scholarly journals THE COMPREHENSION OF THE CONCEPTS OF NOISE AND SILENCE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Author(s):  
Baiba Trinite

Acoustically ergonomic classrooms prevent teachers’ voice disorders and improve comprehension of learning instructions by pupils. High activity noise in the classroom, which increases voice loudness, is one of the most common complaints by teachers. The aim of the study was to find out how primary school children comprehend the concepts of noise and silence. Two hundred eighty five children representing Grade 1 to four were included in the study. Children were asked to draw how they imagine the silence and noise. Drawings were categorised in the following groups: sources of noise and silence, effects of noise and silence, noisy and silent places. Drawings imagining school environment were analysed separately. We found that primary school pupils can identify noise sources in the classroom, at home, and in environment. They can detect the impact of noise on the psycho-emotional state of the person. Children reflected a much more extensive range of noise generating activities than activities related to silence. The silence was mostly associated with sleeping and learning while noise with positive (singing, playing) and negative (screaming, fighting) actions.Not only teachers but also pupils should know about classroom acoustic ergonomics. Teachers’ education programs should provide education in ergonomics, and teachers should forward this knowledge to children. 

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
D Austys ◽  
A Sprudzanaitė ◽  
R Arlauskas ◽  
R Stukas

Abstract Background A large number of primary school children have personal smartphones which enable them to communicate with lots of people and use social networks. However, social networking should not be accessible to primary school pupils due to existing age restrictions. Studies show that cell phones can be used to send offensive or sexual content to children or by them. This might have long-term effects on child's mental health and even provoke suicidal thoughts. While parents are able to control many aspects of children's life, we aimed to disclose parental attitudes towards use of mobile phones among children. Methods A total number of 619 parents of primary school children from middle-sized town of Lithuania participated in this study. Parents anonymously expressed their opinion to questions about personal cell phones usage among children. Distribution of participants was assessed according to social and demographic characteristics. Results Most of the respondents (79.8%) indicated that use of mobile phones might be harmful to children's health, 56.0% indicated that their children use social networks and every second child was registered by their parents (49.5%). Minority of the respondents (8.1%) thought that children (including children from other families) receive messages from strangers and communicate with them (2.1%). Similarly, very few of the respondents thought that children receive offensive (15.0%) or sexual (4.8%) content. Younger and lower educated parents registered their children to social networks more frequently (p-value less than 0.05). Lower educated parents more frequently indicated that offensive or sexual content can reach children via smartphones (p-value less than 0.05). Conclusions Majority of parents of primary school children thought that cell phones might be harmful to children's health but most of them did not pay attention to threats such as communication with strangers or transmission of sexual content. Key messages Only minority of parents of primary school children indicated communication with strangers or transmission of sexual content as threats induced by use of smartphones among children. Regardless that lower educated parents indicated awareness of content-related threats to children more frequently they registered their children to social networks more frequently as well.


Author(s):  
Bernhard Kienesberger ◽  
Christoph Arneitz ◽  
Vanessa Wolfschluckner ◽  
Christina Flucher ◽  
Peter Spitzer ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study focuses on the impact of a prevention program regarding dog bites in children. As a consequence of our previous investigation in 2005, we have initiated a child safety program for primary school children starting January 2008 until present to teach children how to avoid dog attacks and how to behave in case of an attack. In our retrospective study, we analyzed all patients younger than 15 years presenting with dog-related injuries between 2014 and 2018. As the main indicator for success of the prevention measures taken, we have defined the severity of injury in comparison to our previous study. Out of 296 children with dog-related injuries, 212 (71.6%) had sustained a dog bite. In the vast majority (n = 195; 92%), these patients presented with minor injuries; the extremities were most commonly affected (n = 100; 47%). Injuries to the head (n = 95; 45%) and trunk (n = 18; 8%) were less frequent. The proportion of severe injuries (8%) was significantly lower compared to our previous study, where 26% of children presented with severe injuries necessitating surgical intervention, while the number of patients requiring in-hospital treatment declined from 27.5% in the period 1994–2003 to 9.0% in the period between 2014 and 2018 (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Teaching of primary school children may effectively reduce the injury severity of dog bites. What is Known:• Dog bites are a substantial healthcare problem especially in children. What is New:• This study shows that a broad-based prevention program for primary school children can effectively decrease the severity but not the frequency of dog bite injuries in children.


Robotics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Adriana Bono ◽  
Agnese Augello ◽  
Giovanni Pilato ◽  
Filippo Vella ◽  
Salvatore Gaglio

This paper describes an interactive storytelling system, accessible through the SoftBank robotic platforms NAO and Pepper. The main contribution consists of the interpretation of the story characters by humanoid robots, obtained through the definition of appropriate cognitive models, relying on the ACT-R cognitive architecture. The reasoning processes leading to the story evolution are based on the represented knowledge and the suggestions of the listener in critical points of the story. They are disclosed during the narration, to make clear the dynamics of the story and the feelings of the characters. We analyzed the impact of such externalization of the internal status of the characters to set the basis for future experimentation with primary school children.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 292-297
Author(s):  
Mahbuba Haque ◽  
M H Faruquee ◽  
Suman Lahiry ◽  
Saira Tasmin ◽  
Rabeya Yasmin ◽  
...  

Backgrounds: About 120 million people around the world are overexposed to lead which is neurotoxic and 99 percent of the most severely affected children are in the developing world including Bangladesh. Methods and Materials: The present cross-sectional ecological study was carried out to explore the impact of lead poisoning on the intelligence level among 84 primary school children of a school of Bangladesh, aged between 8 and 14 years from September 2010 through January 2011. The research instrument was an interviewer questionnaire, questionnaire for IQ test and assessment of blood lead level (inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry with collision/reaction cells) of the study subjects after obtaining permission from their parents and the school authority. Results: Data were cross-checked and frequency distribution and association using chi-square test was accomplished. Background information depicted majority (69.1%) of the children aged10-11 years (mean = 10.25 ±1.177 yrs), female (51.2%), parents having primary level of education or below (73.8% in case of father and 77.4% in mother) and from lower socioeconomics (78.6% earned BDT 10,000 or below per month). Among all, majority (56%) were found to be moron, 27.4% in borderline, while 8.3% were imbecile with the same proportion with normal level. By their blood lead level. Majority (70.2%) had blood lead level up to 10 microgram/dl and the rest (29.8%) had more than 10 microgram/dl. Though no statistically significant association was found between IQ level of the children and their blood lead level (p>0.05), the health problems found among the respondents as abdominal pain (53.57%), impatience (14.29%), nausea (10.71%) and all other problems (loss of concentration to study, ear problem, anorexia and loss of weight) amounting for 21.43% are suggestive of chronic lead poisoning. Conclusion:Further studies in large scale with larger samples including comparative studies of inter-industrial areas have been strongly recommended. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v11i4.12599 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 11 No. 04 Oct’12  


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1002-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne WY Chung ◽  
Louisa MY Chung ◽  
Bob Chen

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