Tiltai

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that affects progress. Children with ASD often experience motor skill impairments. The ‘Animal Fun’ programme aims to develop motor, cognitive and social skills in children aged three to six. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the ‘Animal Fun’ programme on physical and functional changes in a seven-year-old child with autism spectrum disorder. During the study, there were three assessments. Test I was conducted before the intervention, test II was performed after five weeks, and test III was carried out after ten weeks of ‘Animal Fun’ intervention. The study assessed static and dynamic balance, the strength of the grip, core and lower limb muscles, and psychomotor reaction speed. It was found that the ‘Animal Fun’ programme improved results in static and dynamic balance, and abdominal and lower limb muscle strength.

The article deals with the problems of the qualimetry of giftedness caused by the lack of a conventional definition of the term giftedness and its quantitative criteria. The method of calculation of child giftedness’ level and the quantitative measure of its expression is offered. On the basis of the proposed technique, the difference between comprehensive and special giftedness is demonstrated. Proposals for realization of some trends of research in giftedness are provided with the aim of their comparison with the studies of various authors.

The spectrum of the links between the quality of life and health has been expanding due to the phenomenon of health acquiring features of a social phenomenon and growing complexity. The research evidenced that health was considered to be one of the most important, and often the most important, dimension of the quality of life. To more comprehensively identify the health-related factors that affected the quality of life in general, the concept of the health-related quality of life has been developed. In our research 1763 children filled KIDSCREEN52 surveys which evidence tendency as follows: even though two thirds of the children did not indicate they had health disorders, only one third of them assessed their health as excellent and very good. This demonstrates that, in the children’s assessment of health, both the absence of a disease or disability and also psychological and social factors are important.

The study analyzes the healthy nutrition education in younger school-age children. The focus is on healthy eating habits education at primary school level, emphasizing the importance of healthy eating habits and its education at primary school. The research studies conducted over recent years revealed that children nutrition nowadays is incomplete, insufficient or intemperate. It enforces to analyze the assumptions of healthy eating habits education in children and to investigate the effective methods of education. The qualitative empirical study was accomplished, and primary school teachers were interviewed. The study revealed the opinion of teachers about children eating habits, parents care of children nutrition, healthy eating habits education at primary school, and the possibilities of improvements in educational process.

The whole idea of this paper spins mainly about one of the main aspects within early child’s education – creativity and its meaning to a child’s psychosocial development. The presented findings rely on the methodological approach supported by Reggio Emilia philosophy. Creativity education, especially based on Reggio Emilia point of view, starts from the very young age and therefore kindergartens as well as families play much significant role to support and develop creativity roots in child’s everyday routine. It is stressed that being creative is more like being initiative and innovative – the features that are mainly required by contemporary society. Also this paper is illustrated with real-life pictures from the activities in the kindergarten “Lazdynėlis”, so it becomes much clearer for those who are interested in this topic to understand how kindergarten daily life may sustain, develop and so enhance creativity of children using many different approaches, e.g. through the game-led tools, teachers’ attitudes etc.