ADHD in India is culturally viewed as a school specific condition. Parents perceive accessing child psychiatric services as stigmatizing and prefer educational interventions for ADHD. There is a crucial need for research that restructures information and intervention paradigms about ADHD within a school context. The objectives of the present study were to understand teacher perspectives in relation to ADHD behaviours as they present in mainstream elementary classrooms. Located in Bangalore Urban district, India, the purposive sample consisted of teachers and students from the elementary section of 5 regular schools. Data was obtained through in-depth interviews, classroom observations and responses to vignettes. Responses were qualitatively analysed for themes and main concepts. Results indicate that teachers use a framework model to locate the construct of ADHD in a developmental context. ADHD behaviours are attributed to parent disciplining styles and environmental factors such as over exposure to electronic media. Teachers respond to classroom challenging behaviours using directive and heuristic strategies. The study highlights the need to recognize cultural complexities in understanding the ADHD construct.... [more]

Reading is a multifaceted process consisting of many interacting components. A plethora of research is available on reading. Yet, there is inadequate exploration, which ascertains the effects of the interaction of different reading components and how they affect the reading performance of students with autism. This inter-correlational research study examined how five different components, namely, Reading Experience, Word Reading, Sentence Reading, Reading Comprehension and Reading Attitude interrelate with each other. We proposed a cognitive equation of reading process that illustrated the effects of these components on 17 Primary 4 students (13 boys and 4 girls, aged between 9 and 10 years) with high-functioning autism, currently attending mainstream schools. Among the five components, the inter-correlation reliability coefficient between Word Reading and Sentence Reading showed significant and positive relationship. Word Reading and Reading Comprehension which showed moderate reliability followed this. Reading Experience correlated reliably with Reading Comprehension. However, Reading Attitude was least correlated with the other components of the reading process. We recommended pedagogical interventions based on the results of this study.... [more]

This paper aims to analyze the frequency of occurrence of different forms of communication in nonspeaking children during activities with digital games. The participants in this study were three children with multiple disabilities, whose limitations were due to cerebral palsy. All the children had severe oral communication disabilities. Three digital games were developed by the Research Group of Computational Modeling of SENAI/CIMATEC for this population: Food Safety, Public Safety and Sustainable City. This research group has qualified people who have different areas of training and experience. From analysis of the footage, by recording the observation, it was possible to identify the occurrence of five categories of communication; vocal and non-verbal was the one that stood out. Additionally, we analyzed the expansion of the children´s communication individually in each session, thus allowing us to identify the ongoing progress of this variable. The digital games encouraged the use of different forms of communication in nonspeaking children with multiple disabilities resulting from cerebral palsy. This paper discusses the importance of analyzing the different possibilities of expression for these children with cerebral palsy in order to plan more effective treatments in the area Augmentative and Alternative Communication, using digital games and assistive technology. ... [more]

This research study investigates effects of character education activities on the self-esteem of intellectually able and less able students in the lower elementary level in Kuwait. The participants were 39 students in grade three with an average age of eight years old. Students were first divided into two ability subgroups (intellectually able vs. intellectually less able), based on their IQ scores on the Kuwaiti Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSS) was also administered before and after a five-week implementation of the program. The experimental group received character education, and the control group received traditional English lessons with no specific character education. The results revealed that the intellectually able students who received character education showed a higher self-esteem rating than the intellectually less able. The character education program had benefited the intellectually able more than the intellectually less able students. ... [more]

Beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, the focus on individual quality of life expanded to family quality of life (FQOL) in the field of intellectual disabilities. However, few studies examined FQOL for families who have children with hearing loss. Furthermore, most studies focused on mothers’ perceptions of FQOL. The purpose of this study is to understand how different members of a family experience FQOL when there is a member with hearing loss and how those experiences contribute to aggregated FQOL perception as a family unit. Three Korean-American family members, including the father, mother, and individual with hearing loss, participated and presented diverse perceptions of their FQOL. Results indicated each family member described diverse perceptions in seven (58%) of the 12 indicators categorized in four of the five FQOL domains. Implications for future research were described.... [more]

Over the past 30-years linguists have been witnessing the birth and evolution of a language, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua (ISN), in Nicaragua, and have initiated and documented the syntax and grammar of this new language. Research is only beginning to emerge on the implications of ISN on the education of deaf/hard of hearing children in Nicaragua. The purpose of this comparative exploratory field study was to evaluate preprimer and primer Dolch sight words and sign language frequency between English, American Sign Language (ASL), Spanish and Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua (ISN). The research focused on word and sign frequencies between the languages and used Stokoe’s parameters of location, hand shape, and movement to study the phonology of the signs. ISN has been closely evaluated over the first few decades of its existence. This study is meant to serve as a foundation for examining the use of ISN as a means toward achieving literacy for deaf/hard of hearing students in Nicaragua. ... [more]

Effective reading instruction plays an important role in improving students’ outcomes in reading achievement. This paper is designed to serve as a tutorial for translating the simple view of reading model into classroom practices for improving early reading instruction. This model is used as a framework for facilitating teachers’ word study knowledge for instructing both typically developing readers and struggling readers. Scientific studies on the developmental relationships between component reading skills and reading achievement and classroom strategies to facilitate effective word study instruction are discussed in the context of this model.... [more]

This study examined the concerns of regular secondary school teachers in Delhi, India in order to work with students with disabilities in inclusive education settings. A total of 470 teachers responded to a two-part questionnaire. Part-one of the questionnaire collected information related to personal and professional characteristics of the teachers. Part-two was a Likert scale which required the teachers to indicate their concerns on a list of statements related to inclusion. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-tests. The data indicated that the teachers in Delhi, overall, had a moderate level of concerns to implement inclusive education in their schools. These teachers were however not concerned about their increased workload due to inclusion. In addition, an overwhelming majority (95%) of the teachers indicated that they had not received training in special education. The implications for teacher training in India are discussed in terms of the different models that can improve teacher quality for inclusive education. ... [more]

The present study aimed to identify common sexual behavior among adolescents with autism, where parents and teachers of sixty-one male adolescents from twelve to twenty-one years of age were recruited from three cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They were asked to respond to a sexual behavior questionnaire, and a social-sexual skills questionnaire. Only teachers were asked to respond to a screening questionnaire for Asperger syndrome and other high functioning autism spectrum disorders to determine the functional level of the adolescents with autism in the sample. This resulted in thirty-two adolescents selected from the main sample; fifteen of them with high functioning autism, and seventeen with low functioning autism. Overall, both parents and teachers reported inappropriate sexual behavior expressed by the adolescents with autism. The results also showed significant correlations between both the social-sexual skills and reported sexual behaviors in all sub-tests and total scores. The high functioning adolescents with autism displayed significantly less inappropriate sexual behavior and significantly more social-sexual skills when compared to adolescents with low functioning autism.... [more]

Video self-modeling (VSM) is a type of intervention that has been developed to assist students in viewing themselves successfully in a wide variety of domains. The present study was designed to analyze the effects of VSM on children with autism spectrum disorder in an academic setting, with specific focus on improving on-task behavior and appropriate transitions. Participants were two children who were enrolled within the functional interrelated classroom and diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Using an alternating treatment design over a 20 day time period, participants received 10 days of VSM and 10 control days in a random order. Results indicated that for the first child on-task behavior significantly increased on VSM days compared to control days and maintenance was established by the increasing of on-task behavior during the weeks of implementation. For the second child, appropriate transitions significantly increased on VSM days compared to control days but maintenance was not established. Additionally, teachers’ ratings of participants’ behavior improved from a pre-test given before the intervention to the post-test conducted at the conclusion. Practical suggestions for implementing VSM are provided, in addition to suggestions for future research.... [more]

The purpose of the study was to compare the difficulties encountered by the mothers having children with mental disabilities or autism in participating to community life. The participants were 21 mothers who have mentally handicapped child and 21 mothers who have child with autism from Istanbul, Turkey. Data was collected through semi-structured interview technique. Nine community skill areas were determined. The results indicated that the mothers having children with autism had more difficulties in participating to the community life than the mothers having children with mental disabilities. While the mothers having children with mental disabilities declared that they experience most difficulties at visiting their neighbors or close relatives, the mothers having children with autism declared that they experience most difficulties in going to somewhere from another place as a pedestrian. When the declared opinions are analyzed, it is observed that caused to feel unwell by people’s overlook is repeated challenge of the both two groups. ... [more]

Every school system has to deal with children with Learning Disabilities (LD). However, the concepts of LD, the assessment procedures, the diagnostic criteria as well as their interpretation vary widely from country to country. What they usually have in common is that general cognitive abilities, as measured by standardized IQ tests, are seen as an important aspect. In Austrian schools the diagnosis of LD is largely based on expert opinions provided by special education teachers. The diagnostic procedure is quite unregulated and open to individual interpretation. As a rule, standardized tests are not used in this connection. In the present study the characteristics of children with a diagnosis of LD are evaluated in terms of standardized testing.37 pupils diagnosed as having LD and 136 regular school children were assessed at the end of the 5th grade in Austrian schools using standardized tests of intelligence, reading, writing and arithmetic skills and questionnaires regarding social integration in their class, emotional integration in their school and the cultural capital of their families. Compared with a group of pupils without LD, matched for IQ and age, the LD children showed significantly worse basic arithmetic and reading skills, inferior social integration in class and lower familial cultural capital. A stepwise logistic regression analysis indicated that poor basic arithmetic and reading skills were the strongest predictors of having a diagnosis of LD. Other variables, including IQ, had significantly less weight. The results are seen as indication of the fact that precise guidelines for diagnosing LD in the school system and a transition to a system of evidence-based allocation of resources are urgently needed. ... [more]