With reference to the text and your own knowledge, write a response essay of around 850 words. Identify THREE safety risks of children’s toys and offer THREE effective solutions accordingly to address this issue. Word limit: NO more than 850 words.

Question 1 (50 marks)

Read the following text extracted from The Journal of Pediatrics and answer Question 1 below.

Fidget Spinner Ingestions in Children — A Problem that Spun Out of Nowhere

1 The fidget spinner is a cultural phenomenon that has recently received heavy media attention for its potential for ingestion. The media has publicised a number of injuries, primarily ingestions, by children playing with fidget spinners. Concerns for the regulation of materials used to produce fidget spinners has grown following the detection of elevated levels of toxic chemical on the outer paint coatings of some toys. Furthermore, changes to the original spinner design have led to the availability of toys containing lights, batteries, and powerful magnets, increasing the potential for injury. The injury and potential injury database of the Consumer Product Safety Risk Management System (CPSRMS) records 13 cases of fidget spinner ingestion since 2016. Foreign body ingestion among pediatric patients is a documented, potentially hazardous injury that can prove fatal. An estimated 441735 suspected foreign body ingestions by children between 2010 and 2015 have been reported, reinforcing the need for aggressive safety standards. Two injury cases would be reported below.

2 In case 1, a 9-year-old developmentally appropriate female presented to the Emergency Department (ED) after swallowing the central metal bearing of a fidget spinner. The ingestion occurred while the child was playing with the spinner toy, causing dysphagia, choking and cough. In case 2, a 10-year-old male with a past medical history of Prader-Willi syndrome was sent to the hospital after swallowing the central bearing of a fidget spinner. In these cases, the foreign object had been successfully passed after days. The children had resumed all previous activities and were otherwise healthy.

3 The CPSRMS query shows that school-age children demonstrated the highest number of fidget spinner ingestions compared with younger children. Children across the age spectrum have the skill to disassemble a spinner toy, which may have a low risk of ingestion as a single unit, but can pose a risk for ingestion or aspiration when deconstructed to its smaller washers, bearings, screws, magnets, etc. According to the Good Housekeeping Research Institute, many companies selling fidget spinners for entertainment purposes have not posted the necessary warning labels on their products as required by US federal law. Given the high number of older children with fidget spinner ingestion,

whether fidget spinner toys should be permitted on public school grounds is questioned. Emerging data might suggest the need for manufacturers to produce fidget spinner toys with improved safety profiles, and for caregivers to actively heed the warnings of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

4 Although there does not yet exist any medical evidence to suggest that children benefit from fidget spinners, recent articles by subject matter experts have argued against the efficacy of this toy to improve the symptoms of pediatric behavioral problems of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, developmental delay or autism. It has been suggested that a fidget spinner is likely to stimulate the brain with the effect of inducing greater attention. This led to speculation that children with true behavioral or mental challenges and diagnoses may be a greater risk of unintentional ingestion than those children without an underlying developmental disorder.

Adapted from: Reeves, P. T., Nylund, C. M., Noel, J. M., Jones, D. S., Chumpitazi, B. P., Milczuk, H. A., & Noel, R. A. (2018). Fidget Spinner Ingestions in Children — A Problem that Spun Out of Nowhere. The Journal of Pediatrics, 197, 275-279.

With reference to the text and your own knowledge, write a response essay of around 850 words. Identify THREE safety risks of childrenâ€s toys and offer THREE effective solutions accordingly to address this issue. Word limit: NO more than 850 words.

Points to ponder:

• –  Reference to the text
• –  A brief introduction to describe the issue
• –  Effective topic sentences
• –  Evaluation on the causes of the problems from different perspectives
• –  Logical and effective solutions to the problems accordingly
• –  An evaluative conclusion

Assessment criteria:

Content and accuracy (20 marks)

Grammatical range and language skills accuracy  (10 marks) 

 Lexical range and accuracy (10 marks) 

Organisation and coherence (10 marks)