preschool

Cucurbita moschata (Butternut squash) seeds are a rich source of nutrition containing nutrients including iron, zinc, copper, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus. The aim of this study was to determine if Cucurbita Moschata squash seed paste improves zinc and iron status, anthropometric status, and dietary intake in preschool children. A pretest-posttest control group trial using cluster randomisation was conducted over 6 months. Four preschools were randomly assigned to receive 100 g of intervention or 100 g of a placebo as the control to enhance iron and zinc status...

Introduction: As parents or legal guardians primarily care for children with asthma, understanding their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) barriers to treatment and medication adherence is of essential importance. This study aimed to analyze the KAP toward asthma medication and adherence among preschool-aged asthmatic children's parents and explore the factors influencing adherence. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between February 2023 and April 2023. Parents of preschool children with asthma were asked to complete the questionnaire containing knowledge, attitude, practice dimensions, and demographic characteristics...

There are many benefits of peer interactions for children's social, emotional, and cognitive development, and isolation from peers may have negative consequences for children. Although biological processes may underlie social withdrawal broadly, distinct patterns may be associated with withdrawal behaviors depending on their underlying motivation (e.g., shy versus disinterested). This study investigated the role of autonomic nervous system activity, as assessed via skin conductance level (SCL) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in predicting changes in unsociability (e...

INTRODUCTION: We sought to investigate if the availability of cerebral fuels soon after birth in healthy term babies was associated with developmental progress at 3 years of age. METHODS: Healthy term babies had plasma glucose, lactate, and beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations measured over the first 5 days. At 3 years, parents completed Ages and Stages (ASQ-3) questionnaires between December 2018 and August 2022. Developmental progress, analysed using structural equation modelling, was compared between children whose median fuel concentrations were above and below the mean neonatal concentrations of glucose (3...

Not all young children attend nurseries, childminders or other group settings before they start school, but many do. It is common for countries to set out a framework to guide practice for early years providers (such as nurseries) to follow. The conundrum regarding these frameworks for young children is that proving evidence of a causal link between early environments and later outcomes is very challenging scientifically. So how do governments choose what learning and development practices and goals to make mandatory for childcare providers? And is it realistic to expect early years providers to meet the legal requirements that these frameworks impose? We do not know which learning and development practices impact positively on later outcomes, and we certainly do not know if there is a one-size-fits-all approach for an early years framework that is guaranteed to work...

Animacy plays a key role for human cognition, which is also reflected in the way humans process language. However, while experiments on sentence processing show reliable effects of animacy on word order and grammatical function assignment, effects of animacy on conjoined noun phrases (e.g., fish and shoe vs. shoe and fish) have yielded inconsistent results. In the present study, we tested the possibility that effects of animacy are outranked by reading and writing habits. We examined adult speakers of German (left-to-right script) and speakers of Arabic (right-to-left script), as well as German preschool children who do not yet know how to read and write...

BACKGROUND: Research has consistently shown that some children are more vulnerable at the time of school readiness. Better understanding the characteristics of these children is therefore important. Most studies have used a variable-based approach, which may mask the presence of small but important subgroups of children with mixed patterns of readiness strengths and weaknesses. Identifying subgroups with mixed readiness patterns using a person-centered approach matters because their developmental trajectories might differ in important ways from children with broader difficulties across all readiness domains...

Child obesity is a growing global issue. Preventing early development of overweight and obesity requires identifying reliable risk factors for high body mass index (BMI) in children. Child eating behavior might be an important and malleable risk factor that can be reliably assessed with the parent-report Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). Using a hierarchical dataset (children nested within child care centers) from a representative cohort of Swiss preschool children, we tested whether eating behavior, assessed with a 7-factor solution of the CEBQ, and BMI at baseline predicted the outcome BMI after 1 year, controlling for socioeconomic status ( n  = 555; 47% female; mean age = 3...

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to elucidate the dose‒response relationship between 24-h activity behaviors and body fat percentage (BFP) in Chinese preschool children using a compositional isotemporal substitution model (ISM). METHODS: In a cross-sectional design, 881 children aged 3-6 from urban and rural areas of Jiangxi Province were sampled. Activity behaviors, including sedentary behavior (SB), low-intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate- to high-intensity physical activity (MVPA), were measured using accelerometers...

In October 2023, the Tel Aviv District was notified of ten cases of measles. The outbreak initiated in a preschool with high vaccination coverage with one dose of MMR vaccine. Serological testing was available for eight patients (six children and two adults). Among the six children vaccinated with one dose of MMR vaccine, primary vaccine failure was demonstrated. Among the adults, secondary vaccine failure was confirmed. The outbreak was successfully contained due to a combination of factors, notably its occurrence within a population characterized by high vaccination coverage in Tel Aviv, during a period of restricted public interactions due to the prevailing state of war in the country...

OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to compare the levels of 7 microRNAs (mi-RNAs) (mi-RNA-125b, mi-RNA-23a-3p, mi-RNA-146a-5p, mi-RNA-106a, mi-RNA-151a-3p, mi-RNA-28, mi-RNA-125a) in the blood of the preschool children with autism and those of their siblings with healthy controls, and to investigate the association between these mi-RNAs and the severity of autism, behavioral problems, and siblings' autistic traits. METHODS: A total of 35 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at the ages of 18-60 months (patient group), 35 non-affected siblings of the ASD group (sibling group), and 30 control subjects (control group) were involved in the study...

This study examines the stability of child attachment to mothers and fathers separately, and to both parents as a network between the infancy and preschool periods using a sample of 143 biparental families and their children (73 boys) recruited from the general population. Attachment was assessed at 15 months with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) and at 45 months with the Preschool Attachment Classification Coding System (PACS). First, results show no stability in attachment to mothers, to fathers, or to both parents as a network...

PURPOSE: The impact of well-crafted IEP goals on student outcomes is well-documented, but creating high-quality goals can be a challenging task for many special education teachers. This study aims to investigate potential effectiveness of using ChatGPT, an AI technology, in supporting development of high-quality, individualized IEP goals for preschool children with autism. METHODS: Thirty special education teachers working with preschool children with autism were randomly assigned to either the ChatGPT or control groups...

PURPOSE: We aimed to investigate the association between maternal fasting plasma glucose (FPG) trajectories during pregnancy and children's refractive errors at 6 years old. DESIGN: Based on the Ma'anshan Birth Cohort (MABC) in China, a total of 1987 mother-child pairs were included in this study. METHODS: Using the group-based trajectory model, trajectory fitting was performed on fasting blood glucose levels during the first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy...

AIM: The aim of this study was to describe parental concerns about child health and behaviour and their sociodemographic predictors in 3-year-olds, in relation to the national guidelines of well-baby clinics. METHODS: The study included parents of 33 526 children in Stockholm who had completed a questionnaire prior to a routine visit to a well-baby clinic at age 3 years. Multivariate regression was used to analyse predictors for concerns. RESULTS: Child behaviour problems, defined as defiance and problem with adherence to daily routines, were the most common parental concerns (36...

INTRODUCTION: Despite substantial research and provision of dental care, significant morbidity remains for children's oral health. Guided by social practice theory (SPT), this research moves away from the often-ineffective focus on changing individual behavior to rethinking the centrality of the social world in promoting or undermining oral health outcomes. We define social practice as a routinized relational activity linking and integrating certain elements (competence, materials, and meanings) into the performance of a practice that is reproduced across time and space...

BACKGROUND: Recently, digital media, including internet websites and smartphone apps, have become popular resources for parents in searching for child health care information. Higher health literacy among parents in obtaining adequate health care information and making proper decisions may lead to improved child health outcomes and a reduction in the burden on health care professionals. However, few studies have examined the association between the provision of child health care information apps and parents' health literacy...

Background: Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health epidemics of the 21st century. Observational studies report that increases in portion size (PS) have occurred in parallel with levels of obesity. Increased PSs of high-energy-dense foods can promote overeating, and without compensatory behaviours, can contribute to childhood obesity. Caregivers make decisions about PSs for children in the home and nursery environment, thus are gatekeepers to child food intake. Understanding caregiver PS decisions can aid in the best practice of PS provision to young children...

Objective: To understand the current status of anemia, iron deficiency, and iron-deficiency anemia among preschool children in China. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a multi-stage stratified sampling method to select 150 streets or townships from 10 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities (East: Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Hainan; Central: Henan; West: Chongqing, Shaanxi, Guizhou, and Xinjiang; Northeast: Liaoning). From May 2022 to April 2023, a total of 21 470 children, including community-based children aged 0...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the preliminary effects of a theory-based, multi-component intervention on improving healthy lifestyle behaviours and preventing obesity amongst low-income preschoolers. METHODS: A cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted at 10 daycare centres. The 16-week FirstStep2Health intervention, grounded in the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and the Social Cognitive Theory, included five components: a Facebook-based parent programme, three virtual parent meetings, three weekly motivational text messages, parent-child learning via weekly child letters and daycare centre-based child programme...