Obedience without Questioning.” Yet, the regression coefficient of this variable is close zero. Fourth, there is a positive correlation between years of education and obedience reported by the children. In other words, more educated parents are more likely to demand obedience from their children.  Finally, after running the regression, the study also found that the impact of the variables of religion as well as the sex of the child on the dependent variable of obedience is also significant at above 95 and 90%, respectively.

Keywords: conflict, religion, conflict management style, obedience

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Authors: Mehrnoosh Mirzaei

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Children are among the most vulnerable at the occurrence of natural disasters such as earthquakes. Most of the management and measures which are considered for both before and during an earthquake are neither suitable nor efficient for this age group and cannot be applied. On the other hand, due to their age, it is hard to educate and train children to learn and understand the concept of earthquake risk mitigation as matters like earthquake prevention and safe places during an earthquake are not easily perceived. To our knowledge, children’s awareness of such concepts via their own world with the help of games is the best training method in this case. In this article, the researcher has tried to consider the child an active element before and during the earthquake. With training, provided by adults before the incidence of an earthquake, the child has the ability to learn disaster risk reduction (DRR). The focus of this research is on learning risk reduction behavior and regarding children as an individual element. The information of this article has been gathered from library resources, observations and the drawings of 10 children aged 5 whose subject was their conceptual definition of an earthquake who were asked to illustrate their conceptual definition of an earthquake; the results of 20 questionnaires filled in by preschoolers along with information gathered by interviewing them. The design of the suitable educational game, appropriate for the needs of this age group, has been made based on the theory of design with help of the user and the priority of children’s learning needs. The final result is a package of a game which is comprised of a learning table and matching cards showing sign marks for safe and unsafe places which introduce the safe behaviors and safe locations before and during the earthquake. These educational games can be used both in group contexts in kindergartens and on an individual basis at home, and they help in earthquake risk reduction.

Keywords: disaster education, earthquake sign marks, learning table, matching card, risk reduction behavior

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Authors: Tigist Mekonnen Melesse

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Since rural households are basically entitled to food through own production, improving productivity might lead to enhance the welfare of rural population through higher food availability at the household level and lowering the price of agricultural products. Increasing agricultural productivity through the use of improved technology is one of the desired outcomes from sensible food security and agricultural policy. The ultimate objective of this study was to evaluate the potential impact of improved agricultural technology adoption on smallholders’ crop productivity and welfare. The study is conducted in Ethiopia covering 1500 rural households drawn from four regions and 15 rural villages based on data collected by Ethiopian Rural Household Survey. Endogenous treatment effect model is employed in order to account for the selection bias on adoption decision that is expected from the self-selection of households in technology adoption. The treatment indicator, technology adoption is a binary variable indicating whether the household used improved seeds and chemical fertilizer or not. The outcome variables were cereal crop productivity, measured in real value of production and welfare of households, measured in real per capita consumption expenditure. Results of the analysis indicate that there is positive and significant effect of improved technology use on rural households’ crop productivity and welfare in Ethiopia. Adoption of improved seeds and chemical fertilizer alone will increase the crop productivity by 7.38 and 6.32 percent per year of each. Adoption of such technologies is also found to improve households’ welfare by 1.17 and 0.25 percent per month of each. The combined effect of both technologies when adopted jointly is increasing crop productivity by 5.82 percent and improving welfare by 0.42 percent. Besides, educational level of household head, farm size, labor use, participation in extension program, expenditure for input and number of oxen positively affect crop productivity and household welfare, while large household size negatively affect welfare of households. In our estimation, the average treatment effect of technology adoption (average treatment effect on the treated, ATET) is the same as the average treatment effect (ATE). This implies that the average predicted outcome for the treatment group is similar to the average predicted outcome for the whole population.

Keywords: Endogenous treatment effect, technologies, productivity, welfare, Ethiopia

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Authors: Farjina Malek, Julie King, Niki Edwards

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Across the globe more than a billion people live with a disability and a further billion people, mostly carers, are indirectly impacted. While prevalence data is problematic, it is estimated that more than 15% of the population in Bangladesh live with a disability. Disability service infrastructure in Bangladesh is under-developed; and consequently, the onus of care falls on family, especially on mothers. Within the caring role, mothers encounter many challenging experiences which are not only due to the lack of support delivered through the Bangladeshi health care system but also related to the existence of stigma and perception around disability in the Bangladeshi society. Within this perception, the causes of disability are mostly associated with 'God’s will'; 'possession of ghosts on the disabled person'; and 'karma or the result of past sins of the family members especially the mothers'. These beliefs are likely to have a significant impact on the well-being of mothers and their caring experience of children with disability. This is an ongoing qualitative study which is conducting in-depth interviews with 30 mothers from five districts (Dhaka, Mymensingh, Manikganj, Tangail, and Gazipur) of Bangladesh with the aim to explore the impact of social perception and stigma around physical disability on the caring role of the mothers of children with physical disability. The major findings of this study show that the social perception around disability and the social expectation from a mother regarding her caring role have a huge impact on the well-being of mothers. Mothers are mostly expected to take their child on their lap to prove that they are ‘good mother’. These practices of lifting their children with physical disability and keeping them on the lap for a long time often cause chronic back pain of the mothers. Existing social beliefs consider disability as a ‘curse’ and punishment for the ‘sins’ of the family members, most often by the mother. Mothers are blamed if they give birth to ‘abnormal’ children. This social construction creates stigma, and thus, the caring responsibility of mothers become more challenging. It also encourages the family and mothers to hide their children from the society and to avoid seeking accessible disability services. The mothers also compromise their careers and social interaction as they have to stay with their children at home, and that has a significant impact on personal wellbeing, income, and empowerment of the mothers. The research is informed by intersectional theory and employed an interpretive phenomenological methodology to explore mothers’ experience of caring their children with physical disability, and the contribution and impact of key relationships within the family and the intersection with community and services.

Keywords: mother, family carer, physical disability, children, social stigma, key relationship

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Authors: Natalia Banasik

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Comprehension of verbal irony is an example of pragmatic competence in understanding figurative language. The knowledge of how it develops may shed new light on the understanding of social and communicative competence that is crucial for one's effective functioning in the society. Researchers agree it is a competence that develops late in a child’s development. One of the abilities that seems crucial for irony comprehension is theory of mind (ToM), that is the ability to understand that others may have beliefs, desires and intentions different from one’s own. Although both theory of mind and irony comprehension require the ability to understand the figurative use of the false description of the reality, the exact relationship between them is still unknown. Also, even though irony comprehension in children has been studied for over thirty years, the results of the studies are inconsistent as to the age when this competence are acquired. The presented study aimed to answer questions about the developmental trajectories of irony comprehension and ascribing function to ironic utterances by preschool children. Specifically, we were interested in how it is related to the development of ToM and how comprehension of the function of irony changes with age. Data was collected from over 150 monolingual, Polish-speaking children and (so far) thirty bilingual children speaking Polish and English who live in the US. Four-, five- and six-year-olds were presented with a story comprehension task in the form of audio and visual stimuli programmed in the E-prime software (pre-recorded narrated stories, some of which included ironic utterances, and pictures accompanying the stories displayed on a touch screen). Following the presentation, the children were then asked to answer a series of questions. The questions checked the children’s understanding of the intended utterance meaning, evaluation of the degree to which it was funny and evaluation of how nice the speaker was. The children responded by touching the screen, which made it possible to measure reaction times. Additionally, the children were asked to explain why the speaker had uttered the ironic statement. Both quantitive and qualitative analyses were applied. The results of our study indicate that for irony recognition there is a significant difference among the three age groups, but what is new is that children as young as four do understand the real meaning behind the ironic statement as long as the utterance is not grammtically or lexically complex also, there is a clear correlation of ToM and irony comprehension. Although four-year olds and six-year olds understand the real meaning of the ironic utterance, it is not earlier than at the age of six when children start to explain the reason of using this marked form of expression. They talk about the speaker's intention to tell a joke, be funny, or to protect the listener's emotions. There are also some metalinguistic references, such as "mommy sometimes says things that don't make sense and this is called a metaphor".

Keywords: child's pragmatics, figurative speech, irony comprehension in children, theory of mind and irony

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Authors: Avinash

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Rural Jharkhand has attracted lesser attention in the field of agrarian studies in India, despite more than eighty percent of its rural population being directly dependent on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood. The limited studies on agrarian issues in Jharkhand have focused predominantly on the subsistence nature of agriculture and low crop productivity. There has also not been much research on agrarian social relations between ‘tribe’ and ‘non-tribe’ communities in the region. This paper is an attempt to understand changing agrarian social relations between tribal and non-tribal communities relating them to different kinds of agrarian transitions taking place in two districts of Jharkhand - Palamu and Khunti. In the Palamu region, agrarian relations are dominated by the presence and significant population size of Hindu high caste land owners, whereas in the Khunti region, agrarian relations are characterized by the population size and dominance of tribes and lower caste land owner cum cultivators. The agrarian relations between ‘upper castes’ and ‘tribes’ in these regions are primarily related to agricultural daily wage labour. However, the agrarian social relations between Dalits and tribal people take the form of ‘communal system of labour exchange’ and ‘household-based labour’. In addition, the ethnographic study of the region depicts steady agrarian transitions (especially shift from indigenous to ‘High Yielding Variety’ (HYV) paddy seeds and growing vegetable cultivation) where ‘Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NGOs) and agricultural input manufacturers and suppliers are playing a critical role in agrarian transitions as intermediaries. While agricultural productivity still remains low, both the regions are witnessing slow but gradual agrarian transitions. Rural-urban linkages in the form of seasonal labour migration are creating capital and technical inflows that are transforming agricultural activities. This study describes and interprets the above changes through the lens of ‘regional rurality’.

Keywords: agrarian transitions, rural Jharkhand, regional rurality, tribe and non-tribe

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Authors: Asma Alsaleh, Kara Makara

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Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulties with communication and interaction. Besides presenting challenges for the ASD individual, the condition can entail negative outcomes for those who care for them, most often mothers. While this issue has been studied substantially in Western society, less is known about how mothers in the Arab world are affected by raising an ASD child. This study sought to gain insights into this area by assessing quality of life and stress in mothers with (n = 25) and without (n = 25) ASD children in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) by using, respectively, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) and the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF). Data pertaining to income and education were also attained to investigate how socioeconomic factors interact with the above-mentioned variables. The analysis revealed that total stress scores and scores on the individual subscales of the PSI-SF were significantly higher for the mothers with an ASD child compared to those without an ASD child, though the opposite was true of quality of life scores. Moreover, increased income was associated with increased quality of life and decreased stress. While there were not main effects of education, there were interactions between education, whether children were ASD or non-ASD, and the outcome variables. These results suggest that mothers of ASD children in an Arab culture are at increased risk of negative outcomes relative to mothers of typically developing children, and, therefore, this study may act as a foundation for the delivery of interventions to assist mothers in this position.

Keywords: autism, education, income, mothers, quality of life, stress

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Authors: Petcharat Lovichakorntikul, John Walsh

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Meditation is in the process of becoming a globalized practice and its benefits have been widely acknowledged. The first wave of internationalized meditation techniques and practices was represented by Chan and Zen Buddhism and a new wave of practice has arisen in Thailand as part of the Phra Dhammakaya temple movement. This form of meditation is intended to be simple and straightforward so that it can easily be taught to people unfamiliar with the basic procedures and philosophy. This has made Phra Dhammakaya an important means of outreach to the international community. One notable aspect is to encourage adults to become like children to perform it – that is, to return to a naïve state prior to the adoption of ideology as a means of understanding the world. It is said that the Lord Buddha achieved the point of awakening at the age of seven and Phra Dhammakaya has a program to teach meditation to both children and adults. This brings about the research question of how practitioners respond to the practice of meditation and how should they be taught? If a careful understanding of how children behave can be achieved, then it will help in teaching adults how to become like children (albeit idealized children) in their approach to meditation. This paper reports on action research in this regard. Personal interviews and focus groups are held with a view to understanding self-learning methods with respect to Buddhist meditation and understanding and appreciation of the practices involved. The findings are considered in the context of existing knowledge about different learning techniques among people of different ages. The implications for pedagogical practice are discussed and learning methods are outlined.

Keywords: Buddhist meditation, Dhammakaya, meditation technique, pedagogy, self-learning

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Authors: J. R. Ashrapov, G. A. Alihodzhaeva, D. E. Abdullaev, N. R. Kadirbekov

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Diagnosis of brain tumors is one of the challenges, as several central nervous system diseases run the same symptoms. Modern diagnostic techniques such as CT, MRI helps to significantly improve the surgery in the operating period, after surgery, after allowing time to identify postoperative complications in neurosurgery. Purpose: To study the MRI characteristics and localization of brain tumors in children and to detect the postoperative complications in the postoperative period. Materials and methods: A retrospective study of treatment of 62 children with brain tumors in age from 2 to 5 years was performed. Results of the review: MRI scan of the brain of the 62 patients 52 (83.8%) case revealed a brain tumor. Distribution on MRI of brain tumors found in 15 (24.1%) - glioblastomas, 21 (33.8%) - astrocytomas, 7 (11.2%) - medulloblastomas, 9 (14.5%) - a tumor origin (craniopharyngiomas, chordoma of the skull base). MRI revealed the following characteristic features: an additional sign of the heterogeneous MRI signal of hyper and hypointensive T1 and T2 modes with a different perifocal swelling degree with involvement in the process of brain vessels. The main objectives of postoperative MRI study are the identification of early or late postoperative complications, evaluation of radical surgery, the identification of the extended-growing tumor that (in terms of 3-4 weeks). MRI performed in the following cases: 1. Suspicion of a hematoma (3 days or more) 2. Suspicion continued tumor growth (in terms of 3-4 weeks). Conclusions: Magnetic resonance tomography is a highly informative method of diagnostics of brain tumors in children. MRI also helps to determine the effectiveness and tactics of treatment and the follow up in the postoperative period.

Keywords: brain tumors, children, MRI, treatment

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Authors: Yenie Norambuena

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Analogical reasoning is a cognitive process that consists of structured comparisons of mental representations and scheme construction. Because of its heuristic function, it is ubiquitous in cognition and could play an important role in language development. The use of analogies is expressed early in children and this behavior is also reflected in language, suggesting a possible way to understand the complex links between thought and language. The current research examines factors of verbal and non-verbal reasoning that should be taken into consideration in the study of language development for their relations and predictive value. The study was conducted with 48 Chilean preschoolers (Spanish speakers) from 4 to 6-year-old. We assessed children’s verbal analogical reasoning, non-verbal analogical reasoning and linguistics skills (Listening Comprehension, Phonemic awareness, Alphabetic principle, Syllabification, Lexical repetition and Lexical decision). The results evidenced significant correlations between analogical reasoning factors and linguistic skills and they can predict linguistic performance mainly on oral comprehension, lexical decision and phonological skills. These findings suggest a fundamental interrelationship between analogical reasoning and linguistic performance on children’s and points to the need to consider this cognitive process in comprehensive theories of children's language development.

Keywords: verbal analogical reasoning, non-verbal analogical reasoning, linguistic skills, language development

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Authors: Samson Viulu, Hugo Hebala, Duddley Kopu

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Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is a controversial fund that has existed in the Solomon Islands since the early 90s to date. It is largely controversial because it is directly handled by members of parliament (MPs) of the Solomon Islands legislation chamber. It is commonly described as a political slash fund because only voters of MPs benefit from it to retain loyalty. The CDF was established by a legislative act in 2013; however, it does not have any subsidiary regulations to it, therefore, very weak governance. CDF is purposely to establish development projects in the rural areas of the Solomon Islands to spur economic growth. Although almost USD500M was spent in CDF in the last decade, there has been no growth in the economy of the Solomon Islands; rather, a regress. Solomon Islands has now formulated a first home-grown policy aimed at guiding the overall development of the fifty constituencies, improving delivery mechanisms of the CDF, and strengthening its governance through the regulation of the CDF Act 2013. The Solomon Islands Constituency Development Policy is the first for the country since gaining independence in 1978 and gives strong emphasis on a cross-sectoral approach through effective partnerships and collaborations and decentralizing government services to the isolated rural areas of the country. The new policy is driving the efforts of the political government to decentralize government services to isolated rural communities to encourage the participation of rural dwellers in economic activities. The decentralization will see the establishment of constituency offices within all constituencies and the piloting of townships in constituencies that have met the statutory requirements of the state. It also encourages constituencies to become development agents of the national government than being mere political boundaries. The decentralization will go in line with the establishment of the Solomon Islands Special Economic Zones (SEZ), where investors will be given special privileges and exemptions from government taxes and permits to attract tangible development to occur in rural constituencies. The design and formulation of the new development policy are supported by the UNDP office in the Solomon Islands. The new policy is promoting a reorientation on the allocation of resources more toward the productive and resource sectors, making access to finance easier for entrepreneurs and encouraging growth in rural entrepreneurship in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, down streaming, and tourism across the Solomon Islands. This new policy approach will greatly assist the country to graduate from the least developed countries status in a few years’ time.

Keywords: decentralization, constituency development fund, Solomon Islands constituency development policy, partnership, entrepreneurship

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Authors: M. Siedlikowski, F. Rauch, A. Tsimicalis

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Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is a genetic disorder of childhood onset that causes frequent fractures after minimal physical stress. To date, OI research has focused on medically- and surgically-oriented outcomes with little attention on the perspective of the affected child. It is a challenge to elicit the child’s voice in health care, in other words, their own perspective on their symptoms, but software development offers a way forward. Sisom (Norwegian acronym derived from ‘Si det som det er’ meaning ‘Tell it as it is’) is an award-winning, rigorously tested, interactive, computerized tool that helps children with chronic illnesses express their symptoms to their clinicians. The successful Sisom software tool, that addresses the child directly, has not yet been adapted to attend to symptoms unique to children with OI. The purpose of this study was to develop a Sisom paper prototype for children with OI by seeking the perspectives of end users, particularly, children with OI and clinicians. Our descriptive qualitative study was conducted at Shriners Hospitals for Children® – Canada, which follows the largest cohort of children with OI in North America. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 12 children with OI over three cycles. Nine clinicians oversaw the development process, which involved determining the relevance of current Sisom symptoms, vignettes, and avatars, as well as generating new Sisom OI components. Data, including field notes, transcribed audio-recordings, and drawings, were deductively analyzed using content analysis techniques. Guided by the following framework, data pertaining to symptoms, vignettes, and avatars were coded into five categories: a) Relevant; b) Irrelevant; c) To modify; d) To add; e) Unsure. Overall, 70.8% of Sisom symptoms were deemed relevant for inclusion, with 49.4% directly incorporated, and 21.3% incorporated with changes to syntax, and/or vignette, and/or location. Three additions were made to the ‘Avatar’ island. This allowed children to celebrate their uniqueness: ‘Makes you feel like you’re not like everybody else.’ One new island, ‘About Me’, was added to capture children’s worldviews. One new sub-island, ‘Getting Around’, was added to reflect accessibility issues. These issues were related to the children’s independence, their social lives, as well as the perceptions of others. In being consulted as experts throughout the co-creation of the Sisom OI paper prototype, children coded the Sisom symptoms and provided sound rationales for their chosen codes. In rationalizing their codes, all children shared personal stories about themselves and their relationships, insights about their OI, and an understanding of the strengths and challenges they experience on a day-to-day basis. The child’s perspective on their health is a basic right, and allowing it to be heard is the next frontier in the care of children with genetic diseases. Sisom OI, a methodological breakthrough within OI research, will offer clinicians an innovative and child-centered approach to capture this neglected perspective. It will provide a tool for the delivery of health care in the center that established the worldwide standard of care for children with OI.

Keywords: child health, interactive computerized communication tool, participatory approach, symptom management

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Authors: Kim Hyekyoung, Au Yunkyung

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As media plays an increasingly important role in our lives, the age at which media usage begins is getting younger worldwide. Particularly, young children are exposed to media at an early age, making early childhood media literacy education an essential task. However, most existing early childhood media literacy education programs focus solely on teaching children how to use media, and practical implementation and application are challenging. Therefore, this study aims to develop a play-based early childhood media literacy education program utilizing topic-based media content and explore the potential application and impact of this program on young children's media literacy learning. Based on theoretical and literature review on media literacy education, analysis of existing educational programs, and a survey on the current status and teacher perceptions of media literacy education for preschool children, this study developed a media literacy education program for preschool children, considering the components of media literacy (understanding media characteristics, self-regulation, self-expression, critical understanding, ethical norms, and social communication). To verify the effectiveness of the program, 20 preschool children aged 5 from C City M Kindergarten were chosen as participants, and the program was implemented from March 28th to July 4th, 2022, once a week for a total of 7 sessions. The program was developed based on Gallenstain's (2003) iterative learning model (participation-exploration-explanation-extension-evaluation). To explore the quantitative changes before and after the program, a repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted, and qualitative analysis was employed to examine the observed process changes. It was found that after the application of the education program, media literacy levels such as understanding media characteristics, self-regulation, self-expression, critical understanding, ethical norms, and social communication significantly improved. The recursive learning-based early childhood media literacy education program developed in this study can be effectively applied to young children's media literacy education and help enhance their media literacy levels. In terms of observed process changes, it was confirmed that children learned about various topics, expressed their thoughts, and improved their ability to communicate with others using media content. These findings emphasize the importance of developing and implementing media literacy education programs and can contribute to empowering young children to safely and effectively utilize media in their media environment. The results of this study, exploring the potential application and impact of the recursive learning-based early childhood media literacy education program on young children's media literacy learning, demonstrated positive changes in young children's media literacy levels. These results go beyond teaching children how to use media and can help foster their ability to safely and effectively utilize media in their media environment. Additionally, to enhance young children's media literacy levels and create a safe media environment, diverse content and methodologies are needed, and the continuous development and evaluation of education programs should be conducted.

Keywords: young children, media literacy, recursive learning, education program

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Authors: Jemma McGourty, Brid Delahunt, Fiona Hackett, Sharon Courtney, Richard English, Graham Russell, Sinéad O’Connor

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Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) mastery is considered essential for children’s ongoing, meaningful engagement in Physical Activity (PA). There has been a dearth of Irish research on baseline FMS and their development by means of intervention in young primary school children. In addition, as children’s participation in PA is heavily influenced by both parents and teachers, it is imperative to understand their attitudes and perceptions towards PA participation and its’ promotion in children. The ‘Fun, Move, Play’ Project investigated the effect of a 6-week play based PA intervention on primary school children’s (aged 6-8 years) FMS while also exploring the attitudes and perceptions of their parents and teachers towards PA participation. The FMS intervention utilised a pre-post quasi-experimental design to determine the effect of a 6-week play based PA intervention (devised from the iCoach Kids Programme) on 176 primary school children’s FMS (N = 176: 90 girls and 86 boys; M = 7.2 years; SD = 0.48). Objective measures of 7 FMS (run, skip, vertical jump, static balance, stationary dribble, catch, kick) were made using a combination of the TGMD2 and Get Skilled, Get Active resources. One hundred parents (87 mothers; 13 fathers; M=36 years; SD=5.45) and 90 teachers (67 females; 23 males) completed surveys investigating their attitudes and perceptions towards PA participation. In addition, 19 of these parents and 9 of these teachers participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore, in more depth, their views and perceptions of PA participation. Both the FMS data set and survey responses were analysed using SPSS version 23, using appropriate statistical analysis. A thematic analysis framework was used to analyse the qualitative findings. A significant improvement was observed in the children’s overall FMS score pre-post intervention (t = 16.67; df = 175; p < 0.001), while there were also significant improvements in each of the seven individual FMS measured in the children, pre-post intervention. Findings from the parent surveys and interviews indicated that parents had positive attitudes towards PA, viewed it as important and supported their child’s PA participation. However, a lack of knowledge regarding the amount and intensity of PA that children should participate in emerged as a recurrent finding. Also, there was a significant positive correlation between the PA levels of parents’ and their children (r = .41; n = 100; p < .001). Arising from the teachers’ surveys and interviews was a positive attitude towards PA and the impact that it has on a child’s health and well-being. They also reported feeling more confident teaching certain aspects of the PE curriculum (games and sports) compared to others (gymnastics, dance), where they appreciate working with specialist practitioners. Conclusion: A short-term PA intervention has a positive effect on children’s FMS. While parents are supportive of their child’s PA participation, there is a knowledge gap regarding National PA guidelines for children. Teachers appreciate the importance of PA in children, but face a number of challenges in its implementation and promotion.

Keywords: fundamental movement skills, parents attitudes to physical activity, short-term intervention, teachers attitudes to physical activity

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Authors: Syrus Zimaze, George Nsimbe, Valley Mugwanya, Matiya Lule, Edgar Watson, Patrick Gwayambadde

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Physical inactivity is a growing global epidemic, also recognised as a major public health challenge. Globally, there are alarming rates of children reported with cardiovascular disease and obesity with limited interventions. In Sub Saharan Africa, there is limited information about involvement in physical activity especially among children aged 6 to 18 years. The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with involvement in physical activity among children in Uganda. Methods: We included all parents with children aged 6 to 18 years training with Excel Soccer Academy between January 2017 and June 2018. Physical activity definition was time spent participating in routine soccer training at the academy for more than 30 days. Each child's attendance was recorded, and parents provided demographic and social economic data. Data on predictors of physical activity involvement were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and frequency were used. Binary logistic regression was used at the multi variable level adjusting for education, residence, transport means and access to information technology. Results: Overall 356 parents were interviewed; Boys 318 (89.3%) engaged more in physical activity than girls. The median age for children was 13 years (IQR:6-18) and 42 years (IQR:37-49) among parents. The median time spent at the Excel soccer academy was 13.4 months (IQR: 4.6-35.7) Majority of the children attended formal education, p < 0.001). Factors associated with involvement in physical activity included: owning a permanent house compared to a rented house (odds ratio [OR] :2.84: 95% CI: 2.09-3.86, p < 0.0001), owning a car compared to using public transport (OR: 5.64 CI: 4.80-6.63, p < 0.0001), a parent having received formal education compared to non-formal education (OR: 2.93 CI: 2.47-3.46, p < 0.0001) and daily access to information technology (OR:0.40 CI:0.25-0.66, p < 0.001). Parent’s age and gender were not associated to involvement in physical activity. Conclusions: Socioeconomic factors were positively associated with involvement in physical activity with boys participating more than girls in soccer activities. More interventions are required geared towards increasing girl’s participation in physical activity and those targeting children from less privilege homes.

Keywords: physical activity, Sub-Saharan Africa, social economic factors, children

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Authors: Hassan Sheikh, Mehdi Nilipour, Amiraslan Fila

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Many conventional town planning processes do little to give children and young people a voice on what is important about the urban environment. As a result of paying little attention to the children, their physical, social and mental needs are hardly met in urban environments. Therefore, urban spaces are impotent to attract children, while their recreational space has been confined to home or virtual spaces. Since children are just taking the first steps to learn the world beyond house borders, their living environment will profoundly influence almost all aspects of their lives. This puts a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of planners, who need to balance a number of different issues in urban design to make places more child-friendly. The main purpose of present research is to analyze and plan a child-friendly environment in an on-going urban settlement development for the benefit of all residents. Assessing children’s needs and regard them in development strategies and policies will help to “plan for children”. Following this purpose, based on child-friendly environment studies, indicators of child-friendly environments were collected. Then three distinct characteristics of case study, which are being under-construction, lack of social ties between dwellers and high-rise building, determined seven indicators included basic services, Urban and environmental qualities, Family, kin, peers and community, Sense of belonging and continuity, participation, Safety, security and freedom of movement and human scale. With the survey, Informal observation and participation in small communities, essential data has been collected and analyzed by SPSS software. The field study is Shahid-Keshvari town in Isfahan, Iran. Eighty-six middle childhood, children (ages 8-13) participated. The results show Children's satisfaction is correlated with basic services and the quality of the environment, social environment and the safety and security. The considerable number of children and youth (55%) like to live somewhere other than the town. Satisfaction and sense of belonging and continuity have a strong inverse correlation with age. In other words, as age increases, satisfaction and consequently a sense of belonging will be reduced; thus children and youth consider their future somewhere out of the town. The main reason for dissatisfaction was the basic services and social environment. More than half of children (55%) expressed their wish to develop basic services in terms of availability, hierarchy, and quality. Among all recreational places, children showed more interest to the parks. About three-quarters (76%) considered building a park as a crucial item for residents. The significant number of children (54%) want to have a relationship with more friends. This could be due to the serious shortage of the leisure spaces such as parks or playgrounds. Also, the space around the house or space between the apartments has not been designed for play or children’s activities. Moreover, the presence of strangers and construction workers have a negative impact on children's sense of peace and security; 60% of children are afraid of theft and 36% of children found strangers as a menace. The analysis of children’s issues and suggestions provides an insight to plan and design of child-friendly environment in new towns.

Keywords: child-friendly city (CFC), child-friendly environment, child participation, under-construction environment, Isfahan Shahid-Keshvari Town

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Authors: Mohsine Khazrouni

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The present study is an attempt to highlight the importance of adaptation in translation. To convey the message, the translator needs to take into account not only the text but also extra-linguistic factors such as the target audience. The present paper claims that adaptation is an unavoidable translation strategy when dealing with texts that are heavy with religious and cultural themes. The translation task becomes even more challenging when dealing with children’s literature as the audience are children whose comprehension, experience and world knowledge are limited. The study uses the Arabic translation of the short story ‘Christmas Every Day’ as a case study. The short story will be translated, and the pragmatic problems involved will be discussed. The focus will be on the issue of adaptation. i.e., the source text should be adapted to the target language audience`s social and cultural environment.

Keywords: pragmatic adaptation, Arabic translation, children's literature, equivalence

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Authors: Kheira A. Bekhechi, Belkacem Khiat

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The goal of our study is to know if there is an influence of the regular sporting physical-activity on the school performances of Algerian children. An experimental group composed of 55 sporting pupils and a reference group of 55 non-sporting pupils between 6 to10 years old (boys and girls) of the primary schools in Oran (Algeria) were followed during 15 months (Five terms). The socio-demographic data was collected from a survey given to pupils of the two groups and the school results from the administration at the end of each term. The sporting pupils have a general school average significantly higher than those of the non- sporting pupils (p < 0.05). The practice of physical activity and regular sporting by the children would deserve to be largely encouraged based on the beneficial effects not only on health but also on the academic performance. The parents, teachers and health professionals should be strongly aware.

Keywords: cognitive capacities, physical activity and sport, school children, school performances

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Authors: Mohammed Khalid Mahmood, Delphine Tardivo, Romain Lan

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Dental caries is one of the most common diseases in the world, affecting billions of people and significantly lowering the quality of life. Malnutrition, on the other hand, is defined as inadequate, imbalanced, or excessive consumption of macronutrients, micronutrients, or both, which is characterized as an abnormal physiological condition. Oral health is impacted by malnutrition, and malnutrition can result from poor oral health. The objective of this paper was to study the association of serum Vitamin D level and body mass index as representatives of malnutrition at micro and macro levels, respectively, on dental caries. Results showed that: 1. The majority of the population studied (70%) are Vitamin D deficient. 2. Having a normal and even a sufficient level of serum Vitamin D and having a normal body mass index increase the chances of children being caries-free and having a lower caries index.

Keywords: children, dental Caries, malnutrition, vitamin D

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Authors: G. Chipili, J. Msuya

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The Central Province of Zambia contains the majority of the nation’s malnourished children, despite being the most productive province in terms of Agriculture. Most studies in the province have not paid attention to the linkages between agriculture performance and nutrition outcomes of the population. In light of this knowledge gap, this study focused on the linkage between nutrition and agriculture. In 2010 the Ministry of Agriculture in the Central Province while working with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education started a pilot project in Kapiri-Mponshi on Orange-fleshed Sweet Potatoes and Orange Maize and educating farmers on the importance of crop diversity. The study assessed the extent to which the small scale farmers are implementing the best practices of nutrition-sensitive agriculture in the Central Province. This study sought to determine the association of crop diversity and nutritional status of children aged 6-59 months in Kapiri-Mposhi district in the Central Province of Zambia. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using a structured questionnaire. A total of 365 households were randomly sampled and the nutritional status of one child from each household assessed using anthropometric measurements. A total of 100 children were included in the study. Up to 21% of the children were stunted; 2% were wasted; and 9% underweight. There was a significant relationship between crops grown in households (ground nuts, maize and mangoes) and Z-scores for stunting (HAZ) and underweight (WAZ) (p< 0.05). This study has established that farmers may not diversify if they have high market demands on the staple.

Keywords: agriculture, crop diversity, children, nutrition

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Authors: Olusola Bamisile, Oluwaseun Ayodele, Mustafa Dagbasi

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The main objective of this research is to optimize the power produced by a solar chimney wind turbine. The cut out speed and the maximum possible production are considered while performing the optimization. Solar chimney is one of the solar technologies that can be used in rural areas at cheap cost. With over 50% of rural areas still yet to have access to electricity. The OptimTool in MATLAB is used to maximize power produced by the turbine subject to certain constraints. The results show that an optimized turbine produces about ten times the power of the normal turbine which is 111 W/h. The rest of the research discuss in detail solar chimney power plant and the optimization simulation used in this study.

Keywords: solar chimney, optimization, wind turbine, renewable energy systems

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Authors: Dih Ling Luh, Zhi Shih You, Szu Chieh Chen

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Social contact patterns among school-age children play an important role in the epidemiology of infectious disease. Since many of the greatest threats to human health are spread by direct person-to-person contact, understanding the spread of respiratory pathogens and patterns of human interactions are public health priorities. This study used social contact diaries to compare the number of contacts per day per participant across different flu/non-flu seasons and weekend/weekday. We also present contact properties such as sex, age, masking, setting, frequency, duration, and contact types among school-age children (grades 7–8). The sample size with pair-wise comparisons for the seasons (flu/non-flu) and stratification by location were 54 and 83, respectively. There was no difference in the number of contacts during the flu and non-flu seasons, with averages of 16.3 (S.D. = 12.9) and 14.6 (S.D. = 9.5) people, respectively. Weekdays were associated with 23% and 28% more contacts than weekend days during the non-flu and flu seasons, respectively (p < 0.001) (Wilcoxon signed-rank test).

Keywords: contact patterns, behavior, influenza, social mixing

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Authors: K. Pandey

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The present study is a functional analysis of the relationship between castes which indicates the dynamics of the caste structure in the rural setting. The researcher has tried to show both the cooperation and competition on important ceremonial and social occasions. The real India exists in the villages, so we need to know about their solidarity and also what the village life is and has been shaping into. We need to emphasize a microcosmic study of Indian rural life. Furthermore, caste integration is an acute problem country faces today. To resolve this we are required to know the dynamics of behavior of the people of different castes and for the study of the caste dynamics a study of caste relations are needed. The present study is an attempt in this direction.

Keywords: hierarchial groups, jajmani system, functional dependence, commensalities

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Authors: Mamochana, A. Ramatea, Fumane, P. Khanare

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Enabling the learning environment is a significant and adaptive technique necessary to navigate learners’ educational challenges. However, research has indicated that quality provision of education in the environments that are enabling, especially to learners with visual impairments (LVIs, hereafter) in rural schools, remain an ongoing challenge globally. Hence, LVIs often have a lower level of academic performance as compared to their peers. To balance this gap and fulfill learners'fundamentalhuman rights¬ of receiving an equal quality education, appropriate measures and structures that make enabling learning environment a better place to learn must be better understood. This paper, therefore, intends to find possible means that rural schools of Lesotho can employ to make the learning environment for LVIs enabling. The present study aims to determine suitable assets that can be drawn to make the learning environment for LVIs enabling. The study is also informed by the transformative paradigm and situated within a qualitative research approach. Data were generated through focus group discussions with twelve teachers who were purposefully selected from two rural primary schools in Lesotho. The generated data were then analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke's six-phase framework. The findings of the study indicated that participating teachers do have an understanding that rural schools boast of assets (existing and hidden) that have a positive influence in responding to the special educational needs of LVIs. However, the participants also admitted that although their schools boast of assets, they still experience limited knowledge about the use of the existing assets and thus, realized a need for improved collaboration, involvement of the existing assets, and enhancement of academic resources to make LVIs’ learning environment enabling. The findings of this study highlight the significance of the effective use of assets. Additionally, coincides with literature that shows recognizing and tapping into the existing assets enable learning for LVIs. In conclusion, the participants in the current study indicated that for LVIs’ learning environment to be enabling, there has to be sufficient use of the existing assets. The researchers, therefore, recommend that the appropriate use of assets is good, but may not be sufficient if the existing assets are not adequately managed. Hence,VILs experience a vicious cycle of vulnerability. It was thus, recommended that adequate use of assets and teachers' engagement as active assets should always be considered to make the learning environment a better place for LVIs to learan in the future

Keywords: assets, enabling learning environment, rural schools, learners with visual impairments

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Authors: S. Probine

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The visual arts have been proven to be a central means through which young children can communicate their ideas, reflect on experience, and construct new knowledge. Despite this, perceptions of, and the degree to which the visual arts are valued within education, vary widely within political, educational, community and family contexts. These differing perceptions informed my doctoral research project, which explored the contextual factors that affect how young children come to value and use the visual arts in their lives and learning. The qualitative methodology of narrative inquiry with inclusion of arts-based methods was most appropriate for this inquiry. Using a sociocultural framework, the stories collected were analysed through the sociocultural theories of Lev Vygotsky as well as the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner, together with postmodern theories about identity formation. The use of arts-based methods such as teacher’s reflective art journals and the collection of images by child participants and their parent/caregivers allowed the research participants to have a significant role in the research. Three early childhood settings at which the visual arts were deeply valued as a meaning-making device in children’s learning, were purposively selected to be involved in the research. At each setting, the study found a unique and complex web of influences and interconnections, which shaped how children utilised the visual arts to mediate their thinking. Although the teachers' practices at all three centres were influenced by sociocultural theories, each settings' interpretations of these theories were unique and resulted in innovative interpretations of the role of the teacher in supporting visual arts learning. These practices had a significant impact on children’s experiences of the visual arts. For many of the children involved in this study, visual art was the primary means through which they learned. The children in this study used visual art to represent their experiences, relationships, to explore working theories, their interests (including those related to popular culture), to make sense of their own and other cultures, and to enrich their imaginative play. This research demonstrates that teachers have fundamental roles in fostering and disseminating the importance of the visual arts within their educational communities.

Keywords: arts-based methods, early childhood education, teacher's visual arts pedagogies, visual arts

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Authors: Anna Amato

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Every child needs communication. If spoken language is not or not fully available due to congenital or acquired limitations, those affected need appropriate ways. These can be found in many possibilities of Augmentative and Alternative Communications (AAC). In the communication promotion of severely impaired children, who can use their own body communication forms only to a limited extent for the differentiated understanding, computers with eye control play an essential role. It takes some time to understand the individual forms of communication of the child. Children who depend on the AAC need competent support to learn to communicate in a motivated way in their everyday life. The aim of the present parents' survey (n = 4), which was evaluated descriptively, is to demonstrate the development of communicative abilities as well as the motivation to use complex communication aids with eye control by patients with atypical Rett Syndrome. An increase in communication skills, well-being, self-reliance, and self-esteem, an improvement in social participation, as well as a reduction in anger and screaming events, were noted. The complex visual communication tools were available daily for 3 out of 4 patients with atypical Rett Syndrome. It raises research questions regarding speech understanding and the ability to drive eye control technology in a larger group of atypical Rett Syndrome patients.

Keywords: augmentative and alternative communications, AAC, atypical Rett-syndrome, children, development

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Authors: Dhruveshi B. Rana, Nirav P. Vaghela, Jigar N. Mehta

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Objective: To assess the relationships among age, gender, anthropometrics and dynamic balance in 5 to 12 years of children in Anand city. Method: Cross-sectional study was conducted. 150 school going children of 5-12 (75-girls, 75-boys) years were recruited from the school of the Anand city-Shivam English Medium school, Veer Vithalbhai Patel school, Adarsh Primary school. Height, weight, arm length, and foot length were measured in 150 children of 5 to 12 years. Dynamic balance was assessed using Time Up and Go Test, Functional Reach Test, Pediatric Balance Scale. Results: Positive relationship (r = 0.58 and r= 0.77) were found between increasing age and FRT and PBS scores. A negative relationship (r = - 0.46) was observed between age of boys and TUG test. Significant gender by age group difference was observed in FRT. Arm length and height has the strongest influence on FRT, and age, height, foot length; and arm length has the strongest influence on PBS. Conclusions: Age and arm length have the strongest relationship with the dynamic balance (FRT, PBS). Dynamic balance ability is directly related to the age. It helps the pediatric therapists in selecting dynamic balance test according to the age.

Keywords: age, gender, anthropometric, dynamic balance

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