Game Running Research Articles

PROMOTING BONE HEALTH IN CHILDREN ATTENDING AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

The adolescent years is a time when children reduce calcium intake and engage in less physical activity. Behavior change strategies aimed at pre-teen children have the potential to maximize early bone accretion while establishing habits that promote bone health. After school programs (ASP) serve millions of children and represent a novel setting for health interventions. PURPOSE To evaluate an ASP intervention that includes weight-loading games, calcium rich snacks, and interactive lessons that build knowledge and shape positive attitudes regarding bone health. METHODS Children ages 6–9 years attending ASP were recruited for “BONES”. ASP staff was trained to conduct weight-loading games 3 d/wk, learning activities 1 d/wk, and serve calcium-rich snacks every day for 25 weeks. Implementation was monitored via self-reported attendance sheets and year-end surveys. RESULTS ASP incorporated BONES activities on average 3.0 d/wk over 18 wks. Children played over 15 jumping and cooperative running games 2.0 d/wk on average. Almost 75% of the jumping games provided a ground reaction force between 4–7 times body weight as appropriate for bone accretion. Staff incorporated learning activities 1.0 d/wk and 71.5% of these days included a jumping activity. Snacks contributed 1191 mg calcium/week. Despite simple tracking forms, inconsistent reporting was common and suggests actual implementation was greater. Year-end surveys revealed higher implementation rates. Barriers included constraints on program time, staff shortages, inconsistent attendance by students and staff motivation. ASP staffs vary from high school students to certified teachers. CONCLUSION ASP staff with varied experience working in diverse program structures can implement a weight-loading physical activity intervention along with lessons on nutrition and bone health when provided with materials, training, and ongoing support. Higher rates of implementation could be achieved once the challenges inherent to this setting are addressed. More work is needed to accurately measure community-based interventions. Supported by NIH (NICHD) RO1 HD37752-01

Using Markov models to assess articulation errors in young children

Digital recordings of children producing the names ‘‘Rhonda’’ and ‘‘Wanda,’’ and/or ‘‘Toto’’ and ‘‘Coco’’ were made using the microphone input to a Toshiba laptop computer (16-bit samples, 22<th>050-kHz sampling rate) with an AKG C410/B head-mounted condenser microphone. These names were associated with animated characters in a mock video game running on the laptop under the control of a Speech Language Pathologist. The children, ranging in age from four to six years, were undergoing speech therapy at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children for one or both of two common articulation errors: /w/ substituted for /r/; and/or /t/ substituted for /k/. The initial segment in each recorded utterance was classified by laboratory staff as either r/w or t/k, and assigned a goodness rating. Discrete Hidden Markov phoneme Models (DHMMs) trained using data recorded from normally articulating children were then used to classify the same utterances and results of the automatic classification were compared to the human classification. Results indicate that appropriately trained DHMMs can provide accurate classification of utterances from children in speech therapy. This technology could support articulation drill on home computer systems as an adjunct to speech therapy. [Work supported by Nemours Research Programs.]

Measuring MARCO POLIS Management Game's Influence on Market Orientations

The MARCO POLIS management game was developed to introduce employees of housing associations to new market conditions. After the game was developed in 1991, it has been used more than 15 times. On most occasions, the game was judged to be highly successful in making the demands of the new situations clear This article examines in depth the results of a game run with 49 participants.

Daytime television game shows and the celebration of merchandise: The price is right

A neglected genre that promises to shed light on the culture of consumption appears in the form of the daytime television game shows whose hegemonic message seems to convey and to justify a widespread obeisance to the mandate of materialism. A close analysis of the longest running game show, The Price Is Right, suggests that all facets of this program combine to reinforce its central meaning as a ritualistic validation of consumption-oriented greed.

The Running, Jumping and Standing-still Game

The Running, Jumping and Standing-still Game