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Tag: children

  • 57% Of Lower-Primary Children Not Getting Adequate Sleep

    57% Of Lower-Primary Children Not Getting Adequate Sleep

    About 57 per cent of children from lower Primary lack enough sleep, according to a survey conducted by students from Nanyang Technological University.

    The survey, which was done in collaboration with National University Hospital, also showed that most of these children get 8 hours of sleep on a school night, when they should ideally clock in 9 to 10 hours a day.

    More than 300 respondents – comprising parents with children aged between six and nine years old – were asked about their perceptions of sleep, their children’s sleep hygiene and their own, between November and December last year.

    Of those surveyed,  37 per cent of children were found not to have a regular bedtime, while 35 per cent of them do not have a regular bedtime routine. As a result, they tend to feel sleepy or become overactive during the day. Some also fall asleep when commuting on public transport or while watching TV.

    For these children, most spend their time using digital devices before they sleep. 75 per cent of children watch television, 60 per cent use smartphones, while 30 per cent use computers an hour before bedtime. Such practices increase arousal and negatively affect the quality of a child’s sleep.

    These practices may have been taken on as a result of their own parents’ pre-bedtime behaviour. Most parents said they spend their time watching TV an hour before bedtime, while 4 in 5 admitted to using smartphones for social media.

    Dr Michael Lim, consultant at Department of Pediatrics, National University Hospital said: “If you are sleepy in the daytime, you are not going to be able to function optimally, in terms of using your brain power.”

    He also added that there is evidence to show that the ability to think in a higher order, to make decisions, or to use higher cognition skills can be affected when children are sleep deprived. “You are also not able to retain things as well as you should,” he said.

    Nine in 10 parents also admitted that they do not feel that their child has a sleep problem. Inadequate sleep hygiene is often the result of a lack of parental supervision of bedtime and sleep behaviours. It is also caused by insufficient knowledge about sleep needs and appropriate sleep behaviours.

    Parents should look out for signs of sleep deprivation in their children, such as a lack of concentration, drop in school performance, irritability and frustration at the slightest provocation as well as spontaneously falling asleep when sitting down or watching TV.

    The survey is part of a public information campaign called The Pillow Police.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Female Child Suicide Bomber Used In Attack At Busy Market In Nigeria

    Female Child Suicide Bomber Used In Attack At Busy Market In Nigeria

    MAIDUGURI/KADUNA, Nigeria – A bomb strapped to a girl aged around 10 years old exploded in a busy market place in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Saturday, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 20, security sources said.

    “The explosive devices were wrapped around her body and the girl looked no more than 10 years old,” a police source said.

    Maiduguri, the capital of northern Borno state, lies in the heartland of an insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, and is often hit by bomb attacks.

    A Nigerian security source said the bomb went off at 12:15 p.m. The girl was killed and the bodies of at least 16 victims were counted in one hospital by mid-afternoon, civilian joint task force member Zakariya Mohammed told Reuters.

    “Right now, there are 27 injured people in Borno Medical Hospital, while more were taken to other hospitals,” he said.

    The northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa are bearing the brunt of a five-year-old insurgency by Boko Haram, which wants to revive a medieval caliphate in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and its biggest energy producer.

    Last year more than 10,000 people died in the violence, according to an estimate by the Council on Foreign Relations.

    About 130 km (80 miles) away in the Yobe state capital Damaturu, the army subdued an Islamist militant attack on Friday evening, but not before militants had torched several buildings, a Reuters reporter in the city and witnesses said.

    The Reuters witness saw a number of burnt buildings, including a police station and a mosque in the Abacha market, along with several shops.

    Defense spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade said that five soldiers were wounded defending the city and the number of civilian casualties was still being determined.

    Damaturu was last attacked in early December when air strikes called in to halt advancing militants.

    Olukolade said the military would regroup before mounting an effort to retake the town of Baga in Borno state raided twice by Boko Haram in the last week. The insurgents also took over a nearby military base on the edge of Lake Chad.

    He said 14 soldiers had been killed in the first attack at last weekend. On Friday, the government said it had launched ground action backed by airstrikes to reclaim the area.

    On Saturday afternoon, a bomb exploded at the main police station in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state after a man was arrested and brought to the station with his car, the state police commissioner said.

    “We took the suspect to the station and the car…exploded and killed one of my men and a driver. The suspect did not die…he is still in our custody,” Marcus Danladi told Reuters.

    Residents who witnessed the scene said earlier two people had been arrested with the vehicle and blew themselves up once inside station.

    The Boko Haram revolt is seen as the gravest security threat facing Nigeria, a country of 170 million people, and a serious challenge for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in a national election set for Feb. 14.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Photo Of Handcuffed Children By Policemen Caused Online Furore

    Photo Of Handcuffed Children By Policemen Caused Online Furore

    Three children aged between nine and 12 years old were arrested for theft on Saturday morning.

    They were handcuffed by the police near the traffic junction next to 112 Katong at East Coast Road before being taken to a nearby police station in a police car. A police spokesman added that the suspects were handcuffed for their safety and the safety of others as they had attempted to escape before officers arrived.

    A photo of the children being handcuffed was posted on several online platforms on Saturday morning, including citizen journalism website Stomp, creating a buzz. IT manager Jeremy Tan, who saw the photo on Facebook, said: “They are just kids. Even if they have stolen something, they shouldn’t be treated like that. It is not appropriate.” However others said the police did the right thing, since there was a risk the children could dash on to the roads to escape.

    Police said they received a call at about 8.09am requesting for assistance at a building along East Coast Road. “It was established that a case of theft from person had occurred at the said location,” a statement added.

    Investigations are ongoing.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Lee Hsien Loong On His Children And Their Political Inclinations

    Lee Hsien Loong On His Children And Their Political Inclinations

    Although grownup, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says his four children are, “at the moment”, not interested to enter politics.

    PM Lee shared this in a televised Mandarin interview with Chinese television host Yang Lan ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing in the first week of November. When asked if he would specially encourage or lead them in that direction, he said his children “have to find their own path in life”.

    “They have to choose [their lives], because a child’s personality and aptitude have to be taken into consideration,” he said, in a transcript translated by national newspaper The Straits Times. “Every child is different, parents would of course wish that their children can fly high, but they all have different natures, some may be more inclined towards the arts, some may be more interested in computers or science, this will have to be developed according to their interests.”

    Not much is known about PM Lee’s children, the first two of whom — 34-year-old Li Xiuqi and 32-year-old Li Yipeng — were born to his first wife Wong Ming Yang, who passed away after a heart attack, three weeks after she gave birth to Yipeng, an albino. His two sons with his current wife Ho Ching, whom he married three years later, are 27-year-old Li Hongyi and Lee Haoyi, now 25 years old.

    Lee’s third child Hongyi made the news in 2007, while he was serving his National Service, when he sidestepped the usual chain of command to file a lengthy complaint in an email sent to senior military officers and then-Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean. Li, a Public Service Commission scholarship holder, studied economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then spent two years working as a product manager at internet giant Google, as part of a programme allowing scholars to spend a stint in the private sector before starting work in the Public Service. He later returned to Singapore, where he now works at the Infocomm Development Authority as a consultant. According to his LinkedIn profile, he started work there a year ago.

    Lee’s father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, revealed in a dialogue in 2008 that Hongyi had written to his younger brother, Haoyi, to advise him not to take up a scholarship — this after Haoyi had scored 43 out of a possible 45 in his International Baccalaureate exams. Lee’s sister, Lee Wei Ling, wrote in a 2011 column that Haoyi had later joined his brother at MIT. According to his Facebook page, Haoyi interned at Facebook and also spent time at Dropbox.

     

    Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

  • Man Leaves Wife And Their 10 Children To Fend For Themselves

    Man Leaves Wife And Their 10 Children To Fend For Themselves

    A single mother and her 10 children are struggling to survive after their father left them for another woman two years ago.

    Over the past year, debt collectors – both legal and illegal – have gone to Madam Rafeah Abdul Kadir’s three-room flat in Hougang to look for her estranged husband, Mr Mazlan Abdul, 37.

    An arrest warrant was also issued for Mr Mazlan after he defaulted on maintenance payments since April this year.

    Meanwhile, he can be seen on Facebook posing for selfies with his girlfriend and dancing with her in a Bollywood club.

    Said an upset Madam Rafeah: “He goes out with his parents and girlfriend to eat at nice places. He’s clearly having a good time. What about his children? What are they supposed to eat?”

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg