Barbara Arfé

Executive function (EF) impairments are common in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and have a significant impact on learning and daily life. Cognitive training programs aimed at strengthening EFs may show limited feasibility and generalization. However, recent studies suggest that ecological, curriculum-embedded problem-solving activities may be more promising. This multiple-baseline single-case study tested the feasibility and efficacy of a short computational thinking and coding intervention based on problem-solving for children with sickle cell disease, a hemoglobinopathy associated with cognitive decline and EF deficits. The trial followed the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Version 5 guidelines for single-case research. Three 7–8-year-old children with lower-range IQ (71–82) and EF impairments completed 11 coding sessions over 5–6 weeks using code.org, with pre/post assessments of non-verbal EF (planning, inhibition, and switching), and verbal EF skills (verbal working memory, phonological fluency and semantic fluency). Results showed 100% adherence to the intervention, significant improvement in coding (IRD range = 0.69–0.79), with positive transfer effects on nonverbal planning skills (gains > 2 z-scores) and also verbal fluency (z-score gains ranging from 0.47 to 1.04). Inter-individual variability in effects was related to the child’s individual cognitive profile. Findings suggest that problem-solving, coding-based activities can be feasible and potentially beneficial for children with significant EF impairments.

Accessibility of cities involves designing spaces and services to enable everyone to live independently and fully participate in urban life. This study aims to gather the perspectives of individuals with visual impairment on the accessibility of everyday environments in Padua, a midsize urban centre in Northeastern Italy. A total of 204 participants with visual impairment completed an online survey designed to meet accessibility standards, including adjustable text size, audio descriptions, and screen readers compatibility. Findings show that 70% of respondents frequently experience physical and social barriers in local services and transport; 61% in health services; 58% in commerce; 41% in sports; and 38% in both cultural and educational settings. Thematic analysis of open-ended responses further identified specific barriers, which reflected both physical and social dimensions. Social barriers, alongside physical ones, should be a primary focus in evaluating the accessibility of urban environments and in planning subsequent interventions.

Objectives: SCD is a rare, inherited blood disorder causing acute and chronic complications that affect physical, psychological, and social well-being. This study examines SCD patient characteristics using a biopsychosocial model integrating biological, quality-of-life (QoL), and social factors across life stages. Methods: This observational study, conducted between November 2022 and July 2024 at a tertiary care hospital in Northern Italy, included patients aged 4-25 years with confirmed SCD. Participants underwent cognitive and QoL assessments; genotype, hospital visits, treatments, and socio-demographic data were collected. Wechsler scales assessed intellectual abilities; PROMIS questionnaires measured QoL. Analyses were performed with SPSS. Results: Eighty-nine patients were enrolled. Profiles showed age-related clinical, cognitive, and psychosocial variations. Around 45% reported anxiety and depression, and 50% experienced social isolation and pain interference. Adolescents and young adults (12-25 years) exhibited higher psychological vulnerability—depression, pain interference, and fatigue—than younger groups (P<.007). Cognitive performance was below normative means, particularly in executive functions (P = .039). Working memory and processing speed were most affected, declining with age. Significant differences emerged in Verbal Comprehension [F(3,82) = 6.473, P < .001] and Perceptual Reasoning [F(3,82) = 2.987, P = .036], with poorer outcomes in older participants. Visuospatial skills were relatively preserved but declined in young adults. Conclusions: Age-specific risk patterns highlight the need for developmentally tailored, multidisciplinary care. Early detection of cognitive and emotional vulnerabilities, together with preventive strategies, may reduce long-term complications and improve QoL. However, the cross-sectional design of the study limits causal inferences. Overall, findings support holistic care models addressing medical, cognitive, psychological, and social dimensions of SCD.

Classroom noise, particularly speech noise from students, appears to disrupt verbal working memory processes essential for learning tasks such as reading and writing. Such negative interference has been alternatively explained as either the effect of phonological intrusion from speech noise into the phonological loop processes of working memory or the diversion of general attentional resources away from working memory processes. These effects have been studied primarily in relation to intelligible speech, while the impact of unintelligible speech, such as multitalker babble—a common source of noise in schools—has received less attention. The present study aimed to examine the effects of unintelligible multitalker babble noise on the performance of 38 students aged 8 to 10 years in low (Digit Span) and high demanding (Reading Span) verbal working memory tasks. We examined whether the effects of multitalker babble noise differed based on children’s age and their visual attentional resources. Verbal working memory and visual attentional skills were assessed in quiet and multitalker babble noise across three age groups: 8, 9, and 10 years. Our findings revealed that multitalker babble noise disrupts significantly verbal working memory performance in complex verbal working memory tasks, like the Reading Span task, but has minimal impact on low demanding tasks, like Digit Span Forward and Backward. Although children’s visual attentional skills significantly contributed to their verbal working memory performance, they alone cannot explain the negative effect of multitalker babble noise. Interestingly, although children’s behavioral performance did not significantly differ across acoustic conditions for most tasks, they reported higher cognitive effort in noisy environments. This highlights a discrepancy between perceived effort and actual performance, emphasizing the importance of integrating multiple measures to assess the impact of noise on cognitive processes.

This work presents an experimental analysis of first-grade students' block-based programming trajectories. These trajectories consist of edit-level program snapshots that capture learners' problem-solving processes in a navigational microworld. Our results highlight the potential of this fine-grained data capture. Snapshot frequencies in trajectories collected before and after a coding intervention showcase the collective progress of the learners. Graph visualizations, in which nodes represent snapshots and directed edges code edits, highlight strategies, pitfalls and debugging procedures. Individual programming trajectories shed light on details of learners' problem-solving processes that less granular analysis would conceal. Various works in the field of Learning Analytics research show the usefulness of collecting fine-grained process data that proceed from programming activities. However, how to analyze this data is still an open question and research on the subject is in an experimental phase. We contribute to this experimentation by analyzing and discussing results collected from 30 first-grade students in a pretest-posttest study.