Everyday Life Situations Research Articles

User-Innovated eHealth Solutions for Service Delivery to Older Persons With Hearing Impairment.

The successful design and innovation of eHealth solutions directly involve end users in the process to seek a better understanding of their needs. This article presents user-innovated eHealth solutions targeting older persons with hearing impairment. Our research question was: What are the key users' needs, expectations, and visions within future hearing rehabilitation service delivery? We applied a participatory design approach to facilitate the design of future eHealth solutions via focus groups. We involved older persons with hearing impairment (n = 36), significant others (n = 10), and audiologists (n = 8) following 2 methods: (a) human-centered design for interactive systems and (b) user innovation management. Through 3 rounds of focus groups, we facilitated a process progressing from insights and visions for requirements (Phase 1), to app such as paper version wireframes (Phase 2), and to digital prototypes envisioning future eHealth solutions (Phase 3). Each focus group was video-recorded and photographed, resulting in a rich data set that was analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. The results are presented via (a) a storyboard envisioning future client journeys, (b) 3 key themes for future eHealth solutions, (c) 4 levels of interest and willingness to invest time and effort in digital solutions, and (d) 2 technical savviness types and their different preferences for rehabilitation strategies. Future eHealth solutions must offer personalized rehabilitation strategies that are appropriate for every person with hearing impairment and their level of technical savviness. Thus, a central requirement is anchoring of digital support in the clients' everyday life situations by facilitating easy access to personalized information, communication, and learning milieus. Moreover, the participants' visions for eHealth solutions call for providing both traditional analogue and digital services. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7310729.

The use of frequency dictionaries in the process of the development of the English language lexical competence of students in IT fields

Deep knowledge of current English vocabulary is an essential quality of a competent expert in the field of IT. Various technologies of development of lexical competence are based on the indisputable statement – lexical units (words and phrases) for students to study should be arranged according to their relevance in the daily communication in English. Objective quantitative indicators of relevance of lexical units in everyday life situations are presented in frequency dictionaries; however, their role in the process of professionally oriented foreign language teaching has not been sufficiently studied.The purposeof the research is to increase the efficiency of the process of development of the English language lexical competence of students in IT fields by supporting and actively using electronic frequency dictionaries as additional means of the vocabulary expansion.Materials and methodsof research include the analysis of the problem of development of the English language lexical competence of students of IT directions, modeling of the process of work with frequency dictionaries in the learning process, the practical implementation of the developed model, the pedagogical experiment and analysis of its results. The vocabulary is rapidly updated in the field of IT, for these reasons, in the process of development of the lexical competence of IT students it was decided to maintain their own frequency dictionaries of actual computer vocabulary, extracted from a wide range of the English language texts in IT sphere. The article presents a structural and functional model of working with frequency dictionaries in the learning process that is a sequence of three important steps to be performed by the lecturer, and the results of each of them. Such steps are the formation of the collections of relevant texts on it, computer processing of these collections to build frequency dictionaries and automatic and manual editing of the dictionaries, intended for the formation of the ordered list of lexical units for students to learn.The result of the researchis the practical implementation of the presented model of work with frequency dictionaries. The most labor-intensive and responsible job is the preparation of the collection of English texts, based on the well-established interdisciplinary interaction. Building a frequency dictionary from the collection is performed by standard means of Microsoft Office. The editing of this dictionary means automatic and manual removal of lexical units that are of no worth for students in terms of their vocabulary expansion. The article also presents the results of a successful pedagogical experiment on the development of students’ lexical competence in the process of their preparation for the World Programming Championship. During the training, the participants with the help of such frequency dictionary quickly improved their knowledge of the vocabulary necessary to understand the conditions of the programming assignments in English.At present, the model of work with frequency dictionaries presented in the article has proved its usefulness and positive impact on the development of lexical competence. The frequency dictionaries obtained in the course of study are regularly updated and actively used in the learning process as a good supporting tool without replacing well-tested learning technologies proven to be effective, but supplementing this process.

Literacy practices of primary education children in Andalusia (Spain): A family‐based perspective

Primary school children develop literacy practices in various domains and situations in everyday life. This study focused on the analysis of literacy practices of children aged 8–12 years from the perspective of their families. 1,843 families participated in the non‐experimental explanatory study. The children in these families speak Spanish as a first language and are schooled in this language. The instrument used was a self‐report questionnaire about children's home‐literacy practices. The data obtained were analysed using categorical principal components analysis (CATPCA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results show the complex relationship between literacy practices developed by children in the domains of home and school and the limited development of a literacy‐promoting ‘third space’. In conclusion, the families in our study had limited awareness of their role as literacy‐promoting agents and thought of literacy learning as restricted to formal or academic spaces.

The Cognitive Underpinnings of Option Generation in Everyday Life Decision-Making: A Latent Variable Analysis.

The ability to generate options for action is crucial for everyday life decision-making. In this article, we propose and test a model of the cognitive underpinnings of option generation in everyday life situations. We carried out a laboratory study using measures of a wide range of cognitive functions and asked participants (N=157) to generate options for actions for different everyday life decision-making scenarios. The results of a latent variable analysis show that the cognitive underpinnings of option generation are consistent across different everyday life situations and, hence, option generation can be conceptualized as a general construct. Moreover, the results of a confirmatory factor analysis reveal that, when controlling for the shared variance among the cognitive processes assessed, verbal fluency, working memory capacity, ideation fluency, and processing speed predicted option generation. These findings suggest that option generation in everyday life situations can be distinguished from other cognitive constructs, such as divergent thinking (in terms of ideas' originality) and long-term memory.

THE ESSENCE OF CONSUMER EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: ANALYSIS OF THE CRITERION “SKILLS” IN THE CONTEXT OF KNOWLEDGE USAGE

Analysis of the Criterion “Skills” in the Context of Knowledge Usage focuses on the criterion “skills” that was advanced for evaluation of student achievement in consumer education. The levels of the criterion show students' proficiency in purposeful use of the knowledge acquired.The report describes the development dynamics of the students’ skills and application of acquired knowledge in everyday life situations that lead to the conclusion that the consumer education content acquisition process not only teaches students how to handle standard situations but provides the opportunity to develop the ability to analyze causes and consequences of personal actions in the aspect of environmental and social sustainability.

Development of the Pediatric Disability Inventory-Patient Reported Outcome (PEDI-PRO) measurement conceptual framework and item candidates

Background: To address the gap in patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) of functional performance appropriate for youth and young adults with developmental disabilities (DD) we developed the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Patient Reported Outcome (PEDI-PRO).Aim/Objective: We used a participatory process to: (1) Develop the measurement conceptual framework; (2) Identify discrete functional tasks to include in the PEDI-PRO; and (3) Refine item candidates.Methods: We collaborated with eight youth with DD over 33 months. These youth and university researchers explored the construct of functional performance, developed and refined items, and collected and analyzed data. We also conducted focus groups with youth with DD (n = 62) and rehabilitation professionals (n = 26), and consulted with PEDI measurement experts (n = 3).Results: Youth’s understanding of their functional performance is embedded in their experiences participating in everyday life situations. We developed 78 Daily Activities, 65 Social/Cognitive, and 52 Mobility item candidates that are linked to 11 everyday life situations to assess discrete functional tasks important to youth with DD and rehabilitation professionals.Conclusion and Implications: As a result of our participatory development process, the PEDI-PRO’s proposed conceptual framework and item candidates are grounded in the lived experience of youth with DD.

Trampolin Coordination Test in Psychomotor Diagnostics

This research focuses on significance of psychomotricity diagnostic of body coordination skills of elementaryschool pupils. The level of body coordination skills is not only important for identificationof preconditions for sports talents, but also in many situations of everyday life. Clumsiness influenceseveryday activities, school performance and leisure time activities. Trampoline Body Coordination Testwas chosen for the purpose of evaluating the levels of body coordination skills in this research. The goalof this project was to verify whether it is possible to use Trampoline Body Coordination Test in schoolsin the Czech Republic, where the test is not standardized. The test could be useful for recognizing earlysigns of different kinds of developmental coordination disorder. Teachers need to undertake a courseto be able to use this test. The biggest concern is safety of pupils because using trampoline can be riskyif pupils do not follow the given rules of the test.

ICF-CY as a Framework for Understanding Child Engagement in Preschool

Engagement in preschool predicts children’s development, learning and wellbeing in later school years. The time children engage in activities and social interactions is conditional for pre-school inclusion. Engagement is part of the construct participation, which is determined by attendance and involvement. Two suggested underlying dimensions of engagement had been identified as essential when assessing children’s participation in preschool activities. As engagement is a key question in inclusion of all children, and preschool becomes a common context for them, it is increasingly important to understand the concept of engagement in those settings. In Sweden most children attend preschool but children in need of special support tend not to receive enough support for their everyday functioning. This study aimed to conceptualize child engagement in preschool with ICF-CY as a framework to clarify core and developmental engagement dimensions included in Child Engagement Questionnaire (CEQ). The content of CEQ was identified through linking processes based on ICF linking rules with some exceptions. Specific challenges and solutions were acknowledged. To identify engagement dimensions in the ICF-CY, CEQ items related to ICF-CY chapters were integrated in the two-dimensional model of engagement. Findings showed that engagement measured for preschool ages was mostly related to Learning and Applying knowledge belonging to Activities and Participation but the linkage detected missing areas. Broader perspectives of children’s everyday functioning requires extended assessment with consideration to mutual influences between activites, participation, body functions, and contextual factors. Related to core and developmental engagement, findings highlight the importance for preschool staff to pay attention to how children do things, not only what they do. Activities related to core engagement include basic skills; those related to developmental engagement set higher demands on the child. Linking challenges related to preschool context were not consistent with those reported for child health. Using the ICF-CY as a framework with a common language may lead to open discussions among persons around the child, clarify the different perspectives and knowledges of the persons, and facilitate decisions on how to implement support to a child in everyday life situations in preschool and at home.

THE INVESTIGATION OF VOICE HANDICAP INDEX IN TEACHERS WITH AND WITHOUT SELF-RATED VOICE DISORDERS

Voice disorders restrict daily activity and impact the quality of life. The purpose of the study was to find out the impact of voice disorders on functional, physical and emotional condition of teachers with and without self-reported voice disorders. Two hundred thirty-five teachers with self-reported voice problems (Voice disorder group) and 174 teachers with no voice problems (Control group) in anamnesis completed Latvian version of Voice Handicap Index-30 (VHI-30). Teachers with voice disorders demonstrated higher median scores in VHI-30 total scale and functional, physical, and emotional subscales (P0.001). In teachers, voice disorders have a more significant impact on their physical comfort and have a smaller impact on their emotional sphere. 76.4% of the voice disorder group respondents acquired the total score within 12 to 33 points. In the control group, 75.3% of teachers had the VHI score of up to 17 points. Conclusions: In teacher population of Latvia mild voice disorders are encountered more often. Activity and participation in everyday life situations are limited in teachers with voice disorders. Voice disorders mostly impact physical comfort in teachers.

PROMOTING DIALOGUE SPEECH FOR PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN PROBLEM SOLVING SITUATIONS

Introduction. Forming the questions, the ability to listen to different opinions, to evaluate the problem and looking for different ways of solving it, to agree upon a commonly accepted opinion – these all are daily necessities for each person. According to the skills of a child's dialogue speech, these issues can be either more successfully or less effectively solved. During the communication process the teacher and parents can demonstrate to a child an interested, supportive position that ensures the implementation of the values of human pedagogy and develops the socio-linguistic growth of the child's personality. The empirical study examines the techniques of pedagogical work in problem-solving situations of everyday life by using productive questions. Development both of dialogue speech and successful negotiation process are closely related to adult skills that a child often imitates, and environmental conditions.Results, conclusions. Solving negotiations about daily situations, the ability to ask and find the best possible solution during the communication process with a child can ensure a successful acquisition of the Latvian language and the child's ability to implement the dialogue speech more successfully.

Memory Recall Support System Based on Active Acquisition and Accumulation of Memory Fragments

With the widespread use of wearable sensors, cloud services, social networking services (SNS), etc., there are various applications and systems that record information on users’ daily activities and support recalling these activities. In various situations in everyday life, it is useful to recall and refer to past events by utilizing such information; therefore, there are increasing expectations surrounding a memory recall system that supports users’ activities. In this research, we aim to realize a system that acquires records of users’ experiences, transforms these records as Active Information Resources, autonomously manages the accumulated records based on the record’s metadata, and supports users’ human memory recall. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a basic framework for accumulating records on daily activities and providing information related to past experiences according to the user’s request. We also present evaluation experiments using the implemented system.

Interdependence-Based Model of Consistency among Competition, Cooperation and Collaboration

Research background and hypothesis. Social interdependence is evident in everyday human life situations; sports industry is based on it as well. Athletes often compete for higher achievements; however, a possibility for cooperation can be envisioned in competitions as well. The research problem is as follows: is it possible to harmonize social interrelations which manifest in competition, cooperation and collaboration at the same time, and how this consistency can be achieved. The research aim was to elaborate the conceptual model of consistency among competition, cooperation and collaboration based on the premise of social interdependence.Research methods were theoretical analysis and synthesis. The results of theoretical analysis were generalized and incorporated into the conceptual model.Discussion and conclusions. Scientific literature suggested a few insights. First, social interaction may occur at two levels: intra-group (group level) and inter-group (community level). Second, the nature of social interdependence depends on the level of goals being achieved; three levels of goals can be distinguished: individual goals, group goals, and community goals. Third, based on the type of the interaction and the level of goals, individuals tend to engage into a particular form of interrelation: competition, cooperation, or collaboration; moreover, the form of interdependence is not restricted – a combination of a few (or even all) forms is possible. Based on scientific literature, an implication can be made that interrelation among competition, cooperation, or collaboration can result in coopetition as a higher form of interdependence.Keywords: coopetition, social interaction, social interrelations.

Planning music-based amelioration and training in infancy and childhood based on neural evidence.

Music-based amelioration and training of the developing auditory system has a long tradition, and recent neuroscientific evidence supports using music in this manner. Here, we present the available evidence showing that various music-related activities result in positive changes in brain structure and function, becoming helpful for auditory cognitive processes in everyday life situations for individuals with typical neural development and especially for individuals with hearing, learning, attention, or other deficits that may compromise auditory processing. We also compare different types of music-based training and show how their effects have been investigated with neural methods. Finally, we take a critical position on the multitude of error sources found in amelioration and training studies and on publication bias in the field. We discuss some future improvements of these issues in the field of music-based training and their potential results at the neural and behavioral levels in infants and children for the advancement of the field and for a more complete understanding of the possibilities and significance of the training.

The Phenomenon of Brain World : Neuroculture in the Making by Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

The aim of this article is to explore how the phenomenon of brain world, as a symptom of a possible emerging neuroculture, is perceived and enacted by patients with Parkinson’s disease, who, in their daily life, are subjected to neuroscience, most often as chronically ill individuals hoping for a cure, but also in some instances as participants in clinical trials. The article is based on a multifaceted ethnographic material that maps the experiences of biomedical research among patients with Parkinson’s. The main body of material consists of interviews carried out in 2012 and 2015, and comprises 19 transcripts of recorded conversations, conducted in groups as well as individually. The article argues that the exposure of the patients to clinical neuroscience gives birth to neuroculture. A materialist-discursive phenomenon called brain world—perceptions and enactments of the brain—is problematized on the basis of how patients cope with and reflect on their chronic illness in everyday life situations and in confrontation with clinical neuroscience. The embodied experience of the illness operates as the route into the brain world and also becomes the ground for how this world is featured with specific properties. Brain world is in this respect a contradictory entity: both plastic and fragile, both accessible and too complex, both strange and known. Most of all, brain world, in the eyes of the patients, relates to a territory still dominated by neuroscientists.

Predicting Everyday Life Behavior by Direct and Indirect Measures of Need for Cognition

Abstract. Need for Cognition (NFC) as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors has been a useful predictor of dispositional differences in information processing and task performance in experimental settings. In order to explore the role of NFC in everyday life behavior and to further validate the NFC-IAT, we examined the effects of directly and indirectly assessed NFC on self-reported behavior in a broad variety of situations in daily life where the engagement and joy of thinking could play a role. Accordingly, 95 participants were interviewed with a structured interview about everyday life situations, and direct and indirect measures of NFC were obtained. Both, directly and indirectly assessed NFC independently predicted NFC-related behavior, indicating that the combination of both measures results in a more comprehensive prediction of self-reported behavior. Our results show that NFC can be a helpful predictor of behavior not only concerning academic performance or in experimental paradigms, but also in everyday life.

Presence into Participation and Representation

Over the last two decades, women’s ‘political participation’ has emerged as a major marker of democracy around the world. This is frequently operationalized through the policy of ‘gender quotas’ that seek to enhance women’s presence within national and subnational institutions of governance. Since 1993, India has implemented a large programme of decentralization (panchayati raj) and gender quotas, which enabled more than a million elected women representatives (EWRs) to become part of the political process. This article engages feminist theorizations of gender quotas using the Indian context. While affirming the need for gender quotas for increasing presence of women in politics, it argues that the presence of EWRs in local governance does not easily assure their effective political participation or political representation. This is because of the ‘social embeddedness of policy’ in local contexts. Effective participation and representation depend upon the ‘relative agency’ of EWRs who continually negotiate and construct their political subjectivities within everyday life situations, specifically three processes—patriarchal family relations, caste relations at the workplace and discursively produced marked identities.

Disrupted salience processing involved in motivational deficits for real-life activities in patients with schizophrenia

Motivational deficits in patients with schizophrenia adversely affect various domains of daily living. This symptom in everyday life situations manifests in a complex behavioral pattern whose root cannot be simplified to an impaired reward-motivation scheme. This study aimed to identify impairment of the salience network that underlies motivational deficits seen in patients with schizophrenia in real-life situations. During the functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal controls performed a task mimicking real-life situations, in which an avatar proposed participation in a daily activity with either an intrinsic or extrinsic reward. Group and type-of-reward effects were evaluated with respect to brain activity. Further, psychophysiological interactions were analyzed for the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula, which are the key nodes of the salience network. The acceptance of the proposal was significantly higher for intrinsic than for extrinsic rewards in controls, whereas patients showed no difference. The imaging results showed a group effect in the dACC, right insula, thalamus, and lingual gyrus. The dACC showed negative contrast interaction with regions of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the right insula showed positive contrast interaction with the occipital gyrus and precentral gyrus. These results suggest that patients exhibit no different participation behavior between activities with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, which can be explained by the floor effect. Disrupted salience processing in schizophrenia including aberrant salience network and a disconnection of the salience and reward networks may account for the lack of motivation for daily activities.

Handwriting difficulties in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Handwriting is fundamental in school and everyday life situations. Legibility guarantees that writing productions communicate information, and speed is often crucial, especially in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in order to increase the likelihood of their being able to work efficiently and stay on-task during school activities. Preliminary reports have shown an impairment in handwriting of children with ADHD, but evidence is still unclear, especially in the case of speed where research has offered contradictory results. Children’s performance, furthermore, has yet to be investigated under the cognitive loading conditions typical of academic tasks in classroom. To shed light on this matter, we examined the handwriting performance in a simple condition but also under (verbal or spatial) working memory (WM) load in 16 fourth- and fifth-grade children with symptoms of ADHD and 16 matched control children. Our results showed that the groups speed differed significantly only in the verbal WM loading condition, where children with symptoms of ADHD wrote more slowly and showed a greater intra-individual variability than controls. Handwriting legibility was affected by verbal WM loading too. These findings are discussed in relation to their educational and clinical implications.

Risk approximation in decision making: approximative numeric abilities predict advantageous decisions under objective risk.

Many decision situations in everyday life involve mathematical considerations. In decisions under objective risk, i.e., when explicit numeric information is available, executive functions and abilities to handle exact numbers and ratios are predictors of objectively advantageous choices. Although still debated, exact numeric abilities, e.g., normative calculation skills, are assumed to be related to approximate number processing skills. The current study investigates the effects of approximative numeric abilities on decision making under objective risk. Participants (N=153) performed a paradigm measuring number-comparison, quantity-estimation, risk-estimation, and decision-making skills on the basis of rapid dot comparisons. Additionally, a risky decision-making task with exact numeric information was administered, as well as tasks measuring executive functions and exact numeric abilities, e.g., mental calculation and ratio processing skills, were conducted. Approximative numeric abilities significantly predicted advantageous decision making, even beyond the effects of executive functions and exact numeric skills. Especially being able to make accurate risk estimations seemed to contribute to superior choices. We recommend approximation skills and approximate number processing to be subject of future investigations on decision making under risk.

Emotional and social characteristics of stroke patients with low verbal memory.

Cognitive deficits, especially problems with memory observed after stroke often coexist with patients' experience of difficulties in everyday life situations. The purposes of the study were to explore the relationships between verbal memory, emotional functioning and social competence in stroke patients, and to examine the emotional and social condition of stroke patients with low verbal memory. Ninety-five participants were assessed with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, the Neuropsychology Behavior and Affect Profile, and the Social Competency Questionnaire. The participants' relatives (N = 95) also took part in the study evaluating patients' emotional and social functioning. Stroke patients with low verbal memory had higher scores in depression, indifference, and inappropriateness than the patients with normal memory. They also obtained higher scores in the self-reported intimacy and lower scores in objectively assessed social exposition than controls. It is worth considering patients' relationships with relatives that evolve after stroke, especially when the patients experience cognitive difficulties in gaining new information. Collecting verbal information seems to be important for the feeling of effectiveness in some dimensions of elders' social functioning. Because the social engagement may be treated as protective factor in the course of recovery we would recommend that during rehabilitation more attention should be paid to emotional and social functioning of stroke patients with low verbal memory.