scholarly journals Screening of Developmental Difficulties during the Transition to Primary School

Author(s):  
Carolina González ◽  
Ramón D. Castillo ◽  
José Patricio Franzani ◽  
Cristian Martinich

The five-to-fifteen (FTF) questionnaire is a screening tool completed by parents that is able to distinguish developmental disorders in children aged 5 to 15 years old. The current study aimed to characterize the developmental difficulties by gender and school age (kindergarten and first grade) of children in their transition to primary school, using the Spanish-language version of the FTF questionnaire. The participants were 541 parents of typically developed children from kindergarten and first grade in public schools in Chile. Developmental difficulties were revealed, showing that boys displayed significantly more difficulties in their social skills when compared to girls, and that kindergartners displayed significantly more developmental difficulties than first graders. The children’s developmental difficulties in executive functions, social skills, and emotional/behavioral problems exhibited interactions between gender and school age. The findings were discussed in terms of current conceptualizations of both executive functions and self-regulatory processes. These processes and functions are configured early in development, are gradually consolidated over the course of school age, and can be strengthened or weakened by conditions experienced in childhood. Early screening of developmental difficulties from the parents’ perspective would facilitate early detection of problems, as early as in kindergarten, and considering the normal adaptable development of children.

Psico-USF ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-557
Author(s):  
Anaísa Leal Barbosa Abrahão ◽  
Luciana Carla dos Santos Elias

Abstract ADHD constitutes a developmental risk. The general aim was to identify social skills, behavior problems, academic performance and family resources of children with ADHD, with the specific aim being to compare students regarding indicators of ADHD and the use or not of medication. Participants were 43 Elementary Education I students (M=9.6 years, SD=1.5), 43 parents (M=39.1 years, SD=7.6) and 38 teachers (M=43.1 years, SD=8.4). The instruments used were the Inventory of Social Skills, Behavior Problems and Academic Competence (SSRS-BR), Conners’ Scale and the Inventory of Family Resources. The collection was carried out in public schools. The results showed that the students had scores higher than the reference sample in Behavior Problems and Social Skills and lower in classes of social skills and Academic Competence; the presence of family resources; and grades above 5.0 as a school mean. We concluded that there is a need for interventions with the studied population.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tereza de França Souza ◽  
Claudinei Biazoli ◽  
Mateus Silvestrin

Dense longitudinal experience sampling studies with adults have shown that high emotional granularity scores are associated with better emotion regulation skills and lower prevalence of some psychiatric symptoms and disorders. Given the inherent difficulty in data acquisition, investigations applying this same methodology during development are still scarce. Here we present the first study of emotional granularity measured from a dense longitudinal experience sampling procedure in school-age children. Two hundred and sixty four children (ages 9 to 13 years old, mean = 10.4 ± 0.9) assessed their emotions with likert scales in three different weeks: one week before, one during and one after a four-month school-based psychoeducational program. Behavioral problems and social skills were also assessed before and after the same intervention in a separate sample of 113 children (ages 7 to 13 years old; mean = 9.3 ± 1.5). Small to moderate improvements in social skills were observed after the psychoeducational intervention in comparison to baseline. Regarding emotional granularity, a moderate improvement was observed for the discrimination of positive emotions after the intervention. Interestingly, responses to disgust and social emotions (jealousy, guilt, shame and envy) showed no significant variance throughout the samplings, suggesting that these emotion concepts are not usually applied,by school-age children. Our findings suggest the feasibility of assessing emotional granularity in school-age children and show an improvement in positive emotional granularity after a psychoeducational program, which have also improved social skills. Finally, challenges and further directions for properly applying emotional experience sampling in children are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 48-67
Author(s):  
I.V. Zapesotskaya ◽  
Z.V. Chuikova

The article presents results of the research of relations between executive functions and prospective memory in primary school-age children with symptoms of subthreshold attention deficit hyperactivity syndrome (ADHD). The ADHD Assessment Scale ― ICD-10 criteria (Sukhotina, 2008) and Observation Form for Recording ADHD Behaviors During Academic Performance in the Clinic or in School) (Carter, 1994) were used to assess the symptoms of ADHD. Cognitive functions were assessed using the Wisconsin Sorting Card Test (Grant & Berg, 1948), Сanum (Gutierrez-Martinez, 2018), Вlock span (Isaacs, Vargha-Khadem, 1989), Digit span-backward (Wechsler, 1997), and measurement by Ana B. Cejudo (Cejudo, 2019). 51 children were recruited, 27 subjects were 6–7 years old and 24 subjects were 10 years old. All participants were divided into 2 control groups (children with typical development) and 2 experimental groups (children with symptoms of subthreshold ADHD). Overall, it was found that children in the group of 6–7 years old with symptoms of subthreshold ADHD have no significant differences with children from the control group in basal components of executive function: working memory, cognitive flexibility and executive attention. However, they show a decrease in learning abilities, self-regulation and an increase of non-perseverative errors along with the fall of event-based prospective memory. Children in the group of 10 years old with symptoms of subthreshold ADHD also showed the fall of learning abilities and prospective memory. The results of correlation analysis show that subjects with symptoms of subthreshold ADHD have changes in the systemic ― functional level which appear as a decreasing amount of links between executive functions and features of prospective memory.


Author(s):  
Gabriel Barg ◽  
Mónica Daleiro ◽  
Elena Queirolo ◽  
Julia Ravenscroft ◽  
Nelly Mañay ◽  
...  

The negative effect of lead exposure on children’s intelligence is well-documented. Less is known about the impact of lead on the use of executive functions to self-regulate behavior. We measured blood lead level (BLL) in a sample of first grade children from Montevideo, Uruguay (n = 206, age 6.7 ± 0.5 years, 59.7% boys). Behavior was assessed with teacher versions of the Conners Rating Scale (CRS) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF). Mean BLL was 4.2 ± 2.1 μg/dL; 10% had mild-to-severe ratings of Attentional Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (T score > 65). In negative binomial regression, BLL was not associated with CRS sub-scales, but was associated with a poorer ability to inhibit inappropriate behaviors, prevalence ratio (PR) [95% CI]: 1.01 [1.00, 1.03] as measured by the BRIEF. In covariate-adjusted models, the association with BLL was attenuated. When stratified by sex, the covariate-adjusted association between BLL, hyperactivity, poorer inhitibion, emotional control, and behavioral regulation was marginally significant for girls but not boys. In summary, among children with low lead-exposure, we found some, but nonetheless modest, evidence of a relationship between higher BLL and child behavior. If confirmed by larger studies and other objective measures of behavior, such links could have implications for learning and social interaction, particularly among girls.


Author(s):  
Takafumi Obara ◽  
Hiromichi Naito ◽  
Kohei Tsukahara ◽  
Naomi Matsumoto ◽  
Hirotsugu Yamamoto ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal relationship between shorter or irregular sleep duration (SD) in early childhood and increased risk of injury at primary school age using data from a nationwide survey in Japan. We categorized SD into seven groups: 6 h, 7 h, 8 h, 9 hrs, 10 or 11 h, >12 h, and irregular, based on questionnaire responses collected at 5.5 years old. The relationship between SD and incidence of injury at 5.5–nine years of age is shown. In addition, we completed a stratified analysis on children with or without problematic behavior at eight years old. We included 32,044 children, of which 6369 were classified as having an injury and 25,675 as not having an injury. Logistic regression model showed that shorter or irregular SD categories were associated with an increased adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for injuries (6 h: aOR 1.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19–1.66, 7 h: aOR 1.10, 95% CI, 0.98–1.23, 8 h: aOR 1.13, 95% CI, 1.02–1.26, irregular: aOR 1.26, 95% CI 1.10–1.43). The same tendency was observed with shorter or irregular SD in subgroups with or without behavioral problems. Shorter or irregular sleep habits during early childhood are associated with injury during primary school age.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 933-938
Author(s):  
Krasimira Dimitrova ◽  
Dimona Georgieva

Information and Internet technologies are some of the fastest growing ones. For a short period of time, they entered man’s life and became an integral part of it. Children, as part of society, fall into the group of users. The fact is, before children have learned to read, they already have the skills to use a tablet and a smartphone. Numerous studies have shown that early use of information technology leads to the so-called "computer dependence", which is the lack of important social skills - problems with communication with peers and adults, lack of the need to communicate, inability to express emotions, ideas, lack of planning skills and algorithmic reflection, etc.The article examines the possibilities of using information and internet technologies for the formation of soft skills in children from primary school age. It presents the current aspects of the problem in the present educational documentation in Bulgaria.Students use information and internet technologies outside of school, and the habits formed there are leading in associative behavior. It is precisely this reason to look at aspects whereby the school, as an educational and social institution, enables small pupils to acquire knowledge of the use of modern technology for learning purposes, and a number of soft skills are formed. The pedagogical aspects of the process require the observance of certain principles that ensure the formation and development of the desired skills - system, accessibility, consciousness, student activity, sustainability of knowledge, skills and customs, etc.The skills that are formed in the personality can be summarized and divided into three main groups - personal qualities; interpersonal skills; additional skills / knowledge. Soft skills refer to the first two groups and the additional knowledge and skills are related to specific academic and technological knowledge.Pedagogical literature defines five key competences that characterize skills: social skills; communication; thinking; self-control skills; positive individual concept. According to the authors of the article on the personality that will develop and prove that competitiveness is of particular importance, one of the most important skills is the transfer of knowledge.In the current primary school documentation, the learning subject "Information Technology" (IT) is studied as a PIU or an EPA. The training in the PIU is organized on the basis of curricula (developed by the Ministry of Education and Science) and educational books approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. The education in the forms of SIP is realized through programs developed by the teacher and approved by the school principal.In the current regulatory framework (Ordinance 5 / 30.11.2015) information technology in elementary school can be studied as a facultative class (FC) as the teacher independently develops a curriculum on the basis of the existing previous documentation. In most of the schools in the country, information technology is not selected as an optional time. In order to comply with the requirements of the ordinance and the adopted curricula for each subject in elementary school, it is necessary to conclude that primary school teachers should use information technology in all disciplines and thus form relevant knowledge and skills. This, in turn, provides an opportunity, besides purely technical skills, to form a number of skills. The availability of methodological guidelines in this direction will facilitate the process and ensure the implementation of ideas in pedagogical practice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-95
Author(s):  
A.E. Ivanova

Behavioral problems of children with manifestations of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are recorded by researchers in many countries as a common course of learning difficulties. The high incidence of ADHD raises the question of reliable ways to diagnose it. This article discusses a teacher’s questionnaire, aimed at assessing child behavior under school conditions. The questionnaire is an adapted Russian variant of the English questionnaire, designed within IPIPS project (International Performance Indicators in Primary School). Data-based assessment of first-grade Russian students from several regions of the country describes collecting evidences of reliability and validity of the questionnaire under consideration. Multi-stage validation study showed that the questionnaire could serve the adequate technique for recording possible problems in behavior associated with ADHD in primary school students.


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