Application, limits, scoring and improvements of Groffman Visual Tracing test

The Groffman Visual Tracing (GVT) test is a psychometric oculomotor test comprising two cards with five contorted and intersected lines, and which is available for the clinical evaluation of ocular movements. The participant starts from the letter at the top, follows the line, and reports the corresponding number at the bottom of each line. The aim of this study is to evaluate two claims made when details of the GVT test were originally reported: whether it is a developmental test, and the feasibility of its application starting from primary school children up to adults. This was achieved by using the GVT test and a simplified version of it. In two consecutive experiments, we tested two groups of children and adults. In the first experiment, 75 children (1st, 3rd, and 5th grade) and 25 adults underwent the GVT test. In the second experiment, 115 children from 1st to 5th grade underwent a simplified version of the test. Total scoring, accuracy and time to complete the test were evaluated. In the first experiment, 24% of children in the 1st and 3rd grades did not follow any lines correctly due to the difficulty of the test. In the second experiment, all participants were able to perform the test with both cards, and the accuracy improved significantly with age (p<0.0001). The time required to follow the lines was found to decrease with age (p<0.0001), and the accuracy improves (p<0.0001) compared with the standard version. The standard version of the GVT test has proven to be too difficult for younger children and a modified version produced improved results. Children at or below the 5th grade should to be tested using the modified version. Older children and adults can be tested with the standard version. Specific norms based on execution times and accuracy should to be established.

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Holiday Club Programmes in Northern Ireland: The Voices of Children and Young People

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18031337 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 1337

Author(s):

Jackie Shinwell ◽

Ellen Finlay ◽

Caitlin Allen ◽

Margaret Anne Defeyter

Keyword(s):

Northern Ireland ◽

Young People ◽

School Children ◽

Low Income ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Older Children ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Self Confidence ◽

Low Income Families ◽

High Level

In Northern Ireland, nearly 30% of children are thought to be at risk of going hungry in the summer holidays when they are unable to access free school meals. Community groups, voluntary groups, local authorities, and faith groups have responded to this concern by developing and delivering holiday programmes that enable children from low-income families to take part in activities and access food. The current study used purposive sampling to investigate children’s and young people’s views of holiday provision, from across three holiday clubs, in Northern Ireland. Both primary school children (n = 34; aged 4–11) and secondary school children (n = 31; aged 12–17) showed high levels of awareness of poverty and food insecurity and associated pressures and stresses on households. Importantly, children and young people did not feel stigmatised about attending holiday provision, suggesting a positive and inclusive culture towards holiday club attendance. Children reported that they enjoyed the range of activities provided at holiday clubs and reported that attendance improved their self-confidence, especially for some older children, who acted as peer mentors to younger attendees, helped them to develop new skills, and provided them with opportunities to socialise with peers in a safe environment, out with their normal social groupings in school. Older children showed a high level of shrewdness and knowledge of sectarian divides in communities but spoke positively about how different religious or cultural backgrounds did not matter in terms of meeting and making new friends in holiday club settings. In terms of food provision, the findings of this study suggest that further work needs to be done to support children to access and eat healthy, nutritious food.

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Relationship between Primary School Children’s Physical Fitness, Physical Activity and their Parents’ Physical Activity

Baltic Journal of Sport and Health Sciences ◽

10.33607/bjshs.v2i117.912 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (117) ◽

Author(s):

Tomas Vainauskas ◽

Laurynas Dilys ◽

Saulius Šukys ◽

Brigita Miežienė ◽

Arūnas Emeljanovas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Physical Fitness ◽

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Healthy Lifestyle ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Tennis Ball ◽

Older Children ◽

Parental Physical Activity ◽

Children’S Physical Activity

Background. Healthy lifestyle skills instilled in childhood remain into adulthood. Parental physical activity skills are directly related to their children’s physical activity which strengthens their children’s physical fitness. The aim of the study was to determine and evaluate the relationship between parents’ and children’s physical activity and to evaluate the links between children’s physical activity and physical fitness.Methods. The study involved 486 primary school children aged 7 to 10 years (240 boys and 241 girls) and their parents from Kaunas district. The study was conducted in 2018 in Kaunas district schools. Parental physical activity was assessed using Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire-GLTEQ (Godin & Shephard, 1985). Physical activity of primary school children was assessed by submitting a questionnaire to parents developed by researchers Bacardi-Gascón, Reveles-Roy, Woodward-Lopez, Crawford, and Jiménez-Cruz (2012). Schoolchildren’s physical fitness was assessed by 9 physical fitness tests (Fjørtoft, Pedersen, Sigmundsson, & Vereijken, 2011).Results. Having assessed the physical activity of children according to WHO (2010) recommendations, we found that the vast majority of the surveyed children (93.6% of boys and 86.3 of girls) were physically active, i.e. they engaged in physical activity for more than 1 hour during the day. Comparing the schoolchildren’s physical fitness by gender we found that boys were more physically fit than girls when performing long jumps, two-legged jumps, throwing a tennis ball, and running for six minutes (p < .05). Comparing the results of schoolchildren’s physical fitness by grades (Table 3), we observed that the older children were, the more physically fit they were. Correlation analysis of the research results showed a statistically significant direct relationship between father’s and mother’s physical activity (r = .487, p = .0001). A significant relationship was found between the results of children’s physical activity and tennis ball throwing (r = .170, p = .018) and the results of 10 * 5m running tests (r = –.150, p = .019). Higher physical activity was directly associated with better scores on these tests.Conclusion. Schoolchildren’s and their parents’ physical activity has no relation with schoolchildren’s physical fitness.Keywords: healthy, lifestyle, physical activity, physical fitness.

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Changing minds at the earliest opportunity

Psychiatric Bulletin ◽

10.1192/pb.28.6.213 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 28 (6) ◽

pp. 213-215 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Nisha Shah

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Primary School ◽

Primary Education ◽

School Children ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Teaching Staff ◽

Older Children ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Mixed Responses ◽

Lack Of Knowledge

Stigmatising attitudes towards mental illness are reinforced by lack of knowledge, and it would seem logical to tackle this from the earliest possible age. A series of talks about mental illness to primary school children were enthusiastically received by the pupils, and revealed that negative attitudes were already present among the older children. The mixed responses of teaching staff supported the idea that increasing awareness of mental illness may have a place in primary education.

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Appraisal of Musical Syntax Violations by Primary School Children

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024/1421-0185/a000084 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 71 (3) ◽

pp. 161-168 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Clara E. James ◽

Elise Dupuis-Lozeron ◽

Claude-Alain Hauert

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Goodness Of Fit ◽

Musical Training ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Developmental Trend ◽

Older Children ◽

Tonal Music ◽

Perceptual Development ◽

Musical Syntax

In Western tonal music, musical phrases end with an explicit, highly expected, harmonic consequent. Primary school children were exposed to musical stimuli at two levels of complexity: children’s songs and polyphonic piano pieces. The endings (cadences) of all stimuli were either congruous or contained subtle or marked syntax violations, resulting in three levels of syntactic congruity. The children rated the endings of musical stimuli with respect to goodness of fit by drawing a crossbar through a continuous line stretching between a happy and a sad icon. All children, independent of age, rated the three levels of syntactic congruity hierarchically, for both levels of complexity. Compared to younger children, older children gave more extreme positive and negative ratings to congruous and markedly incongruous endings, respectively, but no developmental trend was found for the intermediate ratings of subtly incongruous endings. We conclude that, as a consequence of mere exposure, implicit learning of musical syntax manifests already in 6-year-old children and develops progressively with age. Moreover, we found indications of modulation of this perceptual development by musical training, an effect reminiscent of the interaction between long-term spontaneous developmental processes and deliberate learning in general cognitive functioning.

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Age and Sex Differences in Fundamental Movement Skills Among a Cohort of Irish School Children

Journal of Motor Learning and Development ◽

10.1123/jmld.2017-0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 81-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Lisa E. Bolger ◽

Linda A. Bolger ◽

Cian O’ Neill ◽

Edward Coughlan ◽

Wesley O’Brien ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Motor Development ◽

Primary Schools ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Older Children ◽

Object Control ◽

Control Score ◽

Age And Sex

The purpose of this study was to assess the fundamental movement skill (FMS) proficiency of Irish primary school children relative to age and sex. Data collected were baseline measures forProject Spraoi, a physical activity (PA) and nutrition-based intervention. Participants (N = 203) were senior infant (n = 102,Mage: 6.0 ± 0.4 years) and fourth class (n = 101,Mage: 9.9 ± 0.4 years) children from three primary schools in the south of Ireland. FMS testing was conducted using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2), assessing six locomotor and six object-control skills. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess age and sex related differences in FMS proficiency. Older children scored significantly higher than younger children in both locomotor (p < .05) and object-control score (p < .05). Boys scored significantly higher than girls in object-control score (p < .05), while girls scored significantly higher in locomotor score (p < .05). FMS levels among Irish primary school children are similar to children worldwide, with age and sex differences evident. Early interventions, aimed at improving FMS, are warranted among Irish primary school aged children as greater proficiency is related to greater PA participation and numerous health benefits.

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Factors influencing wellbeing in young people during COVID-19: A survey with 6291 young people in Wales

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0260640 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (12) ◽

pp. e0260640

Author(s):

Michaela James ◽

Hope Jones ◽

Amana Baig ◽

Emily Marchant ◽

Tegan Waites ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Secondary School ◽

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Online Survey ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Older Children ◽

Asian Ethnicity ◽

The World ◽

Mixed Ethnicity

COVID-19 infection and the resultant restrictions has impacted all aspects of life across the world. This study explores factors that promote or support wellbeing for young people during the pandemic, how they differ by age, using a self-reported online survey with those aged 8–25 in Wales between September 2020 and February 2021. Open-ended responses were analysed via thematic analysis to provide further context. A total of 6,291 responses were obtained from 81 education settings across Wales (including primary and secondary schools as well as sixth form, colleges and universities). Wellbeing was highest in primary school children and boys and lowest in those who were at secondary school children, who were girls and, those who preferred not to give a gender. Among primary school children, higher wellbeing was seen for those who played with lots of others (rather than alone), were of Asian ethnicity (OR 2.17, 95% CI: 1.26 to 4.3), had a safe play area (OR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.67 to 2.56) and had more sleep. To support their wellbeing young people reported they would like to be able to play with their friends more. Among secondary school children those who were of mixed ethnicity reported lower wellbeing (OR: 5.14, 95% CI: 1.68 to 15.79). To support their wellbeing they reported they would like more support with mental health (due to anxiety and pressure to achieve when learning online). This study found self-reported wellbeing differed by gender, ethnicity and deprivation and found younger children report the need for play and to see friends to support wellbeing but older children/young people wanted more support with anxiety and educational pressures.

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Problems in Developing Functional Handwriting

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.2002.94.2.623 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 94 (2) ◽

pp. 623-662 ◽

Cited By ~ 111

Author(s):

Ragnheidur Karlsdottir ◽

Thorarinn Stefansson

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Motor Abilities ◽

Grade 5 ◽

Time Required ◽

End Of Grade ◽

Handwriting Speed

The development of handwriting quality and speed of 407 primary school children was followed from Grade 1 to Grade 5 in a longitudinal experiment. Performance was analyzed to enquire into the extent and bases for handwriting dysfunction. 27% of the children were classified as dysfunctional at the end of Grade I. At the end of Grade 5 only 13% were so classified. Most children have adequate perception and motor abilities to develop functional handwriting. Dysfunction of handwriting speed can usually be traced to dysfunction of its quality. Dysfunction of quality can be traced to insufficient individualization in the primary instruction in handwriting which leads to a mismatch between the time allocated to teach certain letters to certain children and the time required for these children to learn the form of these letters.

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OBSERVING NATURAL OBJECTS: CHARACTERISTICS OF FLOWERING PLANTS PERCEIVED AS IMPORTANT BY 5- AND 10-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

Journal of Baltic Science Education ◽

10.33225/jbse/15.14.109 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 109-120

Author(s):

Marjanca Kos ◽

Janez Jerman

Keyword(s):

School Children ◽

Age Groups ◽

Biology Education ◽

Flowering Plants ◽

Educational Process ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Older Children ◽

Plant Characteristics ◽

The Difference ◽

Test Plants

This research examined the ways in which children observe flowering plants, namely: which features they perceive as significant, whether the skill of observing flowering plants develops with age, and what is the difference between genders. The research involved 174 children: 89 children aged 5 and 85 children aged 10 who were given the task of choosing the plant they recognised as the same as each of the 10 given test plants among a total of 37 plants which looked more or less similar to the test plants. The analysis of the plant combinations the children most frequently mismatched showed, that colour is the feature to which they attribute the most importance. Shape turned out to be considered more important to the children than size. Older children revealed better plant observation skills than younger ones with the girls achieving better results than the boys in both age groups. The findings show that children's observation skills develop with age, and corroborate the need to support the development of observation in the educational process. Keywords: biology education, observation skills, plant characteristics, preschool children, primary school children.

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Factors influencing wellbeing in young people during COVID-19.

10.1101/2021.08.13.21261959 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michaela James ◽

Hope Jones ◽

Amana Baig ◽

Emily Marchant ◽

Tegan Waites ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Secondary School ◽

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Online Survey ◽

Primary School Children ◽

Older Children ◽

Asian Ethnicity ◽

Safe Area ◽

Mixed Ethnicity

COVID-19 infection and the resultant restrictions has impacted all aspects of life across the world. This study explores factors that promote or support wellbeing for young people during the pandemic, how they differ by age, using a self-reported online survey with those aged 8 - 25 in Wales between September 2020 and February 2021. Open-ended responses were analysed via thematic analysis to provide further context. A total of 6,291 responses were obtained from 81 education settings across Wales (including primary and secondary schools as well as sixth form, colleges and universities). Wellbeing was highest in primary school children and boys and lowest in those who were at secondary school children, who were girls and, those who preferred not to give a gender. Among primary school children, higher wellbeing was seen for those who played with others (rather than alone), were of Asian ethnicity (OR 2.3, 95% CI: 1.26 to 4.3), lived in a safe area (OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.67 to 2.5) and had more sleep. To support their wellbeing young people reported they would like to be able to play with their friends more. Among secondary school children those who were of mixed ethnicity reported lower wellbeing (OR: 5.10, 95% CI: 1.70 to 15.80). To support their wellbeing they reported they would like more support with mental health (due to anxiety and pressure to achieve when learning online). This study found self-reported wellbeing differed by gender, ethnicity and deprivation and found younger children report the need for play and to see friends to support wellbeing but older children/young people wanted more support with anxiety and educational pressures.

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