Changes in Sedentary Time and Implicit Preference for Sedentary Behaviors in Response to a One-Month Educational Intervention in Primary School Children: Results from the Globe Trotter Pilot Cluster-Randomized Study.

School-based multi-component educational interventions have been encouraged to improve children's movement behaviors. The present study evaluates the effect of the Globe Trotter Initiative on physical activity (PA) level, sedentary time, physical fitness and activity preferences in primary school children. A total of 361 children (9−10 years) participated in this cluster-randomized trial. Nine schools were randomized as control (CON, 121 children) or Globe Trotter schools (GT, 240 children). Physical fitness, body composition, anthropometric characteristics, PA level, sedentary behaviors, physical self-perception, and activity preferences were evaluated at baseline (T0) and after the one-month intervention (T1). Grip strength performance and overall completion time of the obstacle course show a significant time effect (p < 0.001) in both groups (no group effect). PA level and physical self-perception did not significantly show time nor group effects. The sedentary behavior score displays a significant "time × group" interaction effect (p = 0.04) with a significant reduction between T0 and T1 in the GT group only (p < 0.001). The explicit liking for sedentary activities shows a significant "time × group" interaction (p = 0.02) with a significant decrease between T0 and T1 in the GT group only (p < 0.001). The explicit wanting for sedentary activities show a significant "time × group" interaction (p = 0.02) with a significant decrease between T0 and T1 in the GT group only (p < 0.001). The short-term, multi-component, behavioral, educational GT intervention had beneficial effects on primary-school-aged children's sedentary time and implicit preference for physical over sedentary activities.

Rationale, design and conduct of a school-based anti-smoking intervention: the "PEPITES" cluster randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: In France smoking initiation rates amongst 11 to 16 year-olds are worryingly high. Several studies show that early initiation to psycho-active substances is a strong predictor of tobacco addiction. Decreasing the age at which tobacco use starts represents a key challenge for reducing tobacco usage. Implementing an intervention trial using educational workshops based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and covering the 4 years of secondary school could be effective. METHODS: "PEPITES" is an interventional research, using a cluster randomized design. It will allow assessing the effectiveness of interventions both in reducing the tobacco initiation rate and the regular smoking rate of secondary school pupils. We will also evaluate the process of the implementation of the study and thus will help to the transferability of the intervention. A partnership convention was signed between the JDB Foundation and the National Education authority which designated 6 secondary state schools for the PEPITES trial. The 6 schools were randomly allocated to 3 groups of 2 clusters each: 1 control group, 2 different intervention groups with 2 workshops per year during 4 years; In one of this group the 2 last workshops will be dedicated to measure the loss of taste due to tobacco smoking. In each school, all pupils in year 1 with a signed parental authorization (744 pupils) have been included in the trial. The interventions targets one of the variables of the TPB and the reinforcement of psycho-social competencies. We estimated that we could detect a reduction of increase ≥5.5 and 8% respectively in the 2 principal outcomes (risk α of 5%, and ß of 80%). DISCUSSION: Carrying out a randomized prevention trial in the school environment raises specific problems which it seems useful to detail for other educational actors who would like to perform a similar study. This discussion concerns the acceptation and cooperation of the National Education partners, the risks of contamination, the information given to parents and pupils and their consent, and the representativeness of the schools involved. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN85812512 . Registered 15 May 2018 by BioMed Central. (retrospectively registered).

Space representation in children with dyslexia and children without dyslexia: contribution of line bisection and circle centering tasks.

Line bisection tasks (different space locations and different line lengths) and circle centering tasks (visuo-proprioceptive and proprioceptive explorations, with left or right starting positions) were used to investigate space representation in children with dyslexia and children without dyslexia. In line bisection, children with dyslexia showed a significant rightward bias for central and right-sided locations and a leftward bias for left-sided location. Furthermore, the spatial context processing was asymmetrically more efficient in the left space. In children without dyslexia, no significant bias was observed in central lines but the spatial context processing was symmetrical in both spaces. When the line length varied, no main effect was shown. These results strengthen the 'inverse pseudoneglect' hypothesis in dyslexia. In the lateral dimension of the circle centering tasks, children showed a response bias in the direction of the starting hand location for proprioceptive condition. For radial dimension, the children showed a forward bias in visuo-proprioceptive condition and more backward error in proprioceptive condition. Children with dyslexia showed a forward bias in clockwise exploration and more accurate performance in counterclockwise exploration for left starting position which may be in accordance with leftward asymmetrical spatial context processing in line bisection. These results underline the necessity to use the line bisection task with different locations as an appropriate experimental paradigm to study lateral representational bias in dyslexia. The contribution of the present results in the understanding of space representation in children with dyslexia and children without dyslexia is discussed in terms of attentional processes and neuroanatomical substrate.

Cognitive demands impair postural control in developmental dyslexia: a negative effect that can be compensated.

Children with developmental dyslexia exhibit delayed reading abilities and various sensori-motor deficits. The way these various symptoms interact remain poorly understood. The objective of this study was twofold. First, we aimed to investigate whether postural control was impaired in dyslexic children when cognitive demands are increased. Second, we checked whether this effect could be reduced significantly by a treatment aiming to recalibrate ocular proprioception. Twelve dyslexic and fifteen treated dyslexic children (>3 months of treatment) were compared with twelve non-dyslexic children in two conditions (mean age: 11.6+/-2.1, 12.5+/-1.5 and 10.6+/-1.7 years respectively). In a first condition they maintained balance while fixating a point in front of them. In the second condition the postural task was combined with a silently reading one. Balance was assessed by means of a force plate. Results demonstrated that the mean velocity (i.e. the total length) of the center of pressure (CoP) displacement was increased in the reading task only for the dyslexic group. Interestingly, for the treated children, an inverse tendency was observed: the mean velocity (i.e. the total length) and the surface of the 90% confidence ellipse of the CoP displacement decreased for 13/15 patients and for 12/15 patients respectively, while performing the reading task. Values remained similar to those observed for the control children. Altogether, these results strongly suggest that cognitive demands can impair postural control in developmental dyslexia but this interaction could be normalized. These results sustain the hypothesis of a cerebellar origin for dyslexia.