Thesis (M. Sc. (Nursing Science)) --University of Limpopo, 2017. / Refer to the document

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Microreproduction of original thesis. / Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 1986. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: see item for full text AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: sien item vir volteks.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Science in Audiology

The purpose of this study was to determine if deaf adolescents who scored as Reactive on the Test of Engagement Style would score significantly lower on the Stanford Achievement subtests of Reading, Math Concepts, Math Computations, Math Applications, and Language than would deaf adolescents who scored as Active on the same test. The Test of Engagement Style is a locus of control construct which utilizes a non-verbal, open-ended format. Subject responses are recorded as either Active or Reactive. The subjects of this study were 111 deaf adolescents who attended the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind in Tucson. Cross-tabulation of data between sexes was utilized as was hypothesis testing procedures utilizing one-way analysis of variance with males and females combined in Active and Reactive dimensions for the following variables: IQ, onset of hearing loss, degree of hearing loss (in decibels), age, and the five Stanford Achievement subtests. Split-half procedures were utilized to test for significant correlation in item analysis of the Test of Engagement Style. The TES showed significant internal consistency with an alpha of .74 at the .05 level of significance. The following results were found: (1) There was no significant difference between males and females on TES scores. (2) There was significant difference on mean scores in the subtests of Reading, Math Computations, Math Applications, and Language between Active and Reactive students. (3) There was no significant difference between Active and Reactive subjects on onset of deafness, degree of hearing loss, age, and the Math Concepts subtest. (4) There was significant difference in IQ scores between Active and Reactive subjects. This study suggests that the Test of Engagement Style is useful for making comparisons between Stanford Achievement Test scores and locus of control perceptions.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between hearing mothers' methods of communication with their prelingually deaf childern, and those children's reading comprehension scores, as measured by the Stanford Achievement Test, Special Edition for Hearing Impaired Students, 1973, (SAT-HI). The subjects of this study were 201 prelingually deaf students from six randomly selected residential schools for the deaf from throughout the United States. All subjects had hearing losses of 91db (ANSI) or greater, had lost their hearing before age three, used some form of manual communication as their primary method of learning and communicating, were ages 11.25 through 19.83, had been enrolled for at least the past three years in residential schools which subscribed to the total communication philosophy, had no additional handicapping conditions, had natural mothers who were able to complete the Mother's Questionnaire, came from families who used English as the primary spoken language, and had parents whose hearing was normal. Questionnaires were sent to schools and mothers to obtain information regarding the dependent variable (reading comprehension scores); the primary independent variables (methods of communication used by mothers, ages of the children when signing mothers began to use manual communication, and skill levels of mothers who used manual communication); and a number of secondary independent variables. The date were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients, multiple ANOVA's, multiple regression analysis and analysis of covariance. Chronological age and non-verbal IQ acted as covariates. Results indicated that, for the subjects of this study, the method of communication used by mothers of prelingually deaf children had no significant relationship with their children's reading comprehension scores. Of the subjects whose mothers used manual communication, no significant relationship was found between reading comprehension and the ages of the children when their mothers began to sign with them. Conversely, a significant relationship was found between reading comprehension scores and signing skill levels of mothers as reported by both mothers and schools. Because of questionable validity of some of the measures, difficulties in interpretation of the ANCOVA, inability to control for ethnic background, limitations in subject selection, and the small number of subjects in Group 1; the findings of this study should be considered to be speculative, at best.

No description available.

No description available.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are primarily defined by problems with social interaction and communication, but they are also associated with a complex cognitive profile. One area of difficulty for children and adults with ASD is problem-solving, or the process of identifying a solution to a puzzle or question where the answer is hidden. This can be seen on the Twenty Questions Task (TQT), a commonly-used measure of verbal problem-solving and executive functioning. Children with autism are consistently less efficient than typically-developing children in their questioning on the task: for instance, rather than ask a general, category-based question (e.g. “Is it a living thing?”) they may ask about single items (“Is it the dog?”) or very restricted groupings (“Is it something you wear on your feet?”). This has previously been interpreted as an example of a concept formation deficit in autism, deriving from underlying difficulties with complex and integrative information processing. However, success in problemsolving relies on a number of cognitive and linguistic processes that may be impaired in ASD. This thesis attempts to identify which of these may better explain autistic problem-solving performance, using the TQT as a specific example. The first experiment presented here examines the role of executive functioning difficulties in this profile. The performance of 22 children with ASD and 21 age- and IQ-matched typically-developing (TD) children was compared on a version of the TQT adapted to assess planning skills prior to problem-solving and selective attention during the task. Compared to controls, ASD participants were less efficient in their planning of questions, although not all ASD participants had difficulty constructing a plan. No specific effects of selective attention were evident. The second and third experiments explore the importance of atypical language development to this profile, using the example of deafness. Experiment 2 compares the performance of deaf (n = 9) and hearing (n = 27) adults on the TQT, replicating prior evidence of less efficient problem-solving in deaf graduate students. Experiment 3 contrasts TQT performance in 13 deaf schoolchildren with the ASD and TD data acquired in experiment 1. Like ASD children, deaf children were less efficient in their questioning than TD participants, even when controlling for cognitive ability differences. Both autism and deafness are associated with delays in early language development, whereas Asperger Syndrome (AS) is not. To test whether language delay explains autistic problem-solving difficulties, experiment 4 compares TQT performance in 15 children with autism, 15 AS children and 15 age- and IQ- matched typically-developing controls. Participants with autism asked less efficient questions than both AS and TD participants, between whom no differences were observed. This suggests that the problem-solving profile in autism may be better explained as a consequence of atypical language development, rather than other aspects of information processing or executive dysfunction.