Use of restraint in residential care settings for children and young people

An international movement promoting the reduced use of physical restraint and other coercive practices has brought into focus the ways in which those who are responsible for the care of children and young people respond to problematic behaviour. The topic generates emotive discussion, with proponents advancing the argument that the use of coercive measures enhances the quality of care and protects young people from harm, and civil libertarians who argue that restraint is never an appropriate way of managing behaviour. Despite such debates there is an absence of good research and scholarly activity on restraint practices, leading to uncertainty about the immediate and long-term effects of particular practices on both staff and young people. Consequently, it has been difficult for agencies to develop clear, consistent, and definitive policies. Drawing on international perspectives, the aim of this article is to discuss issues relevant to the practice of restraint in residential care facilities for children and young people in Australia, highlighting a number of issues that require resolution prior to the development of practice guidelines.

The communication skills used by deaf children and their hearing peers in a question-and-answer game context

Communication is frequently characterized by a sequence of questions and answers. Little is known about how well students who are deaf or hard of hearing (deaf/HH) understand their hearing classmates in the context of an inclusive setting. This study explored the communication skills used by deaf/HH children when asking and answering questions in a “trivia” game with their hearing peers. Thirty-four children with normal hearing and 34 children with a hearing loss ranging from mild to profound (>90 dB HL) participated in this study. Each of the 34 dyads included 1 child with normal hearing and 1 child with hearing loss, matched by gender and grade level at school. Dyads were videotaped and analyzed. Pairs were compared in terms of their capacity to repeat the question, strategies used to seek information, and accuracy of responses. Results showed that the group of hearing children was able to repeat more questions verbatim compared to the deaf/HH children. The deaf/HH group required a significantly greater number of repetitions, sought a greater number of general clarifications, and correctly answered more questions compared with the group of hearing children. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of peer communication and pragmatic skill development.

Fundamental movement skills in children and adolescents : review of associated health benefits

The mastery of fundamental movement skills (FMS) has been purported as contributing to children's physical, cognitive and social development and is thought to provide the foundation for an active lifestyle. Commonly developed in childhood and subsequently refined into context- and sport-specific skills, they include locomotor (e.g. running and hopping), manipulative or object control (e.g. catching and throwing) and stability (e.g. balancing and twisting) skills. The rationale for promoting the development of FMS in childhood relies on the existence of evidence on the current or future benefits associated with the acquisition of FMS proficiency. The objective of this systematic review was to examine the relationship between FMS competency and potential health benefits in children and adolescents. Benefits were defined in terms of psychological, physiological and behavioural outcomes that can impact public health. A systematic search of six electronic databases (EMBASE, OVID MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus and SportDiscus) was conducted on 22 June 2009. Included studies were cross-sectional, longitudinal or experimental studies involving healthy children or adolescents (aged 3–18 years) that quantitatively analysed the relationship between FMS competency and potential benefits. The search identified 21 articles examining the relationship between FMS competency and eight potential benefits (i.e. global self-concept, perceived physical competence, cardio-respiratory fitness [CRF], muscular fitness, weight status, flexibility, physical activity and reduced sedentary behaviour). We found strong evidence for a positive association between FMS competency and physical activity in children and adolescents. There was also a positive relationship between FMS competency and CRF and an inverse association between FMS competency and weight status. Due to an inadequate number of studies, the relationship between FMS competency and the remaining benefits was classified as uncertain. More longitudinal and intervention research examining the relationship between FMS competency and potential psychological, physiological and behavioural outcomes in children and adolescents is recommended.

Neighbourhood physical activity environments and adiposity in children and mothers : a three-year longitudinal study

Background Although neighbourhood environments are often blamed for contributing to rising levels of obesity, current evidence is based predominantly on cross-sectional samples. This study examined associations between objectively-measured environmental characteristics of neighbourhoods and adiposity cross-sectionally and longitudinally over three years in children and their female carers.

Methods Longitudinal study of 140 5-6 year-old and 269 10-12 year-old children and their female carers (n = 369). At baseline (2001) and follow-up (2004), height and weight were measured among children and self-reported among female carers, and were used to compute BMI z-scores and BMI, respectively. A Geographic Information System determined access to destinations (public open spaces, sports options, walking/cycling tracks), road connectivity (density of cul-de-sacs and intersections, proportion of 4-way intersections, length of 'access' paths (overpasses, access lanes, throughways between buildings)) and traffic exposure (length of 'busy' and 'local' roads) within 800 m and 2 km of home. Univariate and multivariable linear regression analyses examined associations between environmental characteristics and BMI/BMI z-scores at baseline and change in BMI/BMI z-scores over the three years.

Results Cross-sectionally, BMI z-score was inversely associated with length (km) of access paths within 800 m (b = -0.50) and 2 km (b = -0.16) among younger and number of sport/recreation public open spaces (b = -0.14) and length (km) of 'access' paths (b = -0.94) within 800 m and length of local roads within 2 km (b = -0.01) among older children. Among female carers, BMI was associated with length (km) of walking/cycling tracks (b = 0.17) and busy roads (b = -0.34) within 800 m. Longitudinally, the proportion of intersections that were 4-way (b = -0.01) within 800 m of home was negatively associated with change in BMI z-score among younger children, while length (km) of access paths (b = 0.18) within 800 m was significant among older children. Among female carers, options for aerobics/fitness and swimming within 2 km were associated with change in BMI (B = -0.42).

Conclusion A small number of neighbourhood environment features were associated with adiposity outcomes. These differed by age group and neighbourhood scale (800 m and 2 km) and were inconsistent between cross-sectional and longitudinal findings. However, the results suggest that improvements to road connectivity and slowing traffic and provision of facilities for leisure activities popular among women may support obesity prevention efforts.

Comparison of automated classification techniques for predicting benthic biological communities using hydroacoustics and video observations

The effective management of our marine ecosystems requires the capability to identify, characterise and predict the distribution of benthic biological communities within the overall seascape architecture. The rapid expansion of seabed mapping studies has seen an increase in the application of automated classification techniques to efficiently map benthic habitats, and the need of techniques to assess confidence of model outputs. We use towed video observations and 11 seafloor complexity variables derived from multibeam echosounder (MBES) bathymetry and backscatter to predict the distribution of 8 dominant benthic biological communities in a 54 km² site, off the central coast of Victoria, Australia. The same training and evaluation datasets were used to compare the accuracies of a Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) and two new generation decision tree methods, QUEST (Quick Unbiased Efficient Statistical Tree) and CRUISE (Classification Rule with Unbiased Interaction Selection and Estimation), for predicting dominant biological communities. The QUEST classifier produced significantly better results than CRUISE and MLC model runs, with an overall accuracy of 80% (Kappa 0.75). We found that the level of accuracy with the size of training set varies for different algorithms. The QUEST results generally increased in a linear fashion, CRUISE performed well with smaller training data sets, and MLC performed least favourably overall, generating anomalous results with changes to training size. We also demonstrate how predicted habitat maps can provide insights into habitat spatial complexity on the continental shelf. Significant variation between patch-size and habitat types and significant correlations between patch size and depth were also observed.

Investigating question types used in conversation between school-aged deaf children and their peers.

Children learn about turn-taking and develop sensitivity to conversational partners. Anecdotal reports suggest that children who are D/HH may have difficulties with some pragmatic skills that lead to difficulties interacting with hearing children. This study investigated the conversational skills of children with hearing loss who use spoken language when communicating with their hearing peers. A comparison of the conversational skills of children who are D/HH conversing with hearing peers with the conversational skills of hearing dyads was conducted. Specifically, this paper will present results relating to how each dyad member asked questions including question types, question purpose, and the role of questions in conversation.