Twenty Sierra Leonean rural illiterate mothers were querried about their perceptions of the factors related to Kwashiorkor. Demographic data was hand tabulated to determine the frequency of parents' occupations, pregnancies, live and stillbirths, living and dead children, and causes of children's deaths. Chi-square analyses were done to assess the distribution of responses to questions about 19 beliefs which the researcher thought were related to Kwashiorkor. Student t-test was used to determine the differences in the total number and outcome of pregnancies between women who agreed and disagreed about the role of four of the factors which tended to show or showed significance with chi-square analyses.The families were subsistence farmers. In addition, 65 percent or the husbands had other jobs. Combined, the 20 women had 191 pregnancies, 166 live births, (87 percent of pregnancies), 25 (13 percent) stillbirths, 82 living children (43 percent of pregnancies and 49 percent of live births). The women lost through death 84 (50.6 percent) of the 166 live born children.The average woman experienced 9.6 pregnancies, resulting in 8.3 live births, and 1.3 stillbirths, had an average of 4.1 living children and had lost an average of 4.2 live born children. The data indicated that the major problem with infant/child mortality occurred after birth. Protein-Energy Malnutrition accounted for 38.1 percent of the children's deaths.Of the 19 factors about which women were querried in relation to role in Kwashiorkor, to only 4, namely “Witchcraft,” “Religious beliefs,” “Grandmother's advice,” and “Mother-in-law's advice” did less than half of the women agree. The majority of women agreed that 15 of the factors were associated with Kwashiorkor.That indicated the women had supportable understanding of factors truly related to Kwashiorkor.Three constructs, beliefs about “Witchcraft,” “Introduction of other foods,” and “Immunizations,” differentiated incidence and outcome of pregnancy among women. However, belief about the importance of “Immunizations” differentiated infant/child mortality and will be most useful in future research to analyze differences and to identify groups at greatest risk of child mortality.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306

El propòsit inicial d'aquesta Tesi Doctoral era la de trobar algunes respostes sobre les moltes dificultats que tenen els estudiants sords en l'aprenentatge de les matemàtiques durant l'ensenyament obligatori, així com aportar pautes que millorin la seva formació. La majoria dels estudis sobre les persones sordes i concretament amb nens amb dèficits auditius només treballen dos grans temes: un, el coneixement de les seves capacitats cognitives-lingüístiques, i dos, la seva possible millora. Aquestes limitacions ténen unes profundes arrels històriques, atès que durant molts segles es va considerar que els sords no podien ésser escolaritzats en mancar-els-hi un dels cincs sentits que afectava de manera important el llenguatge, considerat com a esencial per a l'educació. Per tant, la preocupació pel coneixement de les habilitats i el talent matemàtic dels nens sords, s'ha plantejat en data relativament recent, en concret a començaments dels anys seixanta, dins dels treballs d'investigació psicològica per a estudiar la capacitat de raonament lògic i la capacitat de pensament abstracte de les persones amb dèficits auditius. Tot i això, la revisió bibliogràfica dels estudis realitzats fins ara sobre el tema mostren que la majoria es concentren en l'aritmètica i deixen de banda altres aspectes com ara la geometria. En canvi, a mitjans dels anys vuitanta es va començar a imposar el criteri de demanar al curriculum de l'escola primària "una certa experiència en el treball amb gran varietat de formes planes i de sòlids", amb la qual cosa es va proposar de buscar un model d'ensenyament de la geometria que fos accessible per a tots els alumnes. Per exemple, el currículum actualment vigent (1989) dissenyat per la Generalitat de Catalunya recull les darreres tendències en aquest sentit i, en referir-se als objectius que han d'afavorir l'aprenentatge de la geometria, diu que han d'estar en funció del coneixement del món que ens envolta, el desenvolupament de les capacitats de raonament i aprendre a desxifrar els codis i missatges de l'entorn social i cultural.Des d'aquesta perspectiva ens proposem estudiar quins són els coneixements geomètrics que tenen els alumnes sords respecte dels oients, si les estratègies que utilitzen són comparables, a més de quins tipus d'ajut poden ser útils per tal de dissenyar una didàctica. El marc teòric que hem escollit es basa en l'anomenat "model de Van Hiele", perquè dòna molta importància a la visualització de les formes, a la capacitat de raonament i sobretot a l'estreta relació que hi ha entre la progressió dels coneixements i el llenguatge.Prenent com a referència aquest model, la nostra recerca estudia els nivells de pensament segons Van Hiele de les figures bidemensionals, tridimensionals i la resolució dels problemes geomètrics amb estudiants sords integrats i els seus companys oients i les seves implicacions didàctiques.

Aquesta tesi doctoral consta de cinc capítols, una introducció general, la bibliografia i un annex. A l'introducció general, fem una justificació de l'importància del tema triat, centrada en els tres aspectes següents: actualitat, interès didàctic i el seu estudi sobre un enfoc realista. El primer capítol es diu "Les Actituds" i comprèn els següents apartats:(1.1) Aprofundim en el Concepte a travès de diferents facetes. Es fa una anàlisi minuciosa del que aporten diversos autors i per últim donem la nostra definició personal, i que seria "Predisposició de l'individu per a respondre devant estímuls". Presentem les caractrerístiques més destacades i fem èmfasi en els seus components: afectiu, cognoscitiu i comportamental. Presentem una mostra de les seves quatre funcions i fem una reflexió entorn el problema de la classificació, amb la proposta d'un model senzill. Per últim, contrastem aquest Concepte amb d'altres que sovint han estat motiu de confusions. (1.2) Analitzem els diferents aspectes que intervenen per a la Formació (o no) d'una actitud. (1.3) De manera paral.lela tractem el Canvi d'actitud, aprofundint en tots aquells elements influents i esbrinant les "Teories de la Consistència Cognitiva", que pretenen explicar aques canvi. (1.4) Com que la Relació entre Actitud i Conducta és un tema de gran actualitat, aquest apartat vé dedicat a mostrar les tendències existents en el decurs de l'història, els factors més influents i els models presentats per diversos autors amb els quals pretenen explicar aquesta relació.(1.5) Un dels aspectes més polèmics ha estat i és el Mesurament de les actituds. En el present apartat s'expliciten els motius fonamentals d'aquesta problemàtica així com els diferents tipus de mesures existents. El Capítol Segon du com a títol "Les actituds i la lectura", i podriem dir que forma el nucli teòric de l'investigació. Un cop feta una presentación molt general sobre el camp de la lectura (concepte, elements i línies de recerca), es presenta una recopilació de materials d'arreu del món sobre el tema de les actituds i la lectura, tot i considerant que es tracta d'una matèria que es va començar a estudiar en una data relativament recent. (1978). També s'analitzen els factors que hi intervenen: la família, l'escola, l'ambient i el nen. El Capítol Tercer inclou el material d'investigació i la metodologia utilitzada. Prenent com a base una mostra d'infants de 5è. d'Educació General Bàsica (EGB) de les escoles de Sant Feliu del Llobregat (Barcelona), es presenta la instrumentació utilitzada per la recerca i quines són les variables que s'han tingut en consideració. El Capítol Quart comenta d'una manera àmplia els resultats obtinguts com a resultat de la recerca. Se'n fa una anàlisi descriptiva (barems, fiabilitat i validesa dels inventaris, proves de normalitat, associació i correlación, proves de contrast.) i també una anàlisi cualitativa a nivell d'estudi del contingut de frases ofertes, mitjançant el SPAD. Per últim, el Capítol Cinquè inclou les conclusions més rellevants a nivell teòric i experimental, a més d'assenyalar quines són les noves línies de recerca que s'obren en aquest tema.

No description available.

No description available.

La investigació que presentem té com a objectiu fonamental analitzar l'aplicació d'un programa aquàtic educatiu per infants de zero a tres anys a través de la formació a un grup de tècnics aquàtics mitjançant un procés d'assessorament. En el marc teòric aprofundim en els fonaments teòrics de la investigació: els programes d'activitats aquàtiques en la primera infància i les diferents perspectives pel que fa a la formació del professorat centrant-nos en l'assessorament com una proposta de formació. Les conclusions presentades ens aporten moltes dades que confirmen el marc teòric establert i ajuden a reorientar les futures formacions inicials i continuades posteriors amb actuacions que permetran millorar-les. Un element clau que hem anat fonamentant durant el procés d'investigació és que la formació inicial no és suficient per assolir els objectius i continguts del PAE. Cal articular una formació continuada, paral·lela a la implantació del programa, a través de la qual els participants puguin compartir els dubtes, els errors i els aprenentatges en un context de reflexió sobre la pràctica, a través de reunions grupals amb professionals que assessorin aquest procés.

Young children’s attention to a variety of object features has been studied. However, very few studies have examined young children’s understanding of object weight. In order to investigate developmental changes in perception and categorization of weight, three tasks were given to 59 18-month-old to 3-year-old children. Three age groups (20; 27 and 34 months old) were analyzed for the final results. The first two tasks used a familiarization and novelty preference paradigm in which attention was assessed by measuring each child’s looking time. The first task’s goal was to evaluate young children’s ability to discriminate objects on the basis of weight. Children were familiarized with an object of one weight and then tested with an identical looking object that had a novel weight. Half of the subjects were familiarized to a heavy weight and half to a light weight object. Results showed a decrease in looking time over the familiarization trials (p = .0001) and an increase in attention to the novel weight (p = .0001). Thus, all children in the first task were able to discriminate object weight. Additional analyses for the first task assessed physical discrimination of object weight by examining the amount of arm movement each child exhibited within 250 milliseconds after taking an object. A significant difference in arm movement was found between the last familiarization and novel weight trials of the heavy (p = .0097) and light (p = .0001) conditions. The second task’s goal was to evaluate children’s ability to attend to object weight when appearance varies. Children were familiarized to four objects that had the same weight but differed in appearance. Half of the subjects were familiarized to heavy objects and half to light objects. After familiarization, the children were tested with one object that had the same weight but a different appearance and another object that had the same appearance but a different weight. Results revealed that the children’s looking time decreased over the familiarization trials (p = .0001). Analyses of test trials revealed that only the two older age groups had significant novelty preference scores for both the new weight and new appearance trials. The third task used a balance scale to measure understanding of weight by observing a child’s ability to pick a heavy object to make a balance scale tip. Children were given a light and heavy object with the same appearance and asked to choose which one would tip the balance scale. Results showed that only 34 month olds had significantly more correct trials (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the study’s results indicated that all young children are capable of discriminating object weight when familiarized to one object but that only the two older age groups were significantly capable of doing this when familiarized to more than one object. Results also indicated that only 34 month olds were capable of using weight differences in a more functional way, namely to tip a balance scale.

<p>Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a serious birth complication of full term infants; 40-60% of affected infants die by 2 years or have severe disabilities. Infants with HIE often have a normal gestation and parents anticipate a healthy birth. HIE can be managed with aggressively with moderate hypothermia < 6 hours of life, cardiopulmonary support, and seizure management. Experimental interventions such as moderate hypothermia > 6 hours of life and umbilical cord stem cell transplant are also available. Additional decision-making for these infants may include long-term developmental therapy, nutritional support, and respiratory support. However, who makes these decisions, what factors influence decision-making and the long-term impact of decision-making on parents and health care providers remains unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore parental and health care provider decision-making for infants with HIE.</p><p>A longitudinal case study design was used to study 11 cases of infants with HIE. Each case included the infant, the parent, and the infant's providers. Infant medical record data, interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data from infant birth through 6 months of age. Content analysis was used to analyze the interviews. Descriptive statistics were used with the questionnaires. Visualization techniques were used to search for patterns and trends in the assembled data. </p><p>All infants required resuscitation and their treatment plans included aggressive care or aggressive and experimental care. The level of parental participation varied with in the first week of life depending on whether the infant was enrolled in experimental interventions plus aggressive care or only aggressive care. Parental hopefulness was lower in parents of infants who received experimental interventions, but the infants receiving experimental interventions were less critically ill than infants who received aggressive care only. Parental stress was also lower among parents of infants who received experimental interventions over the first 2 months of life. </p><p>Parents were concerned about the short and long-term impact of HIE, few parents understood that even though their infant had appropriate developmental outcomes at 6-months that did mean that neurological damage occurred. However in one case of an infant, the neurological development became central to the parental decision-making for the infant. Parents became less hopeful as diagnostic examinations continued find more complex conditions that were individually not problematic for the parents, but when the complexity of the infant's illnesses continued to unfold, parents feared that too many complications existed for their daughter to have an acceptable quality of life. Yet, when parents broached the topic of transitioning from aggressive care to palliative care with providers, they were told that withholding/withdrawing treatment was not appropriate for the infant. Not discussing withholding or withdrawing treatment ultimately created conflict between parents and providers due to differences in opinions about the predicted neurological outcomes for the infant. The conflict led to distrust and parents regretted most decisions they made for their infant. </p><p>Parental and provider decision-making is complex and many of the decisions within the 6-month trajectory were made within the first 6 hours of birth. Parents felt that the decision-making was appropriate in most cases, but the extent of the infant's injury remains unknown. How parents will evaluate the decision-making when the infant begins to miss developmental milestones is unknown. Results from this dissertation suggest that decision-making is a trajectory and decisions are not made in isolation. Implications for practice include discussing and educating parents during the first 6 months and later about developmental milestones and the importance of continuing therapy, even when the infant appears normal. Providers can also acknowledge to parents, up front, that the extent of the neurological injury is unknown and different providers may have different opinions about the long-term effects. By acknowledging these differences, providers can begin discussing the treatment options with parents and educating them about the specific needs of their infant.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (M.S. in human nutrition)--Washington State University, December 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jan. 8, 2010). "College of Pharmacy." Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-101).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 8, 2009). Thesis advisor: Katherine Kavanagh. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.