A Systematic, Reliable Approach to Play Assessment in Preschoolers

Play assessment is gaining attention as a measure of the developing skills of young children. The procedures and methods of coding child behaviours vary considerably across researchers and practitioners. Because of this, definitive statements about the use of play assessment cannot be made without further research. The present study is an attempt to report a set of standardized procedures for play assessment along with an empirically based coding scheme (PIECES). The reliability of this system of play assessment is also investigated. High inter-observer reliability was found along with moderate test–retest correlations for both the typically developing (r = 0.48) and exceptional (r = 0.58) children. Thus, this version of play assessment holds promise as an observation system for intervention and progress monitoring in early childhood. The authors stress that more research is needed in this area before play assessment can either be used in early childhood or discounted as an inappropriate tool

Sitting and Looking: The Development of Stability and Visual Exploration

This longitudinal study focused on the interaction of developing sitting postural control with look time, which served as a measure for cognitive processing. Twenty-eight typically developing infants and 16 infants with motor delays were evaluated using center-of-pressure measures to assess stability of sitting postural control and videography to assess look time at objects, at three progressive stages of sitting development. Results indicated that look time decreased significantly in conjunction with a significant increase in postural stability in both groups as sitting progressed to independence. Infants with motor delays showed significantly longer looks when compared to typical infants at the middle stage of sitting. We conclude that developmental changes in look time are related to changes in sitting postural control, and infants with motor delay may have greater difficulty looking during emerging postural control skills in sitting. Early interventionists may use look time as an indicator of sitting effort and cognitive processing during assessment and program planning

The Use of Play Assessment to Evaluate the Cognitive Skills of Two-and Three-Year-Old Children

Play assessment is increasing in popularity despite the lack of empirical support. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of play assessment with young children and determine its efficacy in determining cognitive levels of development. Eight 2-year-olds and eight 3 1/2-year-olds were observed playing in an unstructured format. Results indicated that Exploratory Play becomes more complex with age and is displayed more than Pretend Play in an unstructured play session. Children\u27s play primarily consisted of Exploratory Play, Pretend Play and Problem Solving and Planning Skills. Several of the Supple mental Subdomains measured by play assessment were not observed to occur in the spontaneous play format. A tendency for increasing complexity of play across time in session was also found

Parent Involvement and Views of School Success: The Role of Parents’ Latino and White American Cultural Orientations

We examined ethnicity and cultural orientation as predictors of parents\u27 views of and involvement in children\u27s education, using data gathered from the Latino (n = 74) and non-Latino (17 White and 13 ethnic minority) parents of children in an elementary school\u27s dual-language program. Parents completed a questionnaire that assessed Latino and White American cultural orientations, importance of children\u27s academic and social success, and self- and significant other involvement in children\u27s education. Results indicated that Latino (and other ethnic minority) parents valued academic and social success equally and more strongly than did Whites and that Whites valued social success more strongly than academic success. Latinos also reported greater involvement of significant others. These differences were largely accounted for by cultural orientations. Educational practices that take into account differences in cultural orientations and the involvement of significant others thus seem more likely to improve academic outcomes than do efforts intended to promote the valuing of education

\u3ci\u3eExamining the Impact of Parental Involvement in a Dual Language Program: Implications for Children and Schools\u3c/i\u3e

Most native-born, English-speaking Americans – if they understood that developing the native language is good for English and good for longterm academic achievement – would support bilingual education. The problem is, almost none of them have heard the case. They have only heard the disinformation, coming from people who oppose these programs for extraneous (i.e., political) reasons (James Crawford, 1999).https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1190/thumbnail.jp

Parental Involvement in Education: A Comparison of English and Spanish Speaking Parents

We examined the educational involvement of English speaking and Spanish speaking parents of students in a Dual Language Program. Parents responded to open-ended questions about how they were involved, what they would like to be involved in but were not, and what barriers prevented them from being more involved. Monitoring/assisting with homework was the most frequently mentioned involvement activity fir both groups, followed by reading with their children, school involvement and communication, and providing social and emotional support to their children. The top areas in which parents wanted to do more were school involvement and communication, social and emotional support, homework assistance/monitoring and parental development. Time and language/educational issues predominated as barriers to parental involvement with the former cited more by English speaking parents and the latter more by Spanish speaking parents

Early Childhood/Child Welfare Priority

This is the executive summary of a white paper that describes the context, current capacity, areas of opportunity, and next steps for the UNO Early Childhood/Child Welfare Priority (ECCW). It responds to the need for comprehensive integrated systems of services designed to give all young children (birth through age eight) access to what they need in the early years to succeed in school and in life. In this context, UNO recognizes ECCW as critical to our metropolitan university mission. Further, we must come together with early childhood service providers, P-12 districts, parents, policy makers, other University of Nebraska campuses, community service agencies and businesses to improve learning and developmental outcomes for all children, with emphasis on children who are at-risk and those with special needs

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570