THE EDUCATIONAL AND THERAPEUTIC BENEFITS OF “CONTENT-FOCUSED ACCESSIBLE E-LEARNING MATERIAL” FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The idea of “educational therapy” is quite different in Japan compared to foreign countries, especially in the US, where educational therapy is quite advanced. Therefore, this study determines the educational therapeutic benefits of the author’s “Content-Focused Accessible E-Learning Material” for English self-learning, based on the concept developed in the US, particularly focusing on visually impaired students. These students experience various difficulties in higher education, such as 1) the absence of learning materials in braille, 2) commercial unavailability of magnification-capable learning materials and digital materials, and 3) lack of text-to-speech function in many learning materials. To study whether the material had any therapeutic benefits for these students, the author obtained feedback from 33 students. The feedback was based on the following questions: (1) technical aspects: Did the material reduce/rid the load/concern they felt; and (2) mental aspects: Did the material increase the willingness/autonomy or decrease anxieties and did they feel accomplished or motivated to improve their longitudinal English self-study? The findings show that the material was beneficial to them in five ways. The goal of this study was accomplished to a considerable degree; the use of this material reduced students’ mental burden in learning based on both qualitative and quantitative feedback from visually impaired students.

Fatigue in advanced disease associated with palliative care: A systematic review of non-pharmacological treatments

Background: Fatigue is a common complaint reported by patients with advanced disease, impacting their daily activities and quality of life. The pathophysiology is incompletely understood, and evidence-based treatment approaches are needed. Aim: This systematic review aims to evaluate the efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions as treatment for fatigue in advanced disease. Design: The review design follows the Cochrane guidelines for systematic reviews of interventions. Data sources: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov and a selection of journals up to February 28th 2019, for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effect of non-pharmacological treatments for fatigue in advanced disease associated with palliative care. Further potentially relevant studies were identified from the reference lists in relevant reviews, and in studies considered for this review. Results: We screened 579 publications; 15 met the inclusion criteria, with data from 1179 participants: 815 were treated with physical exercise, 309 with psycho-educational therapy and 55 with an energy restoration approach. Sources of potential bias included lack of description of blinding and allocation concealment methods, and small study sizes. Physical exercise as treatment for fatigue in patients with advanced cancer was supported by moderate-quality evidence. Conclusion: Physical exercise should be considered as a measure to reduce fatigue in patients with advanced cancer, but data on other advanced diseases is lacking. Due to the differences between studies, no clear recommendations can be made with respect to the best type of physical therapy. Restoration exercise and psycho-educational therapy are promising treatment options, although further research is needed.

ADHD Symptoms and School Impairment History in Parents of ADHD Children are a Fundamental Diagnostic and Therapeutic Clue.

Background: Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a multi-factorial condition, with inheritance playing a major role. Recognizing parents’ ADHD represents a clue not only for an earlier diagnosis of the disease in their children, but also to optimize psycho-educational therapy outcome, by addressing the impairment of parenting related to untreated ADHD. This study aimed to assess the frequency of features suggestive of ADHD during childhood among parents of affected children, and the presence of school and emotional impairment.Methods: We administered the Wender Utah Rating Scale-25, a self-assessment tool for the retrospective identification of symptoms consistent with ADHD during childhood, to a cohort of 120 parents of 60 children diagnosed with ADHD, and to a consistent number of “controls”.Results: The WURS-25 proved positive in 49.1% of fathers and 30.0% of mothers of ADHD patients, compared to 1.7% of fathers and 1.7% of mothers of non-ADHD patients (p < 0.0001). The questions addressing learning and emotional impairment provided significantly higher scores in parents with an overall positive test compared to those with negative test (p < 0.0001).Conclusions: This study demonstrates a remarkably high rate of symptoms consistent with ADHD during childhood in parents of affected children. Physicians should be aware that this is a relevant anamnestic clue and, given the relevance of parents’ role in the management of children with ADHD, an important issue in order to improve patients’ treatment.

Integration of a Social Robot in a Pedagogical and Logopedic Intervention with Children: A Case Study

The effectiveness of social robots such as NAO in pedagogical therapies presents a challenge. There is abundant literature focused on therapies using robots with children with autism, but there is a gap to be filled in other educational different needs. This paper describes an experience of using a NAO as an assistant in a logopedic and pedagogical therapy with children with different needs. Even if the initial robot architecture is based on genericbehaviors, the loading and execution time for each specific requirement and the needs of each child in therapy, made it necessary to develop “Adaptive Behaviors”. These evolve into an adaptive architecture, appliedto the engineer–therapist–child interaction, requiring the engineer-programmer to be always present during the sessions. Benefits from the point of view of the therapist and the children and the acceptance of NAO in therapy are shown. A robot in speech-therapy sessions can play a positive role in several logopedic aspectsserving as a motivating factor for the children.Future works should be oriented in developing intelligent algorithms so as to eliminate the presence of the engineer-programmer in the sessions. Additional work proposals should consider deepening the psychological aspects of using humanoid robots in educational therapy.

Intervensi untuk Mengurangi Depresi Postpartum

Depressi Postpartum sering terjadi setelah melahirkan yang terjadi akibat adanya Riwayat gangguan dysphoric premenstrual sebelumnya, stres psikososial, dan dukungan sosial yang tidak memadai bagi ibu. Diperlukan intervensi untuk mencegah terjadinya depressi postpartum selama masa kehamilan, persalinan dan postpartum. Tujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui intervensi yang efektif dalam mencegah depresi post partum. Metode pencarian literature secara komprehensif dilakukan melalui Database EBSCO ditermukan 6.620 artikel dan sciendierect 21.163 artikel. Setelah melakukan penyaringan, diperolah 5 artikel yang memenuhi syarat. Hasil penelitian diperoleh bahwa terdapat lima intervensi yang dapat dilakukan untuk mengurangi kondisi depresi postpostpartum, antara lain: terapi pendidikan terstruktur, terapi thought stopping, terapi managing our mood (MOM), terapi relaksasi musik, dan intervensi pemberian suplemen zat besi. Kesimpulan berdasarkan hasil penelitian bahwa terapi pendidikan terstruktur, terapi thought stopping, terapi managing our mood (MOM), terapi relaksasi music, dan intervensi pemberian suplemen zat besi efektif dalam mencegah atau mengurangi depresi post partum. Kata kunci: depresi postpartum, intervensi, pencegahan INTERVENTION TO REDUCE POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION ABSTRACTPostpartum depression often occurs after childbirth, which results from a history of previous premenstrual dysphoric disorders, psychosocial stress, and inadequate social support for the mother. Interventions are needed to prevent postpartum depression during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. The aim of the study was to find out effective interventions in preventing post-partum depression. A comprehensive literature search was carried out through the EBSCO Database found 6,620 articles and 21,163 ScienceDirect articles. After screening, 5 articles were obtained which fulfilled the requirements. There were five interventions that could be carried out to reduce post-postpartum depression, including structured educational therapy, thought stopping therapy, managing our mood (MOM) therapy, music relaxation therapy, and iron supplementation interventions. This study can be concuded that structured educational therapy, thought stopping therapy, managing our mood (MOM) therapy, music relaxation therapy, and iron supplementation interventions are effective in preventing or reducing post-partum depression. Keywords: intervention, prevention, post-partum depression

Towards AI-based Interactive Game Intervention to Monitor Concentration Levels in Children with Attention Deficit

Preliminary results to a new approach for neurocognitive training on academic engagement and monitoring of attention levels in children with learning difficulties is presented. Machine Learning (ML) techniques and a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) are used to develop an interactive AI-based game for educational therapy to monitor the progress of children’s concentration levels during specific cognitive tasks. Our approach resorts to data acquisition of brainwaves of children using electroencephalography (EEG) to classify concentration levels through model calibration. The real-time brainwave patterns are inputs to our game interface to monitor concentration levels. When the concentration drops, the educational game can personalize to the user by changing the challenge of the training or providing some new visual or auditory stimuli to the user in order to reduce the attention loss. To understand concentration level patterns, we collected brainwave data from children at various primary schools in Brazil who have intellectual disabilities e.g. autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Preliminary results show that we successfully benchmarked (96%) the brainwave patterns acquired by using various classical ML techniques. The result obtained through the automatic classification of brainwaves will be fundamental to further develop our full approach. Positive feedback from questionnaires was obtained for both, the AI-based game and the engagement and motivation during the training sessions.

Science and Charity, Educational therapy and active learning, increasing brain intelligence or heart intelligence

Transhumanism, a unique cyber entity perspective, posthumanism offers a unique integration between agency, memory and imagination in a philosophical way to achieve a harmonious ecology harmony that is developing and interrelated, increasing the education provided to graduates is necessary. The purpose of this paper discusses learning of Science and Charity, how education therapy and active learning, as well as improving brain intelligence or heart intelligence. From the results of the discussion it was concluded: 1) Various studies related to the phenomenon of the era of education 4.0 in general need to improve the education given to graduates therefore if society changes, schools need to change preparing students for the real world, rather than instead isolating students from the real world because students need to be a critical thinker and ready to solve problems, collaborate and communicate; 2) Education must teach the renewal of capacity to create, identify issues regarding current situations and actively provide solutions through the integration of faith, knowledge, charity or creed, shari'ah, morals; 3) Education must provide an ideal mode of therapy Lecture, Reading, Audiovisual, Demonstration, Discussion, Practice and Real Practice with a percentage ratio of 5: 10: 20: 30: 50: 75: 90, or use other patterns and not 100% lecture; 4) educational elements and principals must understand the concepts of knowledge for practice and knowledge in practice which consists of different varieties of knowledge as competitors or complementary such as formal knowledge (referring to theory or research and law or policy) and informal (referring to the practice of wisdom, experience personal, intuitive and tacit knowledge); 5) Other countries are fast advancing on the basis of creativity and innovation as the drivers of the knowledge economy by shifting the education system with the core of considering the abilities and talents of individuals and to create new knowledge.