Learning Opportunities For Children Research Articles

Planning and Pedagogical Considerations for Teaching Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Physical Education

Around the world, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition. It is linked to a wide range of deficiencies across multiple domains, including restrictive and repetitive behaviors that impair interaction or engagement with others. School-aged children with ASD face challenges that make physical activity more difficult. To address challenges associated with ASD, physical education interventions need to be tailored to the child’s needs and abilities. Despite advances in research on children with ASD in physical education, adopting contemporary approaches is yet to be the norm. This review aimed to examine the literature on intervention models to improve the physical activity skills of children with ASD and to suggest practical considerations for delivering an effective physical education program and lessons. The recommendations provided in this review support teachers in applying strategies that maximize meaningful learning opportunities for children with ASD and use effective pedagogies that meet their needs.

Implementation of Non Academic Learning for Students With Intellectual Disabilities

The primary goal of the learning process at SLBN Kabupaten Bekasi is to help develop the skills of students with special needs so that they do not feel different from their normal peers and can be accepted in society. This involves providing learning opportunities for children with Tunagrahita. The research conducted is a qualitative descriptive study aiming to present data in accordance with the realities observed in the field. The study involves the Vice Principal of SLBN Kabupaten Bekasi, skillful teachers, or Counseling Guidance teachers, and a mildly intellectually disabled Tunagrahita student. Data collection utilizes observation, interviews, and documentation. Observations at SLBN Kabupaten Bekasi indicate that the school implements a learning system for all students without discrimination. The guidance or teaching approach applied takes into consideration the characteristics and challenges faced by students, reflecting an effort to provide services tailored to their individual needs.

Analysis of the implementation of the Merdeka curriculum with Pancasila-profiled learners in early childhood education

Merdeka curriculum is interpreted as a learning design that provides learning opportunities for children to learn with freedom and creative thinking, creating a generation of lifelong learners following the values of Pancasila. This research aims to analyze the implementation of the Merdeka curriculum with Pancasila-profiled learners in early childhood education. This research uses a systematic literature review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) with three steps: planning, conducting, and reporting the review. The procedure through stages is the development of a review protocol, definition of inclusion and exclusion criteria, literature search in predetermined databases, critical appraisal, data extraction, and information synthesis. The result shows that implementing the Merdeka curriculum with the Pancasila student profiled in early childhood education is carried out in intra-curricular, extra-curricular, and school culture learning, starting with understanding the Merdeka curriculum and learning outcomes. Future research might delve deeper into assessing the holistic impact of the Merdeka Curriculum's Pancasila-student profiling on various aspects of early childhood development beyond values integration, such as cognitive, social, and emotional growth.

Investigating the impact of social media platforms use among children on formal and informal learning: From the uses and gratifications theory perspective

Social media has become one of the primary sources of communication, information, entertainment, and learning for users. Children gain several benefits as social media helps them acquire formal and informal learning opportunities. This research also examined the effect of social media on formal and informal learning among school-level children in Ajman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), moderated by social integrative and personal integrative needs. Data was gathered by using structured questionnaires, which were distributed among a sample of 364 children. Results revealed that social media significantly affects Informal and formal learning among children, indicating its usefulness in child education and development. The results also indicated a significant moderation of social integrative needs on social media’s direct effect on informal learning, indicating the relevant needs as an important motivating factor. However, the moderation of personal integrative needs on social media’s direct effect on formal learning remained insignificant. Overall, this research highlighted the role of social media in providing learning opportunities for children in the UAE. It is concluded that children actively seek gratifications from social media, shaping their learning within structured educational contexts in their daily lives. Through the lens of UGT, certain needs play a critical role in strengthening the gratification process, affecting how children derive learning advantages from their interactions on social media platforms. Finally, implications and limitations are discussed accordingly.

‘Trips are the thing we all remember from our school days’: The learning value of school trips for children with special educational needs from the perspective of primary school teachers

AbstractVarious childhood and education theorists affirm the benefits of hands‐on and contextual learning opportunities for children and young people. Learners with special educational needs and disability (SEND) often display low levels of engagement. Teachers may utilise innovative pedagogical approaches to increase learning engagement and participation, such as taking their classes on a school trip. This study explores primary school teachers' views of using school trips to enhance learning and development for learners with SEND in the United Kingdom (UK). A questionnaire was distributed through Microsoft Forms, and 54 primary school teachers from the United Kingdom participated in this study. A range of open‐ended and closed questions facilitated the opportunity for the teachers to discuss the benefits and challenges of educational school trips for learners with SEND. The primary school teachers identified extensive affordances of educational school trips, with 100% of participants responding that school trips can have learning and developmental benefits for learners with SEND. Additionally, various skills were identified that the teachers believe school trips facilitate children with SEND to acquire and develop, including social skills. However, the teachers identified challenges and limitations to planning and implementing school trips, including accessibility and socio‐economic barriers.

Polygon Class Learning Opportunities: Interplay Between Teacher’s Moves, Children’s Geometrical Thinking, and Geometrical Task

AbstractThis study identifies characteristics of polygon class learning opportunities for 8–9-year-old children during the whole-class instruction. We consider the interplay between the geometrical tasks demanding different ways of reasoning, features of children’s geometrical thinking, and the teacher’s moves to identify characteristics of learning opportunities. We identified 3 types of learning opportunities during whole-class instruction: (a) recognizing (initiating the deconstruction dimensional), (b) supporting children’s analytical reasoning, and (c) encouraging children to establish relations between attributes of the figures. Our findings highlight the holistic facet of the learning opportunities of geometry in primary education that connect the students’ geometrical arguments generated by solving enriching geometrical tasks and the teacher’s moves drawing on children’s geometrical thinking during the whole-class instruction. We conjectured that weaving these 3 aspects together supported the emergence of relevant geometric learning opportunities for children.

Exploring the Computational Effects of Advanced Deep Neural Networks on Logical and Activity Learning for Enhanced Thinking Skills

The Logical and Activity Learning for Enhanced Thinking Skills (LAL) method is an educational approach that fosters the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities in students using practical, experiential learning activities. Although LAL has demonstrated favorable effects on children’s cognitive growth, it presents various obstacles, including the requirement for tailored instruction and the complexity of tracking advancement. The present study presents a model known as the Deep Neural Networks-based Logical and Activity Learning Model (DNN-LALM) as a potential solution to tackle the challenges above. The DNN-LALM employs sophisticated machine learning methodologies to offer tailored instruction and assessment tracking, and enhanced proficiency in cognitive and task-oriented activities. The model under consideration has been assessed using a dataset comprising cognitive assessments of children. The findings indicate noteworthy enhancements in accuracy, precision, and recall. The model above attained a 93% accuracy rate in detecting logical patterns and an 87% precision rate in forecasting activity outcomes. The findings of this study indicate that the implementation of DNN-LALM can augment the efficacy of LAL in fostering cognitive growth, thereby facilitating improved monitoring of children’s advancement by educators and parents. The model under consideration can transform the approach toward LAL in educational environments, facilitating more individualized and efficacious learning opportunities for children.

“It’s still Possible” – Teachers’ Voice Towards Inclusive Preschool Education in Maldives

Inclusive education is a fundamental worldwide reform envisioned to include children with diverse abilities in the classroom. Maldives is in its emerging phase of inclusive preschool education. Lack of teachers’ competency, training and support system was reported as common challenges faced in inclusive education. This study explored the experiences of five regular teachers in five different inclusive preschool settings in Male’. Qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews was employed to explore the teachers’ teaching experiences along with series of issues associated in their journey of inclusive classrooms. Findings revealed teachers’ belief in inclusion as the positive teaching experiences of being grateful and hopeful amidst challenges faced. Teachers’ negative experiences are reported as feeling lost and disappointed with the lack of support over mixed disabilities of children in large classrooms. These findings revealed underpinning the policies and support required from stakeholders at all levels which have influenced the sustainability of inclusive preschool education. To overcome these challenges, teachers used team teaching, adjusted lessons to build peer support among the children and seek professional support within and beyond school. Teachers’ voices on inclusive classrooms in preschools have contributed recommendations for the school level and policymakers in modeling up the sustainable inclusive preschool education. It is recommended that funding to be allocated for in-service teachers’ training besides developing resources to provide better learning opportunities for children with disabilities. All stakeholders, teachers, parents and government should collaborate to foster positive attitudes and acceptance for all children to keep striving for a sustainable inclusive preschool education.

School Feeding to Improve Cognitive Performance in Disadvantaged Children: A 3-Arm Parallel Controlled Trial in Northwest Pakistan.

Malnutrition is associated with reduced learning aptitude and growth during childhood. We examined the impact of providing two school lunch variants, a standard school meal (school feeding, n = 70), or the standard meal with additional micronutrients (school feeding + micronutrient powder (MNP), n = 70), in children attending two schools in northwest Pakistan. A third local government school, where no lunch was provided (no school feeding, n = 70), served as the control. The primary outcome, cognitive function, was assessed using the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) test, alongside haemoglobin, at three-time points: T1 (baseline, before the initiation of the school lunch programme), T2 and T3 (5 and 12 months, respectively, after the introduction of the school lunch). Data were analysed using linear mixed-effects models to contrast between trial groups, the changes from T1 to T2 and T3. Adjusted for T1 and other co-variates, improvements in the RCPM scores were significantly greater in the school feeding group at T2 (b = 1.61, (95% CI = 0.71-2.52), t = 3.52, p = 0.001) and T3 (b = 1.28, (95% CI = 0.22-2.35), t = 2.38, p = 0.019) compared with no school feeding. In addition, at T2 (b = 1.63, (95% CI = -0.10-3.37), t = 1.86, p = 0.065), there were no significant differences between school feeding + MNP and no school feeding groups. However, improvements in the RCPM scores were significantly greater in the school feeding + MNP group at T3 (b = 2.35, (95% CI = 0.51-4.20), t = 2.53, p = 0.013) compared with no school feeding. The findings indicate an improvement in cognitive performance in children who received a school meal with and without MNP, over a 12-month period. Currently there is no operational school feeding programme at the national or provincial level in Pakistan. Our findings, therefore, highlight the need for school feeding programmes to improve learning opportunities for children from underprivileged communities.

Using Design-Based Research for a Technological Intervention to Promote Parental Involvement in Kindergarten

Parental involvement in preschool education is widely recognized as an important factor in skills development, school outcomes and lifelong success, and can be promoted through digital technologies, which offer new forms of communication and collaboration between parents and educators, and new learning opportunities for children. This research aimed to develop and test a digital platform with communication and content sharing functionalities between parents and educators, and to assess the impact of using the platform in three participating institutions. The research question guiding the efforts was: what features and contents should a multimedia platform have to promote parental involvement in the learning of children who attend kindergarten? The research was developed according to a design-based research methodology, and the parents and educators were involved in all phases of the process: preliminary study, development and evaluation. The results showed that the sharing of activities carried out with children in kindergarten and a private messaging service were the most valued functionalities. Regarding local impact, different results were obtained in each kindergarten, related to the roles assumed by the users within the platform, and previous practices of using technologies for parental involvement.

Digital methodology for parental self-assessment of child development

This paper presents the preparation of the Digital Methodology for Parental Self-Assessment of Child Development. We used the existing scales for evaluating the child's learning opportunities through play based on data taken from the database of Pumpelina Speech Therapy Clinics from 2010 to 2022. Using 5,737 cases of children aged 0 to 7 years, we summarized the parents' referrals for consultation, assessments made for the level of development of the children, and length of delay between the date of the consultation and the time of starting speech therapy. The questions in the methodology were prepared after analysing the referrals of parents in the periods before and after the Covid 19 pandemic.The results of the pilot application of the platform show that parents use the platform for self-assessment of the developmental level of their children and more confidently refer to therapy and counselling, possibly due to the fact that they see a real result from entering their own responses regarding the development of the child.We conclude that the use of digital platforms for self-assessment does have an impact on parents' understanding of the need for further activities in helping children in their cognitive, social and emotional development.

Data collection and analysis for preschoolers: An engaging context for integrating mathematics and computational thinking with digital tools

Collecting and organizing data to understand and answer real-world questions is an increasingly important skill in our current world. Fostering data collection and analysis (DCA) skills in young children leverages key mathematics skills as well as the data representation, visualization, and interpretation skills of computational thinking (CT), culminating in a problem-solving approach with data. As such, the intervention, comprising investigations and a digital app, supported preschool teachers and children to answer data-focused questions by engaging in each step of the DCA process in order to foster CT and math skills. Teachers appreciated that the app offers a new way for children to visualize data and noted that the app provided learning opportunities for children that would not otherwise be possible or easy to implement. Results also suggest that the app provides a systematic process for data collection, entry, and interpretation. Children in classrooms that completed the intervention had significantly higher scores at post-intervention compared to children in classrooms that did not complete the intervention, controlling for pre-intervention scores, B(SE) = 0.13(0.05), t (6) = 2.48, p = .048.

Consequences of COVID-19 on children's learning and their responses

This article briefly highlights the effects of COVID-19 on schoolchildren's learning and their needs. The global COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the education system, among others. Lockdowns and school closures during COVID-19 reduced children's learning opportunities, leading to a long-term impact on their ability to learn. The learning loss is yet to be known as the world is still suffering from the virus and its variants. Teachers have struggled to complete the course and students were under pressure to study many lessons in a short window of time in order to make up for the school time lost during the pandemic. Because of vaccination including the booster dose against COVID-19, in addition to other preventive and control measures adopted by the public, the prevalence of COVID-19 has reduced. The government of Nepal and other stakeholders have made a decision to reopen schools and continue facilitating student learning face-to-face and through alternative teaching-learning approaches, ensuring health promoting school.

Early learning opportunities of preschool children affected by migration in China

This study considers how living arrangements among migrant families have affected young children in China and compares the early learning opportunities of urban migrant children and urban native children. We leveraged nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Studies (2012-2018). Participants were 4,306 three- to five-year-olds and their caregivers. They were classified into five groups, with three of them affected by migration. The sample included 1,357 children who had migrated along with their parents to urban areas; 253 children who were left-behind in rural areas with one parent; and 269 children who were left-behind in rural areas with a relative. An additional 1,595 children from non-migrant families living in rural areas and 832 urban native children served as comparison groups. After adjusting for selection bias through propensity score approaches, results indicated that, regardless of parental migration status, the early learning opportunities of children living in rural areas were similar. Migrating to urban areas was positively associated with stimulating home learning environments and the likelihood of preschool enrollment, but urban native children experienced more stimulating home learning environments and had higher preschool enrollment rates than migrant children. Implications of the findings are discussed.

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF SCREEN MEDIA VERSUS LIVE ART ON CHILDREN’S CREATIVITY AND AGGRESSION. THE PAMI METHOD

In today's environment children are subject to multiple multimedia impacts. From the first months of theirlife they are exposed to various screen media and that process accelerates with each successive generation.Electronic communications affects more actively all spheres of life and increasingly taking precedence over liveinteractions between people. The impact of screen media on children's development has been widely discussed.According to some authors screen technologies open new learning opportunities for children and equip them withskills and knowledge they will need in the future. Other studies show that increased exposure time to screentechnologies has negative impacts on children's behavior and might provoke cognitive and developmental languagedisorders. This project aims to add a new point to the overall view of the impact of screen media versus live creativeinteraction on children's creativity and aggression. The experiment was conducted by a team of psychologist, artand music therapists by using a new Psychological, Art and Music Intervention Method (PAMI). The participantswere 9 children aged 6 to 11 years, users of the social services at the Community Support Centre in Elin PelinMunicipality. Quantitative and qualitative indicators were used in the data analysis, as well as the observations andspecific expertise of the team that carried out the study. The results have indicated that contact based on art andactive imagination provokes sublimation of aggression, as well as integration of existing conflicts and traumas. Inthis hypothesis children tend to express their fears and wishes, make connections and revisions of past traumaticevents in their own unique way. On the other hand, when the interaction is rooted in screen media, the children arenot willing to engage in a dialogue and their personal presence is limited. The children seem absorbed by the screen,not using their imagination and creativity. The role of passive recipients significantly limits the children’s relation tothemselves and their past traumas, which makes them absent, irritable and passively aggressive. In conclusion, thefindings of the study show that live art promotes creativity and coping with aggression, whereas screen media blockcreativity thus leading to increased irritability and aggression in children. The use of the Psychological, Art andMusic Intervention Method (PAMI) might help professionals to identify quickly and non-traumatically the problemareas in children’s lives and opens up new opportunities to work with their trauma and fears. The method can besuccessfully use for diagnosis and assessment in both individual and group work. We hope that this study will laythe foundations for future research in the field

Shared storybook reading with children at family risk of dyslexia.

BackgroundShared storybook reading is an important context for language learning and often constitutes young children's first encounter with the printed word. The quality of early shared reading interactions is a known predictor of language and reading development, but few studies have examined these interactions in children at family risk of dyslexia.MethodsThis exploratory study describes the quality of shared storybook reading between mothers and their 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children at family risk of dyslexia (FR; n = 18) in comparison with dyads with no known risk (no‐FR; n = 13). Mother–child interactions while sharing a familiar and an unfamiliar storybook were coded for type of extra‐textual talk (meaning‐related talk at the concrete and abstract levels; print‐related talk) and affective quality. Maternal and child language and literacy skills were considered as potential correlates of shared reading quality.ResultsThe linguistic and affective quality of shared reading was broadly comparable across FR and no‐FR dyads, particularly when sharing a book they knew well, with large within‐group variation. Mothers contributed more concrete meaning‐related talk when introducing an unfamiliar book to their children; children contributed more extra‐textual talk overall when sharing a familiar book. Maternal language, but not reading, skills were related to the linguistic quality of shared reading. The affective quality of reading interactions was rated more highly in dyads where mothers and children had stronger language skills.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the quality of shared reading does not vary systematically as a function of children's risk of dyslexia but is related to maternal language skills. This finding needs to be replicated in a larger sample in order to better understand the risk and protective factors associated with dyslexia.Highlights What is already known about this topic The quality of extra‐textual talk during shared reading between parents and preschoolers predicts later language and literacy outcomes in typically developing children.The affective quality of early shared reading predicts children's motivation to read independently in later childhood.Children at family risk of dyslexia are more likely than their peers with no family risk to have difficulty learning to read and may show weaknesses in oral language skills. What this paper adds The linguistic and affective quality of shared reading between mothers and preschool children is broadly similar when children are at family risk of dyslexia compared with no family risk.The type and quantity of extra‐textual talk contributed by mothers and children appears to differ according to the familiarity of the storybook, but replication of the findings in a larger sample is required.The linguistic and affective quality of shared reading is related to maternal language skills. Implications for theory, policy or practice Shared storybook reading offers rich language learning opportunities for children at family risk of dyslexia.Maternal language skills may be an important determinant of the interactional quality of shared reading.The linguistic and affective quality of shared reading is not clearly associated with maternal reading difficulties.

Tinkering With Testing: Understanding How Museum Program Design Advances Engineering Learning Opportunities for Children.

Using a design-based research approach, we studied ways to advance opportunities for children and families to engage in engineering design practices in an informal educational setting. 213 families with 5–11-year-old children were observed as they visited a tinkering exhibit at a children’s museum during one of three iterations of a program posing an engineering design challenge. Children’s narrative reflections about their experience were recorded immediately after tinkering. Across iterations of the program, changes to the exhibit design and facilitation provided by museum staff corresponded to increased families’ engagement in key engineering practices. In the latter two cycles of the program, families engaged in the most testing, and in turn, redesigning. Further, in the latter cycles, the more children engaged in testing and retesting during tinkering, the more their narratives contained engineering-related content. The results advance understanding and the evidence base for educational practices that can promote engineering learning opportunities for children.

Modifying Golf for Maximizing Learning Opportunities for Children with Visual Impairments

The purpose of this article is to assist teachers when teaching golf to students with visual impairments. The article presents different approaches that can serve as a guideline for didactic choices and the pedagogical aspects of teaching PE in inclusive settings. Using golf as an example, this article provides instructional strategies and ideas for activity modifications to support students who may need additional support. The purpose of these modifications is to maximize the learning opportunities for children with visual impairments. These activity modifications, however, could also be helpful for all students in the class.

Physical Education and Sport for Social Development: Implications and Prospects in the COVID-19 Era

With high COVID 19 restrictions enforced in schools, especially in urban areas of Zambia, it would be instructive and informative to know how play, physical education and sport are being handled in schools across the country without taking away from what these activities foster both intentionally and inadvertently. The pandemic has without doubt, significantly reduced the critical moments of group physical activity and consequently hindered learning opportunities for children and young adults both in-and-out of school settings.

Families Visit the Museum: A Study on Family Interactions and Conversations at the Museum of the Universe – Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

In this quantitative and qualitative study, we present our analysis on the interactions and conversations of ten families during a visit to the Museum of the Universe, at the Planetarium Foundation of the City of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The study of conversations provides a considerable opportunity to address gaps in our current understanding on how families interact and learn in museum environments. The visits were recorded using a subjective camera, and the audiovisual material was analyzed based on a research protocol that combines theoretical and empirical aspects of the visitors’ museum experience. We identified that most of the interactions during the visit occurred between family members and between them and the exhibition, through interactive activities and moments of contemplation. Parents/caregivers played an important role in maximizing the children's learning opportunities as they interacted and talked about the exhibits. The conversations were related to science topics, especially astronomy, as well as aspects on how to operate the exhibition modules. The results suggest that the Museum of the Universe has become a platform for families to share experiences, discuss and develop specific ideas, knowledge and concepts about astronomy, enriching the group members’ awareness.