School readiness includes the readiness of the individual child, the school's readiness for children, and the ability of the family and community to support optimal early child development. It is the responsibility of schools to meet the needs of all children at all levels of readiness. Children's readiness for kindergarten should become an outcome measure for a coordinated system of community-based programs and supports for the healthy development of young children. Our rapidly expanding insights into early brain and child development have revealed that modifiable factors in a child's early experience can greatly affect that child's health and learning trajectories. Many children in the United States enter kindergarten with limitations in their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development that might have been significantly diminished or eliminated through early identification and attention to child and family needs. A strong correlation between social-emotional development and school and life success, combined with alarming rates of preschool expulsion, point toward the urgency of leveraging opportunities to support social-emotional development and address behavioral concerns early. Pediatric primary care providers have access to the youngest children and their families. Pediatricians can promote and use community supports, such as home visiting programs, quality early care and education programs, family support programs and resources, early intervention services, children's museums, and libraries, which are important for addressing school readiness and are too often underused by populations who can benefit most from them. When these are not available, pediatricians can support the development of such resources. The American Academy of Pediatrics affords pediatricians many opportunities to improve the physical, social-emotional, and educational health of young children, in conjunction with other advocacy groups. This technical report provides an updated version of the previous iteration from the American Academy of Pediatrics published in 2008.
Patricia Gail Williams, Marc Lerner, Jill M. Sells et al.
Introduction: National health policies to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the US resulted in widespread school closures and disrupted learning in Spring 2020. Methods: = 282 5-12 year olds enrolled in the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Research Program to investigate associations between caregiver-reported duration of Spring 2020 learning disruptions and academic achievement. Results: Linear regression analyses estimated that children who experienced more than 4 weeks of instruction disruptions in Spring 2020 scored 4.5 points [95% CI: -8.77, -0.22] lower on age-normed math assessments compared to peers who had four or fewer weeks of disruption, adjusting for sociodemographic variables, pre-pandemic vocabulary, and COVID-19 family hardships and stress. No differences were found for reading. Children whose caregivers had higher levels of pandemic-related traumatic stress and lower educational attainment also had lower math scores, adjusting for all other covariates. Discussion: Results suggest educators and schools focus additional attention on supporting math instruction for children who experienced extended learning disruptions.
Courtney K. Blackwell, Maxwell Armand Mansolf, Sean Deoni et al.
OBJECTIVES: to understand health and education professionals' perceptions regarding children's learning difficulties in public schools. METHODS: qualitative research, of the participatory action type, linked to Paulo Freire's Research Itinerary. Forty-five professionals participated, through interviews and a Virtual Culture Circle. The analysis was developed through careful reading, reflection and interpretation of highlighted topics. RESULTS: professionals discussed the (in)visibility of learning difficulties, strategies and resources in the educational sector and the search for solutions in the health sector. It was found that the production of complaints related to school learning is attributed predominantly as an individual problem of children or their family, exempting the educational institution from this process. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: greater investment in professional training and development policies is urgently needed to facilitate coordination between sectors, with a view to overcoming outdated pedagogical and health models.
Pamela Camila Fernandes Rumor, Michelle Kuntz Durand, Jeane Barros de Souza et al.
Importance: Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a specific learning disability of neurobiological origin whose core cognitive deficit is widely believed to involve language (phonological) processing. Although reading is also a visual task, the potential role of vision in DD has been controversial, and little is known about the integrity of visual function in individuals with DD. Objective: To assess the frequency of visual deficits (specifically vergence, accommodation, and ocular motor tracking) in children with DD compared with a control group of typically developing readers. Design, Setting, and Participants: A prospective, uncontrolled observational study was conducted from May 28 to October 17, 2016, in an outpatient ophthalmology ambulatory clinic among 29 children with DD and 33 typically developing (TD) children. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary outcomes were frequencies of deficits in vergence (amplitude, fusional ranges, and facility), accommodation (amplitude, facility, and accuracy), and ocular motor tracking (Developmental Eye Movement test and Visagraph eye tracker). Results: Among the children with DD (10 girls and 19 boys; mean [SD] age, 10.3 [1.2] years) and the TD group (21 girls and 12 boys; mean [SD] age, 9.4 [1.4] years), accommodation deficits were more frequent in the DD group than the TD group (16 [55%] vs 3 [9%]; difference = 46%; 95% CI, 25%-67%; P < .001). For ocular motor tracking, 18 children in the DD group (62%) had scores in the impaired range (in the Developmental Eye Movement test, Visagraph, or both) vs 5 children in the TD group (15%) (difference, 47%; 95% CI, 25%-69%; P < .001). Vergence deficits occurred in 10 children in the DD group (34%) and 5 children in the TD group (15%) (difference, 19%; 95% CI, -2.2% to 41%; P = .08). In all, 23 children in the DD group (79%) and 11 children in the TD group (33%) had deficits in 1 or more domain of visual function (difference, 46%; 95% CI, 23%-69%; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that deficits in visual function are far more prevalent in school-aged children with DD than in TD readers, but the possible cause and clinical relevance of these deficits are uncertain. Further study is needed to determine the extent to which treating these deficits can improve visual symptoms and/or reading parameters.
Aparna Raghuram, Sowjanya Gowrisankaran, Emily A Swanson et al.
Concentrated pockets of under-resourced neighbourhoods and schools exist in urban areas in which there are overwhelming numbers of children labelled ‘at-risk.’ Structural equation modelling was used to predict the associations between family social capital in kindergarten and third-grade learning and development outcomes for low-socioeconomic children in urban areas. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 were analyzed. Child outcomes included third-grade language/literacy, cognitive development/problem-solving, and approaches to learning. Findings indicate that family social capital has a significant longitudinal impact on children’s development and learning. Early factors influencing children’s later development and learning can inform intervention strategies, potentially moderating gaps in these areas between socioeconomic groups. Findings can be used to inform practice and policy for children and families.
Statistical learning, a fundamental skill to extract regularities in the environment, is often considered a core supporting mechanism of the first language development. While many studies of statistical learning are conducted within a single domain or modality, recent evidence suggests that this skill may differ based on the context in which the stimuli are presented. In addition, few studies investigate learning as it unfolds in real-time, rather focusing on the outcome of learning. In this protocol, we describe an approach for identifying the cognitive and neural basis of statistical learning, within an individual, across domains (linguistic vs. non-linguistic) and sensory modalities (visual and auditory). The tasks are designed to cast as little cognitive demand as possible on participants, making it ideal for young school-aged children and special populations. The web-based nature of the behavioral tasks offers a unique opportunity for us to reach more representative populations nationwide, to estimate effect sizes with greater precision, and to contribute to open and reproducible research. The neural measures provided by the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task can inform researchers about the neural mechanisms engaged during statistical learning, and how these may differ across individuals on the basis of domain or modality. Finally, both tasks allow for the measurement of real-time learning, as changes in reaction time to a target stimulus is tracked across the exposure period. The main limitation of using this protocol relates to the hour-long duration of the experiment. Children might need to complete all four statistical learning tasks in multiple sittings. Therefore, the web-based platform is designed with this limitation in mind so that tasks may be disseminated individually. This methodology will allow users to investigate how the process of statistical learning unfolds across and within domains and modalities in children from different developmental backgrounds.
Julie M. Schneider, Anqi Hu, Jennifer Legault et al.
The Hospital School Program (HSP) is a quality educational model ensuring the right to education for hospitalized children. To explore how hospitalized children participating in a Hospital School Program (HSP) manifest competencies related to the LifeComp framework, particularly in the personal, social, and learning-to-learn domains. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combined quantitative (LifeComp-based survey) and qualitative (thematic analysis) methods in a cohort design. Quantitative results from 37 exposed and 37 non-exposed patients showed significant correlations in the personal area for self-regulation (p = 0.024), flexibility (p < 0.001), and well-being (p = 0.006, p = 0.024). In the social area, significant correlations were found for empathy (p = 0.013), communication (p = 0.013), and collaboration (p < 0.05). In learning-to-learn, correlations were identified for growth mindset (p < 0.05), critical thinking (p = 0.017, p = 0.018), and learning management (p < 0.05). Qualitative analysis highlighted the program's contribution to children's personal, social, and learning-to-learn competencies. These exploratory findings suggest that the HSP may be associated with LifeComp development and provide a preliminary, reproducible model for supporting educational and socio-emotional outcomes in pediatric hospital settings.
Jhon Camacho‐Cruz, Elizabeth Ortiz Delgado, Manuela Gómez Hurtado et al.
Traditional learning in the chemistry course has often been seen as a boring course among students due to the use of static, non-dynamic, and interactive learning materials. The implementation of digital media in education has provided multiple advantages, the implementation of technologies such as augmented reality promotes effective learning because it makes it possible for students to interact with virtual elements in our real environment. The present research was delimited in the development of an application with augmented reality for the learning of chemical elements in 5th grade of elementary school students, to provide a support tool for both teachers and students, to help achieve a better understanding of the chemical elements. For the development of the augmented reality application called "Atomik-3D", the Mobile-D methodology was used, which is focused on the development of mobile applications; once the application was developed, functional tests were carried out to analyze surface recognition characteristics and ease of use, to analyze the performance a total of 20 tests were carried out giving us positive results. Through the analysis of the results, it was possible to identify that, for the recognition of flat surfaces, the mobile application has a good performance on illuminated surfaces with more than 30 lux. Likewise, the Marker technology used in this project has a very efficient recognition time of a flat area, being mostly no more than 1.5 seconds. Finally, 85% of the participants surveyed agreed that the application developed was easy and very easy to use.
Universidad Autónoma del Perú, Lima, Perú, Eder Campos-Pajuelo, Leonardo Vargas-Hernandez et al.
BACKGROUND: Recent advances in computer vision and wearable technology have created an opportunity to introduce mobile therapy systems for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that can respond to the increasing demand for therapeutic interventions; however, feasibility questions must be answered first. OBJECTIVE: We studied the feasibility of a prototype therapeutic tool for children with ASD using Google Glass, examining whether children with ASD would wear such a device, if providing the emotion classification will improve emotion recognition, and how emotion recognition differs between ASD participants and neurotypical controls (NC). METHODS: We ran a controlled laboratory experiment with 43 children: 23 with ASD and 20 NC. Children identified static facial images on a computer screen with one of 7 emotions in 3 successive batches: the first with no information about emotion provided to the child, the second with the correct classification from the Glass labeling the emotion, and the third again without emotion information. We then trained a logistic regression classifier on the emotion confusion matrices generated by the two information-free batches to predict ASD versus NC. RESULTS: = 33) showed increased accuracies in emotion labeling, and the logistic regression classifier achieved an accuracy of 72.7%. Further analysis suggests that the ability to recognize surprise, fear, and neutrality may distinguish ASD cases from NC. CONCLUSION: This feasibility study supports the utility of a wearable device for social affective learning in ASD children and demonstrates subtle differences in how ASD and NC children perform on an emotion recognition task.
This study aimed to explore the relationship between teachers and students’ families and address the deficiencies in the body of research regarding the performance gap between children with autism and their age-equivalent peers. The research question was: How do teachers of children with autism perceive the home-school collaboration and its impact on learning? Ten state-certified special educators with at least 3 years’ experience teaching children with autism, and experience collaborating with their students’ families participated in face-to-face interviews, answering 8 open-ended questions in this generic qualitative study. Inductive thematic analysis yielded 6 themes: (a) collaboration improves learning, (b) communication is vital, (c) collaboration supports overall student improvement, (d) challenges impact collaboration, (e) parental involvement is imperative, and (f) teachers find ways to promote parental engagement. A strong home-school connection improved students’ ability to grasp material in the classroom, decreased the children’s anxiety and enhanced their sense of security; also, involved parents reinforced the learning process at home. Recommendations for future research include studying a larger sample to increase generalizability and covering a larger geographic area for better representation of the population.
