CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of obesity in children and its many adverse health effects it is being recognized as a serious public health concern. The term overweight rather than obese is often used in children as it is less stigmatizing.

Effects on health

The first problems to occur in obese children are usually emotional or psychological. Childhood obesity however can also lead to life-threatening conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep problems, cancer, and other disorders. Some of the other disorders would include liver disease, early puberty or menarche, eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, skin infections, and asthma and other respiratory problems. Studies have shown that overweight children are more likely to grow up to be overweight adults. Obesity during adolescence has been found to increase mortality rates during adulthood.

Environmental Causes of Child Obesity

1. Insufficient Calorie Expenditure Through Exercise

The average American child spends a significant percentage of leisure time watching TV, or playing computer games. Few calories are expended during this sedentary activity. Not surprisingly, obesity rates are higher among children and teenagers who frequently watch television. In addition,

only a small minority of children (1 in 5) regularly participate in after-school sports or extra-curricular physical activity.

2. Excessive Snacking

Excess nibbling is a probable cause of obesity in children. Americans are estimated to spend over $1 billion dollars a day on snacks. The average American eats the equivalent of a fourth meal every day. And children are no exception. Often surrounded at school by high-calorie snack vending machines dispensing (eg) sugary soft drinks, regular TV-watching exposes the child to a battery of high-energy snack foods and drinks.

3. Fast Food Diet

Over-consumption of fast food is another probable cause of child/teen obesity. In 1992, children aged 6-14 years ate in quick-serve restaurants on average 157 million times a month. Children are courted and targeted by many fast food chains, who promote super-size portions and all-you-can-eat offers.

4. Family Behaviors

It's difficult to separate genetic from family-environmental factors as causes of childhood obesity. Although children of obese parents are estimated to have a 25-30 percent extra chance of becoming obese themselves, part of this increased risk of obesity is probably due to eating habits and poor family nutrition, rather than heredity. Parental behavioral patterns concerning shopping, cooking, eating and exercise, have an important influence on a child's energy balance.

5. Body Image

Obesity in a child or adolescent may also be encouraged by a distorted body image, due to peer pressure, parental influence - including attitude of parents to weight loss and dieting.

Genetic Causes of Child Obesity

Genes affect a huge number of weight-related chemical processes in the body. Metabolic rate, blood glucose metabolism, fat-storage, hormones to name but a few, are all influenced by our genetic inheritance. Also, some studies of adopted children indicate that adopted children tend to develop weight problems similar to their biological, rather than adoptive, parents. In addition, infants born to overweight moms have been found to be less active and to gain more weight by the age of three months when compared with infants of normal weight mothers. This indicates a possible inborn drive to conserve energy.

AUTISM

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how this occurs is not well understood. It is one of three recognized disorders in the autism spectrum (ASDs), the other two being Asperger syndrome, which lacks delays in cognitive development and language, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (commonly abbreviated as PDD-NOS), which is diagnosed when the full set of criteria for autism or Asperger syndrome are not met.

Autism has a strong genetic basis, although the genetics of autism are complex and it is unclear whether ASD is explained more by rare mutations, or by rare combinations of common genetic variants. In rare cases, autism is strongly associated with agents that cause birth defects. Controversies surround other proposed environmental causes, such as heavy metals, pesticides or childhood vaccines; the vaccine hypotheses are biologically implausible and lack convincing scientific evidence. The prevalence of autism is about 1–2 per 1,000 people worldwide; however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports approximately 9 per 1,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with ASD. The number of people diagnosed with autism has increased dramatically since the 1980s, partly due to changes in diagnostic practice; the question of whether actual prevalence has increased is unresolved.

Repetitive behavior

Autistic individuals display many forms of repetitive or restricted behavior, which the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R) categorizes as follows.

• Stereotypy is repetitive movement, such as hand flapping, making sounds, head rolling, or body rocking.
• Compulsive behavior is intended and appears to follow rules, such as arranging objects in stacks or lines.
• Sameness is resistance to change; for example, insisting that the furniture not be moved or refusing to be interrupted.
• Ritualistic behavior involves an unvarying pattern of daily activities, such as an unchanging menu or a dressing ritual. This is closely associated with sameness and an independent validation has suggested combining the two factors.
• Restricted behavior is limited in focus, interest, or activity, such as preoccupation with a single television program, toy, or game.
• Self-injury includes movements that injure or can injure the person, such as eye poking, skin picking, hand biting, and head banging. A 2007 study reported that self-injury at some point affected about 30% of children with ASD

DOWN SYNDROME

Down syndrome can result from several different genetic mechanisms. This results in a wide variability in individual signs and symptoms due to complex gene and environment interactions. Prior to birth, it is not possible to predict the symptoms that an individual with Down syndrome will develop.

Individuals with Down syndrome may have some or all of the following physical characteristics: microgenia (abnormally small chin), oblique eye fissures with epicanthic skin folds on the inner corner of the eyes (formerly known as a mongoloid fold), muscle hypotonia (poor muscle tone), a flat nasal bridge, a single palmar fold, a protruding tongue (due to small oral cavity, and an enlarged tongue near the tonsils) or macroglossia, a short neck, white spots on the iris known as Brushfield spots, excessive joint laxity including atlanto-axial instability, excessive space between large toe and second toe, a single flexion furrow of the fifth finger, and a higher number of ulnar loop dermatoglyphs. Most individuals with Down syndrome have intellectual disability in the mild (IQ 50–70) to moderate (IQ 35–50) range, with individuals having Mosaic Down syndrome typically 10–30 points higher. They also may have a broad head and a very round face.

Language skills show a difference between understanding speech and expressing speech, and commonly individuals with Down syndrome have a speech delay. Fine motor skills are delayed and often lag behind gross motor skills and can interfere with cognitive development. Effects of the condition on the development of gross motor skills are quite variable. Some children will begin walking at around 2 years of age, while others will not walk until age 4. Physical therapy, and/or participation in a program of adapted physical education (APE), may promote enhanced development of gross motor skills in Down syndrome children.

Growth parameters such as height, weight, and head circumference are smaller in children with DS than with typical individuals of the same age. Adults with DS tend to have short stature—the average height for men is 5 feet 1 inch (157 cm) and for women is 4 feet 9 inches (144 cm). Individuals with DS are also at increased risk for obesity as they age.

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WORKSHEETS

THE LATERALITY

Laterality is the functional predominance of one side of the human body over the other, determined by the cerebral hemisphere supremacy over the other.
Lateralization is the process by which laterality develops and is important for learning literacy and full maturity of language teaching p, d, b, q, requires mastery of laterality, if the child is aware of its side
can never be right or left handedness to the outside world, and the difference is difficult and identification of these letters. Consider also that reading and writing are processes that are met from left to right.
Mastering the side where the child will help a lot to be located in relation to other objects. Failure to do so could affect the learning difficulties of some areas. For example in the case of mathematics it is known that adding and subtracting various amounts starts from right to left and have not worked hard handedness will be placed against the paper.
Laterality is consolidated in the school stage. Between 2 and 5 years we see that the hands are used for combing, bathing in the bathroom, put a nail, hand out a card, say goodbye, cross your arms and hands, in both cases the dominant hand is on the other. At school age the child should have reached its lateralization and depending on your hand, foot, eye and ear.

There are different types of laterality

The uniform lateral hand is when a certain person, eye, hand, ear, foot, etc. are predominant on the right side.

The lateral homogeneous left-handed is when the eye, hand, ear, foot, etc. are predominant on the left side.

Cross laterality is when the prevalence of hand, eye, ear, foot, etc, are not located on the same side of cuerpo.Un child with crossed laterality, when reading, is often skip the lines, read without intonation, you need to use support from the finger to follow the text, etc.

TO IDENTIFY LATERALITY
For the handedness can ask the child to perform the following activities:
Winding a clock.Using scissors and writing.For the dominance of foot: hop on one foot, kick the ball.Dominance of eye: looking at a hole, telescope.Dominance of hearing: listening to the ticking clock.
Consider whether all activities were conducted with members or organs of the right or left side, then we can know if a child is defined dominance. If alternating right to left, said to have "cross-dominance."
ACHIEVING LATERALITY
To develop laterality can ask the child to perform the following:

   

 * Identify the right and left half his body in his partner and his image in a mirror.
    * Handle with his right hand, the right half of your body, starting in the head, eyes, ears, neck and trunk.
    * Wear a ribbon of color daily on the wrist of his right hand.
    * Pointing at his partner, stand back, parts of left and right side, this same activity is performed with fellow post in front.
    * Faced with a large mirror and divided into two equal parts with tape, pointing his right and left.
    * Make eye movements from left to right.
    * Exercises Unilateral right hand bumping his right foot.
    * Exercises simultaneously: with his left hand bumping his right eye.
    * Exercises with the left arm and right: top, side, right.
    * Reading the signs of images: the child must identify the drawings of the lineup, always from left to right, the same activity can be done with colors.
    Drawing Dictation: The teacher asked to draw geometric shapes, making sure that the child do it from left to right.
    * Draw horizontal lines, vertical and directional changes.
    * Draw pictures simultaneously: two sheets of paper using the child be circulated simultaneously in the two leaves and with both hands.

The five senses

Senses are the physiological capacities within organisms that provide inputs for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology (or cognitive science), and philosophy of perception. The nervous system has a specific sensory system or organ, dedicated to each sense.

Human beings have a multitude of senses. In addition to the traditionally recognized five senses of sight (ophthalmoception), hearing (audioception), taste (gustaoception), smell (olfacoception or olfacception), and touch (tactioception); other senses include temperature (thermoception), kinesthetic sense (proprioception), pain (nociception), balance (equilibrioception) and acceleration (kinesthesioception). What constitutes a sense is a matter of some debate, leading to difficulties in defining what exactly a sense is.