No Abstract Avaliable.

The aim of this study was to improve current counselling services at the Auckland Spinal Unit. This purpose was achieved by co-researching the topic with people who have extensive experience of living in the community with a spinal cord injury to reveal what they believe was helpful, or believe would have been helpful, in terms of the counselling, when they were newly injured. Listening to the stories of the research participants, through supervision of my own practice, doing a literature review and writing a journal became sources that provided rich knowledges to reflect on my current counselling practice. A qualitative study was conducted using aspects of action research, feminist research and post-structuralist methods. In November 2005, an information pack was mailed to the sixteen patients who had been discharged from the Auckland Spinal Unit between June 2002 and June 2004, who were under the age of sixty -five and lived in the Auckland area, inviting them to participate in this research. Seven people agreed and were available to participate. I interviewed these seven participants, using unstructured interviews. All the interviews were audio-taped and then transcribed verbatim. These verbatim transcripts were then sent back to the participants for any additions/deletions/alterations they chose to make. To initiate the reflecting process, I then went through all the interviews and identified common themes. I understand that if the research participants had been involved in this process, other themes might have emerged for them. The themes identified were loss and grief as a result of a spinal cord injury, sexuality, family (whanau) involvement and how counselling services should be positioned in a setting such as the Auckland Spinal Unit. These themes formed the iii foci of the chapters, with an additional chapter on weaving cultural threads into counselling. The main findings of the study centre on the very important role of counselling at the Auckland Spinal Unit. In particular, the study highlighted the importance of counselling as a place for conversations that make room for multiple positionings and multiple versions of events, a space that respects a patient's hopes, beliefs and dreams for his/her life (which often does not include wheelchairs, catheters and caregivers) but that also supports the patient to make meaning of living life with a spinal cord injury. The study also identified the importance of sexuality counselling. Not including sexuality as a topic in the rehabilitation services provided perpetuates dominant discourses that a person with a spinal cord injury does not want sexual intimacy or cannot be sexually intimate and cannot have children. Family (whanau) involvement in and family's becoming part of the rehabilitation team was very important to most participants. This study looks at how this involvement can be achieved and explores some of the structures currently in place at the Auckland Spinal Unit to facilitate this involvement. Participants in this study expressed a desire for counselling to be highly accessible to both themselves and their families (whanau). They would prefer the counsellors to get to know the patients in their own environment first (in their rooms), so that the patients are positioned to have agency to make choices about how they would like to use the available counselling services. The study concludes with my personal journey of working as a counsellor at the Auckland Spinal Unit and how this research has shaped and fine-tuned my practice.

Labor force statistics and other evidence have demonstrated that people with disabilities are under-represented in the work place in Canada and abroad. While an assortment of factors likely contributes to this disparity, the attitudes of employers towards hiring people with disabilities are often cited as important contributors to the situation. Some authorities suggest that employers attitudes towards people with disabilities bias their decision-making and influence employer behavior. This concept of simple discrimination suggests that employers, like others in the general public hold unfavorable stereotypes of people with disabilities that result in discriminatory hiring practices regardless the merit of a candidate with a disability. An alternative concept, ambivalence amplification, suggests that disability and merit interact in a more complex way. Research on the general publics reactions to disability suggests that when all else is equal, people will rate a person with a disability who is portrayed in a positive manner significantly higher than a comparable peer without a disability, but that the reverse will occur when both are portrayed in a negative fashion. This suggests that under favorable circumstances, employers attitudes towards employees or prospective employees with disabilities may be preferential, but under unfavorable circumstances, their negative attitudes are amplified to become more extremely negative. Both models suggest that discrimination may be occurring, but provide unique perspectives on how and if it might be occurring during employee recruitment. This study examined both simple discrimination and ambivalence amplification in order to explore their potential for explaining poor employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Ninety-nine employers rated/scored one of four condition-specific cover letters and resumes (application documents) from a hypothetical applicant either with or without a disability. As well as identifying disability status, these documents also portrayed the applicant as having merit (no errors in documents) or limited merit (multiple errors in documents). Participants were also asked if based on their review of the cover letter and resume, they would be willing to grant the applicant an interview. Analyses demonstrated that merit, as represented by error-free cover letters and resums predicted employer behavior. There was no evidence main effect for disability status and no interaction between merit and disability status on either employers ratings of application documents or on their willingness to grant an interview, regardless of gender, age, education, and affiliation with a public or private business. These findings suggest that even when a persons disability is self-reported in an application, neither simple discrimination nor ambivalence amplification influenced employers ratings of merit or decisions based on merit. Merit appears to be their primary focus in initial screening of potential employees. These findings further suggest that disparate employment outcomes of people with disabilities may instead be influenced later in the recruitment process, perhaps when employers come face-to-face with applicants with disabilities during the interview stage. It may be at this point in the hiring process that employers negative attitudes towards people with disabilities result in discrimination. / Special Education

This study was designed to examine the utility of the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT; Bracken & McCallum, 1998) for use with children who have been diagnosed with a pervasive developmental disorder (e.g., autistic disorder, asperger’s disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified). The goal was to determine whether distinct cognitive profiles on the UNIT exist within this population and between those with and without a pervasive developmental disorder: a) Do children with a pervasive developmental disorder earn significantly lower mean scores than a demographically matched control group on the UNIT Full Scale Intelligence quotient? b) Do children with a pervasive developmental disorder earn a significantly higher mean score on the UNIT Nonsymbolic quotient versus the Symbolic quotient? c) Do children with a pervasive developmental disorder earn significantly different mean scores on the UNIT Reasoning and Memory quotients? Examiners administered the UNIT to 43 children with a pervasive developmental disorder. Data from 31 children who received raw scores of at least 1 on every subtest were used for statistical analyses. Data from an additional 31 children who participated in the UNIT standardization process were also included as the control group. The group with a pervasive developmental disorder had significantly lower scores (p<.001) on every quotient of the UNIT when compared to the control group. When the mean Full Scale Intelligence quotients were compared, the difference of approximately 22 points was significant, t(26) = 4.46, p = .000. Within the group with a pervasive developmental disorder, the mean score of the Nonsymbolic quotient was approximately 4 points higher than the Symbolic quotient; this difference was not significant, t(30) = 1.59, p > .05 (onetailed). When the Memory and Reasoning quotients were compared, the mean difference of .19 was not significant, t(30) = .068, p = .947. Based on mean difference analysis of this sample, there does not seem to be a unique cognitive profile for this population on the UNIT.

This qualitative case study collection followed 4 self-identified college-bound Mexican immigrants as they moved from their senior year of high school through their first semester of college. The purpose of this study was to learn about the young women’s aspirations and expectations and how their aspirations and expectations were or were not in harmony with the actuality of their lives. To meet this goal, the researcher interviewed the female participants three times. These interviews took place in high school and the first semester of college. The researcher began each interview with a predetermined list of questions, and added additional questions that were generated by the participant’s responses. Next, the researcher reviewed the participants’ transcripts and cumulative files and the transcripts of the interviews in order to conduct qualitative data analysis to find themes that were salient to the participants’ lives. The researcher described the salient themes for each of the individual participants by telling their individual stories. After writing the participant’s individual story, the researcher again met with the participant, so she could read the story and provide additional insights. Using the same data analysis process as with the individual cases, the researcher found themes that were germane across the case studies. The effectiveness of support from significant others, the value of helping people, the effects of racism, the development and maintenance of a Mexican identity, and the importance of marriage emerged as themes that were relevant across the four cases. This study adds to the body of literature that details the aspirations that are held by Mexican students, and it adds to the corpus of research that attempts to provide reasons for why this particular population may encounter more or different types of obstacles than the typical high school senior or first-year college student. All 4 of the participants saw themselves as college-bound during their senior year of high school, and all had utilized various strategies (i.e. maintaining a high GPA, taking college entrance exams, attending college workshops targeted for the Hispanic population, and applying to several colleges) to make this goal a reality. While all 4 of the participants began college immediately following high school, financial difficulties stemming from current or previous undocumented status proved to be an obstacle that was quite difficult to circumvent.

<p>Syfte och frågeställning</p><p>Syftet är att göra en kartläggning av hur barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder upplever att skolorna arbetar med aktivitetsdagar. Frågeställningen blir således; Hur upplever barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder möjligheterna att delta under aktivitetsdagar? Hur upplever barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder sin frånvaro under aktivitetsdagar?</p><p>Metod</p><p>Denna studie är en kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie. En kort enkät, med elva stycken kryssvalsfrågor, skickades ut till 500 av Riksförbundet för rörelsehindrade barn och ungdomars (RBU) medlemmar. Enkäten behandlade frågor om personens förutsättningar, hur många aktivitetsdagar de deltagit i, anledningar till eventuell frånvaro samt hur barnen upplevt de tillfällen som de varit frånvarande. Svaren fördes in i SPSS som användes för att se på skillnader mellan gruppen som varit närvarande kontra frånvarande.</p><p>Resultat</p><p>148 av 500 (30%) undersökningsdeltagare svarade på enkäten, och gav, trots låg svarsfrekvens, ett representativt urval avseende kön, ålder, boendekommun samt typ av skolklass. 52% av de som svarat har angett att de deltagit på alla aktivitetsdagar som anordnats. Resten har varit frånvarande vid ett tillfälle eller fler. Av den grupp på 70 elever som varit frånvarande vid något tillfälle har 65% uppgett att de inte haft möjlighet att följa med på grund av dåligt anpassade aktiviteter eller en lokal som inte varit handikappanpassad. Alla barn som varit frånvarande tycker att detta har varit tråkigt i lika stor utsträckning, oavsett anledning. Dock har de elever som varit frånvarande, och angett något av de två skolrelaterade alternativen som anledning till detta, visat på en större känsla av utanförskap.</p><p>Slutsats</p><p>Det är en del barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder i Sverige som upplever sig inte ha möjlighet att vara med på skolans aktivitetsdagar trots att de själva vill. Vilket i förlängningen kan leda till en känsla av att hamna utanför den sociala gemenskapen.</p>

<p>Syfte och frågställningar</p><p>Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hälsa med fokus på kostvanor, fysisk aktivitet och Body Mass Index (BMI) hos personer med utvecklingsstörning i en gruppbostad. Vidare syftar studien till att beskriva hur personalen arbetar med nämnda faktorer. Syftet har lett fram till följande frågeställningar:</p><p>1. Hur förhåller det sig för två personer i gruppbostaden med följande faktorer: energiförbrukning, energiintag, energibalans och kost enligt Svenska näringsrekommendationer?</p><p>2. Hur förhåller det sig för samtliga i gruppbostaden med följande faktorer: BMI, kost, fysisk aktivitet samt fysisk aktivitet i enlighet med uppsatta kriterier för vardaglig- och planerad fysisk aktivitet?</p><p>3. Hur arbetar gruppbostaden med stimulering av fysisk aktivitet och hälsofrämjande kostvanor?</p><p>Metod</p><p>Studien har genomförts på totalt fyra personer med utvecklingsstörning, varav två personer har observerats djupt och två personer övergripande. I observationen ingick kvantitativa mätmetoder, vilka innefattade studier av energiintag, energiförbrukning, energibalans och BMI samt kvalitativa observationer där kost och fysisk aktivitet studerades. I observationerna ingick informella samtal. Utöver observationerna har intervjuer med enhetschef, en fast anställd och en vikarie ägt rum.</p><p>Resultat</p><p>De djupa observationerna visade en låg energiförbrukning och en positiv energibalans. I studien framkom det att det råder brist på fysisk aktivitet. Orsakerna till detta var dels att det inte förekom någon planerad fysisk aktivitet, dels att personerna inte deltog i dagliga göromål i hemmet. Vidare åt personerna inte enligt SNRs rekommendationer. I intervjuerna framkom det att det inte förekommer något aktivt arbete rörande fysisk aktivitet och kost.</p><p>Slutsats</p><p>Gruppbostaden behöver tydliga riktlinjer för arbete med fysisk aktivitet och kost. Vidare är det nödvändigt att samtal förs mellan personal och enhetschef avseende ovan nämnda faktorer.</p> / <p>Aim</p><p>The aim of this study has been to investigate health with focus on eating habits, physical activity and Body Mass Index (BMI) in mentally retarded living in a community based setting, and to find out how the staff works with these things. Following questions specify the aim:</p><p>1. What is the position as regards energy consumption, energy intake, energy balance and diet according to Swedish recommendations of nutrition (SNR), for two persons in the community based setting?</p><p>2. What is the position as regards BMI, diet, physical activity and physical activity according to criteria for daily and planned physical activity, for all persons in the community based setting?</p><p>3. How does the community based setting work with physical activity and healthy eating habits?</p><p>Method</p><p>Totally four persons with mental retardation were included in the study, of whom two persons were observed in an in depth study and two persons in an overarching study. The observation comprised quantitative methods, which included studies of energy intake, energy consumption, energy balance and BMI. Qualitative methods were used when diet and physical activity were studied through observations. Also, there were informal interviews included in the observations. Except the observations, interviews were carried on with the principal, an employee and a deputy.</p><p>Results</p><p>The in depth observations showed a low energy consumption and a positive energy balance. Also, a lack of physical activity appeared during the observations. There were no planned physical activity and the persons didn’t take part of the daily activities in their home. Further, the persons’ eating habits were not in line with the recommendations of SNR. During the interviews, it was said that there are no presence of work regarding physical activity and diet.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>This community based setting needs guidelines for how the work with physical activity and diet should be carried through. Another important conclusion is that the lack of guidelines need to be a subject of conversation between the principal and the staff.</p> / Bilaga 1, 2, 4, 8, 11 och 12 saknas i pdf-filen, men finns i det tryckta arbetet.

SAMMANFATTNING __________________________________________________________________________ Eva Öierstedt-Christiansen &amp; Louise Rundlöf Sitt still och var tyst! Fördelar och nackdelar med diagnostisering av ADHD enligt nio lärare Sit still and be quiet! Advantages and disadvantages of the diagnosis of ADHD according to nine teachers   Antal sidor: 27 __________________________________________________________________________ Vårt syfte med studien är att undersöka vad nio lärare inom förskola/förskoleklass och grundskolans tidigare år anser om att barn/elever diagnostiseras med ADHD. Vår undersökning kommer att utgå från följande frågeställningar: Vilka fördelar respektive nackdelar ser lärarna med att barn/elever diagnostiseras med ADHD? Vilka är det enligt lärarna som gynnas av en ställd diagnos, barnet/eleven, lärarna eller föräldrarna? På vilket sätt skiljer sig åsikterna mellan lärare i förskolan, förskoleklassen och grundskolans tidigare år gällande diagnostisering? Vi har genomfört intervjuer med nio lärare som är verksamma inom olika åldrar. Resultatet av vår studie visar att lärarna överlag är kritiska till en diagnos, däremot menar de att om barnet/eleven visar starka symptom är en diagnos nödvändig för att barnet/eleven ska få rätt hjälp och stöd. Frågan om när en diagnos bör ställas skiljer sig mellan lärarna i förskolan/ förskoleklassen och grundskollärarna. Lärarna i förskolan/förskoleklassen menar att en diagnos inte bör ställas förrän i skolan medan lärarna i grundskolans tidigare år hävdar att en diagnos bör ställas så tidigt som möjligt. Resultatet pekar på att det finns både fördelar och nackdelar med en diagnos utifrån ett barnperspektiv, föräldraperspektiv och pedagogiskt perspektiv.

Syfte och frågeställning Syftet är att göra en kartläggning av hur barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder upplever att skolorna arbetar med aktivitetsdagar. Frågeställningen blir således; Hur upplever barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder möjligheterna att delta under aktivitetsdagar? Hur upplever barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder sin frånvaro under aktivitetsdagar? Metod Denna studie är en kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie. En kort enkät, med elva stycken kryssvalsfrågor, skickades ut till 500 av Riksförbundet för rörelsehindrade barn och ungdomars (RBU) medlemmar. Enkäten behandlade frågor om personens förutsättningar, hur många aktivitetsdagar de deltagit i, anledningar till eventuell frånvaro samt hur barnen upplevt de tillfällen som de varit frånvarande. Svaren fördes in i SPSS som användes för att se på skillnader mellan gruppen som varit närvarande kontra frånvarande. Resultat 148 av 500 (30%) undersökningsdeltagare svarade på enkäten, och gav, trots låg svarsfrekvens, ett representativt urval avseende kön, ålder, boendekommun samt typ av skolklass. 52% av de som svarat har angett att de deltagit på alla aktivitetsdagar som anordnats. Resten har varit frånvarande vid ett tillfälle eller fler. Av den grupp på 70 elever som varit frånvarande vid något tillfälle har 65% uppgett att de inte haft möjlighet att följa med på grund av dåligt anpassade aktiviteter eller en lokal som inte varit handikappanpassad. Alla barn som varit frånvarande tycker att detta har varit tråkigt i lika stor utsträckning, oavsett anledning. Dock har de elever som varit frånvarande, och angett något av de två skolrelaterade alternativen som anledning till detta, visat på en större känsla av utanförskap. Slutsats Det är en del barn och ungdomar med rörelsehinder i Sverige som upplever sig inte ha möjlighet att vara med på skolans aktivitetsdagar trots att de själva vill. Vilket i förlängningen kan leda till en känsla av att hamna utanför den sociala gemenskapen.

Syfte och frågställningar Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hälsa med fokus på kostvanor, fysisk aktivitet och Body Mass Index (BMI) hos personer med utvecklingsstörning i en gruppbostad. Vidare syftar studien till att beskriva hur personalen arbetar med nämnda faktorer. Syftet har lett fram till följande frågeställningar: 1. Hur förhåller det sig för två personer i gruppbostaden med följande faktorer: energiförbrukning, energiintag, energibalans och kost enligt Svenska näringsrekommendationer? 2. Hur förhåller det sig för samtliga i gruppbostaden med följande faktorer: BMI, kost, fysisk aktivitet samt fysisk aktivitet i enlighet med uppsatta kriterier för vardaglig- och planerad fysisk aktivitet? 3. Hur arbetar gruppbostaden med stimulering av fysisk aktivitet och hälsofrämjande kostvanor? Metod Studien har genomförts på totalt fyra personer med utvecklingsstörning, varav två personer har observerats djupt och två personer övergripande. I observationen ingick kvantitativa mätmetoder, vilka innefattade studier av energiintag, energiförbrukning, energibalans och BMI samt kvalitativa observationer där kost och fysisk aktivitet studerades. I observationerna ingick informella samtal. Utöver observationerna har intervjuer med enhetschef, en fast anställd och en vikarie ägt rum. Resultat De djupa observationerna visade en låg energiförbrukning och en positiv energibalans. I studien framkom det att det råder brist på fysisk aktivitet. Orsakerna till detta var dels att det inte förekom någon planerad fysisk aktivitet, dels att personerna inte deltog i dagliga göromål i hemmet. Vidare åt personerna inte enligt SNRs rekommendationer. I intervjuerna framkom det att det inte förekommer något aktivt arbete rörande fysisk aktivitet och kost. Slutsats Gruppbostaden behöver tydliga riktlinjer för arbete med fysisk aktivitet och kost. Vidare är det nödvändigt att samtal förs mellan personal och enhetschef avseende ovan nämnda faktorer. / Aim The aim of this study has been to investigate health with focus on eating habits, physical activity and Body Mass Index (BMI) in mentally retarded living in a community based setting, and to find out how the staff works with these things. Following questions specify the aim: 1. What is the position as regards energy consumption, energy intake, energy balance and diet according to Swedish recommendations of nutrition (SNR), for two persons in the community based setting? 2. What is the position as regards BMI, diet, physical activity and physical activity according to criteria for daily and planned physical activity, for all persons in the community based setting? 3. How does the community based setting work with physical activity and healthy eating habits? Method Totally four persons with mental retardation were included in the study, of whom two persons were observed in an in depth study and two persons in an overarching study. The observation comprised quantitative methods, which included studies of energy intake, energy consumption, energy balance and BMI. Qualitative methods were used when diet and physical activity were studied through observations. Also, there were informal interviews included in the observations. Except the observations, interviews were carried on with the principal, an employee and a deputy. Results The in depth observations showed a low energy consumption and a positive energy balance. Also, a lack of physical activity appeared during the observations. There were no planned physical activity and the persons didn’t take part of the daily activities in their home. Further, the persons’ eating habits were not in line with the recommendations of SNR. During the interviews, it was said that there are no presence of work regarding physical activity and diet. Conclusion This community based setting needs guidelines for how the work with physical activity and diet should be carried through. Another important conclusion is that the lack of guidelines need to be a subject of conversation between the principal and the staff. / Bilaga 1, 2, 4, 8, 11 och 12 saknas i pdf-filen, men finns i det tryckta arbetet.