No description available.

Body doubling is a mechanism that lets individuals work alongside someone on a monotonous task that they might not be able to focus on when they work alone. The person they work alongside is called a body double. It could be considered similar to co-working, but it gives individuals the freedom to work on anything that they want without feeling obligated to interact with the other person. This research aims to understand if body doubling is helpful to the users and how mixed reality body doubling can be a better addition to the existing mode of in-person and video-call based body doubling. In this work, we have recruited 40 participants to perform a user study where we have done a between-groups comparative study between a no body-double, in-person body double, a video-call based body double, and a mixed reality body double modes. Through these studies, we try to analyze if body doubling is helpful, and if so, which mode the participants are more inclined towards. The work also presents a few suggestions for future improvements. / Master of Science / Body Doubling, defined here, is in the context of a productivity strategy where a person is present beside an individual when they are working. This way, when the individual is working on a monotonous task, a person beside them would make them motivated to focus again. The person helping in body-doubling is called a ``Body Double''. This uses the concept of accountability that is felt in the presence of someone. Even though it seems similar to widely popular co-working, where job professionals share an office space to work together, in body-doubling, there is no interaction with the body-double, and in most cases, the two individuals might not be working on the same task. This research aims to understand if body doubling is helpful to users. In this work, we have recruited 40 participants to perform a user study where we have done a between-groups comparative study between a no body-double, in-person body double, a video-call based body double, and a mixed reality body double modes. It tries to show how mixed reality body doubling can be a better addition to the existing mode of in-person and video-call based body doubling. Through the user studies, we try to analyze if body doubling is helpful, and if so, which mode are the participants more inclined towards. The work also presents a few suggestions for future improvements.

Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) consists of symptoms of both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity that cause significant functional impairment (APA, 1994). Approximately 4.7% of adults are diagnosed with ADHD; however, there are few empirically-informed interventions that are specifically designed for adults. Instead, many of the common interventions for adults are derived from work done with children with ADHD and may not be appropriate for their particular needs (Weiss & Weiss, 2004). Given that adults with ADHD typically experience more symptoms of inattention rather than hyperactivity, an investigation of the effectiveness of an intervention that specifically targets their inattentive symptoms is warranted (Weiss & Weiss, 2004; Weiss et al., 2002). Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an attention-specific intervention for adults with ADHD. The intervention used in this study, Attention Process Training (APT; Sohlberg & Mateer, 1987), has never been applied to adults with ADHD. The underlying assumption behind this intervention is that attentional functioning can be improved through the use of tasks that are designed to re-train various aspects of attention. More specifically, this study addressed sustained, alternating, and selective/divided attention during the intervention. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design was used in order to assess the effectiveness of the APT among a sample of adults with ADHD. A sample of four adults, aged 21-37 years (M = 27.75) participated in this study and demonstrated minimal changes in their attentional ability after the intervention. In addition, the findings suggest that the different components of attention addressed in this intervention are not distinct and likely have a reciprocal affect on one another. / Ph. D.

Executive functioning (EF) has been gaining attention recently in the area of child psychopathology and EF deficits have been hypothesized to be present in a variety of these disorders. Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and anxiety disorders (AD) all experience difficulties at home, with friends, and at school, some of which may be related to deficits in EF. The proposed study is designed to determine whether specific EF deficits are associated with ADHD and AD when they are comorbid with ODD. Children recruited for an ODD treatment study completed an emotional Stroop task and their mothers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF; Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000). The present study included 49 children with ODD who had comorbid ADHD (n = 22) or comorbid AD (n = 27), but not both. The ODD/ADHD group exhibited significantly more EF deficits on the MI than the ODD/AD group when gender and corresponding symptoms of ADHD and AD were controlled for. However, no significant differences were found on the emotional Stroop or the BRI scale of the BRIEF suggesting that EF deficits may not be clearly differentiated in samples of ADHD and AD youth who are also comorbid with ODD. It is recommended that future studies explore executive dysfunction in pure ODD, ADHD, and AD samples to better identify possible differences that might be useful in designing interventions for children who have EF deficits associated with these disorders. / Master of Science

This study investigated foundation phase educators’ perceptions of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The educators’ views on the causes, appropriate interventions and incidence rates of ADHD were examined. A sample of 140 foundation phase educators from mainstream private and public schools participated in the study. The educators completed a self-developed questionnaire that had been piloted by the researcher. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data, in conjunction with t-tests to ascertain the differences in responses between public and private school educators. Thematic content analysis was used to identify the main categories and themes that emerged form the open-ended questions. The results revealed that the educators had a limited understanding of ADHD, in terms of what it is as well as its causes. In addition, it emerged that the educators preferred medication as the intervention method despite being aware of additional intervention methods. A comparison of the private and public school educators’ results indicated no significant difference in the educators’ perceptions regarding the cause, interventions or incidence rate of ADHD. These findings are discussed in relation to empirical studies and suggestions for future research are presented.

I den Svenska skollagen står det ”lika skola för alla” stämmer det egentligen? Denna studie tar upp rektorers ledarroller för barn med ADHD. Har alla barn samma förutsättningar eller skiljer det sig åt? Vem är ansvarig för detta? Genom olika teorier samt tidigare forskning undersöker denna studie vad som skiljer  i ledarskapet för elever med ADHD.  För att göra det tar studien med er genom dels socialpsykologiska, dels ledarskapsforskning för att finna ett svar. Genom intervjuer med 5 rektorer i olika kommuner i mellan-Sverige har studien visat att rektorernas ledarskapsstil är avgörande för deras roll som ledare för barn med ADHD. Resultaten tyder på att även om alla intervjuade rektorer har samma förutsättningar för budget och många av dem koncentrera sig på den ekonomiska aspekten av sitt arbete, är det om de ser sig själva som flexibla ledare samt tillåter dem att sätta eleverna i centrum. En av många slutsatser som föreslås är att ledarens egenskaper, såsom att tänka utanför boxen och se eleverna som individer och inte objekt, kan i hög grad bidra till att förbättra kommunikationen och processer samt socialisation bland barn med ADHD. / Is the Swedish Education Act’s statement of "equal education for all" accurate? This study analyzes the role school principals have with regard to children with ADHD. Are all children given the same opportunities or does it vary? Where does the responsibility lie? Thus the paper looks at both social psychological and leadership-based research to find an answer to its research question. Through interviews with five principals in different municipalities of middle Sweden, the study concludes that the principal's leadership style and their understanding of their own role is the answer. The results suggest that, while the all interviewed principals have the same budget and many of them concentrate on the economic aspect of their work, it is seeing themselves as flexible leaders that allows them to put the students at the centre of focus. One of many conclusions suggested is that leadership characteristics, such as thinking outside the box and seeing students as individuals and not objects, can contribute greatly to the improvement communication and socialization processes among children with ADHD.

The purpose of this study was to determine if attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) subtypes (predominantly hyperactive/impulsive, ADHD-HI; predominantly inattentive, ADHD-IA; combined, ADHD-C) exhibit distinct neuropsychological profiles, using the Attention and Executive Function subtests of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, (NEPSY) and the omission and commission scores obtained on the Conners' Continuous Performance Test-II (CPT-II), a test that assesses attention processes. The sample was selected using archival data collected in a neurodevelopmental clinic over the past decade and consisted of 138 children between the ages of 6 and 12 years old. Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) (DSM-IV) criteria, the children were placed in either the ADHD-HI (n = 40), ADHD-IA (n = 35), or ADHD-C (n = 36) group, or a symptom free comparison group (n = 27). It was hypothesized that children with elevations on the impulsivity/ hyperactivity (ADHD-HI and ADHD-C) scale would be impaired on measures of inhibition and those with elevations on the inattention scale (ADHD-IA and ADHD-C) would be impaired on tests of attention, vigilance, and other executive functions. A one-way multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) was conducted (Group X Task), with significant results for overall main effect for group on the 7 dependent variables post hoc tests using the Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) revealed the following: the ADHD-HI group scored significantly lower on tests that require behavioral inhibition processes (Knock and Tap, Statue and CPT-Commission errors). The ADHD-IA group scored significantly lower on tests of problem-solving and planning (Tower) but not on tests of attention as was expected. The ADHD-C group scored significantly lower on tests of inhibition, attention, and other executive functions (Auditory Attention Response Set, Visual Attention, Tower, Knock and Tap, Statue, and CPT-Omission and CPT-Commission errors). Overall results suggest that the NEPSY Attention and Executive Function subtests are able to differentiate ADHD subtypes. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

No description available.

Jag vill undersöka vad olika professioner som arbetar eller möter barn dagligen har för erfarenheter och kunskaper om hinder och svårigheter i förskolan för barn med ADHD som hämmar leken som för barn är naturligt och vägen till lärande och utveckling. Jag har använt mig av kvalitativa intervjuer i min metod.. Syftet med min undersökning är att få en djupare förståelse varför det inte fungerar så bra för vissa barn med ADHD i förskolan. Resultatet och kunskapen är sedan något jag kan ta med mig senare i mitt egna arbete som pedagog och arbeta utifrån. Det resultat jag fick fram genom mina intervjuer var att de olika professionerna hade ungefär lika erfarenheter om barn med ADHD i förskolan och att det behövs mer resurser och tid än vad de flesta förskolorna har att erbjuda just nu.

Aim of the present study was to evaluate executive functions (EF) such as inhibition, planning, working memory, set-shifting in children with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) via comparison of three ADHD subtype groups (ADHD-I, ADHD-C and ADHD-Comorbid) and a normal control group. Participants consist of 147 children. Total of 111 children were assigned into the ADHD groups of the study. Thirty seven children (5 girl and 32 boys) were assigned into the ADHD-Inattentive group, thirty seven children (6 girls and 31 boys) were assigned into the ADHD-Combined group / and thirty seven children (4 girls and 33 boys) were classified as ADHD-Comorbide group (ADHD-C with Oppositional Defiant Disorder consists of 4 girls and 31 boys, and/or Conduct Disorders consists of 2 boys). Thirty six children (6 girls and 30 boys / age range: 7- 12) were assigned as control group by matching with the ADHD groups according to the WISC-R Full Scale IQ score, sex and age. Conner&rsquo / s Parental and Teacher Rating Scales, Child Behavior Check List and Wechsler Intelligence Scale Revised, Tower of London Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Stroop Color Word Test, Cancellation Task, Trail Making Test, California Verbal List Test for Children, Verbal Fluency Test, Continuous Performance Test, Go-No-Go Task and Bender-Gestalt Test were used for the assessment of children. The data were analyzed by one-way within subject ANOVA for all dependent variables measured by the assessment tools. Additionally discriminant function analyses were conducted to determine the variables that differentiate the three ADHD groups and control group. Outcome of study indicated that subjects in ADHD-Comorbid group had more severe Executive Function (EF) deficits than subjects in ADHD-I and ADHD-C group. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature.