Examining the inclusion experiences of students with intellectual disabilities : a study focusing on the transition from elementary to secondary school

Transitioning from elementary to secondary school is a major event in adolescents' lives and can be associated with academic, social, and emotional challenges (Shaffer, 2005; Sirsch, 2003). Considerably less research has focused on the transitional experiences of students with intellectual disabilities (lD) as they enter secondary school and the role of educational inclusion in this process (Noland, Cason, & Lincoln, 2007). Conceivably, students with ID who leave inclusive elementary schools, where they have been educated alongside their peers without ID, and who enter segregated secondary educational placements may experience unique social and emotional challenges (Farmer, Pearl, & Van Acker, 1996; Fryxell & Kennedy, 1995; Shaffer, 2005). This study examined the transitional experiences of 6 students with ID and the role of educational inclusion, with a focus on elementary to secondary school transitions from inclusive to segregated settings and vice versa. This study included the collection of multiple sources of data. Semi-structured interviews with 6 caregivers and students with ID were conducted. Students' Individual Education Transitional Plans were discussed in caregivers' interviews to determine how they shaped students' educational inclusion experiences (Ontario Ministry of Education & Training, 1999/2000/2004). Parts ofthe following questionnaires were "qualitized" (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998) and administered orally: "Youth Self-Report" (YSR; Achenbach, 2001 c) and "Child Behaviour Checklist Caregivers Form" (CBLC/6-18; Achenbach, 200la). The findings of this study contribute to the literature on educational inclusion by highlighting the positive/negative social and emotional impact of congruent and incongruent transitional experiences of students with ID and the role of educational inclusion.

Exploratory study : exploring the effectiveness of a literacy-based intervention with children with language impairments

Research points clearly to the need for all concerned stakeholders to adopt a preventative approach while intervening with children who are at-risk for future reading disabilities. Research has indicated also that a particular sub-group of children at-risk for reading impairments include preschool children with language impairments (Catts, 1993). Preschool children with language impairments may have difficulties with emergent literacy skills - important prerequisite skills necessary for successful formal reading. Only in the past decade have researchers begun to study the effects of emergent literacy intervention on preschool children with language impairments. As such, the current study continues this investigation of how to effectively implement an emergent literacy therapy aimed at supporting preschool children with language impairments. In addition to this, the current study explores emergent literacy intervention within an applied clinical setting. The setting, presents a host of methodological and theoretical challenges - challenges that will advance the field of understanding children within naturalistic settings. This exploratory study included thirty-eight participants who were recruited from Speech Services Niagara, a local preschool speech and language program. Using a between-group pre- and posttest design, this study compared two intervention approaches - an experimental emergent literacy intervention and a traditional language intervention. The experimental intervention was adopted from Read It Again! (Justice, McGinty, Beckman, & Kilday, 2006) and the traditional language intervention was based on the traditional models of language therapy typically used in preschool speech and language models across Ontario. 5 Results indicated that the emergent literacy intervention was superior to the ,t..3>~, ~\., ;./h traditional language therapy in improving the children's alphabet knowledge, print and word awareness and phonological awareness. Moreover, results revealed that children with more severe language impairments require greater support and more explicit instruction than children with moderate language impairments. Another important finding indicated that the effects of the preschool emergent literacy intervention used in this study may not be sustainable as children enter grade one. The implications of this study point to the need to support preschool children with language impairments with intensive emergent literacy intervention that extends beyond preschool into formal educational settings.

Mediated action, narratives of risk-taking, and identity formation in adolescents with a visual impairment

The purpose of this project was to discern the inherent tension present in narratives told by adolescents with a visual impairment as they attempted to make sense of their experiences, specifically those surrounding risk. Mediated action, based on the foundational work of Vygotsky and Bakhtin, was used as both a theoretical and methodological approach; it is the theory that there are two components that constitute any human action: the "agent," or the person who is doing the acting, and the "mediational means" that he or she is using to accomplish the action in question. Tension ensues as neither is able to fully explain human behaviour. Ten adolescents with a visual impairment participated in a narrative interview, revealing numerous counter-narratives surrounding risk-taking, including "experimentation undertaken using good judgment." Participants offered examples of how they engaged, appropriated, resisted and transformed the dominant narratives of disability and adolescence in their identity formation.

101 games and activities for children with aurism, Asperger's and sensory processing disorders.

Una de las mejores maneras para que los niños con autismo, Asperger, trastornos sensoriales aprendan es a través del juego, sin embargo, los mayores desafíos a los que padres y maestros se enfrentan con estos niños es la manera de hacerlos participar con éxito en el juego. En este manual, se ofrece más de un centenar de juegos que ayudan al niño: hacer contacto visual, mantenerse concentrado, y fortalecer sus habilidades motoras; asociar las palabras con los objetos y mejorar las habilidades lingüísticas y numéricas; aprender a interactuar con otras personas, como tomar turnos, y otras habilidades sociales necesarias para asistir a la escuela preescolar.

Neurobehavioral Development in Children With Potential Exposure to Pesticides

Children may be at higher risk than adults from pesticide exposure, due to their rapidly developing physiology, unique behavioral patterns, and interactions with the physical environment. This preliminary study conducted in Ecuador examines the association between household and environmental risk factors for pesticide exposure and neurobehavioral development. We collected data over 6 months in the rural highland region of Cayambe, Ecuador (2003–2004). Children age 24–61 months residing in 3 communities were assessed with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and the Visual Motor Integration Test. We gathered information on maternal health and work characteristics, the home and community environment, and child characteristics. Growth measurements and a hemoglobin finger-prick blood test were obtained. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Current maternal employment in the flower industry was associated with better developmental scores. Longer hours playing outdoors were associated with lower gross and fine motor and problem solving skills. Children who played with irrigation water scored lower on fine motor skills (8% decrease; 95% confidence interval 9.31 to 0.53), problem-solving skills (7% decrease; 8.40 to 0.39), and Visual Motor Integration test scores (3% decrease; 12.00 to 1.08). These results suggest that certain environmental risk factors for exposure to pesticides may affect child development, with contact with irrigation water of particular concern. However, the relationships between these risk factors and social characteristics are complex, as corporate agriculture may increase risk through pesticide exposure and environmental contamination, while indirectly promoting healthy development by providing health care, relatively higher salaries, and daycare options.

Young people with intellectual disabilities attending mainstream and segregated schooling: perceived stigma, social comparison and future aspirations

Mainstream schooling is a key policy in the promotion of social inclusion of young people with learning disabilities. Yet there is limited evidence about the school experience of young people about to leave mainstream as compared with segregated education, and how it impacts on their relative view of self and future aspirations. Sixty young people with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in their final year of secondary school participated in this study. Twenty-eight individuals came from mainstream schools and 32 attended segregated school. They completed a series of self-report measures on perceptions of stigma, social comparison to a more disabled and non-disabled peer and the likelihood involved in attaining their future goals. The majority of participants from both groups reported experiencing stigmatized treatment in the local area where they lived. The mainstream group reported significant additional stigma at school. In terms of social comparisons, both groups compared themselves positively with a more disabled peer and with a non-disabled peer. While the mainstream pupils had more ambitious work-related aspirations, both groups felt it equally likely that they would attain their future goals. Although the participants from segregated schools came from significantly more deprived areas and had lower scores on tests of cognitive functioning, neither of these factors appeared to have an impact on their experience of stigma, social comparisons or future aspirations. Irrespective of schooling environment, the young people appeared to be able to cope with the threats to their identities and retained a sense of optimism about their future. Nevertheless, negative treatment reported by the children was a serious source of concern and there is a need for schools to promote the emotional well-being of pupils with intellectual disabilities.

Investigation of language and motor skills in Serbian speaking children with specific language impairment and in typically developing children

Specific language impairment (SLI) is usually defined as a developmental language disorder which does not result from a hearing loss, autism, neurological and emotional difficulties, severe social deprivation, low non-verbal abilities. Children affected with SLI typically have difficulties with the acquisition of different aspects of language and by definition, their impairment is specific to language and no other skills are affected. However, there has been a growing body of literature to suggest that children with SLI also have non-linguistic deficits, including impaired motor abilities. The aim of the current study is to investigate language and motor abilities of a group of thirty children with SLI (aged between 4 and 7) in comparison to a group of 30 typically developing children matched for chronological age. The results showed that the group of children with SLI had significantly more difficulties on the language and motor assessments compared to the control group. The SLI group also showed delayed onset in the development of all motor skills under investigation in comparison to the typically developing group. More interestingly, the two groups differed with respect to which language abilities were correlated with motor abilities, however Imitation of Complex Movements was the unique skill which reliably predicted expressive vocabulary in both typically developing children and in children with SLI.

Introducing children with special educational needs to theatre through ‘Relaxed Performances’

This short chapter explains how a growing number of theatres are beginning to offer families living with autism and other disabilities opportunities to attend without fear of alienation or rejection by other audience members. Using one small theatre as a case study, the chapter illustrates the sort of adaptations that are made to the performance and front of house arrangements.

Cognitive Therapy Abilities in People with Learning Disabilities

Background  There is a need to develop and adapt therapies for use with people with learning disabilities who have mental health problems. Aims  To examine the performance of people with learning disabilities on two cognitive therapy tasks (emotion recognition and discrimination among thoughts, feelings and behaviours). We hypothesized that cognitive therapy task performance would be significantly correlated with IQ and receptive vocabulary, and that providing a visual cue would improve performance. Method  Fifty-nine people with learning disabilities were assessed on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), the British Picture Vocabulary Scale-II (BPVS-II), a test of emotion recognition and a task requiring participants to discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours. In the discrimination task, participants were randomly assigned to a visual cue condition or a no-cue condition. Results  There was considerable variability in performance. Emotion recognition was significantly associated with receptive vocabulary, and discriminating among thoughts, feelings and behaviours was significantly associated with vocabulary and IQ. There was no effect of the cue on the discrimination task. Conclusion  People with learning disabilities with higher IQs and good receptive vocabulary were more likely to be able to identify different emotions and to discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This implies that they may more easily understand the cognitive model. Structured ways of simplifying the concepts used in cognitive therapy and methods of socialization and education in the cognitive model are required to aid participation of people with learning disabilities.

Awareness of number in children with severe and profound learning difficulties: three exploratory case studies

This paper reports on exploratory work investigating how children with severe and profound learning difficulties register an awareness of small quantities and how they might use this information to inform their understanding. It draws on studies of typically developing children and investigates their application to pupils whose response to conventional mathematical tasks are often limited because they lack relevance and interest. The responses of the three pupils to individualized learning contexts mirror the progression suggested in the literature, namely from awareness of number to simple actions using number cues to problem-solving behaviour

Multi-sensory treatment for children with developmental motor speech disorders

What this paper adds? What is already known on the subject? Multi-sensory treatment approaches have been shown to impact outcome measures positively, such as accuracy of speech movement patterns and speech intelligibility in adults with motor speech disorders, as well as in children with apraxia of speech, autism and cerebral palsy. However, there has been no empirical study using multi-sensory treatment for children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) who demonstrate motor control issues in the jaw and orofacial structures (e.g. jaw sliding, jaw over extension, inadequate lip rounding/retraction and decreased integration of speech movements). What this paper adds? Findings from this study indicate that, for speech production disorders where both the planning and production of spatiotemporal parameters of movement sequences for speech are disrupted, multi-sensory treatment programmes that integrate auditory, visual and tactile–kinesthetic information improve auditory and visual accuracy of speech production. The training (practised in treatment) and test words (not practised in treatment) both demonstrated positive change in most participants, indicating generalization of target features to untrained words. It is inferred that treatment that focuses on integrating multi-sensory information and normalizing parameters of speech movements is an effective method for treating children with SSDs who demonstrate speech motor control issues.

Conductive hearing loss in children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia: A longitudinal follow-up study in children aged between 6 and 24 months

Aims: To determine the occurrence of isolated and recurrent episodes of conductive hearing loss (CHL) during the first two years of life in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).Study design, subjects and outcome measures: In a longitudinal clinical study. 187 children were evaluated at 6, 9, 12,15 18 and 24 months of age by visual reinforcement audiometry, tympanometry and auditory brain response system.Results: of the children with BPD, 54.5% presented with episodes of CHL, as opposed to 34.7% of the children without BPD. This difference was found to be statistically significant. The recurrent or persistent episodes were more frequent among children with BPD (25.7%) than among those without BPD (8.3%). The independent variables that contributed to this finding were small for gestational age and a 5 min Apgar score.Conclusions: Recurrent CHL episodes are more frequent among VLBW infants with BPD than among VLBW infants without BPD. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Salivary alpha amylase and cortisol levels in children with global developmental delay and their relation with the expectation of dental care and behavior during the intervention

The purpose of this study was to analyze the alpha-amylase (sAA) and cortisol levels in children with Global developmental delay (GDD) before and after dental treatment and its association with the children's behavior during treatment. The morning salivary cortisol levels and activity of sAA of 33 children with GDD were evaluated before and after dental treatment and were compared to 19 healthy children. The behavior of children with GDD during dental care was assessed by the Frankl scale. Children with GDD showed lower levels of sAA activity than healthy children, but this result was not significant. The salivary cortisol levels were similar between GOD and healthy children. GDD children showed increased levels of sAA (but not cortisol) prior to the dental treatment as compared to the post-treatment phase. GOD children who showed less favorable behavior during dental care had higher levels of sAA and salivary cortisol than GOD children with more favorable behavior, but only the sAA results were significant. In conclusion, GOD children show hyperactivity of the SNS-axis in anticipation of dental treatment which indicates the need for strategies to reduce their anxiety levels before and during dental care. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relational learning in children with deafness and cochlear implants

This four-experiment series sought to evaluate the potential of children with neurosensory deafness and cochlear implants to exhibit auditory-visual and visual-visual stimulus equivalence relations within a matching-to-sample format. Twelve children who became deaf prior to acquiring language (prelingual) and four who became deaf afterwards (postlingual) were studied. All children learned auditory-visual conditional discriminations and nearly all showed emergent equivalence relations. Naming tests, conducted with a subset of the: children, showed no consistent relationship to the equivalence-test outcomes.. This study makes several contributions: to the literature on stimulus equivalence. First; it demonstrates that both pre- and postlingually deaf children-can: acquire auditory-visual equivalence-relations after cochlear implantation, thus demonstrating symbolic functioning. Second, it directs attention to a population that may be especially interesting for researchers seeking to analyze the relationship. between speaker and listener repertoires. Third, it demonstrates the feasibility of conducting experimental studies of stimulus control processes within the limitations of a hospital, which these children must visit routinely for the maintenance of their cochlear implants.

Emergence and stability of interlimb coordination patterns in children with developmental coordination disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the emergence and stability of coordination patterns in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) when performing a rhythmic interlimb coordination task on rigid (floor) and elastic (mini-trampoline) surfaces. Twelve typically developing (TD) children and 12 children with DCD were required to clap while jumping under different conditions: in a chosen pattern Free; when the feet touched the surface - Clapping-surface; when the body reached the maximum jumping height, Clapping-jump; and when the feet touched the surface and the body reached the maximum jumping height - Clapping-both. The results showed that the coordination pattern of children with DCD was more variable in the Free, Clapping-surface, and Clapping-jumping conditions and more variable on the mini-trampoline than on the floor under the Free condition when compared with the TD children. Clapping-jumping was more difficult to perform than Clapping-surface for both groups. These findings suggest that the children with DCD were less capable of rhythmically coordinating the jumping-clapping task because they used a type of exploratory strategy regarding the physical properties of the surfaces, whereas the TD children used a type of adaptive strategy displaying behavior that was more consistent across the tasks/environmental demands. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.