Children and news: opinions of children’s news program creators in Israel

Although standard television news is often perceived as inappropriate for children, studies suggest that news consumption is important for children’s social and political socialization. Accordingly, children’s news programs have been developed with the aim of adapting news for children. Research examining program creators’ perspectives on news adaptation for children has primarily focused on the creators’ views of wars or on others crisis coverage. The current study addresses the production of routine children’s news by examining the unique context of Israel. Interviews with 15 creators reflect the belief that news should be adapted to children’s cognitive and emotional abilities by ensuring that such news is comprehensible and palatable, featuring both standard news items and content pertaining to children’s lives, achieving a balance between heavier and lighter content, and generating a youthful atmosphere. The implications of these findings and the questions that arise are discussed.     

Outdoors in nature: special spaces for young children’s learning

Outdoor experiences allow teachers to focus on expanding child learning in different domains. Nature experiences can sharpen child senses, enrich vocabulary, increase spatial understandings, and permit more practice for large muscle skills. As well, teachers can arrange outdoor activities to promote positive peer cooperation and aesthetic enjoyment and appreciation – of birds, flowers, clouds, plants, clouds, rain, and trees. Outdoor environments challenge teachers to create new ways to involve children with disabilities in enjoyable learning opportunities. Caregivers can arrange new ways to enhance children's experiences and insights in activities not possible within the confines of indoor classroom spaces. Helping young children enjoy nature and outdoors, teachers create a lifelong path for them to become conservers of sustainable environments in the future.     

Children’s play preferences: implications for the preschool education

Previously we found in preschool that child‐directed pretend play in small playing groups importantly improves cognitive competence in mixed‐age environment and that the effect is based on close coupling between affective and cognitive domain. To foster affective and cognitive intertwining, it is reasonable to select the most favored pretend plays evoking maximum positive emotions during the playing process. The goal here was to investigate play preferences in mixed‐aged and gender classes. We found that girls significantly preferred pretend play (mean number of players ± standard error of the mean, number of analyzed plays: girls versus boys, 2.35 ± 0.03, n = 3006 versus 2.13 ± 0.04, n = 3001, p < 0.0001) as opposed to boys, who favored constructive play (boys versus girls, 2.47 ± 0.04, n = 2884 versus 2.27 ± 0.04, n = 2883, p = 0.0004). The most preferred pretend play, acceptable for both genders, arise from family environment, comprising a potentially effective ‘carrier’ of the cognitive skills by easy and pleasurable manner.     

The Impact of Prosocial Television News on Children’s Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Study in the Netherlands

The aim of this experimental study was to examine whether prosocial behavior in television news affects children’s prosocial intentions and behaviors. In this study, 372 Dutch children (9–13 years old) participated. Children in the experimental condition were exposed to prosocial news showing children organizing a fundraising action for UNICEF. In the control condition, children were exposed to news about UNICEF in which no prosocial behavior was included. Afterwards, children were given the opportunity to donate to UNICEF, which served as an index of prosocial behavior. Prosocial intentions were captured using paper-and-pencil questionnaires. Regression analysis demonstrated that, while controlling for important confounders, children exposed to prosocial news were significantly more willing to help with setting up a project for UNICEF and donated more to UNICEF compared to children who did not watch prosocial news. These findings highlight that prosocial television can function as a tool for positive social change among children.     

Diabetic screening in Western Australia: A photographer’s perspective

Western Australia has a large landmass and low population density. Dating back to the 1970s and even today, specialist medical services are often lacking or non‐existent outside of Perth, the capital city. Diabetes has always been a major health problem, particularly in the Australian Aboriginal community. In conjunction with the Lions Save Sight Foundation and Diabetes Foundation of Western Australia a diabetic screening programme was initiated in 1978 for rural and remote diabetics. The programme aimed to screen for diabetic retinopathy, educate diabetics, medical and paramedical personnel and to arrange treatment for sight threatening eye disease.

Eye screening continues to date although the role of the Lions Eye Institute has changed from programme initiator to reading centre and teaching unit, and continues to evolve with changing technologies.     

What's in Children’s Backpacks: Foods Brought from Home

Forty-one percent of elementary schoolchildren bring lunch to school on any given day. Forty-five percent bring snacks. Surprisingly, little is known about the foods and beverages they bring. This cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the GREEN (Growing Right: Eco-friendly Eating and Nutrition) Project Lunch Box Study sought to characterize foods and beverages brought from home to school by elementary schoolchildren and compare the quality of packed lunches with National School Lunch Program standards and packed snacks with Child and Adult Care Food Program requirements. Lunches and snacks from 626 elementary schoolchildren were assessed and evaluated using digital photography and a supplemental food checklist. Food and beverage types most likely to be provided for lunch were sandwiches (59%), snack foods (42%), fruit (34%), desserts (28%), water (28%), and sugar-sweetened beverages (24%). Twenty-seven percent of lunches met at least three of five National School Lunch Program standards. At snack, snack foods (62%), desserts (35%), and sugar-sweetened beverages (35%) were more common than fruits (30%), dairy foods (10%), and vegetables (3%). Only 4% of snacks met two of four Child and Adult Care Food Program standards. Future research is needed to understand the multiple determinants of food-packing behavior, including constraints faced by families. School wellness policies should consider initiatives that work collaboratively with parents to improve the quality of foods brought from home.     

What’s next for research on young children’s interactive media?

Abstract

Since early in the development of children’s television, research has informed policy and practice involving young children’s media use. To increase the likelihood that new media support children’s development, research in the coming decade must stay current with advancing technology. With the advent of various forms of interactive digital media, key research questions involve social and physical interactivity. How should adults appropriately support children’s use of different kinds of media to promote children’s creativity, learning, and development? How does co-viewing (social interaction) overlap with and differ from contingency built into the medium itself? When a device interacts, does that change the kind of support required of a co-viewing adult, or eliminate the need for such support? How does the introduction of new technology impact the lives of families? Issues related to video chat, touchscreen and motion capture technology, artificial intelligence, and electronic books and games are discussed.     

Children’s Behavioral Health System Transformation: One State’s Context and Strategies for Sustained Change

The purpose of this paper was to examine the State of Maryland as a case study of sustained change efforts in the service delivery system for children with significant behavioral health needs and their families. A punctuated equilibrium paradigm is introduced to describe Maryland’s behavioral health system transformation over the course of three decades. The context and specific strategies that characterized Maryland’s execution of its recent Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grant are highlighted. There is a discussion of one of the pinnacle achievements of Maryland’s transformation efforts, the recent statewide establishment of care management entities for children with behavioral health challenges, and its implications for behavioral health in the context of health care reform changes. This case study illustrates how a state can systematically and incrementally develop systems of care for children and families that are values-based, sustainable, and flexible.