Promover a parentalidade : recomendações perante as birras e momentos de alimentação da criança

Enquadramento: A parentalidade é um tema de saúde com muita relevância na sociedade atual, intervindo o seu exercício na promoção da saúde e bem-estar da criança. A parentalidade envolve acontecimentos stressantes, nomeadamente em situações de problemas de saúde e necessidades básicas e de resposta ao comportamento da criança, como é o caso do choro/birra e no momento de alimentação, procurando a maioria dos cuidadores responder ao problema de forma independente enquanto outros solicitam apoio dos profissionais de saúde. Objetivo: Identificar recomendações concretas, baseadas na evidência científica, de boas práticas e recomendações a transmitir aos pais para lidarem com o choro /birras e no momento da alimentação da criança. Métodos: Realizou-se uma revisão sistemática da literatura de estudos realizados nos idiomas português, inglês e espanhol, publicados entre 2009 e 2014, em bases de dados internacionais CINAHL® Plus with Full-Text, Nursing & Allied Health Collection, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) e Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), MedicLatina , MEDLINE, com recurso a diversos descritores e operadores booleanos e recorrendo a dois revisores que avaliaram a qualidade dos estudos metodológicos. Resultados: Após avaliação crítica, foram excluídos 50 estudos e incluídos 7, sendo um de grau de evidência A, dois de evidência B e 4 de evidência D. Os outcomes evidenciaram que para gestão da parentalidade o aconselhamento deve feito pelo profissional de referência, que se necessário deverá acompanhar os pais através de contacto telefónico e visita domiciliária sobretudo se mães inexperientes. Os profissionais devem ampliar os seus conhecimentos sobre as dúvidas e preocupações que os pais têm sobre a educação dos seus filhos consultando os espaços de discussão online. A etnia e nacionalidade das mães tem forte impacto sobre os métodos usados para acalmar o bebé, pelo que os cuidados devem ser culturalmente congruentes. Na abordagem do choro/ birras torna-se necessário conhecer o normal desenvolvimento da criança e em que contextos surgem para minimizá-las, sendo importante que os pais dêem à criança atenção positiva, instituindo rotinas. Para melhorar o momento da alimentação os pais devem reconhecer que até aos dois anos decorre a janela de oportunidade de aprendizagem de rotinas e de novos sabores, salientando-se a importância do ambiente de atenção e reciprocidade durante as refeições. Conclusão: Os enfermeiros devem procurar orientar a sua prática com base nas evidências científicas e tendo como base o estudo efectuado, salienta-se a promoção da parentalidade positiva como central para a abordagem dos comportamentos de choro/birra e no momento da alimentação da criança. Palavras – chaves: educação parental, enfermeiro, aleitamento materno, alimentação, birra, choro, relação pais-filhos.

The Integration of Foreign Students in the Portuguese School of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education: the Case of a School Grouping in the Municipality of Viseu

The present study aims to understand whether the foreign students who have different nationalities but the Portuguese are integrated into the school of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education. With this purpose, a descriptive and phenomenological research was conducted, making use of documental analysis, as well as semi-structured interviews and sociometric tests. These two data collecting tools were applied to students attending from the 1st to the 4th school years, in three 1st Cycle of Basic Education schools, within a school grouping in Viseu. The data obtained through the interviews allow us to conclude that foreign students, in general, feel integrated both in the school and in the class they belong to. However, the analysis of the results of the sociometric tests reveals other data, allowing us to conclude that one of the students is neither integrated in the school, nor in the class he is part of.

Measuring attachment to life in old age: the Portuguese version of the Positive Valuation of Life Scale (Positive VOL)

Purpose This study aims to present the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Positive Valuation of Life Scale (Lawton et al. in J Aging Ment Healt 13:3–31, 2001). Method Sample included 207 community-dwelling elders (129 women; MAge = 77.2 years, SD = 7.5). The data collection included the translated and adapted Portuguese version of Positive Valuation of Life Scale, Life Satisfac- tion Index Z, Meaning in Life Questionnaire and Geriatric Depression Scale. Results From exploratory factor analysis, two factors emerged, existential beliefs and perceived control, ex- plaining 49 % of the total variance. Both factors were positively related with meaning in life and life satisfaction and negatively related with depression (p\0.05). The values obtained for internal consistency for the total scale and for each subscale were good (a [ 0.75). Conclusion The Portuguese version of Positive VOL Scale represents a reliable and valid measure to capture the subjective experience of attachment to one’s life. The two-factor structure is an update to Lawton’s previous work and in line with findings obtained in the USA (Dennis et al. in What is valuation of life for frail community-dwelling older adults: factor structure and criterion validity of the VOL, Thomas Jefferson University, Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health Research, 2005) and Japan (Nakagawa et al. in Shinrigaku Kenkyu 84:37–46, 2013). Future research is required to investigate VOL predictors and the potential changes toward the end of the life span.

Feeding students’ creativity with language arts: a project developed at ESEV (2013-15)

Children live at a time when the rapid turnover of information and the ongoing changes in the technological, social, cultural, political and economic spheres make it more difficult for teachers to prepare lessons that enhance students’ interest and motivation. There is so much to be learnt outside of the classroom’s four walls that traditional methods of teaching may not be the most effective way to teach today’s learners. When it comes to classes of Portuguese language, teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching culture, literature, grammar and skills such as reading, writing and speaking in a way that involves students as active participants, that is, in a way that engages while also instructing. It means that several strategies need to be adopted, from games to the use of new technologies or, among others, an interdisciplinary approach with maths, (social) sciences and arts, for instance. In an attempt to motivate gifted and talented children that were attending elementary school in a small town near Viseu, in Portugal, The School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu was asked to be part of a project in 2013, in a collaborative partnership that proved successful and that was re-enacted in 2015. It is in light of the above that, in this paper, we aim to: a) describe the support that the School of Education provided to these participants, children who were between six and fourteen, by presenting Portuguese language activities that intended to stimulate creative thinking and artistic production; and b) discuss the results of the project, by analysing the students’ productions across verbal and visual modes (ie. script writing and dubbing an excerpt of an animation film, interviews, news reports, drawings, the creation and recitation of poems…). Future activities are on the table, meaning that the School of Education’s commitment to feeding the students’ creativity has shown promising results. Creativity in Portuguese classes is not a guarantee of success but it certainly is food for thought.