Children's Physical Abilities Research Articles

Treatment Approaches for Swallowing Disorders in Children.

A swallowing disorder or dysphagia is defined as a disorder in the sequence of swallowing, during the oral or pharyngeal phase, which compromises the safety and/or efficiency of transit of the food bolus to the esophagus. The evaluation of neurodevelopment, nutrition, and preventive medicine actions are as important as the clinical evaluation of dysphagia, so they must be included and systematized in all pediatric evaluations; This evaluation can be divided into different parts: bedside swallowing evaluation, instrumental swallowing evaluation, and additional studies. The management of swallowing disorders requires a multidisciplinary team approach, depending on the child's age, cognitive and physical abilities, and the specific swallowing and feeding disorder, ensuring adequate and safe nutrition and improving the patient's quality of life.

The Role of Social Awareness in Growth and Development in Early Childhood

Social awareness of early childhood is the awareness and ability of a child to socialize or interact with other people in a social context in a certain way that is acceptable. Early childhood is also referred to as the golden age, because at that age, children's physical and motor abilities develop and grow very quickly. Children begin to be sensitive to receiving stimulation. Therefore, social awareness of early childhood must be optimally developed. This study aims to collect various references related to social awareness in early childhood. This research is a literacy study, where articles are obtained through the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) website, Academia Edu, Google Classroom, and ScienceDirect. The reference criteria used are references published between 2005-2022. Based on various references that have been collected, social awareness has an important role in the life of the child itself. This is because social awareness in early childhood can affect their further development.

Efforts to Increase the Cognitive and Physical Abilities of Kindergarten Students

Physical education in general is part of education. Through physical education is hoped that individual development is not only beneficial for improving psychomotor abilities, but also for cognitive and affective development, so that physical education contributes significantly to the development of all children. One form of formal education is through physical education at kindergarten. Which is part of overall education, aiming to develop aspects of physical fitness, movement skills, critical thinking skills, social skills, reasoning, emotional stability, moral action, aspects of a healthy lifestyle, and the introduction of a clean environment. The purpose of this study was to improve the cognitive and physical abilities of kindergarten students through rotating ring games at PKK Wates Bumiratu Nuban Kindergarten, Central Lampung and to improve children's learning outcomes, teachers must be skilled in teaching and also master the subject matter. The learning process requires good teaching skills because physical education learning needs movement skills and an approach model in its implementation. This type of research is classroom action research with three cycles and each cycle has different activities. The sample used in this study was a group of 32 TK PKK Wates Bumiratu Nuban Group B. Data collection in each cycle used an instrument for assessing the cognitive and physical abilities of kindergarten children. Data analysis technique using tabulation and proportion. The results of this study indicate that there is an increase in each cycle, namely: the first cycle of 25%, the second cycle of 31.25%, and the third cycle of 43.75%. Based on the analysis and discussion of the research results, it can be concluded as follows: Learning by using rotating ring games can improve the cognitive and physical abilities of the children of Group B PKK Wates Bumiratu Nuban Lampung. Learning with rotating ring games is very effective as a model of an educational approach to learning and playing for children's cognitive and physical abilities.

Critically Discuss the Importance of Play for Young Children’s Learning and Development

This study explores the concept of play, the benefits of play for children and the impact of policy on play. Play is a common behaviour in childhood and has a positive impact on children's physical and mental health, as well as their social, cognitive and emotional well-being. Not only does play enhance children's physical abilities and promote their cognitive development, it can also release negative internal emotions and be a means of psychotherapy. In addition, play can improve children's social interaction skills. Policy has an important influence on the implementation of play in early education. Therefore, the government needs to promote awareness and policies to facilitate teachers' and parents' understanding of play and to support its implementation in early education.

TRAINING FOR CHILDREN’S MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AT TPA AL-MUBASYIR DESA DIBAL, KECAMATAN NGEMPLAK, KABUPATEN BOYOLALI, CENTRAL JAVA.

Abstract : Practicing motor skills is important for children, given that childhood is a golden period in child development. One technique in training children's motor skills is to provide guidance or physical exercises that are in accordance with the portion of children's physical abilities. This activity aims to improve motor skills in children through viewing animation movie, coloring pictures, and leisurely strolling for children. The activities carried out showed the attitudes and behavior of children at TPA (Taman Pendidikan Al-Quran) Al-Mubasyir to be better than before, children became more creative, thorough, responsive to the surrounding environment, and enthusiastic in participating in learning. Keywords: motor, training, children

Design of Sports Training Simulation System for Children Based on Improved Deep Neural Network.

With the development of AI technology, human-computer interaction technology is no longer the traditional mouse and keyboard interaction. AI and VR have been widely used in early childhood education. In the process of the slow development and application of voice interaction, visual interaction, action interaction, and other technologies, multimodal interaction technology system has become a research hotspot. In this paper, dynamic image capture and recognition technology is integrated into early childhood physical education for intelligent interaction. According to the basic movement process and final node matching in children's sports training to judge children's physical behavior ability, attention is paid to identify the accuracy and safety of movement. The input images and questions are from the abstract clipart dataset of dynamic image recognition and the self-made 3D dataset of Web3D dynamic motion scene with the same style, which is similar to the action content in the actual preschool training teaching. Therefore, according to the idea of process capture and target recognition, on the basis of the original conditions of the recognition model, a new recognition model is developed through Zheng's target detector. The modified model is characterized by higher accuracy. Weapons need to combine process recognition and result recognition. The experimental results show that the improved model has the obvious advantages of high precision and fast speed, which provides a new research idea for the development of children's physical training simulation.

DEMERITS SIDE OF OPEN DEFECATION ON SCHOOL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

pen Defecation (OD) is the practice of defecating outside (in an open environment). It is a practice of defecating not in a designated toilet. It occurs in fileds, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces. In Nigeria, the practice is common, and usual to find faeces even in cities, and school premises. This had caused Nigeria to ranked as the country with the largest turnout of OD in Africa, and second globally after India. OD is been practiced at schools because of reasons, such as; lack of toilets, lack of water, poor awareness, culture,and behavior. There are many effects of OD to education in Nigeria. Parable, OD enable diseases (example, diarrhea, trachoma, polio, typhoid, gastroenteritis, botulism etc) transmissions and in turn impede children's physical ability and cognitive development; it can also prevent children from attending schools (443 million school days are lost every year due to water-related illnesses); it causes drop out especially among girls; hours and days are spent by girls or boys seeking for places to defecate. Moreover, girls that are menstruating have the habits of abandoning schools because of poor sanitation. Children or students might be exposed to wild animals or violence on their way to surf for place to defecate. OD at schools can be control by taking measures: construction and maintenance of enough toilets hardware for males and females, creation of awareness among students and parents, and making laws to provide sanitation at schools.

The Effects of Physical Activity and Exercise Therapy on Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors: A systematic review

Pediatric brain tumors are commonly established with late effects such as poor Gross Motor ability, cerebellar motor dysfunction and cognitive deficits that can significantly affect the children's physical and mental ability as well as their quality of life. The aim of the present systematic review is to investigate the effects of exercise therapy on the complications and late effects arising from the nature of brain tumor and its different treatments in survivors from pediatric brain tumors. Six databases, of Embase, Med line, Cochrane Central Database, PubMed, CINAHL and Elsevier from 2000 up to October 2020 were searched for the studies focusing on the effects of exercise therapy in pediatric brain tumor following different treatment procedures. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, nine out of 224 articles were included for the present systematic review. The articles were rated based on PEDro scales for methodological assessment.The study revealed that the children who survived from brain tumors commonly suffer from damage to hippocampus, cortex and the white matter. The results of systematic analysis also showed that physical exercises would likely help the formation of normal sensorimotor experiences, justifying children's better performance in cognitive tests and eventually promoting their quality of life. The literature also indicated that improvements in motor proficiency and physical fitness after exercise therapy were consistent with such MRI results as increase in the right somatosensory cortical thickness, increased FA in corpus callosum, in the right corticospinal pathway as well as in cingulum. Research voids and recommendations for further investigations were finally presented.

A longitudinal study on nursery school children's physical activity levels and physical ability.

A longitudinal study on nursery school children's physical activity levels and physical ability.

The Effectiveness of Playgrounds through Vegetated-Setting Approach in Tembalang, Indonesia

Abstract. As part of urban public space, playgrounds are a children's play space that can improve children's sensory, communication, and physical abilities. Playgrounds must be able to create comfort and education for children to engage with nature. One of the approaches to achieve is by the vegetated setting. Tembalang is a sub-district in Semarang, with children dominating 44% of the total population. Therefore, the playground's effectiveness in Tembalang was assessed based on comfort nature and connection with nature. Nine playgrounds are the object of this research. This study is aimed to determine the effectiveness level of the playground in Tembalang using the vegetated-setting approach. The research used a quantitative approach with Guttman-Scale scoring. This study's output assesses the level of effectiveness of the vegetated-setting playground through two aspects. The first aspect, comfort nature, which included in the effective level (71%) in the form of vegetation, protects children from heat and rain while playing, vegetation that provides shelter when children relax or gather under trees, vegetation can cause cold air and the condition of the grass field. It is comfortable to use and is not slippery. In comparison, the second aspect, the connection with nature, is included in the effective level (50%) in the form of plucked vegetation such as fruit or flowers, vegetation that can climb to train the child physically, vegetation that can bring animals to live in, such as birds or butterflies, and grass fields that children can use for running and physical activity.

Parenting Patterns and Its Implications for Formation Religious Character in Early Childhood

The purpose of this study was to determine which form of parenting is the most dominant applied by parents in instilling religious characters in early childhood. Parenting is a process in the family, the interaction between parents and children. Parenting patterns have been applied since the child was born and adjusted to the age and stage of development. Learning in early childhood is the initial foundation of character building in children. Religious character education should be carried out comprehensively, covering all aspects of education, from the preparation of children from birth to efforts to strengthen children's physical and spiritual abilities, conveyed with advice, with examples well as well as with the process of getting used to good things so that it has implications for the personality of the child in adulthood. This study used an analysis descriptive qualitative method. To collect data, the researcher used three methods, namely: interview method, documentation, and observation method. The results showed that the parenting style of parents and its implications for the formation of a religious character in early childhood at TK Al-Hikmah Karangbesuki Sukun Malang is democratic and permissive parenting which is the most dominant applied.

CHANGES IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION: THE EUROPEAN AND LITHUANIAN CONTEXT

Reviewing the significant changes that have taken place in the pre-school education sector in European countries and Lithuania in recent years, we notice that a lot has been achieved in implementing the goals and objectives set in the strategic education documents for the development of this sector. Of all levels of education, investment in education from birth to 5 years has been shown to provide the highest economic return. Pre-school education can also be defined as a professional institutional education and care service for a family raising a pre-school child. Pre-school education provides a basis for a child's early physical, social, cultural, emotional and cognitive abilities, increases social integration, and creates conditions for a child's successful education now and in the future. Pre-school education services are especially important for children growing up in conditions of social risk and social exclusion. European countries, including Lithuania, are intensively and purposefully striving to improve the quality of pre-school education. In Lithuania, pre-school education has been and is considered a priority area of education, and quality assurance of pre-school education is the most important strategic direction. There is also a need to place more emphasis on the role of parents as key partners in the context of quality pre-school education. Recently, the nature of the pre-school institution's relationship with the family has changed significantly. These two institutions become active participants in the pursuit of quality child education from an early age. Keywords: education policy, education quality, pre-school education.

Quality of Life in Pediatric Neurosurgery: Comparing Parent and Patient Perceptions

In the pediatric neurosurgical population, understanding how to mitigate the effects of disease on children's physical ability, social and psychological well-being, and education can have lasting effects on their development and family. Understanding parents' perceptions of their children's health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is crucial in proper counseling, management of expectations, establishment of a healthy patient/parent-physician relationship, and understanding the role and impact of health care. In this study we sought to examine the differences between patient and parent perceptions of HRQoL and the factors that influence these differences. A standardized survey (PedsQL Inventory) to assess physical, psychological, and social function and school performance was administered to both parents and patients in a general pediatric neurosurgery outpatient clinic from 2015-2018. 197 encounters with 179 patients occurred in the study period. There were 105 male and 92 female patients across various ethnic backgrounds. The most common diagnoses were tumor (23.4%) and vascular malformation (16.2%). Parent overall scores were lower than their children's (72.5 vs. 76.4, P < 0.01). Parent scores of physical function (74.3 vs. 78.7, P < 0.01) and overall psychosocial function (71.5 vs. 75.3, P < 0.01) were also lower. Parent scores in all domains of the PedsQL were correlated with overall score difference (P < 0.01), but only child scores of overall psychosocial (P < 0.03) and school function (P < 0.04) were correlated with overall score difference. Parents have more negative assessments of their children's HRQoL compared with their children in all domains assessed by the PedsQL. Further research is needed to identify factors that contribute to these discrepancies.

A Comparison of Parent and Child Evaluations of Quality of Life in Pediatric Neurosurgery

Abstract INTRODUCTION Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) broadly encompasses many physical, economical, and psychosocial factors. In pediatric neurosurgery, patient and family HRQoL is an important factor as chronic, debilitating disease affects patients and their caregivers considerably. HRQoL affects a child's physical ability, social and psychological wellbeing, and educational performance. Understanding parental perception of their child's HRQoL is important to better understand family relationships and manage expectations. In this study we sought to examine the differences between patient and parent perceptions of HRQoL and the factors that influence these differences. METHODS A standardized survey was systematically administered by a healthcare provider in an outpatient neurosurgery clinic for a single neurosurgeon from 2015 to 2018. Surveys were administered to both patient and parents for each clinic visit. The survey tool assessed physical, psychological, and social function and school performance. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 26. This study was conducted under IRB approval. RESULTS A total of 201 encounters with 182 patients were included. On average, parent and patient assessments of overall QoL differed by 10.5% (SD 10.4) and assessments of physical function by 13% (SD 16.9). Assessments of psychosocial wellbeing differed by 11.1% (SD 9.8). Across every domain assessed, parents' reported scores were lower than children's (P &lt; .01). There was a negative correlation between patient psychosocial scores and overall score differences (r = −0.15, P &lt; .03). Overall score differences were not influenced by race, ethnicity, age at diagnosis, or repeat procedures. CONCLUSION Assessment of patient HRQoL often variwa between patients and their caregivers. Parents typically have more negative assessments of their children's HRQoL, and this difference presented as lower scores reported by parents compared to patients in our study. We believe that understanding these differences in perception will help guide supportive services and expectation management when caring for and counseling pediatric neurosurgical patients and their families.

Gymnastic-Based Movement Therapy for Children With Neurodevelopmental Disabilities: Results From a Pilot Feasibility Study

Background: Developmental and behavioral issues often limit the participation of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) in community-based activities with their peers, which decreases opportunities for their social learning and development. Parents of children with NDD seek out programs that address physical and psychosocial development. Several studies already support the positive effects for the child to attend physical activity programs (PAPs). However, these studies are highly prone to biases and Hawthorne effect. In the planning stage of a large prospective study to assess the effectiveness of PAPs we reviewed the records of children who participated in a gymnastic-based program, the Empowering Steps Movement Therapy (ESMT). Besides generating useful data for developing the prospective study we thought these data reflect the rate of changes in context of normal practice in a naturalistic environment; therefore protected from Hawthorne effect and other biases.Design: This is a historical cohort: the files of 67 children with NDD were examined across a 2-year period (Jan 2011 to Jan 2013). As part of standard practice, the ESMT therapists document changes in motor function every 6 months, using the ESMT's proprietary motor scale. Parents also completed a parental questionnaire in June 2011 regarding their perceptions of changes in their child's physical and psychosocial function, as well as family functioning since their child started the program.Results: Linear Mixed Effects Model clearly identified three groups according to changes in motor function: the ones with rapid changes (mostly functional children with autism spectrum disorder: n = 13), the ones with moderate changes (different types of NDD diagnoses: n = 41) and the ones that did not change or even decreased motor skills over the follow-up (children with complex diseases or uncontrolled epilepsy despite treatment: n = 13). Parental questionnaires (n = 39) reported improvement in most of the children's physical and psychosocial abilities; they also indicated improvement in some of the family parameters. There was no association between the changes in children's motor functions and parents' responses to the questionnaire.Conclusion: Despite limitations due to the retrospective nature of the study, the absence of a control group and the absence of validated measurement tools, the observed positive effects of attending movement therapy center on motor performance and psychosocial development confirm in a naturalistic environment what has been shown in context of clinical trials or quasi-experimental studies. These results are not conclusive. They warrant further, rigorous investigation using validated instruments, independent assessors, and control groups.

Environmental Characteristics of Children's Neighborhood Activities

Environmental characteristics affecting children's physical abilities and health are worth understanding. The purpose of this study is to identify neighborhood environmental characteristics that influence children's activities and assess the friendliness of Taiwanese communities toward children's activities. Conditions are observed on the basis of five environmental characteristics: safety, amenity, accessibility, sociability, and attractiveness. The three communities studied have different combinations of street patterns and land use which, in turn, are conducive to different children's activities. These findings are valuable for community design aimed at promoting children's activities.

Relationship between gross motor function and the function, activity and participation components of the International Classification of Functioning in children with spastic cerebral palsy.

[Purpose] This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between gross motor function, measured using the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), Manual Ability Classification System (MACS), and Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM), and Function, and Activity and Participation components of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health-Child and Youth Check List (ICF-CY) in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). [Subjects and Methods] Seventy-seven children with spastic CP participated in the study. The GMFM, GMFCS, MACS, and WeeFIM were administered in their entirety to patients without orthoses or mobility aids. The ICF-CY was used to evaluate the degree of disability and health. [Results] The score of the ICF component of Activity and Participation had a significantly strong correlation with the scores of GMFM, GMFCS, MACS, WeeFIM, and ICF component of Function. [Conclusion] When establishing a treatment plan for children with spastic CP, the children’s physical abilities, and their limitation in activity, performance, and participation, which would be measured using the ICF-CY, should be taken into consideration.

Oral health status in children with intellectual disability living in organized groups

The aim of the study was to assess oral health status in in children with intellectual disability (ID) living in Moscow Orphanage №15. The study involved 91 children aged 12 (39 children) and 15 (52 children). Caries incidence and DMFT index, periodontal disease incidence, OHI-S and PMA index, malocclusions incidence were assessed at baseline examination. Caries incidence in 12 and 15 y.o. was moderate (53.85% and 56.0%, correspondingly), as well as DMFT (2.77±0.52 и 2.94±0.53 correspondingly). In 2 children with rumination syndrome all teeth were affected by caries and these children received dental treatment under general anesthesia 7 times during last 60 months. Periodontal disease incidence in 12 and 15 y.o. was 89.74% и 86.58%, correspondingly with very high OHI-S indicating unsatisfactory oral hygiene. Malocclusions incidence was 95% and 98%, correspondingly. Thus the main oral problem in children with ID is periodontal disease and poor oral hygiene. Differentiated oral hygiene education approach according to children's physical and intellectual abilities should be considered. Children with rumination syndrome should be addressed by neurologist prior to dental treatment which needs more radical approach.

Interaction of body mass index and age in muscular activities among backpack carrying male schoolchildren.

The complex and limited understanding of the interactions among multiple factors associated with back pain occurrence among schoolchildren might explain the current inconclusive and contradictory findings on the issue. The global increase in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, which reportedly affects children's physical abilities, calls for concern among school/children ergonomists and other stakeholders. The study investigated the interaction of body mass index (BMI) and age on the muscular activities, backpack height and perceived level of pain arising from carrying different weight of backpacks. Surface electromyography analysis of erector spinae and trapezius muscular activities was conducted on 47 primary schoolchildren aged between 8 and 11 years. Repeated measure ANOVA were carried out on the data. There was significant difference in all the measures of muscular activities, backpack height and pain rating at different levels of backpack weight. However, the children were only significantly fatigable in the erector spinae muscles of the lower back and not in the trapezius of the upper back. The interactive effect of BMI was more pronounced than the children's age. The study shows that it is not appropriate for all schoolchildren to have the same backpack weight limit and obese schoolchildren should carry a lower bag-to-body ratio of backpack weight. The younger children also need an appropriate bag surface-to-trunk ratio size of backpack as they were more affected by the position of the backpack.

Mediating effects of the ICF domain of function and the gross motor function measure on the ICF domains of activity, and participation in children with cerebral palsy.

[Purpose] This study aimed to evaluate the mediating effect of gross motor function, measured using the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) and of general function, measured using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Child and Youth Check List (ICF-CY), on the ICF domains of activity and participation in children with cerebral palsy (CP). [Subjects] Ninety-five children with CP, from Seoul, Korea, participated in the study. [Methods] The GMFM was administered in its entirety to patients without orthoses or mobility aids. The ICF-CY was used to evaluate the degree of disability and health of subjects. [Results] GMFM score and ICF-CY function were negatively correlated to ICF-CY activity and participation. ICF-CY partially mediated the effects of the GMFM on activity and participation. [Conclusion] When establishing a treatment plan for a child with CP, limitations in activity and participation, as described by the ICF-CY, should be considered in addition to the child’s physical abilities and development. In addition, the treatment plan should focus on increasing the child’s activity and participation level, as well as his/her physical level.