A National Early Intervention System as a Strategy to Promote Inclusion and Academic Achievement in Portugal

Is more always better? Effectiveness of constraint-induced movement therapy in children with high-risk or unilateral cerebral palsy (0-6 years): Systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

While constraint-induced movement therapy is strongly recommended as an intervention for infants with unilateral cerebral palsy, the optimal dosage remains undefined. This systematic review aims to identify the most effective level of intensity of constraint-induced movement therapy to enhance manual function in infants at high risk of asymmetric brain lesions or unilateral cerebral palsy diagnosis.

METHODS

This systematic review with meta-analysis encompassed a comprehensive search across four electronic databases to identify articles that met the following criteria: randomised controlled trials, children aged 0-6 with at high risk or with unilateral cerebral palsy, and treatment involving constraint-induced movement therapy for upper limb function. Studies with similar outcomes were pooled by calculating the standardised mean difference score for each subgroup, and subgroups were stratified every 30 h of total intervention dosage (30-60, 61-90, >90 h). Risk of bias was assessed with Cochrane Collaboration's tool.

RESULTS

Seventeen studies were included. Meta-analyses revealed significant differences among subgroups. The 30-60 h subgroup showed a weak effect for spontaneous use of the affected upper limb during bimanual performance, grasp function, and parents' perception of how often children use their affected upper limb. Additionally, this subgroup demonstrated a moderate effect for the parents' perception of how effectively children use their affected upper limb.

CONCLUSIONS

Using a dosage ranging from 30 to 60 h when applying a constraint-induced movement therapy protocol holds promise as the most age-appropriate and cost-effectiveness approach for improving upper limb functional outcomes and parent's perception.

Psychological and cultural factors influencing antibiotic prescription

Humans have inundated the environment worldwide with antimicrobials for about one century, giving selective advantage to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Therefore, antibiotic resistance has become a public health problem responsible for increased mortality and extended hospital stays because the efficacy of antibiotics has diminished. Hospitals and other clinical settings have implemented stewardship measures to reduce antibiotic administration and prescription. However, these measures demand multifactorial approaches, including multidisciplinary teams in clinical settings and the education of professionals and patients. Recent studies indicate that individual factors, such as mother-infant attachment and parenting styles, play a critical role in antibiotic use. Also, macrocontextual factors, such as economic, social, or cultural backgrounds, may impact antibiotic use rates. Therefore, research aiming to ameliorate stewardship measures must include psychologically and sociologically based research.

Comparison Between Performance Levels for Mathematical Competence: Results for the Sex Variable

Schools promote all-round education for each of their students. This requires teachers to work on all of the possibilities offered by a subject, including mathematical ability. This process of adjustment and individualization is essential for students who have excellent performance or aptitudes. This study uses an ex post facto, descriptive and quantitative research methodology to examine the results of giving the online version of the Evaluation Battery for Mathematical Ability (BECOMA On) to 3795 5th-year primary school students. The sample was selected from 147 Spanish schools from 16 autonomous regions and 2 autonomous municipalities. Three levels of performance were identified, 3 being the highest, and different statistical indices were calculated for each of them. The results were also analyzed according to sex, with statistically significant differences in the highest performance level. In addition, the study highlighted a diagnostic gap in the identification of higher capacity students, a pending challenge for education systems for the educational inclusion of all students.

The Implications of Filial Piety in Study Engagement and Study Satisfaction: A Polish-Vietnamese Comparison

Even in psychological literature, which describes many determining variables related to the school domain, few studies have investigated the universal (i.e., etic) mechanism underlying parent-child relations, which is a prototype matrix for future student-teacher relations. The role of the imprinted schema of children's obligations toward parents seems to be crucial for school functioning in classroom society. The Dual Filial Piety Model (DFPM; Yeh, 2003) is comprised of two higher-order factors that correspond to the two focal filial piety attributes: reciprocal (need of interpersonal relatedness) and authoritarian (need of social belonging and national identity), which have been shown to have distinct implications on social adaptation and individuals' psychological functioning. In this study, we investigate the relationship between filial piety and student attitudes (study engagement and satisfaction) in a more individualistic and egalitarian culture (Poland, N = 310) and in a more collectivistic and hierarchical society (Vietnam, N = 297). The measurement invariances of three scales, i.e., the Vietnamese adaptation of DFP Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-S9), and the Study Satisfaction Scale, were improved in the MLM analyses. Our results show that in more individualistic cultures, the RFP (reciprocal mode) is a stronger predictor of study engagement and study satisfaction; however, the AFP (authoritarian mode) is a better factor to predict study engagement in more collectivistic cultures. What is more, only RFP positively correlates with study satisfaction in individualistic culture. Our findings revealed that in different cultures, different aspects of filial piety should be emphasized by parents in the context of the future academic achievements of their children. The conclusion is that the prevention and intervention strategies or techniques intended for children with school problems should be culturally appropriate and addressed to the parents of kindergarten and later to very early-stage education teachers. The results of studies based on the DFPM may stimulate practical applications and policy development within the domain of success and failure in the academic environment.

Schools That Promote the Improvement of Academic Performance and the Success of All Students

The movement for effective schools and school improvement has enjoyed a long history, at both the theoretical and practical level. The contextual variables focused on the educational process of the classrooms have been identified in numerous investigations, concluding that the improvement of academic performance is a key element of the movement. The main objective of this research is focused on verifying the effectiveness of the treatment based on collaborative/cooperative learning methodologies and projects to improve the linguistic and mathematical competence as an enhancing element of academic performance. The sample consists of 228 students belonging to two public schools located in the city of Murcia (Spain), selected through judgmental or discretionary sampling. A quasi-experimental design with pretest and post-test and control group was employed, verifying the effectiveness of the treatment, and how it influences the improvement of the academic performance of the students in the experimental group. It concludes by pointing out the importance of learning strategies and applied teaching methodologies, understanding both within the conglomerate of process factors in the improvement of academic performance.