Reading assessment is a critical feature of education systems. The aim of this study is to explore reading assessment policy in the New Zealand (NZ) assessment culture. We reviewed research publications, national policy documents and test protocols on reading for year levels 6-9 (ages 9-13). We found that assessment data are broadly conceptualised…

Background: Children with intellectual disability are less physically active and more sedentary than typically developing peers. To date no studies have tested the feasibility of a school-based walking intervention for children with Intellectual Disability. Method: A clustered randomised controlled trial (cRCT), with an embedded process…

Background: Previous research suggests that children with or at risk of probable developmental coordination disorder (pDCD) activate different areas of the brain when performing certain motor skills compared with typically developing (TD) children. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to compare prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity in…

Following the positive youth development perspective that emphasizes the importance of focusing on the positive assets of youth to be developed, this study examined the variables related with mental toughness, a trainable skill that is associated with psychological and academic well-being outcomes, in preadolescent youth. The effect of…

A key aspect of children's moral and social understanding involves recognizing the value of helpful behaviors. COVID-19 has complicated this process; behaviors generally considered praiseworthy were considered problematic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study examined whether 6- to 12-year-olds (N = 228; residing in the United States)…

Background: Atypical speech prosody has been commonly found among autistic children. Yet it remains unknown whether prosody impairment originates from poor pitch ability in general or whether it is the result of the difficulty in understanding and using prosody for communicative purposes. Aims: To investigate whether native Mandarin…

This study adopted a qualitative case study approach to investigate the perceptions of immigrant children who participated in a puppet-making workshop about the story of an immigrant puppet, called Amal. The study involved 11 participants, 5 girls and 6 boys aged between 9 and 12 years, who joined the "Children Like Us" puppet-making…

This study aims to preliminarily validate the Italian version of the Coparenting Relationship Scale for Children (CRS-C) with 141 mothers, 141 fathers, and 141 children (48.6% males) aged 8-14 years. We tested the factorial structure of the CRS-C, which included five factors (support, endorsement, undermining, agreement, and exposure to conflict),…

The acceptance of students with special needs by their peers with typical development is of critical prominence for students with special needs. This study, which uses the mixed method as the research design, aims to find out the effectiveness of the same-age tutoring method in order to determine the effect of peer-mediated skill generalisation…

Although the estimated prevalence of ADHD in the school population is 5%, various studies carried out in Latin America have obtained higher figures. This descriptive-cross-sectional research analysed the prevalence of ADHD symptomatology in a random and probabilistic sample of 1535 schoolchildren from Cuenca-Ecuador (aged from 72 to 164 months,…

Spinal alignment can be assessed without radiation using three-dimensional ultrasound imaging (3DUS). Reliable measurements could inform the ideal arm position for scoliosis radiographs. This study determined the inter-evaluator reliability of axial vertebral rotation (AVR) measurements and sagittal curve angles in healthy females from 3DUS spinal…

Research on mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, which have become prevalent among pre-adolescents and lead to impaired functioning in family, academic, and social domains, is critically important. One prominent theoretical approach to explaining anxiety and depression symptoms is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and its…

Introduction: Research has indicated that Physical Education (PE) is often characterized by teacher-centred teaching (e.g. Byra 2006; Tinning 2010), where the pupils follow instruction and perform pre-established movements (Karlefors and Larsson 2018). Pupils are expected to listen, do as they are told, and follow rules (Fitzpatrick and Russell…

Background: Disfluency is a multifactorial concept that can be linked to several of the language production levels, in both typical and atypical populations. In children, the language system is still developing and few studies have explored disfluency patterns. In typical development (TD), in particular, studies have shown discrepancies according…

In this study, we reflect on our work with 10- and 11-year-olds in an inner London primary school developing a multimodal school play that integrated digital animation into a more conventionally structured Year 6 production. We are media literacy, drama and cultural studies researchers and teachers, arguing for more inclusive, holistic and…