Given the high prevalence of childhood overweight, school-based programs aiming at nutritional behavior may be a good starting point for community-based interventions. Therefore, we investigated associations between school-related meal patterns and weight status in 1215 schoolchildren. Anthropometry was performed on-site in schools. Children reported their meal habits, and parents provided family-related information via questionnaires. Associations between nutritional behavior and weight status were estimated using hierarchical linear and logistic regression. Analyses were adjusted for age, socio–economic status, school type, migration background, and parental weight status. Having breakfast was associated with a lower BMI-SDS (βadj = −0.51, p = 0.004) and a lower risk of being overweight (ORadj = 0.30, p = 0.009), while having two breakfasts resulting in stronger associations (BMI-SDS: βadj = −0.66, p < 0.001; risk of overweight: ORadj = 0.22, p = 0.001). Likewise, children who regularly skipped breakfast on school days showed stronger associations (BMI-SDS: β = 0.49, p < 0.001; risk of overweight: OR = 3.29, p < 0.001) than children who skipped breakfast only occasionally (BMI-SDS: β = 0.43, p < 0.001; risk of overweight: OR = 2.72, p = 0.032). The associations persisted after controlling for parental SES and weight status. Therefore, our data confirm the school setting as a suitable starting point for community-based interventions and may underline the necessity of national programs providing free breakfast and lunch to children.

The assessment of pain in children has been an enduring theme in the research literature over many decades, with particular focus on how pain can be adequately measured and the extent of under-measurement of pain (American Academy of Pediatrics 2001; Coyne, 2006; McCaffery & Beebe 1989; Subhashini et al., 2009). Definitions of pain, and hence development of pain measurement tools, are often criticised for not addressing the influence of culture and ethnicity on pain (Bates et al., 1993; McCaffery & Beebe 1989; Zinke, 2007), in children, the perception and expression of pain is also affected by cognitive development (Hallström and Elander, 2004). Whilst there has been an increase in the number of children living in the United Kingdom (UK) who do not speak English as their first language, it has been acknowledged that the measurement and management of pain by health service professionals relies predominantly on their experience with English speaking children (RCN, 2009). This study aimed primarily to examine how primary school age children in key stage 1 who speak English as a primary or additional language experience, express, and explain pain. This aim was addressed through three research questions: (1) how do primary school age children in key stage 1 talk about pain? (2) What are the similarities and differences in the language used to talk about pain by children with English as a primary and additional language? (3) Are there differences in the perceptions of pain by children of different age, gender, language background, and country of birth? A second aim was to examine whether language would affect actions taken by final year child health students and nurses working in Minor Injuries Units to manage pain in primary school age children. Study objectives were addressed using a two phase mixed methods design. The first aim was addressed using six focus group interviews with groups of primary school children (aged 4-7) (Phase 1). Two methods were used in the interviews: use of drawings from the Pediatric Pain Inventory (Lollar et al., 1982) to capture the language used by children to describe pain and observation of the children’s placing of pain drawings on red/amber/green paper to denote perceived severity of pain. Following data collection, the vocabulary of each child was assessed using a standardised lexical test (British Picture Vocabulary Score version II - BPVS II) (Dunn et al., 1997). To address the second aim, a factorial survey was conducted (Phase 2) with nurses working in Minor Injuries Units and child health nursing students to determine whether language has an impact on decisions made about the management of children in pain following a minor injury. Phase 1 findings demonstrated that children from English as an Additional Language (EAL) backgrounds used less elaborate language when talking about pain but tended to talk about the pictures prior to deciding where they should be placed. The children’s placement of pain drawings varied according to language background, gender, and age. The calculated language age of English lexical comprehension (BPVS II score) of monolingual children (M=69.85, SD=19.27) was significantly higher than EAL children (M=47.93, SD=14.32; t (32) = 3.60, p =0.001, two-tailed). However, when these differences were explored in terms of year group, the differences remain significant with foundation and year 2 but not with year 1. For the EAL children, there were also significant relationships between BPVS II score and length of stay in the UK (spearman’s rho 0.749, p = 0.33). The Phase 1 findings were used to construct vignettes, describing hypothetical care situations, for Phase 2. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyse the impact of a child’s age, gender, language, parent’s language, injury mechanism, and reaction to pain on the way in which the child’s pain would be assessed and whether parents or an interpreter would be invited to assist in pain assessment. Findings demonstrated that observing the child’s behaviour is the most significant assessment process that is used to assess EAL children, rather than the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), which was used with non-EAL children. This is significant as VAS is the mostly widely used tool to assess pain in health care settings. However, VAS is only effective if it can be understood by the child. Further, MIU nurses and child health students were more likely to involve parents who speak English well than those who speak English poorly but would ask for an interpreter if their involvement was necessary. In order for the respondents to explain their decisions, they were asked an open ended question for each vignette. They reported that language and age of children are the most common difficulties they faced during assessment of pain. Therefore, they suggested some solutions, like using an age appropriate tools for assessing younger children. Respondents also identified that using an interpreter is a time consuming process, which might delay the management of pain. In light of the growing numbers of EAL children in the UK; this research has application in a number of contexts. The variation in language would apply if children were reporting their own pain. However, the findings emphasise the need for sufficient time to be allocated to pain assessment to allow an individualised approach. Study findings suggest several factors that may be important in assessing pain in EAL children; these should be explored further in the context of clinicians’ assessment of pain. The implications of the study impact on policy, practice, education, and future research.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-03, Section: B, page: 1619. Advisers: Steven H. Kelder; Ross Shegog. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Thesis (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is devoted to the activities of organized interest with primary school children, ages 6-11 years, in the country. The theoretical part deals, with the basic concepts of leisure, free time features, lifestyle and interests, hobbies and factors influencing children's leisure time. The practical part deals with specific and leisure activities in the country and in selected locations. Getting parents' satisfaction with leisure activities, describes a range of leisure activities at particular locations, this shows what activities children attend and also indicates the context of education of the parents.

The study draws on theories of society, learning, planning and design, democracy, identity formation, and cultural change to inquire into children’s participation in the social sphere. The thesis emerges from the growing literature in the sociological and educational study of childhood, identity, space and culture. A case study approach, using a variety of participatory methods and photographic visual evidence, is employed to investigate the substantive issue of children’s participation in changing their locales in a contemporary Scottish context. Two main cases are narrated: the first concerns primary school children’s experience in participating in changing school grounds throughout Scotland; the second details the experience of one local authority’s efforts to enhance public play provision for children with disabilities. Local socio-cultural / spatial practices used in the construction of children’s participation and their places of learning, work, and play are described. Children are found to be ‘positioned’ between adult desires to increase children’s participation in matters that affect them, while at the same time, adults may wish to protect children from perceived dangers. The context for children’s participation takes cognisance of the influences of schooling, the exclusion of children from the workplace, as well as the influences of technology, the media, and the changes in family make-up. One central finding of the thesis is that children’s experience of participation appeared to be constructed out of ‘essential beliefs’ about the relations between children and adults, the nature of the child and the child’s ‘place’ in society.

La “Scuola per la preparazione del personale insegnante ed assistente degli anormali”, avviata da padre Agostino Gemelli nel 1926 presso l’Università Cattolica di Milano, fu uno dei primi tentativi italiani di formazione degli insegnanti dei fanciulli deficienti. La Scuola, oltre a rappresentare il percorso italiano verso l’inclusione scolastica dei fanciulli disabili, testimonia il lavoro di Gemelli nel campo dell’educazione speciale. L’attenzione al tema della disabilità da parte del frate francescano riflette l’interesse del mondo cattolico a lui contemporaneo per la formulazione di interventi guidati non solo da sentimenti caritatevoli, ma basati su solide fondamenta scientifiche. Inoltre, il lavoro evidenzia come la formazione dei docenti degli anormali sia cambiata dagli anni Venti agli anni Settanta del Secolo scorso, parallelamente al processo di progressivo abbandono delle scuole speciali in favore dell’inclusione scolastica dei disabili. La ricerca, che contribuisce a incrementare gli ancora scarsi studi italiani di storia della pedagogia speciale, è stata condotta attraverso un’approfondita indagine archivistica, con lo scopo di far luce su docenti, studenti, materiali e libri di testo della Scuola, dalle sue origini fino agli anni Settanta. / The “School for the special aids and assistants for disabled children”, opened in 1926 at the Catholic University of Milan by father Agostino Gemelli, was one of the very first in Italy to set up about disabled children teacher training. This School gives evidence of Gemelli’s work in the special education area and also represents the Italian path toward scholastic inclusion for disabled persons. The interest of Gemelli, one of the most famous psychologists in the XX Century Italian framework, towards disability reflects how the contemporary Catholic world cared about interventions for the weakest not only driven by a charity feeling but based on scientific studies. Moreover, the study highlights how teacher training has changed from the Twenties to the Seventies of the last Century, following the different way of looking at disabled children, from isolation in special schools to inclusion in common classes. The thesis contributes to improve Italian studies in the field of the history of special education, a subject that has, for the most part, to be written. The research is carried out through archival investigations with the purpose of shedding light on teachers, users, materials and textbooks of the School, since its origin until the Seventies.

The aim of the graduation thesis was finding out the inclusion of dances and rhythmical forms in physical training lessons at primary school level. The research field was pupil´s relation to doing exercise accompanied by music. The resource file was 158 pupils of the second class of primary schools in České Budějovice. The research method was a questionnaire. The results file confirmed the presumption that the inclusion of rhythmical forms in physical education is not frequent, although the rhythmical forms are included in curriculum. The results were different in each school and even in each class. The research proved that only a half of pupils is a member of some physical, sport or dance interst group. This graduation thesis shortly reffered to the use of music accompaniment in education.