Search results for " children"

Child-display interaction: Exploring avatar-based touchless gestural interfaces

2019

During the last decade, touchless gestural interfaces have been widely studied as one of the most promising interaction paradigms in the context of pervasive displays. In particular, avatars and silhouettes have been proved to be effective in communicating the touchless gestural interactivity supported by displays. In the paper, we take a child-display interaction perspective by exploring avatar-based touchless gestural interfaces. We believe that large displays offer an opportunity to stimulate child experience and engagement, for instance when learning about art, as well as bringing a number of challenges. The purpose of this study is twofold: 1) identifying the relevant aspects of childr…

PHD Thesis: Investigating Perceptual Features For a Natural Human Humanoid Robot Interaction Inside a Spontaneous Setting

Since robots have become part of human life, several studies have been done with the aim of discovering salient social rules at the basis of the collaboration between human beings and humanoid robot (Human Humanoid Interaction - HHI). The purpose is to have a common environment where human and humanoid robot could engage a proficous "dialogue" in order to share the "sense of co-presence" for common empathic tasks and goals. The humanoid robot must be in a position to interact with the human, and learn day by day from external environment, exactly as it occurs in human beings in the real life. In this sense, significant progresses have been reached, having a strong impact in each aspect of e…

La Sicilia negli Orsi di Dino Buzzati e Lorenzo Mattotti

2022

Nella fiaba illustrata di Dino Buzzati La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia (1945) e nella sua trasposizione filmica ad opera di Lorenzo Mattotti (2019) l’ambientazione siciliana è determinante. In entrambi i casi la Sicilia è un’isola con un grande vulcano – trasfigurata in un ambiente fantastico o riscritta secondo alcuni stereotipi – che i due autori utilizzano con accezioni diverse nella costituzione dell’ecosistema delle loro narrazioni. Soltanto attraverso una comparazione tra le due opere sarà possibile distinguere la rappresentazione delle due Sicilie che vengono raccontate con un intervallo di circa settanta anni. Se non si considera la storia degli Orsi soltanto una fiaba per…

European fitness landscape for children and adolescents: updated reference values, fitness maps and country rankings based on nearly 8 million test r…

2023

Objectives (1) To develop reference values for health-related fitness in European children and adolescents aged 6–18 years that are the foundation for the web-based, open-access and multilanguage fitness platform (FitBack); (2) to provide comparisons across European countries. Methods This study builds on a previous large fitness reference study in European youth by (1) widening the age demographic, (2) identifying the most recent and representative country-level data and (3) including national data from existing fitness surveillance and monitoring systems. We used the Assessing Levels of PHysical Activity and fitness at population level (ALPHA) test battery as it comprises tests with the h…

Pediatric exercise programs in children with hematological cancer: a systematic review

2013

In the world today, there are roughly 25 million cancer survivors. Progress in treatments have greatly improved cure rates, with 5-year survival now approaching 80%, but are associated with numerous negative physical and psychological side-effects and a deterioration in the quality of future life. Cancer survivors are at increased risk for second cancers, other forms of comorbidity (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis), and functional decline. Lifestyle factors, such as a healthy diet, regular exercise, and smoking cessation may prevent these conditions and improve survivors’ quality of life. Observational research has shown that the physical activity levels of survivors of…

How does physical education affect the development locomotor and object control skills in preschool children?

2016

Introduction Unlike other European countries, in Italian kindergartens the physical education (PE) teacher is not including in the school organic personnel. This is frequently associated with lack of opportunities to perform PE by preschool children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse whether the effects of a PE program on the development of locomotor and object control skills in preschool children would depend on the hour amount of intervention. Methods This study involved 189 children (age: 4.62 ± 0.97 years; Height: 107.83 ± 7.82 cm, body weight: 19.84 ± 4.95 kg) of 8 Palermo kindergartens who were randomly divided in a control group (C, n= 29), an intervention group 1 (I1, …

Percentile values of the standing broad jump in children and adolescents aged 6-18 years old

2020

The standing broad jump (SBJ) is a valid, reliable and feasible field-based test, which can evaluate explosive strength of the lower limbs and physical fitness. This study aimed to provide normative data for the SBJ for male and female children and adolescents and describe differences in performance between age groups and genders. A total number of 2140 children and adolescents, sampled in seven European nations have been included for analysis. The SBJ was performed to derive percentile values for gender and each age group. In general, males have greater jumping performance compared to females. Data demonstrate a linear increase in the jumping distance for both males and females until adole…

Effects of physical activity on postural balance in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: results from pilot study

2017

PML Prove per la misurazione della memoria di lavoro. Vol. 2

2020

Il PML-2 è un innovativo ed efficace strumento per la misurazione della Memoria di Lavoro in età evolutiva (dai 6 ai 16 anni) che si contraddistingue, rispetto ad altri strumenti simili, per l'ampiezza delle variabili di memoria che riesce a misurare (verbale, visuo-spaziale, numerica, ecc.) e per la precisione con cui valuta anche i processi esecutivi e la velocità di elaborazione. La PML-2 è particolarmente utile per la valutazione della memoria di lavoro in soggetti con disturbi del neurosviluppo e in soggetti con disturbi specifici dell'apprendimento.

Training of Attention in Children With Low Arithmetical Achievement

2014

This study focuses on the role of attentional processes in arithmetical skills and examines if training of basic attentive skills may improve also working memory abilities reducing arithmetic difficulties. In order to study the efficacy of attentional treatment in arithmetic achievement and in enhancing working memory abilities a test-treatment-retest quasi experimental design was adopted. The research involved 14 children, attending fourth and fifth grades, with Arithmetical Learning Disabilities (ALD) assigned to experimental and control conditions. The numerical comprehension and calculation processes were assessed using the ABCA battery (Lucangeli, Tressoldi, & Fiore, 1998). Attenti…