A systematic review of game technologies for pediatric patients

[EN] Children in hospital are subjected to multiple negative stimuli that may hinder their development and social interactions. Although game technologies are thought to improve children's experience in hospital, there is a lack of information on how they can be used effectively. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on the existing approaches in this context to identify gaps for future research. A total of 1305 studies were identified, of which 75 were thoroughly analyzed according to our review protocol. The results show that the most common approach is to design mono-user games with traditional computers or monitor-based video consoles, which serve as a distractor or a motivator for physical rehabilitation for primary school children undergoing fearful procedures such as venipuncture, or those suffering chronic, neurological, or traumatic diseases/injures. We conclude that, on the one hand, game technologies seem to present physical and psychological benefits to pediatric patients, but more research is needed on this. On the other hand, future designers of games for pediatric hospitalization should consider: 1. The development for kindergarten patients and adolescents, 2. Address the psychological impact caused by long-term hospitalization, 3. Use collaboration as an effective game strategy to reduce patient isolation, 4. Have purposes other than distraction, such as socialization, coping with emotions, or fostering physical mobility, 5. Include parents/caregivers and hospital staff in the game activities; and 6. Exploit new technological artifacts such as robots and tangible interactive elements to encourage intrinsic motivation.This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Development Regional Fund (EDRF-FEDER) with Project TIN2014-60077-R.El Jurdi, S.; Montaner-Marco, J.; García Sanjuan, F.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Nácher-Soler, VE. (2018). A systematic review of game technologies for pediatric patients. Computers in Biology and Medicine. 97:89-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2018.04.019S891129

Experiences during a psychoeducational intervention program run in a pediatric ward: a qualitative study

Hospitalization, despite its duration, is likely to result in emotional, social, and academic costs to school-age children and adolescents. Developing adequate psychoeducational activities and assuring inpatients' own class teachers' collaboration, allows for the enhancement of their personal and emotional competences and the maintenance of a connection with school and academic life. These educational programs have been mainly designed for patients with long stays and/or chronic conditions, in the format of Hospital Schools, and typically in pediatric Hospitals. However, the negative effects of hospitalization can be felt in internments of any duration, and children hospitalized in smaller regional hospitals should have access to actions to maintain the connection with their daily life. Thus, this investigation aims to present a psychoeducational intervention program theoretically grounded within the self-regulated learning (SRL) framework, implemented along 1 year in a pediatric ward of a regional hospital to all its school-aged inpatients, regardless of the duration of their stay. The program counts with two facets: the psychoeducational accompaniment and the linkage to school. All the 798 school-aged inpatients (M age = 11.7; SD age = 3.71; Mhospital stay = 4 days) participated in pedagogical, leisure nature, and SRL activities designed to train transversal skills (e.g., goal-setting). Moreover, inpatients completed assigned study tasks resulting from the linkage between the students' own class teachers and the hospital teacher. The experiences reported by parents/caregivers and class teachers of the inpatients enrolling in the intervention allowed the researchers to reflect on the potential advantages of implementing a psychoeducational intervention to hospitalized children and adolescents that is: individually tailored, focused on leisure playful theoretically grounded activities that allow learning to naturally occur, and designed to facilitate school re-entry after hospital discharge. Parents/caregivers highlighted that the program helped in the preparation for surgery and facilitated the hospitalization process, aided in the distraction from the health condition, promoted SRL competences, and facilitated the communication and linkage with school life. Class teachers emphasized the relevance of the program, particularly in the liaison between hospital and school, in the academic and psycho-emotional and leisure-educational support provided, and in smoothing the school re-entry.This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). PM was supported by a Post-Doctoral fellowship from the Psychology Research Centre (CIPsi), University of Minho. RA was supported by a PhD fellowship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)

Exploring the Experiences of Learning Mathematics for a Child with Cancer: A Case Study

In this research report, I utilize interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) to examine the mathematics education experiences of a child with cancer. Two qualitative interviews with a 13-year-old male patient with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and his mother were analyzed. Findings revealed several storylines or themes: living with cancer, environmental barriers, and mathematics in virtual school. Grade level mathematics, content knowledge, and delivery during treatment in comparison to the child’s healthy peers are also discussed

An Exploration of the PedsAcademy Internship\u27s Influence on Aspiring Educators\u27 Preparation to Teach Children with Chronic Illnesses

The increased emergence of childhood chronic illnesses in the United States of America has created a need for educational support in this unique student population. Research trends have showcased how the child\u27s emotional health and vacancies in legislation are some of the affecting factors when discussing the level of academic aid these children receive from the state. Some other factors that come into play when ensuring children with chronic illnesses are not excluded from receiving quality education are their learning environment, school reintegration process, and evaluating pre-existing hospital-school programs which are all themes covered in this narrative. Teacher preparation programs are the best way to tackle this issue early on. By providing aspiring educators training on how to help these students, they will ensure a successful school reintegration for the child once they return to the traditional schooling setting. Hence, why this research focuses on the PedsAcademy, a pioneer Florida hospital-school program, and the aspiring educators\u27 perceptions of their academic and socio-emotional impact on the students. The research questions are synthesized into three main topics: social-emotional impact, influence on aspiring educators, and state regulations. Each of these themes encompass further descriptive terms based on the survey and interview results, which include: meaningful academic and socio-emotional student progress, flexible teaching, unique opportunity, life-changing experience, and knowledge of state regulations. Through the data collection of survey and interview responses, this thesis records the research findings and establishes concrete recommendations that contribute to the preexisting materials on the educational support available for children with chronic illnesses

Feasibility of a Nutrition Training Program on Improving Self-Efficacy and Life Skill Development for Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease

Adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for growth and nutritionaldeficiencies due to poor dietary intake. Presently, no efficacious behavioral intervention exists to address the nutritional need in SCD management. The Good Nutrition 4Me Living with SCD program is a multi-component intervention, developed to improve knowledge base and the dietary habits of adolescents living with SCD. This report reviews the outcomes for 5 adolescents that participated in this 5-week program. Dietary intake was monitored daily via text messaging and progress with goals was reviewed weekly in the group sessions. Parents were also updated on their adolescent’s progress with dietary goals during a family session in the home setting. Resulted indicated promising effects across participants, with trends towards improvement in knowledge about nutritional recommendations and dietary intake. The Good Nutrition 4Me Living with SCD program was viewed as feasible and palatable, as all evaluable families completed the intervention and one-month follow-up activities

Effectiveness of origami on hospitalized anxiety among children admitted in pediatric ward of Sree Mookambika Medical College Hospital, Kulasekharam

INTRODUCTION: Hospitalized children will regress with the skills that they had previously mastered. Within a safe environment, the sick child needs expert physical care, emotional support, expression of feelings (through play) and continuation of school education, to promote continued growth, both in acute and chronic illness. This concept helps to minimize the emotional trauma to the children and their parents for better adjustment during hospital stay. STATEMENT OF THE STUDY: A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Origami on Hospitalized Anxiety Among Children Admitted in Pediatric Ward of Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences Kulasekharam. OBJECTIVES: 1. To find the pre test and post-test level of hospitalized anxiety among children of experimental group and the control group. 2. To determine the effectiveness of Origami on hospitalized anxiety among children of experimental group with control group. 3. To find the association between hospitalized anxiety among children with the selected demographic variables HYPO.THESES: H1- There is a significant difference on the level of hospitalised anxiety among children before and after intervention. H2- There is a significant association between the level of hospitalized anxiety among children with selected demographic variables. METHODOLOGY: The study was quasi-experimental study with an evaluative approach. The study was conducted in Pediatric wards of Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences Kulasekharam. Data collection period was one month. Population was hospitalized school age children. Samples were children admitted in Pediatric ward aged between 6-12 years. Purposive sampling technique was used. Sample size was 40(20 children in each experimental and control group). The tools used for data collection were demographic variables and Hospital Anxiety Assessment Checklist. Three point scale to assess the hospital anxiety of the children. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: The findings revealed that the pre test mean score of the experimental group was 33.2 and that of control group was 31.75. The post test means score of experimental group was 28.9 and that of control group was 30.9. It showed that before implementing therapy, the experimental group had increased level of hospitalised anxiety than the control group. The t value was 6.61, df=38, table value= 2.02 and p<0.05, so it is highly significant. There is no statistically significant association between pre-test level of hospitalized anxiety with the selected demographic variables of experimental and control group except for age and care taker of the child during hospitalization. CONCLUSION: The conclusion drawn from the findings of the study are, The study result showed that, during pre-test there was 12 (60%) children in experimental group and 15 (75%) children in control group had mild level of anxiety and 8 (40%) children in the experimental group and 5(25%) children in the control group had moderate level of anxiety and there was no children who had severe level of anxiety. During post-test, 18 (90%) of the children in experimental group and 17(85%) children in control group had mild level of anxiety, 2(10%) children in the experimental group and 3(15%) children in the control group had moderate level of anxiety and there was no children who had severe level of anxiety. So the posttest reveals that 90% of children in the experimental group had reduction in the anxiety level and 15% children in the control group had reduction in the anxiety level. The results showed that both the groups had difference in exhibiting the hospitalized anxiety; however the experimental group children could adapt faster than the control group children.(mean difference of both the groups= 3.45)

Designing Social Robots for Early Detection of Mental Heath Conditions

Globally, mental health is a growing socio-economic burden and leads to negative ramifications including mortality and poor quality of life. Successful early detection of mental illness will make a significant, positive economic and societal impact. Social robots show potential to be integrated as tools for psychological therapy and early detection. This thesis seeks to design and develop social robots for early detection of mental illness. I explore how multi-modal inputs can be used to infer user's mental state and to direct appropriate robot behavior. I have employed an iterative design process for the design of robot morphology, personality, and behavior. Design 1 is a social robot with 6 DOF and exhibits non-verbal behaviors. In this design, I explore audio, video, and haptic inputs to detect user's emotional state. Design 2 is an interactive device that aims to collect audio data for the detection of early signs of depression. In this design, acoustic features are explored for depression detection, and the device uses audio and LEDs to communicate it's internal state. Finally, I have conducted a pilot experiment to investigate how the users interact with the robot. This thesis informs the design of future robots that aim to support early detection of mental illnesses

Classroom Reintegration for the Chronically Ill Child

Research shows that more students with a chronic illness are able to learn within their mainstream schools, but that schools are often unprepared for the reintegration process. Chronically ill students may not have the same access to equal learning opportunities when compared to their healthy peers, even though a regular school environment can be beneficial for the academic and social/emotional development of these students. School counselors can help to create an individualized reintegration program for these students, breaking down the barriers to their successful reintegration back into the classroom environment. This project is a guide to be used by school counselors to help facilitate this reintegration program for chronically ill students. It fills a need by providing an outline that school counselors can use to fill in the individualized student needs, thus creating a personal and specific plan for each student as necessary. This plan can help school counselors by providing organization and decreasing confusion and uncertainty throughout the planning process. This plan can also help chronically ill students to strengthen their academic and social/emotional development, and to have a more successful return to their typical classroom environment

EL ROL DEL PERSONAL DE ENFERMERÍA EN LA PROMOCIÓN DEL BIENESTAR BIOPSICOSOCIAL DURANTE LA EXPERIENCIA DE HOSPITALIZACIÓN PEDIÁTRICA.

La estancia en el hospital de niños y niñas es desafortunadamente común y está asociada a regresión en los comportamientos, agresión, falta de cooperación, retraimiento, dificultad para recuperarse, llanto excesivo, y disminución de la comunicación y/o actividad, por lo que el proceso atención enfermero necesita no solo una perspectiva biológica, sino también incluir a las esferas psicológicas y sociales. El rol del personal de enfermería, al ser los principales referentes de cuidado dentro del contexto sanitario, resulta esencial pues son percibidos como la mayor fuente de apoyo e información de los padres, madres y pacientes. En el documento se proporcionan algunas pautas, dirigidas al personal de salud, para aumentar el bienestar integral a través de acciones concretas y de fácil ejecución. Palabras clave: hospitalización, personal de enfermería, humanización de la atención. ABSTRACT The hospital stay of children is unfortunately common and is associated with regression in behaviors, aggression, lack of cooperation, withdrawal, difficulty in recovering, excessive crying, and decreased communication and / or activity, so The nursing care process needs not only a biological perspective, but also includes the psychological and social spheres. The role of the nursing staff, being the main care references within the healthcare context, is essential since they are perceived as the greatest source of support and information from parents and patients. The document provides some guidelines, aimed at health personnel, to increase comprehensive well-being through concrete and easy-to-implement actions. Keywords: hospitalization, nursing staff, humanization of care