The present research aimed to study the psycho-motor performance of five-year-old children with different body mass indices (BMI). A total of 694 pre-school children in the province of Albacete-Spain participated. Their performance in motor, perceptual, and social-emotional skills was analyzed using a standardized observation sheet (Checklist of Psychomotor Activities—CPA) and then compared according to their BMI using non-parametric statistical methods (Mann-Whitney test). Separate comparisons were made for girls and boys. Results indicated significant differences in performance amongst the groups of girls in all the motor and perceptual activities, and in the social relationships component of the social-emotional factor. These differences seemed to penalize motor activities, perceptual skills, and social relationships in overweight and obese girls compared to normal weight girls. In the case of boys, there were significant differences in laterality and visual-motor coordination (favoring overweight boys). Differences in respiratory control were also found, but in this case, penalizing obese boys compared to normal weight boys. Knowledge of possible psychomotor limitations in obese children could allow psychologists and healthcare professionals to design more focused interventions.

Attitudes towards technology are preconceived notions that have an effect on the teaching-learning process and on the academic-professional performance of students, in particular those who use technology as a means of study. This investigation has two objectives: on the one hand, to test the measuring properties (reliability, factorial structure) of an instrument to measure attitudes and, on the other hand, to propose and validate a model that hypothesizes that digital competence and frequency of use of technologies have a positive impact on same. 1251 students of the Madrid Open University participated. It is a non-experimental, explanatory study using structural equation methodology.  The results show adequate psychometric properties for the test and good adjustment of the proposed model (χ²=163.91, df=37, p<.001) allowing for further exploration of the relationship between use, skill and attitudes in the distance education context and improving the properties of measuring instruments proposed in Spanish.

The present research aimed to develop the Checklist of Psychomotor Activities (CPA) to measure psychomotor development in 5-6 year old children. We recruited 694 preschool children in the province of Albacete; their teachers were trained to use and complete this instrument to gather data for testing its psychometric properties (reliability, and content, construct, and discriminant validity). The CPA is composed of three subtests measuring children’s performance in motor, perceptual, and emotional–social aspects of psychomotor functioning. To gather evidence of content validity, we applied the Delphi method, based on the comments of seven judges. We assessed construct validity with confirmatory factor analysis, and we tested discriminant validity by comparing the scores of premature and typically developing children and separate groups of children defined by their body mass index. We found adequate item consistency on each scale and evidence of validity from the various methods outlined. We conclude that the CPA is an effective and comprehensive tool for the assessment of psychomotor skills in children at this important stage of development.

In early childhood education, there is a great interdependence among motor, affective, and cognitive development. A better understanding of psychomotor development and its variables by pediatricians and those who oversee educational tasks at this stage of development, such as teachers, psychologists, counselors, and parents themselves, can influence the design of educational intervention proposals. To that effect, the present study aims to analyze the influence of some family characteristics such as the condition of being an only child or having siblings and whether the child carries out extracurricular activities linked to physical activities and sports. To achieve this objective, a Checklist of Psychomotor Activities (CPA) assessment instrument was used based on the observation of a sample of 694 children aged 5 years who were enrolled in the second cycle of child education in the province of Albacete. The results show that those children who performed extracurricular activities related to physical activities and sports had a greater development of laterality and postural tonic control than those who did not attend this type of activities. At the same time, differences were found in the affective and relational levels and in the perceptual-motor aspects in favor of children who have siblings compared with children who are only children. There is no other research that addresses both issues in the same study, and this is a strength of the present study.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo analizar el grado de competencia digital (CD) de profesores de primaria y su relación con el uso que le dan a las nuevas tecnologías en la práctica docente. También se estudia la relación entre la CD y la actitud frente a la implementación de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) en el proceso de enseñanza. Para llevar a cabo estos objetivos se analiza la competencia digital de 58 docentes de primaria pertenecientes a dos colegios públicos y dos concertados y se realizan comparaciones de acuerdo a la edad, al género, a los años de experiencia y al tipo de institución en la que trabajan.Asimismo se realiza un análisis de correlación entre la CD, el uso de las TIC en la docencia y su actitud hacia la implementación de las TIC en el aula. Los resultados muestran diferencias en la CD según la edad, el género, los años de experiencia y el tipo de colegio, pero no se encuentran diferencias en la actitud hacia la implementación de las TIC.

BackgroundThe establishment of scientific collaborations with researchers abroad can be considered a good practice to make appropriate use of their knowledge and to increase the possibilities of them returning to their country. This paper analyses the collaboration between Spanish researchers abroad devoted to health sciences and national science institutions.MethodsWe used the Fontes’ approach to perform a study on this collaboration with Spanish researchers abroad. We measured the level of national and international cooperation, the opportunity provided by the host country to collaborate, the promotion of collaboration by national science institutions, and the types of collaboration. A total of 88 biomedical researchers out of the 268 Spanish scientists who filled up the survey participated in the study. Different data analyses were performed to study the variables selected to measure the scientific collaboration and profile of Spanish researchers abroad.ResultsThere is a high level of cooperation between Spanish health science researchers abroad and international institutions, which contrasts with the small-scale collaboration with national institutions. Host countries facilitate this collaboration with national and international scientific institutions to a larger extent than the level of collaboration promotion carried out by Spanish institutions.ConclusionsThe national collaboration with Spanish researchers abroad in the health sciences is limited. Thus, the practice of making appropriate use of the potential of their expertise should be promoted and the opportunities for Spanish health science researchers to return home should be improved.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12961-015-0055-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Dentro de las posibilidades que la incorporación de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) ofrece a la educación se encuentra la atención a la diversidad, ya que por medio de estas herramientas se puede facilitar el acceso y la educación de calidad a los estudiantes con diversas necesidades educativas especiales. Existen diferentes tipos de discapacidad (las discapacidades motrices, las sensoriales [entre las que podemos encontrar la visual y la auditiva] y las intelectuales) con muchos tipos diversos de manifestaciones. Los estudiantes con estos tipos de discapacidad se enfrentan a la dificultad de acceder a la educación de forma igualitaria. A pesar de que se han venido logrando avances en cuanto a su integración, se deben incrementar los esfuerzos para conseguirla en su totalidad. Por este motivo, la meta del presente trabajo es hacer un repositorio de herramientas tecnológicas y actividades didácticas para cada tipo de discapacidad y presentar un programa pedagógico para la aplicación de las mismas en casos concretos que nos permita utilizar las nuevas tecnologías al servicio de la integración de los alumnos con discapacidad. Para lograr esta meta se ha llevado a cabo un estudio empírico de tipo cualitativo-descriptivo en el que se presenta un repositorio de las principales aplicaciones existentes para el trabajo con alumnos de diversas discapacidades, analizando sus ventajas y desventajas. La metodología que se utiliza se basa en un diseño centrado en los alumnos con diversos tipos de discapacidad y en los docentes como usuarios potenciales del repositorio y de los programas pedagógicos propuestos.

Diagnosis of the attitudes towards ICT of education students according to gender and educational modality Diagnóstico de las actitudes hacia las TIC de estudiantes de educación acorde al género y modalidad educativa