(NewsUSA) - La pandemia de coronavirus en curso continúa haciendo que muchos niños no asistan al preescolar a nivel nacional, debido a los cierres o a la preocupación de los padres con respecto a enviar a sus niños a clases de manera presencial.

Estos niños, que no están asistiendo al preescolar, ingresarán al jardín de niños el próximo año sin los beneficios de haber conocido la educación formal y sin las habilidades que contribuyen al logro académico. En Texas, por ejemplo, los datos indican que la matrícula en el jardín de niños se redujo de 8 a 12 por ciento, según un artículo del 5 de octubre de 2020 en el Dallas Morning News. Es una tendencia en muchos distritos escolares alrededor del país. Una encuesta del Education Week Research Center a casi 500 líderes y directores de distrito determinó que la mitad han notado una reducción en la matrícula del jardín de niños.

El cambiante escenario escolar ha llevado a revaluar la manera de proporcionar la educación infantil temprana y esencial.

Learning Without Tears, una empresa de tecnología enfocada en la educación que ofrece materiales de escritura y educativos para el nivel preescolar desde hace más de 30 años, ha desarrollado "Get Set for School" (GSS), un galardonado plan de estudios integral para preescolar, con el fin de satisfacer las necesidades de los niños de preescolar en entornos de aprendizaje en casa, híbridos y en la escuela.

El programa de dos idiomas inglés-español está diseñado para ayudar a que los niños en edad preescolar alcancen hitos de aprendizaje temprano importantes, sin dejar de lado la participación y la diversión al mismo tiempo. El programa combina juegos con propósitos, actividades multimodales-multisensoriales y aplicaciones digitales y herramientas de enseñanza.

"El preescolar debería ser divertido y entretenido y estar repleto de aprendizaje a la vez, para que los niños se sientan seguros de sí mismos y de sus habilidades," dice la Dra. Elizabeth DeWitt, experta en infancia temprana del centro GSS.

Get Set for School se diferencia de otros programas de preescolar porque, en parte, es realmente adecuado para la edad, dice la Dra. DeWitt. "GSS es exclusivo, porque vamos más allá de donde llegan otros planes de estudios de preescolar con nuestro enfoque investigativo sobre el desarrollo de la motricidad fina de los niños pequeños," explica.

"Los niños construyen y forman las letras a partir del desarrollo de los trazos de la escritura y usan cada día un medio diferente mientras aprenden cada letra, pasando de la construcción a la escritura antes de lo previsto o antes de que se les pida escribir en papel." Readiness & Writing (preparación y escritura) es un componente de GSS que aborda las debilidades relativas a la escritura de las letras y los números, el aprendizaje del alfabeto y la relación entre los números escritos y las cantidades.

Además, con la aplicación interactiva del programa, Sound Around Letters, los niños pueden identificar, relacionar y nombrar las letras mayúsculas y minúsculas, además de recibir información al instante para estimular el progreso y reforzar la confianza. Los recursos multimodales permiten que los niños con diferentes estilos de aprendizaje usen e interactúen con la pantalla táctil animada para aprender la formación de los números y las letras.

"Estamos comprometidos más que nunca a asegurar que los niños aprendan, sea que estén en el aula o en casa," enfatiza la Dra. DeWitt. "Para equipar y apoyar a los padres y los profesores, hemos agregado más videos y recursos de aprendizaje a distancia que asisten con el uso de nuestros materiales únicos y exclusivos, en cualquier entorno.

Pueden visitar LWTears.com para obtener más información sobre Get Set for School y Readiness & Writing.

(NewsUSA) - Snibble, a next-generation social video platform that targets today's young adults, is partnering with NewsUSA TV to expand and cross-promote content and linear streaming in the U.S. and Canada.

Snibble offers YAs what they want -- snackable videos and the ability to discover, share, and comment on them with friends in real time. Surveys suggest that approximately 70 percent of Gen Z prefer engaging with many short videos versus committing to a longer video.

"We are a fusion between the best of a video platform and a social media platform," says Blair Currie, CEO of Snibble.

Generation Z (youth ages 16 to 24 years) have never known life without mobile internet. At this age, especially in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, young adults are seeking ways to connect with friends remotely, and short videos have become the social currency of this generation, Currie explains.

Snibble allows viewers to see, comment, recommend and share personalized content, and presents a reasonable amount of hyper-targeted advertising in a fair trade for their attention.

Snibble attracts top advertisers to a place that lets brands play when young viewers hang out, which improves returns on advertising investment.

To expand and showcase the Snibble platform and content, the company has partnered with NewsUSA TV, a division of the NewsUSA branded content agency. NewsUSA offers video content on Roku through a range of channels, including The Junior Network by NewsUSA TV. The Junior Network partnership with Snibble benefits both parties by expanding audience reach and access to content.

Snibble's content comes only from top providers, including Daily Fix, Omnia News (BBC), Brut, Cheddar, Huffpo, USAToday, Glamour, GQ, and People are Awesome.

The Junior Network by NewsUSA TV helps leverage this content to Gen Z not only online but also through Roku and Amazon Fire, as well as iphone and mobile apps. The content also is available in completed Linear HLS Stream format for syndication.

In addition, NewsUSA TV offers content in Business Briefs, Health News, Entertainment News, and Travel News on its Roku channel.

Visit snibblecorp.com for more details about Snibble and NewsUSA.com/media-widget for details about NewsUSA TV.

Here's a TERRIBLE MAT!  You probably HATE IT!

(NewsUSA)

We are living in an era where predatory monopolies are intensified, governments are over-expanded, and personal agency is weakened. Global social turmoil is at an all-time high. From the Occupy Movement, Black Lives Matter and the "Great Resignation" in the United States to the "Laying Flat" mentality in China, we have found that in this global, technocratic, money-worshipping, and ultra-pragmatic system, more and more people are losing faith in their value as an individual.

Politicians and corporations around the world have hijacked the public forum and turned public media into a tool to enhance their interests. How can people see the machinations in this enormous, complex international system and realize their value as individuals and members of communities? How can they regain their autonomy?

Daofeng He's illuminating new book, THE HUMAN CALLING: Three Thousand Years of Eastern and Western Political Philosophy (Morgan James Faith; April 26, 2022), is a journey into the past to help us navigate into the future.

He believes that we must understand the origins and development of the competing philosophies, beliefs, and ideologies between the East and the West to truly understand the roots of conflicts and turbulence in the world today. This will allow us to reconstruct the sacred origin of the modern universal value system and help people rediscover the dignity and public grace of individual life.

A survivor of the violence and famine of Mao Zedong's totalitarian Cultural Revolution, the dream-crushing violence at Tiananmen Square, and the rise of China's market economy, He grew up in an atheist society devoid of spirituality. After years as an economist, entrepreneur and NGO director, He retired to Maryland in 2015 with some heavy questions on his mind: "What kind of life is really worth living? Is there any other option for human life aside from the modern grind of forced busyness, manipulation by online advertisements, and hatred and violence generated and directed by those who form public opinion? Can we find a way to make human life return to its former graceful and dignified pace, make it encourage inquiring, independent thinking, peaceful communication, mutual respect and philosophical exchange, and connection to the divine source of 'the human calling'?"

To find the answers, He traced the growing dysfunction of humankind's alienation by examining the rise and fall of the world's great civilizations and their religious, philosophical, economic and political histories. His intellectual journey led him to a startling conclusion-the calling of Christianity. "My new faith shattered my unreasonable expectation to find absolute truth in the Eastern sages who preached that morality was relative. It also cut off the path to the materialistic gods of the new, moneyed East."

THE HUMAN CALLING is the book we need right now to illuminate our shared human history and provide answers as to how we can start creating a better world for everyone.

Visit THE HUMAN CALLING website at https://www.thehumancalling.com or purchase the book https://amzn.to/3k21au9.

BookBites is presented by BookTrib.com.

(TVA) - If your mental image of a robot in the home is limited to Rosie from the Jetsons, it's time to change your perspective.

Small, efficient robots from the innovative home robot company Trifo offer a new take on home help, with an artificial intelligence twist.

"Our vision is to create a family of home robots that takes care of the home so people can live better and focus on what's important," according to the company. The Trifo robots are designed to focus on the indoor home environment. Each is equipped with an artificial intelligence system that has sensing, perception and decision-making capabilities. Trifo robots are able to continuously adapt to their environments using advanced AI technology.

Lucy Ultra Edition, the flagship product of the Trifo line, is a compact, round robot that comes packed with features to make your life easier. Some of Lucy's standout features include:

- Dual vision. Not quite x-ray vision, but Lucy's 1080P HDR color camera combines with a Time-of-Flight depth camera that creates a colorful 3-D map of your home in Lucy's brain; this helps navigate even in low-light conditions.

- Obstacle avoidance. Lucy easily avoids the annoyance of getting stuck or trapped by household objects; unique visual and depth perception keep her clear of objects as short as one inch.

- Home protection day and night. Lucy provides full-time home protection with day and night vision. Privacy concerns? Data from your home is stored and processed in the robot herself, not in the cloud or on servers.

- Smart work. Lucy's adaptive technology allows her to learn her surroundings, following routes that adapt to the environment while avoiding off-limits zones, and alert you to unusual motions in the house when you aren't at home. Lucy is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can integrate her with other smart home features. Lucy's intelligence evolves over time, so she makes your life even easier the more you use her.

- Deluxe cleaning. Lucy vacuums, but she mops, too, with a dustbin/water tank combination that sends an alert when the water level gets low.

- Pet sitting. If you have a furry friend at home, Lucy takes the angst out of cleaning up pet hair and larger dirt from muddy paws. A built-in air freshener is a bonus that helps keep pet odors at bay. Also, check out the interactive laser toy to keep your pet entertained.

Visit trifolucy.com for more information about the potential of advanced AI robots for home use.

(NewsUSA) - The heroic efforts of frontline health care workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic merit ongoing recognition and gratitude. Nurse educators also continue to play a key role by supporting and promoting the work of nurses, who deliver everything from lifesaving emergency services to end-of-life care.

To recognize and celebrate the essential role of nursing education during the pandemic and beyond, the National League for Nursing has declared 2022 as the Year of the Nurse Educator.

Throughout the year, the League will spotlight nurse educators teaching in academic and clinical settings and showcase their contributions to innovative primary and preventive care models in underserved communities.

For example, the #BeyondANurseEducator social media campaign promotes the vital role of nursing education in advancing the nursing profession and patient care. This campaign runs through September and will include monthly recognition of nurse educators based on nominations from students and academic leadership.

The pandemic highlighted the shortage of nurses, but the key to reversing this shortage is to increase the numbers of nurse educators -- those who teach nursing students how to become nurses.

Encouraging more nurses to consider career shifts into nursing education is the best way to ensure a consistent flow of qualified nurses into the health care system. As a result of the pandemic, many nursing education programs moved to online platforms, which expanded the options for nurses who want to pursue careers as nurse educators.

Nurses are now able to earn their master's in nursing or education online, which helps prevent loss of income from taking time off to take classes, and also reduces the need for student loans or moving to attend classes at a distant campus. Nurses can then become Certified Nurse Educators, the badge of expertise in this advanced specialty area of practice.

The demand for nurses, and therefore for nurse educators, is likely to remain high. Nurse educators are in a unique position to make an impact by inspiring nurses in training and by promoting public health through work in schools, businesses, hospitals and community agencies.

Other reasons to become a nurse educator include the intellectual stimulation of knowing the latest research in the field, greater autonomy and flexible schedules, including options for remote teaching, and the sense of purpose that comes with advancing the next generation of nurses and making a difference in the future of nursing.

For more information, visit NLN.org.

(NewsUSA) - One in four American adults suffers from chronic knee pain, so an accessible, non-surgical solution should come as welcome news.

A recent study out of UCLA indicates that GDEFY® medically engineered shoes could be that solution. In fact, study participants wearing the GDEFY shoes with patented VersoShock® technology reported an average reduction in knee pain of 85%, as well as significant decreases in other common conditions.

A double-blind, randomized study conducted at Olive View UCLA Medical Center, recently published in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, shows that wearing shoes with VersoShock soles decreases knee pain by up to 85% vs. wearing shoes with conventional soles during prolonged standing and walking. After five weeks, participants using the GDEFY intervention sole shoe -- with shock-absorbing VersoShock technology -- reported an average reduction in knee pain of 85%, significantly better than participants using the traditional sole shoe (P < .01), whose average pain scores increased. Also observed were positive effects on back, ankle and foot pain in those with the intervention sole shoe, compared with the traditional sole shoe.

Alexander Elnekaveh founded Gravity Defyer Medical Technology Corporation in 2008 after his 14-year-old nephew was diagnosed with a cancerous growth in his heel. Even after successful heel surgery, physical therapy and help from leading doctors in pain management, Elnekaveh's nephew had little chance of walking pain-free again. But Elnekaveh, an inventor, wasn't satisfied with that prognosis, so he assembled a team of top podiatrists, physical therapists, biochemical and material engineers (Impact Research Technology Group) to help him develop the first Gravity Defyer (GDEFY) shoe with VersoShock technology.

"Our mission is to maximize comfort and boost performance for people who have foot biomechanics that keep them from walking properly and to enable normal pronation," says Elnekaveh.

"This study proves what we've known all along: that our breakthrough VersoShock technology provides the ultimate pain relief in a way no other shoe can."

To accommodate customers at work, home and play, GDEFY men's and women's footwear comes in several styles, widths and sizes. All shoes come with a polyurethane removable insole to adjust to one's comfort preference.

GDEFY footwear is available online at www.gdefy.com or in GDEFY stores throughout the country, as well as in most premium independent shoe retailers, including The Walking Company, Nordstrom, DSW and Dillard's. GDEFY continues to expand its presence, bringing pain-relieving footwear closer to feet everywhere.

(NewsUSA) - A third of U.S. Governors have recognized window film as a cost-effective solution to reducing energy costs in homes, protecting skin and home decor from the sun's damaging UV rays, and enhanced window glass safety. The International Window Film Association (IWFA) is sharing recent proclamations kindly made by those governors on its website.

"Consumers and government officials are zeroing in on window films as a cost-effective energy saving solution designed to reduce high utility bills and carbon emissions and they can be installed at about one-tenth the cost of a re-placement window and offer similar performance ratings," explains Darrell Smith, executive director of the IWFA.

Window films, which may be installed in a day or less without significant disruption, are widely seen to save about five to 10 percent of a building's total energy bill. Many window films, which are all permanently adhered to the glass, are also designed to block 40 to 60 percent of room heat being lost through glass during the heating season while still reducing air conditioning costs by 30 percent during the cooling season.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), cooling and heating account for more than half of the energy use in a typical U.S. home, making it the largest energy expense for most homes. The DOE also points out that roughly 40 percent of unwanted heat that builds up in a home comes in through windows and that windows also account for up to 50 percent of a building's energy loss.

Consumer awareness of the energy saving benefit of window film has increased nearly 50 percent in eight years, from 54 percent of Americans in 2014 being aware that window film can help control interior temperatures, to 79 percent of homeowners this year being aware that window film may improve the energy saving performance of their existing windows today.

While window films differ in how they perform based on how they are manufactured, they can reduce solar heat gain in your home by as much as 80 percent. This means fewer if any hot spots, more even interior room temperatures and less power consumption so your air conditioning system may keep up with the sun's heat.

This benefit is especially noticeable when the sun is at it's peak energy transmittance during the day, which is when utility companies have to produce more power to meet the increased peak demand from both homeowners and businesses. Find window film at www.iwfa.com

(NewsUSA) - As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic highlights the importance of maintaining good health, many Americans continue to struggle with the cost of health care, especially prescription medications. In fact, many people are overcharged for medications, even for generic drugs, according to leading experts and as highlighted in a 2018 in-depth expose' shown on PBS.

MyFreePharmacy, a new membership service launched in 2017, makes paying for prescriptions easier and more affordable. The company offers more than 600 medications for a flat monthly fee that includes standard shipping. Strategic partnerships make it possible for MyFreePharmacy to control costs and make prescriptions more affordable for everyone, including those without health insurance. MyFreePharmacy also offers a more affordable option for those whose insurance deductibles are so high that they never meet them, which means they typically pay full price for medications.

"MyFreePharmacy currently mails out truckloads of FREE prescriptions nationwide every month to our members," says founder Doug Behrens. "The program is a game changer -- where else can you get FREE prescriptions? We want to make a difference out there, and we are doing it for our members, one prescription at a time," he explains.

The membership plan involves four easy steps.

- Sign up. Simply visit myfreepharmacy.com/join to sign up for a membership card.

- Search. Review the MyFreePharmacy list of medications. They offer not only prescription drugs for chronic and acute conditions, but also over-the-counter products such as acetaminophen, allergy medications and vitamins.

- ePrescribe or Transfer. Your prescriptions can be transferred or e-prescribed by your doctor, who can send prescriptions with the click of a button. Or if you are transferring a script, MyFreePharmacy will handle it for you while you sit back and relax.

- Receive. Your medications are processed and shipped the same day and will be delivered to your home in one to three days.

MyFreePharmacy is working to change the way Americans get their prescriptions. They take the stress and high costs out of the equation by helping consumers control their costs without sacrificing quality. For safety and security, all medications are shipped through the U.S. Postal Service, with a standard shipping time of one to three days.

For more information, visit myfreepharmacy.com/join.

(NewsUSA) - We all do it: we let over-the-counter (OTC) medicines like pain relievers for a headache, allergy medicine or cough and cold products pileup in our bathrooms. Especially over the past few years, you may have let medications linger in the house past their expiration dates. But old and unneeded medication should be disposed of safely, and springtime is the perfect time to get it done.

Proper medicine disposal keeps our homes and communities safe and our environment clean, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), the national trade association representing manufacturers of OTC medicines.

"Medication safety is everyone's responsibility, and proper medication disposal is an important part of medication safety," says Anita Brikman, Executive Director of the CHPA Educational Foundation, which is a 501c3 organization focused on promoting the safe use, storage and disposal of OTC medicines and dietary supplements to consumers. "How you dispose of unwanted, unused, or expired OTC medicines is important and easy," she says.

So clean out your medicine cabinet this spring, and choose one of these three quick and easy disposal methods:

- In-Home Disposal. Many OTC medications, and some prescription medications, can be thrown out with your regular trash at home. Mix the medicine (do not crush any tablets or capsules) with some especially unappealing trash, such as kitty litter or used coffee grounds, and place the mixture in a sealed plastic bag. Then put the bag in your usual household trash bin, and you're done.

- In-Store Disposal. Many pharmacies provide designated kiosks where you can bring any medication, OTC or prescription, for safe disposal. The website MyOldMeds.com has a zip code locator tool to find more than 22,000 verified sites nationwide that offer free medicine-disposal options all year long.

- Take-Back Events. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducts national Drug Take-Back Day events, and the next one will occur this year on April 30.

These events, which are set up temporarily at convenient community- based locations throughout the country, serve as an opportunity to return medications safely as a friendly public-service reminder to clean out your medicine cabinet.

Visit KnowYourOTCs.org for more details about safely disposing of medications at home, and visit MyOldMeds.com to find secure and safe disposal locations near you.