Everyday Life Skills Research Articles

The development of science process skills in visually impaired students: analysis of the activities

Students with visual impairments face tremendous challenges in daily life while learning life skills as they do not have the benefit of visual cues. The skills that visually impaired students are expected to learn include not only everyday life skills, but also scientific process skills too. In this study, case study was used to develop an instructional design to teaching science concepts to visually impaired students. The aim of this study is to analyze the efficacy of science activities of this developed instructional design. The study consists of three basic stages. In the first stage, visually impaired students’ learning needs are identified. In the second stage teaching materials and activities are designed and developed. In the last stage, these activities were analyzed in terms of scientific process skills through observation forms. As a result, most of the developed activities are suited for development of the scientific process skills.

The development of science process skills in visually impaired students: analysis of the activities

<span>Students with visual impairments face tremendous challenges in daily life while learning life skills as they do not have the benefit of visual cues. The skills that visually impaired students are expected to learn include not only everyday life skills, but also scientific process skills too. In this study, case study was used to develop an instructional design to teaching science concepts to visually impaired students. The aim of this study is to analyze the efficacy of science activities of this developed instructional design. The study consists of three basic stages. In the first stage, visually impaired students’ learning needs are identified. In the second stage teaching materials and activities are designed and developed. In the last stage, these activities were analyzed in terms of scientific process skills through observation forms. As a result, most of the developed activities are suited for development of the scientific process skills.</span>

Analysis of students’ critical thinking skill of fractions on primary school

Mathematics is one of the most important subjects for students to learn and important as a guide to mindset as well as forming attitude. Students accomplish to develop critical thinking skills in everyday life through mathematical learning. Therefore, this research aim to analyze students’ critical thinking on the topic of fraction materials. The research method used a descriptive-qualitative method were composed 25 fourth grade students of primary school in Tasikmalaya. The instruments used are tests and interview. The result of this study showed that student’s critical thinking skills still are low. Non-routine tasks given still have not been able to resolve by most of students. The obstacle which is found by researcher is related to fractions associated with the students’ critical thinking skill are: 1) Students have not been able to give a simple explanation, 2) The students have not been able to provide further explanation, 3) The student have not been able to arrange the strategy and tactic appropriately, 4) The students have not been able to conclude correctly. The results of this research can be used to develop of students’ critical thinking in the future.

Developing a Scale of Decision-Making Skills in Everyday Life for Upper Grades of Elementary Schools

Developing a Scale of Decision-Making Skills in Everyday Life for Upper Grades of Elementary Schools

MEDICAL AND SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF REHABILITATION OF CHILDREN AFTER NEUROINFECTIONS

Introduction. The increased attention from the state to the organization of rehabilitation measures, especially among children, requires evaluation and development of measures to improve the effectiveness of all areas of rehabilitation – medical, social and professional rehabilitation. The development of measures increasing efficiency is especially important among children, since children are the main potential of the country. The objective of the study was to evaluate the medical and social effectiveness of the rehabilitation measures carried out for children after neuroinfections. Material and methods. During the study, parents of children after neuroinfections were interviewed, as well as the examination of changes in large motor functions and functional state was carried out by doctors of the Clinic of “Scientific and Research Institution of Children’s Infections”. Medical experts used special evaluation scales in order to objectify the research.Results. The overwhelming majority of parents (90.4 %) note an improvement in the condition of their children in terms of medical and social adaptation. More than one third of parents (35.9 %) note the improvement of their children’s condition, according to all seven criteria proposed for the answer (formation of independent walking skills, stabilization of emotional-volitional activity, acquisition of new social household skills, ability to sit, decrease of muscle tone, speech development and improvement of manipulative functions of the hand). According to the expert opinion of the doctors of the Clinic, 78.8 % of children suffered from the disruption of large motor functions, and children of the first level, i.e. the lightest, according to the classification scale for large motor functions (GMFCS), was only 17 %. After four courses of rehabilitation in the Clinic, the proportion of children of the first level increased significantly and amounted to 48.2 %. Improvements in the opinion of medical experts, based on the results of the questioning, were also observed in functional status, in such positions as communication, everyday life skills, socialization and motor skills.Сonclusion. Thus, the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures for children after neuroinfections has been proved. Moreover, with the increase in the number of rehabilitation courses, the state of children improves both by the medical and social criteria.

LIFE SKILL DIMENSION BASED ON UNIFIED SPORTS SOCCER PROGRAM IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

This article aims to find out the optimization of 21st-century life skill dimension based on unified sports soccer program on physical education of intellectual disability. The 21st-century education dimension includes knowledge, skill, and character integrated into life skill in everyday life. Today the concept of education for all is included for intellectual disability. Children with intellectual disability, characteristic physiological and psychological characteristics are characterized by limited intelligence, social and other mental functions. In this regard, it is necessary to have special handling programs to solve life skill problems especially in physical education for intellectual disability. Inappropriate programs will have a more complex impact on intellectual disability life skill. Life skill formation program needs to be given in the form of a sports game, one of them is a unified sports soccer program. Unified programs are characterized by intellectual disability and non-intellectual disability activities as partners in teams, with intellectual disability child-specific tasks as goal scorers and non-intellectual disability feeders. This program provides self-exploration for intellectual disability children to boost confidence after scoring goals, and for partners to generate trust in friends (intellectual disability). Based on research experts note that unified sports soccer programs have a positive impact on behavior, friendship activity, adjective, inclusive of social factor, adaptive program, and individual development on intellectual disability. Therefore, the formation of life skill based on unified sports soccer program is suitable for use on intellectual disability as the implementation of physical education in the 21st century.

THE USE OF GAME RIGHTS IN THE CORRECTION OF THE PROSADING PARTY OF LINGUISTIC CHILDREN OF PRIMARY AGE

Violation of development has became a significant problem of society in view of the rapid increase of children with problems of psychophysical development. This problem also affects preschool children with speech disorders, as today there is a tendency in Ukraine to increase the number of children with severe speech impairment. This fact has required revision of the methods and forms of education and training of such category of children. Studies in the field of special pedagogy and speech therapy have revealed that for a number of nosological forms In the speech therapy, the term "prosodic" refers to the phenomena of height, duration, strength, etc. The system of prosody is a complex structural component of the components, which performs the functions of integral statement of expression (organization and division). The child first needs to teach the correct speech in the teaching and speech and speech activities, developing strong skills and habits of proper speech, and then it is possible to fix and intensify speech in children's gaming activities.The main activity of preschool children is the game, so the enrichment of the motives of speeches, direct speech correction should take place on the basis of a combination of language learning and gaming activities. Therefore, organizing correctional work with children with speech impairments, it is necessary to take into account not only the features of manifestations of speech impairment, but also secondary deviations in the development of the child due to this speech disability. There are game-role-playing, moving, didactic building material, dramatizing games and all other types of games. It is more expedient to talk about the use of well-known types of games in speech therapy with children. Affected children are passive and do not show a desire to actively deal with objects and toys. During conducting games speech therapist should take into account that the presence of a speech defect can cause deviations in the mental health of the child such as increased excitability, closure, depression, negativism, apathy, mental exhaustion. Violation of general and speech motility leads to fatigue in the game. In correctional work with children who have speech impairments, different types of games are used: didactic, moving, role-playing, dramatizing games. For children with speech impairment, games that require coordination and precision of the fingers play an important role. Language games in logopedic work contribute to: the community of the teacher with the child; active attention to language; the desire to master one or another language skills; the destruction of the old and the formation of new skills of speech; the application of new language skills in everyday life. Correctional and educational work with children-logopaths should be aimed at teaching correct speech and education of the child's personality.

VARIABLES ASOCIADAS AL FUNCIONAMIENTO SOCIAL EN USUARIOS DE HOGARES Y RESIDENCIAS PROTEGIDAS

Objective: Determine the variables associated with the social performance of users living in supported housing, in particular the personal and clinical characteristics of the residents, factors of the centre and of the health areas to which they belong. Method: Descriptive and correlational study whose sample consisted in 122 residents and 30 caregivers of 15 supported housing and 6 residential housing. Social performance was assessed through the Basic Everyday Living Skills Scale, which consisted of four sub-scales: self-care, domestic skills, community skills and activity and social relationships. In order to analyze the data, a mixed linear model was used. Results: In the sub-scales of self-care, community skills and activities and social relations the variance depends primarily on the personal characteristics. On the other hand, in the domestic skills 47.6% corresponds to centre characteristics and health area. The level of restrictiveness, time of residence in the facility, diagnosisof the users, age of residents and social support received corresponded to the statistically significant variables on the prediction of the social performance. Conclusion: Social performance of the users who live in supported housing is mainly determined by individual characteristics. However, variables of the centre and health area have a different weight depending on the type of social skill.

Relational aspects of mastery for frail, older adults: The role of informal caregivers in the care process.

Frail, older care recipients are often thought of as individuals with a decreased mastery of everyday life skills. Various authors have proposed to acknowledge a relational dimension of mastery, defined as the ability to maintain control over one's life with the help of others. This study explores how frail, older adults experience relational aspects of mastery and the role of their informal caregivers in maintaining these aspects of mastery over the care process. Qualitative interviews (N=121) were conducted in 2016 with potentially frail, community-dwelling older adults participating in the Detection, Support and Care for Older people: Prevention and Empowerment (D-SCOPE) project. A secondary analysis of 65 interviews reveals that, according to frail, older adults, informal caregivers contribute in various ways to the preservation of their mastery. This differs across the four elements of care: caring about (attentiveness), taking care of (responsibility), care-giving (competence), and care-receiving (responsiveness). However, in some cases, older adults experienced a loss of mastery; for example, when informal caregivers did not understand their care needs and did not involve them in the decision, organisation, and provision of care. A relational dimension of mastery needs to be acknowledged in frail, older care recipients since stimulating mastery is a crucial element for realising community care objectives and person-centred and integrated care.

Successful treatment in the day clinic of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of LMU Munich. Experienced changes from the patients' perspective

In the day clinic of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the LMU Munich, a multimodal therapy concept is offered. The goals of treatment are, in addition to the reduction of symptoms, an expansion of everyday life skills and the professional and social reintegration of patients. The effectiveness of the therapeutic work was evaluated over a period of just under 3 years. Both the therapist and the patients themselves assessed the success of the treatment. Subjective measures: The affective (BDI: 17.45 at the beginning vs. 9.38 at the end) and the anxiety symptoms (STAI: 49.51 at the beginning vs. 42.11 at the end) decreased. The quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref: 40.96 at the beginning vs. 62.50 at the end) increased. Performance (COPM: 3.81 at start vs. 6.91 at end) and satisfaction with it (COPM: 3.48 at start vs. 7.08 at end) improved. Physician's judgment: The global assessment of functioning (GAF: start of therapy 54.91 vs. end of therapy 68.14) and the clinical global impression (CGI: start of therapy 4.48 vs. treatment end 3.03) showed an improvement. All results were significant. The day clinic's treatment concept seems to work comprehensively, both in patients with depressive disorder and in patients with schizophrenic disease.

Self Efficacy in Depression: Bridging the Gap Between Competence and Real World Functioning.

We investigated the discrepancy between competence and real-world performance in major depressive disorder (MDD) for adaptive and interpersonal behaviors, determining whether self-efficacy significantly predicts this discrepancy, after considering depressive symptoms. Forty-two participants (Mage = 37.64, 66.67% female) with MDD were recruited from mental health clinics. Competence, self-efficacy, and real-world functioning were evaluated in adaptive and interpersonal domains; depressive symptoms were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory II. Hierarchical regression analysis identified predictors of functional disability and the discrepancy between competence and real-world functioning. Self-efficacy significantly predicted functioning in the adaptive and interpersonal domains over and above depressive symptoms. Interpersonal self-efficacy accounted for significant variance in the discrepancy between interpersonal competence and functioning beyond symptoms. Using a multilevel, multidimensional approach, we provide the first data regarding relationships among competence, functioning, and self-efficacy in MDD. Self-efficacy plays an important role in deployment of functional skills in everyday life for individuals with MDD.

Investigation of Writing Habits of Primary School Teachers

Primary school has an important place in the acquisition of writing skill. Writing attitudes and habits of classroom teachers are influential in writing education during this period. This research aims to examine the writing habits of classroom teachers. To this end, classroom teachers' writing habits are examined in terms of the use of writing skills in everyday life, writing styles, contribution to their professional lives, participation in classroom writing activities and in what digital media. Qualitative research method is used in this study. The participants of the study consist of 22 class teachers who work in 3 primary schools in the province of Bartin in the academic year 2016-2017. Semi-structured interview form developed by expert opinion is preferred as data collection tool. The obtained data are analyzed through descriptive analysis method. The research found that classroom teachers often use writing skills in daily life, often write poetry, participate in classroom writing activities, mostly write in Word application and social media in digital environments.

Interplay Among Psychopathologic Variables, Personal Resources, Context-Related Factors, and Real-life Functioning in Individuals With Schizophrenia

ImportanceEnhanced understanding of factors associated with symptomatic and functional recovery is instrumental to designing personalized treatment plans for people with schizophrenia. To date, this is the first study using network analysis to investigate the associations among cognitive, psychopathologic, and psychosocial variables in a large sample of community-dwelling individuals with schizophrenia.ObjectiveTo assess the interplay among psychopathologic variables, cognitive dysfunctions, functional capacity, personal resources, perceived stigma, and real-life functioning in individuals with schizophrenia, using a data-driven approach.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis multicenter, cross-sectional study involved 26 university psychiatric clinics and/or mental health departments. A total of 921 community-dwelling individuals with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia who were stabilized on antipsychotic treatment were recruited from those consecutively presenting to the outpatient units of the sites between March 1, 2012, and September 30, 2013. Statistical analysis was conducted between July 1 and September 30, 2017.Main Outcomes and MeasuresMeasures covered psychopathologic variables, neurocognition, social cognition, functional capacity, real-life functioning, resilience, perceived stigma, incentives, and service engagement.ResultsOf 740 patients (221 women and 519 men; mean [SD] age, 40.0 [10.9] years) with complete data on the 27 study measures, 163 (22.0%) were remitted (with a score of mild or better on 8 core symptoms). The network analysis showed that functional capacity and everyday life skills were the most central and highly interconnected nodes in the network. Psychopathologic variables split in 2 domains, with positive symptoms being one of the most peripheral and least connected nodes. Functional capacity bridged cognition with everyday life skills; the everyday life skills node was connected to disorganization and expressive deficits. Interpersonal relationships and work skills were connected to avolition; the interpersonal relationships node was also linked to social competence, and the work skills node was linked to social incentives and engagement with mental health services. A case-dropping bootstrap procedure showed centrality indices correlations of 0.75 or greater between the original and randomly defined samples up to 481 of 740 case-dropping (65.0%). No difference in the network structure was found between men and women.Conclusions and RelevanceThe high centrality of functional capacity and everyday life skills in the network suggests that improving the ability to perform tasks relevant to everyday life is critical for any therapeutic intervention in schizophrenia. The pattern of network node connections supports the implementation of personalized interventions.

El modelo de atención centrado en la persona, aplicado en un centro de día geriátrico para la mejora en las actividades de la vida diaria y habilidades sociales

La experiencia es realizada en dos centros de día geriátricos (uno como grupo control y otro experimental), dirigidos por dos terapeutas ocupacionales, y con cuidadores fijos en cada uno de ellos, ubicados en la Residencia para Mayores Los Royales. Tras realizar una valoración previa a los residentes (Cognitiva, físico, funcional, habilidades de la vida cotidiana y afectiva) y conociendo sus habilidades sociales y valoración propia del envejecimiento de manera individualizada, se instruye a las cuidadoras del grupo experimental que permitan desarrollar un plan de atención centrado en la persona para potenciar las habilidades y el poder de autonomía personal y para favorecer el mantenimiento o mejoría de las habilidades en el residente.Resultados: La investigación se realiza durante tres semanas, con evaluación pretest y postest, y se realiza un análisis estadístico con pruebas no paramétricas en donde se observa la eficacia del mismo en diferentes áreas del usuario.

Analysis of brain activity in distance recognition

Distance recognition is the skill to estimate the distance to the target object. Such a distance recognition skill is one of the most important skills in everyday life. In various situations, such as walking, driving a car, communicating with people and so on, humans perceive the distance between the targets, and do the adequate action. Generally, the precision of distance recognition is different according to difference of the ambient surroundings, the objects, and especially the individual’s ability. The distance recognition is achieved by capturing the target object visually and processing its visual information in their brains. Therefore, it is important to investigate how the difference of distance recognition skills affects the brain activity. In the paper, we measure the cerebral blood flow as a brain activity by using NIRS (Near-Infrared Spectroscopy) in the distance recognition.

Changes in Predictive Task Switching with Age and with Cognitive Load.

Predictive control of movement is more efficient than feedback-based control, and is an important skill in everyday life. We tested whether the ability to predictively control movements of the upper arm is affected by age and by cognitive load. A total of 63 participants were tested in two experiments. In both experiments participants were seated, and controlled a cursor on a computer screen by flexing and extending their dominant arm. In Experiment 1, 20 young adults and 20 older adults were asked to continuously change the frequency of their horizontal arm movements, with the goal of inducing an abrupt switch between discrete movements (at low frequencies) and rhythmic movements (at high frequencies). We tested whether that change was performed based on a feed-forward (predictive) or on a feedback (reactive) control. In Experiment 2, 23 young adults performed the same task, while being exposed to a cognitive load half of the time via a serial subtraction task. We found that both aging and cognitive load diminished, on average, the ability of participants to predictively control their movements. Five older adults and one young adult under a cognitive load were not able to perform the switch between rhythmic and discrete movement (or vice versa). In Experiment 1, 40% of the older participants were able to predictively control their movements, compared with 70% in the young group. In Experiment 2, 48% of the participants were able to predictively control their movements with a cognitively loading task, compared with 70% in the no-load condition. The ability to predictively change a motor plan in anticipation of upcoming changes may be an important component in performing everyday functions, such as safe driving and avoiding falls.

The Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance Approach and Transfer: A Scoping Review.

Transferring learning from therapy to everyday life skills is a necessary step for successful therapy outcomes, yet rarely addressed and achieved. However, a cognitive approach to skill acquisition, and the Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP), explicitly identifies transfer as an objective and incorporates elements into the intervention to support transfer. A scoping review was undertaken to explore the nature and extent of the research regarding CO-OP and transfer. An online search of 10 databases was conducted to identify and examine research studies reporting on CO-OP and transfer. The search yielded 25 documents that addressed CO-OP and transfer. The studies used a variety of approaches to evaluate transfer; all reported transfer on at least one and, in many cases, multiple transfer outcome variables. The CO-OP literature addresses transfer across a variety of populations and settings using a variety of approaches. Further work is required to establish a common approach to examining transfer in the CO-OP literature and the literature in general.

P 119 Implicit and explicit motor learning in Parkinson’s disease and spinocerebellar ataxia

Motor learning is a fundamental skill in everyday life. Acquisition of new motor skills engage cortico-striatal-cerebellar connectivity. Particularly patients with Parkinson”s disease and spinocerebellar ataxia are affected but these patient groups fundamentally differ in their behaviour in implicit motor learning tasks. Yet little is known about motor learning in relation to rule-based motor sequence learning. The aim of the current study was to test whether there are differences or similarities in implicit and explicit motor learning tasks in PD, SCA and healthy controls. Eye movements were recorded in 22 patients with Parkinson”s disease (PD), 20 patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) and 20 age-matched healthy control subjects. The subjects had to perform an implicit motor learning task (two runs of saccade adaptation) and an explicit motor learning task with an implicit sequence-learning paradigm. Healthy subjects were able to adapt in both runs and stored the adapted gain between the sessions. PD patients were able to adapt to the transient displacement of the target but did not store the information between the two learning sessions. Patients with SCA did not adapt in the first run but in the second run. In the explicit motor learning task, all participants showed a general motor learning. Patients performed better in the implicit learning trials but needed twice the time of healthy participants. We conclude that PD patients are not impaired in learning the implicit motor adaptation task. However, their storage of motor learning is selectively impaired possibly due to reduced functioning of cortico-striatal-cerebellar loops and their connections to motor memory systems. SCA patients, in contrast, lack implicit saccade learning because the cerebellum is crucially involved in saccade adaptation. Interestingly, they show a moderate storage of the adapted saccade gain form the first to the second learning session. This might suggest that SCA patients can still use storage signals of the cortico-striatal-cerebellar network.

DIMINISHED FINANCIAL CAPACITY AND FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION OF OLDER ADULTS

The ability independently to manage one’s financial affairs, known as financial capacity, is an everyday life skill of critical importance. Financial capacity is closely tied to personal independence and successful community function, and has been equated to “diet, exercise, and sleep” as a key indicator of health status in adults. Impairment of financial capacity is also closely linked to risk of financial exploitation and financial elder abuse. This paper discusses how normal cognitive aging and dementias of aging diminish financial capacity in the elderly and create vulnerability to financial exploitation. It also discusses recent research into very early financial declines in older adults, and their implications for impaired financial decision-making and financial exploitation by others. The paper concludes by discussing neuroimaging studies of financial skill decline in patients with MCI and AD dementia, and the promise they hold for early identification and protection of at-risk elderly.

Antipsychotics and driving ability

Driving a vehicle is an important everyday life skill associated to a psychiatric patient's autonomy and identity. Nevertheless, the right to drive is not a right at all, it is a privilege granted and regulated by rules and restrictions from the States that have also the duty to pull this privilege and deny the ability to legally drive in potentially unsafe drivers. The decision about for whom and when to forbid driving is a difficult matter of judgment that must remain a clinical and professional judgment within the medical encounter. Both antipsychotics as the psychiatric disorders target of these psychoactive drugs produce changes of psychomotor performance that can interfere with the ability to drive safely. Moreover, it is really hard to distinguish between the effects of the disease itself as opposed to the effects of the medication when studying the interaction between antipsychotics and driving ability. Previous results of our research in the field indicate that psychiatric patients who improved clinically after drug treatment also showed improvements in driving ability. So, adequate psychotropic treatment causes a positive effect on driving performance that outweighs the possible deleterious effect of medication. However, it remains essential to supply mental health professionals with new information, which is quantitatively and qualitatively valid, on the role of antipsychotics in driving ability. The purpose of the present lecture is to review research undertaken to-date on the effects of antipsychotic medications on driving ability. A search of various databases, including Medline, Embase and PsycInfo, will be conducted.Disclosure of interestThe author declares that he has no competing interest.