Designing for Independent Living:The Case Study of an Inclusive Apartment for Persons with Disabilities

Independent living and freedom of choice are closely linked to the social inclusion of PwD(Persons with Disabilities)in society.The paper reports on a recent study focused on investigating and understanding the needs and desires of persons with intellectual disabilities,with reduced mobility and with visual impairments while performing daily activities in order to design user-friendly and inclusive home environments for their life project.The case study concerns an apartment on the ground floor of a building well embedded in a neighborhood urban and social context.It was selected by Anffas Trentino Onlus to train young adults in independent living.Anffas is the National Association of Families of People Intellectual and/or Relational Disabilities,present and operating throughout Italy.Since 2008,important projects have been promoted by Anffas Trentino Onlus aimed at stimulating a personal and housing autonomy in PwD for“during and after us”,or rather when there are no more family members to take care of them.The design process involved a representative focus group of end users.With them and some Anffas staff components,it was possible to implement a participatory design process by sharing and verifying needs,desires,expectations.This approach was adopted in order to jointly develop a design proposal for a new inclusive apartment changing the paradigm from design for to design with,and building awareness both in the end users and designers.

Family-relatedFactorsThatInfluenceChildren’sAcademicAchievementsinSchool

This essay studies various family-related factors that influence a child’s academic achievement in school in P.R. China. The factors are illustrated under three categories: the family’s social class and education, early home environment and family material condition. The author discusses the relevant factors by way of relating the knowledge of social environment to his own experiences as a student and then teacher in China. The essay closes with a discussion directing the public’s attention to the concern about home-related factors influencing a child’s academic achievements in school.

The Importance of Parent＇s Intervention in Early Years

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of parent involvement and intervention in early childhood education. What formulates the lock and key theory in early childhood programs is parental participation versus educational achievement. Upon the parents＇ vital involvement, it is perceived that social and cognitive development, aided by educators, will be significantly achieved. Furthermore, parent＇s early intervention is an added value to classrooms and schools, for it creates a dimension of involvement in the decisions which shape the children＇s education as a whole. Moreover, and due to parent/teacher cooperation in the classroom and at home, the child＇s interest in learning will be triggered, yielding other positive outcomes. Therefore, people must emphasize the parent＇s role in order to aid children＇s complex and evolving multi-cultural and global nature.

Reporting Bias of Dampness Problems and Smoking—A Result of Study Design

Using questionnaire is a common, efficient and cheap way to collect data in population-based epidemiological studies. However, there is a general trend of declining response rates leading to a higher risk for bias affecting the validity of results. Use of anonymous questionnaires and/or other ways of distributions, e.g. via schools instead of postal, may increase response rates, but can also lead to other types of systematic errors. This study indicates that results from cross-sectional questionnaire studies differ depending on distribution method and whether the survey is anonymous or not. Also the official purpose of the survey may affect the outcome. When studying well-known risk-factors and health effects, potential methodological problems like reporting bias must be considered in cross sectional studies.

Factors of heavy social media use among 13-year-old adolescents on weekdays and weekends

Background Few studies have investigated which factors were related to adolescents'social media use.This study aimed to evaluate which factors were associated with heavy social media use on weekdays and weekends among 13-year-old adolescents.Methods We analyzed data from 3727 children from the Generation R Study,a population-based cohort study in the Neth-erlands.Associations of demographic factors(child age,sex,ethnic background,and family situation),socioeconomic posi-tion(parental educational level,parental employment status,and net household income),screen-based behaviors(computer playing and TV viewing),and the home environment(communication,supervision,and restriction)with adolescents'heavy social media use(≥2 hours/day)were assessed separately on weekdays and weekends.Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied.Results The prevalence of heavy social media use was 37.7%on a weekday and 59.6%on a weekend day.Being a girl,liv-ing in a one-parent family,and more time spent playing on the computer were associated with heavy social media use on weekdays and weekends(all P<0.05).Low socioeconomic position adolescents(low parental educational level and low household income)were more likely to show heavy social media use only on weekends(all P<0.05).Children whose social media use was restricted by parents on weekdays or children whose social media use was supervised by parents on weekends had lower odds of heavy social media use(all P<0.05).Conclusions Being a girl,living in a one-parent family,or having a longer computer playing time were associated with heavy social media use on weekdays and weekends.More studies are needed to understand the factors associated with heavy social media use and the impact of heavy social media use on child health.