Supporting Preschoolers' Motor Development in Virtual Environments: Listening to Teachers' Voices.

Going down a slide, dancing to music, and pushing someone on a tire swing are more than simply "play activities" or a means to staying physically fit. Engagement in motor play provides important opportunities for preschoolers to develop a variety of skills, including gross motor, social, communication, and cognitive skills. However, during the past several years, since the identification of the COVID-19 virus, no guidelines have been available to ensure that gross motor content is addressed while simultaneously meeting the educational needs of preschoolers with and without disabilities during virtual learning. The purpose of this study was to understand the benefits and challenges that 26 preschool teachers faced as they attempted to embed motor play into their curriculum during virtual learning. All teachers worked in inclusive preschool settings and interviews were conducted between March-June 2021. Constant comparative analysis and emergent coding were used to interpret the data. Findings revealed that school readiness skills were the primary focus of virtual learning. Teachers indicated that motor play can help expand students' pre-academic skills, be fun and motivating for children, and help students be more focused and attentive. Some logistical barriers (e.g., technology, limited physical spaces, limited resources) need to be addressed in order to successfully teach motor play in a virtual format. Study findings suggest policies and guidelines need to be established to provide young children with high quality and accessible virtual instruction. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-023-01492-w.

Vulnerable preschoolers mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in Argentina: A cross-sectional study

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, children have presented with increased psychiatric symptoms. Little research has been done regarding early childhood mental health, particularly those from vulnerable socioeconomic contexts who are exposed to adversity. We aimed to assess mental health and the impacts of the pandemic on this population. A survey and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire were administered to the caregivers of preschoolers who were enrolled in a food-assistance programme. The participants were 807 preschoolers from the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, which was ranked among the cities with the longest lockdown. Around 39% of preschoolers were classified as having a 'possible/probable' psychiatric disorder. Externalizing problems were predominant. Most caregivers (82.78%) reported increased psychological symptoms during the lockdown, mostly externalizing problems. Caregivers' burdens were associated with the severity, duration, and exacerbation of their child's symptoms. Further research should continue to monitor preschoolers' well-being, with the goal of preventing future problems. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Early Child Development & Care is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Impact of COVID-19 on the sleep-wake patterns of preschool children.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sleep-wake patterns of preschool children. METHODS: A cohort of preschoolers established before the COVID-19 pandemic was invited to participate in this study. Data including children's demographics, their own and parental sleep-wake patterns, physical activities, and screen time were collected through an online questionnaire from August to September 2020. A comparison was made on the collected data from the same cohort of children before and during the pandemic. RESULTS: The cohort which was established before the pandemic consisted of 3720 preschoolers. For this current study, 642 (17%) participated, and 497 (13%) children who fulfilled the eligibility criteria were included in the final analysis. They showed a delay in their bedtime and wake time on both weekdays and weekends with a 15-30 min increase in nocturnal sleep duration. However, with a reduction in nap time, the average daily sleep duration was shortened by 16.3 ± 64.3 min (p < 0.001) and 27.5 ± 72.9 min (p < 0.001) during weekdays and weekends, respectively. Screen time was increased while outdoor activity duration was decreased. Parental sleep/wake times were also delayed with an increase in sleep duration. Children's sleep habits were associated with screen time and parental sleep/wake patterns. CONCLUSION: Despite school suspension during the COVID-19 pandemic, preschoolers were not sleeping longer. Screen time and parental sleep/wake patterns were the major factors driving the preschoolers' sleep habits. Health education is required to control screen time in children and to promote sleep hygiene among all family members.

Family lifestyle is related to low-income preschoolers' emotional well-being during COVID-19 pandemic.

PROBLEM: COVID-19 has profoundly impacted children's behavioral and psychosocial development, especially young children from low-income families. This study examined how caregivers' and preschoolers' lifestyle behaviors (sleep, screen time, physical activity, eating behavior) were related to preschoolers' emotional well-being (sadness, fear, anger, and positive affect). METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, we recruited low-income caregivers from Head Start organizations and the Qualtrics panel. Participants provided consent and completed an online survey. FINDINGS: A total of 408 caregivers (mean age = 31) participated: 17% Hispanic, 21% Black, 49% separated/single, 44% unemployed, and 39% with ≤high school education. After adjusting for demographics and preschoolers' lifestyle behaviors, caregivers' sleep disturbance was positively correlated with preschoolers' anger, fear, and sadness, while negatively related to positive affect. Similarly, caregivers' sleep time was positively correlated with preschoolers' sadness and negatively related to positive affect. Preschoolers' sleep time was negatively related to fear and positively related to positive affect. Likewise, preschoolers' physical activity was negatively correlated with fear, sadness, and positively correlated with positive affect. Additionally, preschoolers' fruit/vegetable intake was negatively associated with anger, fear, sadness, and positively associated with positive affect. CONCLUSIONS: The identified behavior-emotion connection provides a foundation for developing family-based lifestyle interventions in promoting mental health among preschoolers.

Learning from adversity: What the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us about family resiliency.

The present study aimed to characterize the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on families with preschool age children and to identify pre-pandemic factors that explained unique family experiences. We leveraged an ongoing longitudinal study of relatively well-resourced community families who had reported on family functioning prior to the pandemic and completed surveys 6 months after pandemic onset. Both parents of dual parenting households endorsed significant hardships as a direct result of the pandemic (e.g., disrupted family routines, challenges at work); however, families also reported aspects of flourishing (i.e., experiencing positive outcomes in response to adversity) such as spending more time together as a family. Families were prone to greater hardships and fewer opportunities for growth to the extent that parents were lower in psychological resources (i.e., greater stress and internalizing symptoms, poor well-being) and were not on the same page as a couple (i.e., interparental discord, low quality coparenting) prior to pandemic onset. Finally, greater pandemic hardships predicted poorer parental mental health, greater family dysfunction, and elevated child psychopathology, controlling for pre-pandemic levels. Parents who reported more family flourishing from the pandemic had a stronger interparental relationship. Results are intended to inform theories of family stress and family interventions that can be tailored to promote resiliency (i.e., adaptation to challenging life events) and prevent dysfunction when families face rapid change and adjustment and high degrees of uncertainty and stress.

MANIFESTATIONS OF THE PRESCHOOLERS’ PERSONAL HEALTH POTENTIAL IN MOTOR ACTIVITY

The steady downward trend in children's health indicators in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic makes it necessary to search for new approaches to raising a healthy child in a preschool institution and family. The present study attempts to identify the level of manifestation of the voluntary behavior of senior preschoolers in motor activity as the basis for the growth of personal health potential. To meet that aim, the methods of mathematical statistics, especially Wilcoxon's t-test, are utilized. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the issue of developing the personal health potential in preschoolers, the manifestation of voluntariness, purposefulness, and independence in motor activity remains relevant. Assessment of voluntariness in motor activity demonstrates issues in nearly half of the children. Hence, the need to seek new pedagogical technologies, forms, methods, and means of developing the personal health potential of children seems crucial. © 2022, Centro Universitario Curitiba - UNICURITIBA. All rights reserved.

Preschooler stressor-related thoughts and worries during the COVID-19 pandemic: Development and validation of a caregiver-report instrument

There is little evidence on cognitions that are associated with emotional and behavioral problems in preschoolers during stressful events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This article presents the initial development and validation of a caregiver-report instrument, the Preschooler Stressor-related Thoughts and Worries (PSTW) scale, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, caregivers from two countries reported on their child's cognitions at baseline (T0) and three months later (T1;age 3-5 years;Australia: N = 559;United States: N = 346). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with the Australian sample at T0 and confirmed with the U.S. sample at T0. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a one-factor model including 10 items. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis failed to clearly support this structure (comparative fit index = .91, root mean square error of approximation = .11). Construct validity was supported by positive associations between PSTW scores and emotional and behavioral problems. Although the PSTW is a promising instrument to assess preschooler cognitions related to COVID-19, further investigation of its performance in other contexts (e.g., other countries, other stressful or traumatic events) is needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

On-line (DAD) in kindergarten: Parents' experiences

The last months of the third year of kindergarten are considered a period full of expectations in view of the transition to primary school. The advent of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic changed this final moment of the preschool cycle, and children and their families had to face the lock-down and on-line learning experience. With a series of interviews made in the months of June-July 2020 with the parents of children who had just finished the last year of kindergarten, we tried to understand what the emotional experiences of this population in a delicate moment of transition between school orders were, in a historical period in which, due to emergency needs, on-line learning methods were introduced that had never before been used extensively for this age group. 16 semi-structured interviews were carried out, with the methodology of the explicitation interview (Vermersch, 2005), to the parents of 18 children (9 females, a triplet of dizygotic twins) who attended the last year of kindergarten. 14 mothers and 2 fathers, 14 Italian families, and 2 of foreign origin responded. The interviews were carried out remotely and videotaped, fully transcribed, and then encoded with content analysis. We analyzed the experiences of children concerning the DAD: their participation, their difficulties, and the positive aspects encountered;moreover, we analyzed the parents' experience: parents were confronted with a very new task of teachers, but they encountered practical, and technological difficulties as well. The in-depth analysis allowed using the explicitation interview makes the collected data particularly interesting in the line of studies on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, precisely because it explores the qualitative aspect of experience in a field that is certainly new to any researcher. Some of the indications that emerged may be useful not only concerning the lived experience and in general the reflection on the role of online learning, but also concerning the meaning of teaching with children in kindergarten.

Using Latent Class Analyses to Examine Health Disparities among Young Children in Socially Disadvantaged Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Rising income inequality is strongly linked to health disparities, particularly in regions where uneven distribution of wealth and income has long been a concern. Despite emerging evidence of COVID-19-related health inequalities for adults, limited evidence is available for children and their parents. This study aimed to explore subtypes of families of preschoolers living in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of Hong Kong based on patterns of family hardship and to compare their patterns of parenting behavior, lifestyle practices, and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 1338 preschoolers and their parents during March to June 2020. Latent class analysis was performed based on 11 socioeconomic and disease indicators. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine associations between identified classes and variables of interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four classes of family hardship were identified. Class 1 (45.7%) had the lowest disease and financial burden. Class 2 (14.0%) had the highest financial burden. Class 3 (5.9%) had the highest disease burden. Class 4 (34.5%) had low family income but did not receive government welfare assistance. Class 1 (low hardship) had lower risks of child maltreatment and adjustment problems than Class 2 (poverty) and Class 3 (poor health). However, children in Class 1 (low hardship) had higher odds of suffering psychological aggression and poorer physical wellbeing than those in Class 4 (low income), even after adjusting for child age and gender. The findings emphasize the need to adopt flexible intervention strategies in the time of large disease outbreak to address diverse problems and concerns among socially disadvantaged families.

The Effect of Digital Screen Exposure and Temperament on Sleep Problems in Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Rural Area in Turkey

Objective: More and more children experience sleep problems, which are believed to be exacerbated by the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and digital screen exposure. This descriptive and cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between sleep problems and digital screen exposure and temperament in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 122 parents of children aged 3-6 years. Data were collected using a descriptive characteristics questionnaire, the children's sleep habits questionnaire, and the short temperament scale for children. Results: Most children have been watching more TV (77.9%) and spending more time on computers/tablets/smartphones (89.3%) since the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a relationship between screen time and sleep duration (<0.05), sleep anxiety (<0.05), daytime sleepiness (<0.05), and total sleep score (<0.05). Conclusion: There is also a relationship between sleep problems and digital screen exposure and temperament during the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers and educators should take measures to promote children's health and education during the COVID-19 pandemic. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Amaç: Gün geçtikçe daha fazla sayıda çocuk, Koronavirüs hastalığı-2019 (COVID-19) pandemisi ve dijital ekran maruziyeti ile arttığına inanılan uyku sorunları yaşamaktadır. Bu tanımlayıcı ve kesitsel çalışmada, COVID-19 pandemisi sırasında çocuklarda uyku sorunları ile dijital ekrana maruz kalma ve mizaç arasındaki ilişkiyi araştırmayı amaçladık. Gereç ve Yöntem: Üç-altı yaş arası çocuğu olan 122 ebeveyn çalışmaya dahil edildi. Veriler, tanımlayıcı özellikler anketi, çocukların uyku alışkanlıkları anketi ve çocuklar için kısa mizaç ölçeği kullanılarak toplandı. Bulgular: Çocukların çoğu, COVID-19 pandemisinden bu yana daha fazla TV (%77,9) izlemekte ve bilgisayar/tablet/akıllı telefonlarda (%89,3) daha fazla zaman geçirmektedir. Çalışmamızda, ekran süresi ile uyku süresi (<0,05), uyku kaygısı (<0,05), gündüz uykululuğu (<0,05) ve toplam uyku puanı (<0,05) arasında ilişki saptanmıştır. Sonuç: COVID-19 pandemisi sırasında uyku sorunları ile dijital ekrana maruz kalma ve mizaç arasında da bir ilişki vardır. Yöneticiler ve eğitimciler, COVID-19 salgını sırasında çocukların sağlığını ve eğitimini teşvik etmek için önlemler almalıdır. (Turkish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Turkish Sleep Medicine is the property of Galenos Yayinevi Tic. LTD. STI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Food and beverage offerings by parents of preschoolers: A daily survey study of dinner offerings during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have altered parents' daily feeding practices, including what and how much they feed their children, which may have negative implications for children's weight. The primary aim of this study was to examine patterns of and variation in parents' daily food and beverage offerings at dinner across 10 days during the COVID-19 pandemic using descriptive analysis and non-parametric tests. Ninety-nine parents (Mage = 32.90, SDage = 5.60) of children ages 2-4 years (M = 2.82, SD = 0.78) completed an online baseline survey and 10 daily surveys (929 completed surveys) assessing their daily food and beverage offerings at dinner. On average, parents did not offer recommended foods and beverages on a daily basis; parents offered vegetables and protein most often across the 10 days, however, less than 50% of parents offered the recommended serving size for each group. The intraclass correlations and random sampling plots revealed considerable within-parent variation in food and beverage offerings. Eating dinner as a family, planning dinner in advance, and preparing a homemade dinner were associated with more vegetable and protein offerings, while processed, fast, or fried foods were offered less often when dinner was planned or homemade. Dairy, water, and refined grains were offered more often when dinner was homemade, while whole grains, processed, fast, or fried foods, and sugar-sweetened beverages were offered less often when dinner was homemade. The results provide documentation of parents' daily food and beverage offerings at dinner within the context of COVID-19 and point towards the importance of examining predictors and consequences of parents' daily feeding practices.

An examination of bedtime media and excessive screen time by Canadian preschoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Risky media use in terms of accumulating too much time in front of screens and usage before bedtime in early childhood is linked to developmental delays, reduced sleep quality, and unhealthy media use in later childhood and adulthood. For this reason, we examine patterns of media use in pre-school children and the extent to which child and family characteristics contribute to media use during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of digital media use by Canadian preschool-aged children (mean age = 3.45, N = 316) was conducted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic between April and August of 2020. Parents completed a questionnaire and 24-h recall diary in the context of an ongoing study of child digital media use. From these responses we estimated hours of average daily screen time, screen time in the past 24 h, average daily mobile device use, and media use before bedtime. Parents also answered questions about their child (i.e., age, sex, temperament), family characteristics (parental mediation style, parental screen time, education, income), and contextual features of the pandemic (ex., remote work, shared childcare). Daycare closures were directly assessed using a government website. RESULTS: Our results indicate that 64% of preschoolers used more than 2 h of digital media hours/day on average during the pandemic. A majority (56%) of children were also exposed to media within the hour before bedtime. Logistic and multinomial regressions revealed that child age and temperament, restrictive parental mediation, as well as parent digital media use, education, satisfaction with the division of childcare, remote work, and number of siblings and family income were all correlates of risky digital media use by preschoolers. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest widespread risky media use by preschoolers during the pandemic. Parenting practices that include using more restrictive mediation strategies may foster benefits in regulating young children's screen time.

Home-Based Peanut Oral Immunotherapy for Low-Risk Peanut-Allergic Preschoolers During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the deprioritization of non-emergency services, such as oral food challenges and the initiation of oral immunotherapy (OIT) for food-allergic children. Recent studies have suggested that home-based peanut OIT could be a safe and effective option for low-risk peanut-allergic children. In the period between September 1, 2020, and January 31, 2021, nine preschoolers with a history of mild allergic reactions to peanut underwent home-based peanut OIT. Eight of them (88.9%) completed the build-up phase at home in 11-28 weeks, tolerating a daily maintenance dose of 320 mg peanut protein. During the build-up, six patients (75.0%) reported urticaria, three (33.3%) reported gastrointestinal tract symptoms, and one (14.3%) reported oral pruritis. None of the patients developed anaphylaxis, required epinephrine, or attended emergency services related to OIT. One or two virtual follow-up visits were completed per patient during the build-up phase. Our case series shows that home-based OIT could be offered to the low-risk preschoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic when non-emergency services are limited and could be considered beyond the pandemic, especially for the families living in the rural or remote areas that may otherwise be unable to access OIT.

Premyopia at Preschool Age: Population-based Evidence of Prevalence and Risk Factors from a Serial Survey in Taiwan.

PURPOSE: Premyopia at a young age carries a great risk of developing early-onset myopia, especially in regions with myopia epidemics, such as the developed areas in East Asia. This study aims to report the prevalence of premyopia and its risk factors in a Taiwan preschool population and lifestyle changes among premyopic preschoolers before and during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. DESIGN: Repeated countywide population-based, cross-sectional study in Yilan County, northeastern Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: From 2014 to 2020, a total of 23 930 kindergarteners aged 5 to 6 years were identified in the Yilan Myopia Prevention and Vision Improvement Program (YMVIP). Of those, 21 761 (11 335 [52.1%] boys; mean age, 5.15 ± 0.37 years) were included for final analysis. METHODS: Annual kindergarten-based eye examinations and myopia prevention strategies have been conducted since the commencement of the YMVIP in 2014. Refractive error was determined by cycloplegic autorefraction. The data of potential risk factors for myopia were gathered by caregiver-administered questionnaires. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The prevalence of premyopia (spherical equivalent [SE] > -0.5 diopter [D] and ≤ +0.75 D in the eye with less SE value). RESULTS: The prevalence of myopia (SE ≤ -0.5 D), premyopia, and hyperopia (SE > +0.75) was 10.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.3-11.1), 52.0% (95% CI, 51.3-52.7), and 37.3% (95% CI, 36.7-37.9), respectively. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that premyopia prevalence was significantly associated with male gender (odds ratio [OR], 1.25; 95% CI, 1.18-1.32), caregiver myopia (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.37-1.56), screen time ≥ 1 hour per weekdays (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.04-1.17), 2-year exposure to myopia prevention strategy (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.54-0.65), and college or higher education level of caregiver (OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.85-0.96). Even without large-scale school closure in Taiwan, there was a slight upward trend of increased time spent on screen-based devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that premyopia was the most common refractive error in a Taiwan preschool population. Premyopia was also associated with both parental and environmental myopiogenic factors. Longitudinal studies are warranted to examine the lifestyle change and myopic shift of premyopic preschoolers in the postpandemic era.

Family socio-economic status and Chinese Preschoolers' anxious symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: the roles of parental investment, parenting style, home quarantine length, and regional pandemic risk.

Using data from 16,161 families with target child of 3-6 years old in Hubei, China during COVID-19 pandemic, this study examined the association between family socio-economic status (SES) and preschoolers' anxious symptoms (PAS). Parental investment and parenting style were tested as mediators for this association. Home quarantine length was tested as a moderator for this direct association and for the associations between family SES and parenting processes, whereas regional pandemic risk was tested as a moderator for the entire model. Results support the utility of Family Stress and Family Investment Models in a Chinese context by identifying unique roles of parental investment and parenting style in mediating the link between family SES and PAS. Quarantine length moderated the link between family SES and authoritarian parenting: Strength of this negative association was stronger for families with longer quarantine than for those with shorter quarantine. Further, family SES was negatively associated with PAS through its negative association with authoritarian parenting, regardless of the quarantine length. Model comparison analyses between high-risk region versus low/medium-risk region groups indicated that the pandemic risk for living regions did not alter any pathway in the model. Such findings inform the designs of targeted interventions to help families cope with pandemic-related challenges. Promoting parental investment and adaptive patenting style represents an avenue to diminish consequences of family economic hardship for young children's mental health, regardless of macrolevel pandemic risk. Interventions should attend to home quarantine duration, as it contextualizes the links among family SES, parenting, and child well-being.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Eating Environments and Activity in Early Childhood Education and Care in Alberta, Canada: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments influence children's early development and habits that track across a lifespan. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of COVID-19 government-mandated guidelines on physical activity (PA) and eating environments in ECEC settings. This cross-sectional study involved the recruitment of 19 ECEC centers pre-COVID (2019) and 15 ECEC centers during COVID (2020) in Alberta, Canada (n = 34 ECEC centers; n = 83 educators; n = 361 preschoolers). Educators completed the CHEERS (Creating Healthy Eating and activity Environments Survey) and MEQ (Mindful Eating Questionnaire) self-audit tools while GT3X+ ActiGraph accelerometers measured preschooler PA. The CHEERS healthy eating environment subscale was greater during COVID-19 (5.97 ± 0.52; 5.80 ± 0.62; p = 0.02) and the overall score positively correlated with the MEQ score (r = 0.20; p = 0.002). Preschoolers exhibited greater hourly step counts (800 ± 189; 649 ± 185), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (9.3 ± 3.0 min/h; 7.9 ± 3.2 min/h) and lower sedentary times (42.4 ± 3.9 min/h; 44.1 ± 4.9 min/h) during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID, respectively (p < 0.05). These findings suggest the eating environment and indices of child physical activity were better in 2020, which could possibly be attributed to a change in government-mandated COVID-19 guideline policy.