counting

The article substantiates the potential and pedagogical conditions for using loose parts to develop mathematical competence in preschool and primary school children. Loose parts are defined as natural, household, manufactured, or recycled materials with which children can engage in a variety of practical activities, including those involving mathematical content. These may include stones, sand, water, branches, leaves, seeds, shells, pieces of fabric, threads, cardboard boxes, bottle caps, containers, sticks, and other materials. It has been established that, at preschool age, the use of loose parts provides a sensory basis for developing concepts of quantity, number, shape, size, space, and patterns. In primary school, in addition to deepening this knowledge, the same materials can be used to support modeling, solving problems in several ways, testing assumptions, justifying strategies, and working with data. This enables continuity between preschool and primary education in the development of children’s mathematical competence. The potential of loose parts for developing mathematical competence in preschool and primary school children lies in the fact that they enable the practical acquisition of concepts related to number, shape, size, spatial relationships, and patterns, while stimulating the development of skills in counting, comparing, classifying, measuring, modeling, and problem-solving. Their use encourages learners’ independence, investigative activity, and the development of mathematical language. The following pedagogical conditions for using loose parts to develop mathematical competence in preschool and primary school children have been identified: ensuring the purposeful selection and diversification of materials; combining support for children’s initiative with the implementation of pedagogical intentions; and organizing mathematical reflection among preschool and primary school learners.

Early literacy and numeracy assessment can help Kindergarten teachers identify learning needs and review classroom instruction. This study described changes in assessment scores following nine instructional sessions aligned with the MATATAG Curriculum at Ligao West Central Elementary School–Binatagan, Philippines, during School Year 2025–2026. A quantitative action research approach used a single group assessed before and after instruction. The reported participants were 208 learners from five Kindergarten sections, included through total enumeration. Researcher developed instruments assessed letter recognition, initial sound awareness, vocabulary recognition, number recognition, counting, and quantity comparison. The same instruments were administered at both assessment points. Reported numeracy means increased from 18.84 (SD = 4.56) to 28.47 (SD = 3.89), a difference of 9.63 points. Literacy means were reported as 21.36 (SD = 4.18) and 30.92 (SD = 3.74), but the latter exceeds the instrument’s stated maximum of 30 points and requires reconciliation before interpretation. Although the original study proposed paired samples testing, no completed test statistics or paired learner records were available for verification. Accordingly, the findings are presented descriptively, without claims of statistical significance or curriculum effectiveness. The numeracy pattern warrants further examination, while the literacy result remains unresolved. Repeated testing, development, classroom differences, and the absence of a comparison group limit attribution of change to instruction. The study highlights the need for accurate scoring, documented assessment procedures, and continued monitoring of foundational skills. Verified learner records and a stronger evaluation design are needed before drawing conclusions about learning gains associated with MATATAG implementation in this school.

Digital media has evolved from passive screen viewing into an algorithmically curated ecosystem of social platforms, short form video, games, generative artificial intelligence (AI), conversational agents, connected toys and educational technologies. These systems can support learning, creativity, communication, disability access and healthcare; however, engagement optimized design, commercial surveillance and synthetic content create risks that are not adequately captured by screen-time measures alone. This narrative review examines the effects of contemporary digital ecosystems on child and adolescent health and outlines implications for pediatric practice. PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar and guidance from the World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, UNESCO and the American Academy of Pediatrics were reviewed, with emphasis on evidence published from 2019 to June 2026. Associations have been reported between problematic digital media use and sleep disruption, reduced physical activity, visual and musculoskeletal symptoms, obesity related behaviours, anxiety, depressive symptoms, cyberbullying, disordered eating and impaired attention. Causal interpretation remains difficult because effects are heterogeneous, often small, bidirectional and strongly modified by age, content, context, displacement, family relationships and pre-existing vulnerability. AI adds distinct concerns: persuasive personalization, inaccurate health information, anthropomorphic dependency, deepfakes, sexual exploitation, biased outputs, privacy loss and erosion of learning through uncritical outsourcing. Benefits are also substantial when technologies are developmentally appropriate, evidence-based, inclusive and used with adult support. Pediatric counselling should shift from counting hours alone toward assessing the child's digital ecosystem, sleep, function, content, compulsivity, safety and relationships. Effective protection requires shared family practices, school digital literacy, safety by design, age-appropriate assurance, transparent algorithms, data minimization and independent research. The goal is not a screen free childhood but a child centred digital environment that supports health, agency and development.

Contamination-related obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can cause substantial distress and functional impairment, particularly when compulsive behaviors become intertwined with familial and culturally shaped beliefs about purity and cleanliness.Understanding the distinction between culturally normative practices and clinically impairing compulsions is important for culturally sensitive assessment and treatment.This case report describes an 18-year-old woman with adolescent-onset, contamination-related obsessivecompulsive symptoms that developed at approximately 14-15 years of age during a period of academic and family stress.Her symptoms included persistent feelings of being unclean after toileting, prolonged bathing and toileting, repeated checking of undergarments after urination, counting rituals, avoidance of food and water to reduce elimination-related urges, and avoidance of physical contact in crowded or public settings.A distinctive feature of the presentation was its development within a familial environment in which purity and cleanliness were associated with bodily practices and social boundaries.The patient reported routine post-defecation bathing by family members, restrictions on physical contact with individuals from Scheduled Caste backgrounds, cleansing of the household after such contact, and repeated scrutiny of the adequacy of her own washing.These experiences were considered contextual influences that may have shaped the meaning and reinforcement of contamination concerns rather than direct causes of OCD.Her behaviors were distinguished from the family practices she described by their excessive duration, associated distress, impaired control, and functional interference.The baseline Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score was 24, indicating severe symptoms.Treatment focused on psychoeducation, reduction of ritualized behaviors, distraction and urgemanagement strategies, toilet retraining, relaxation, and supportive psychotherapy, alongside concurrent pharmacological treatment.By sessions six to seven, checking and counting had ceased, bathing and toileting duration had markedly decreased, food and water avoidance had resolved, and previously avoided bus travel and crowded settings were tolerated.At session nine, approximately two months after baseline, the Y-BOCS score had decreased to 4, indicating symptoms in the subclinical range.The remaining sessions focused primarily on maintaining improvement and adjustment to college, with no recurrence of the principal rituals documented through the final session.This case highlights how familial and culturally transmitted concepts of purity may shape the content of contamination-related OCD symptoms.Substantial improvement occurred during a symptom-focused behavioral intervention without directly challenging the family's broader cultural framework.However, concurrent pharmacological treatment and the availability of only one follow-up Y-BOCS assessment limit conclusions about the independent effect of psychotherapy and the durability of improvement.

اختلال وسواس فکری-عملی مرتبط با آلودگی می‌تواند موجب ناراحتی قابل توجه و اختلال عملکرد شود، به‌ویژه زمانی که رفتارهای وسواسی با باورهای خانوادگی و فرهنگی درباره پاکیزگی و طهارت درهم می‌آمیزد. درک تمایز میان رفتارهای هنجار فرهنگی و اجبارهای بالینی که موجب اختلال می‌شوند، برای ارزیابی و درمان حساس به فرهنگ اهمیت دارد. این گزارش موردی به شرح زنی ۱۸ ساله با شروع علائم وسواس فکری-عملی مرتبط با آلودگی در نوجوانی می‌پردازد که این علائم تقریباً در سنین ۱۴ تا ۱۵ سالگی و در دوره‌ای از فشارهای تحصیلی و خانوادگی بروز یافته‌اند. علائم وی شامل احساس مداوم ناپاکی پس از استفاده از سرویس بهداشتی، استحمام و استفاده طولانی از سرویس بهداشتی، بررسی مکرر لباس زیر پس از ادرار، آیین‌های شمارش، اجتناب از خوردن و آشامیدن به‌منظور کاهش تمایلات مرتبط با دفع، و اجتناب از تماس فیزیکی در محیط‌های شلوغ یا عمومی بود. ویژگی متمایز این ارائه، شکل‌گیری آن در محیط خانوادگی بود که در آن پاکیزگی و طهارت با اعمال بدنی و مرزهای اجتماعی مرتبط بود. بیمار گزارش داد که اعضای خانواده به طور معمول پس از اجابت مزاج استحمام می‌کنند، تماس فیزیکی با افراد دارای پیشینه Scheduled Caste محدود می‌شود، پس از چنین تماسی خانه تطهیر می‌شود و شست‌وشوی خود را بارها از نظر کفایت بررسی می‌کند. این تجارب به‌عنوان تأثیرات زمینه‌ای در نظر گرفته شدند که ممکن است معنای نگرانی‌های آلودگی و تقویت آن‌ها را شکل داده باشند، نه علل مستقیم اختلال وسواس فکری-عملی. رفتارهای او از نظر مدت زمان بیش از حد، ناراحتی همراه، کنترل مختل‌شده و تداخل عملکردی از رفتارهای خانوادگی توصیف‌شده متمایز بودند. نمره پایه مقیاس وسواس فکری-عملی ییل-براون (Y-BOCS) برابر با ۲۴ بود که نشان‌دهنده علائم شدید است. درمان بر آموزش روانی، کاهش رفتارهای آیینی، راهبردهای حواس‌پرتی و مدیریت تمایل، بازآموزی توالت، آرام‌سازی و روان‌درمانی حمایتی همراه با درمان دارویی همزمان متمرکز بود. تا جلسات ششم تا هفتم، بررسی و شمارش متوقف شد، مدت زمان استحمام و استفاده از سرویس بهداشتی به طور قابل توجهی کاهش یافت، اجتناب از خوردن و آشامیدن برطرف شد و سفر با اتوبوس و حضور در محیط‌های شلوغ که قبلاً اجتناب می‌شد، تحمل گردید. در جلسه نهم، تقریباً دو ماه پس از خط پایه، نمره Y-BOCS به ۴ کاهش یافت که نشان‌دهنده علائم در محدوده تحت‌بالینی بود. جلسات باقی‌مانده عمدتاً بر حفظ بهبود و سازگاری با دانشگاه متمرکز بود و هیچ عود آیین‌های اصلی تا جلسه پایانی مستند نشد. این مورد نشان می‌دهد که چگونه مفاهیم خانوادگی و فرهنگی انتقال‌یافته درباره طهارت می‌تواند محتوای علائم اختلال وسواس فکری-عملی مرتبط با آلودگی را شکل دهد. بهبود قابل توجهی در طول مداخله رفتاری متمرکز بر علائم بدون به چالش کشیدن مستقیم چارچوب فرهنگی گسترده‌تر خانواده رخ داد. با این حال، درمان دارویی همزمان و وجود تنها یک ارزیابی پیگیری Y-BOCS نتیجه‌گیری درباره اثر مستقل روان‌درمانی و پایداری بهبود را محدود می‌کند.

Introduction: Coding is a central step in many qualitative data analyses (QDA). Artificial intelligence (AI) has made inroads into the field with performance dependent on the prompting strategy used. This work examines the effectiveness of different prompting strategies on AI performance. Methods: Coding and theme analyses were performed on abstracts from a 16-study meta-analysis examining the association between air pollution and preeclampsia incidence. These were also performed in a second related corpus containing fewer formal sources. Coding was performed with R, NVivo 14, and ChatGPT 4.1. Several prompting strategies in increasing degree of complexity (zero-shot, few-shots, and chain-of-thought – CoT) were evaluated regarding their accuracy against manual coding. Direct thematic coding with AI was also examined. Results: Zero-shot prompting (with or without CoT) provided the best results for structured text. Requesting a full word-by-abstract matrix increases sensitivity. Supplementing CoT with general topic information and role playing made it the best strategy for more colloquial text. Directly inquiring thematic coding within AI showed good performance. Some prompting strategies are more prone to hallucinations. The latter are associated with errors in the frequency counting process while coding. Discussion: This work offers performance assessment of an AI tool for coding and theme extraction through a variety of prompting strategies combined with head-to-head comparison with popular QDA tools using readily available data. During user interaction, AI chatbots provide suggestions regarding potential next steps which may enhance results during coding. AI tools may require replication to ensure consistent findings and mitigate their probabilistic nature. Integrating results from at least two tools (AI and traditional) provides more comprehensive and accessible results for QDA.

مقدمه: کدگذاری یکی از مراحل اساسی در بسیاری از تحلیل‌های داده‌های کیفی (QDA) است. هوش مصنوعی (AI) به این حوزه وارد شده است و عملکرد آن وابسته به راهبرد پرامپت‌دهی مورد استفاده می‌باشد. این پژوهش اثربخشی راهبردهای مختلف پرامپت‌دهی بر عملکرد هوش مصنوعی را بررسی می‌کند. روش‌ها: کدگذاری و تحلیل مضامین بر روی چکیده‌های یک فراتحلیل ۱۶‌مطالعه‌ای که به بررسی ارتباط بین آلودگی هوا و بروز پره‌اکلامپسی می‌پرداخت، انجام شد. این تحلیل‌ها همچنین بر روی یک پیکره مرتبط دوم که منابع رسمی کمتری داشت، صورت گرفت. کدگذاری با استفاده از R، NVivo 14 و ChatGPT 4.1 انجام شد. چندین راهبرد پرامپت‌دهی با درجات مختلف پیچیدگی (zero-shot، few-shots و chain-of-thought – CoT) از نظر دقت نسبت به کدگذاری دستی ارزیابی شدند. کدگذاری مستقیم مضامین با هوش مصنوعی نیز بررسی شد. نتایج: پرامپت‌دهی zero-shot (با یا بدون CoT) بهترین نتایج را برای متون ساختاریافته ارائه داد. درخواست ماتریس کامل واژه-بر-چکیده حساسیت را افزایش می‌دهد. تکمیل CoT با اطلاعات کلی موضوع و ایفای نقش، آن را به بهترین راهبرد برای متون محاوره‌ای‌تر تبدیل کرد. استعلام مستقیم کدگذاری مضامین در هوش مصنوعی عملکرد خوبی نشان داد. برخی راهبردهای پرامپت‌دهی مستعد هالوسینیشن بیشتری هستند. این مورد با خطا در فرایند شمارش فراوانی هنگام کدگذاری همراه است. بحث: این پژوهش ارزیابی عملکرد یک ابزار هوش مصنوعی برای کدگذاری و استخراج مضامین را از طریق راهبردهای مختلف پرامپت‌دهی و مقایسه مستقیم با ابزارهای رایج QDA با استفاده از داده‌های در دسترس ارائه می‌دهد. در طول تعامل کاربر، چت‌بات‌های هوش مصنوعی پیشنهادهایی درباره گام‌های بعدی احتمالی ارائه می‌کنند که ممکن است نتایج را در حین کدگذاری بهبود بخشد. ابزارهای هوش مصنوعی ممکن است نیازمند تکرار برای اطمینان از یافته‌های پایدار و کاهش ماهیت احتمالی آن‌ها باشند. ادغام نتایج حداقل دو ابزار (هوش مصنوعی و سنتی) نتایج جامع‌تر و قابل دسترس‌تری برای QDA فراهم می‌کند.