Putting Children First
Mental Health in Schools
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Deirdre Heenan, Siobhan O'Neill
For most countries the vision is an education system where strong mental health and wellbeing are at the heart of the culture and ethos of all schools. Schools should aim to be hubs of wellbeing for all staff and children. This paper is based on research which employed qualitative and quantitative methodology to assess and review the mental health interventions in schools across Northern Ireland. It highlights that despite the increased prevalence of poor mental health amongst children and young people interventions are fragmented and not embedded in the curriculum. It outlines the benefits for schools of an evidence based approach and sets out the key challenges for schools. Schools need to to be better supported by partners in healthcare and the community and voluntary sector as research shows half of lifetime mental health problems start by the age of fourteen.
Supporting Latino Children’s Narrative Skills through the Use of Culturally-responsive Strategies: What Can Early Childhood Educators Learn from Latino Parents?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Raquel Plotka, Xiao-lei Wang
Early narrative skills are predictive of later academic achievement (Fivush, Haden, and Reese, 2006), and early childhood educators play a central role in fostering these skills. Current research informing teacher training is based on observations of European-American families (e.g. Petersen and McCabe, 1994). European-American parents often engage children in elaborative styles of interactions, which consist of adults asking numerous questions to structure the narrative. However, Latino parents engage in a participatory narrative style, focusing on the social component of the narrative (Melzi, Schick, and Kennedy, 2011). The elaborative style has been found to be highly effective (Fivush et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the participatory style has been found to be more effective than the elaborative style for Latino children in the home environment (Plotka and Wang, 2016). This study assesses the potential effects of participatory styles in early childhood education settings. The results have implications for practice. Given the increase in diverse learners, it is essential that educators incorporate culturally-responsive ways of fostering expressive language skills in young children.
Extracurricular Activities and Learning Motivation for Rural Pupils
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lucia Pumares-Lavandeira, Margarita Pino-Juste
School motivation leads and supports students’ efforts and activities provide cognitive resources to learn. However, this is a very broad concept and some authors distinguish three relevant constructs for motivation in educational contexts, including academic self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and causal attribution to the achievement. This study determines the level of motivation toward school tasks for a group of students in fifth and sixth of primary education, in order to establish whether there is any relation between motivation and the extracurricular activities they attend. For that, an interpretive, descriptive, and inferential cross-sectional study was carried out using a non-probabilistic sample of voluntary subjects. It is designed as an ad hoc questionnaire and it is administered bythe School Motivation Scale (EME) with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .753. The results indicate that the motivation of students toward school tasks is high with respect to the total motivation as well as in each of the three dimensions that the EME tries to analyze. In addition, the amount of extracurricular activities that each child attends varies between a minimum of zero and a maximum of seven, and students attending these activities do, mostly, between three and six hours per week (44%). Academic and sports activities have the highest percentage of participation (26.8%), whereas academic activities have the lowest percentage (6.4%). It was found a significant correlation between the amount of extracurricular activities and self-efficacy (p=.010). There have been also found significant differences between the types of extracurricular activities (academic, sports, and arts) and self-efficacy (p=.001) were also found. Finally, the results are discussed and compared with other previous studies, demonstrating the consistency of our findings.
Physical Activity in Children with Special Education Needs
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Margarita Pino-Juste, Iago Portela Pino, María Luisa Baamonde Paz
Regular physical activity has many benefits for general health. People with disabilities have higher rates of physical inactivity and obesity than standard population. This study describes the level of physical activity of students aged between ten and eight years old with specific educational support needs (NEAE). Among the results it is highlighted that the practice of physical activity in children with educational support needs is moderate, being lower in girls. The majority of individualized physical activity focuses on walking, cycling, and running and the most popular sports are football and basketball. The highest level of physical activity occurs mainly during the weekend, especially in boys. Children with a lower rate of physical activity are those who suffer from maturational delay, followed by ASD, and children with ADHD. The lowest physical activity practice is found in children who are in special education centers. It is advisable to design programs where families have a very active attitude, promote awareness of the need for physical activity and provide appropriate materials and equipment as well as the incorporation of adapted sports in the child's own school and community environment.
