No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study examined full-time remedial provision for 9-year-old reading retarded boys. An operational definition of Specific Reading Retardation (SRR) based on chronological age, IQ and expected reading age was used, identifying groups of boys with similar degrees of reading disability. Effects of remedial provision for different IQ levels, perceptual motor maturation, motor impairment and emotional behaviour were examined. Comparisons were made between screening and retest reading scores, (taken after 4 terms) using the boys as their own controls. Remedial Class SRR boys were compared with SRR boys remaining in mainstream classes. A chronological age control group of 9-year-olds where CA=RA, and a reading age control group of 7-year-olds where CA=RA were also used. Control SRR boys made greater gains in reading than remedial class boys. Reading age controls made greater gains than either SRR group. Adjusted gain scores indicated a mean loss for accuracy and comprehension in the remedial class and a loss for comprehension for SRR controls. Rate of reading gain (one year) was the same for all 9-year-old groups. Seven year olds advanced 15 to 18 months. Perceptual motor skills, motor impairment, and emotional indicators were not related to reading gains. Higher Verbal IQ scores were related to gains in reading comprehension, but not in conjunction with a higher degree of emotional disturbance. Nine year old SRR boys were developmentally similar to CA controls in perceptual motor development, and similar to RA controls in patterns of reading errors. They were behaviourally different from either CA or RA controls at the beginning of the study, but not significantly different at the end. SRR boys were significantly poorer than either CA or RA controls in control and coordination of upper limbs. In spite of intensive remediation, SRR children remained behind in reading and may always need a special curriculum.

The number of children diagnosed with autism continues to grow at a startling rate. Meeting the needs of individuals with autism is not just a concern for parents, healthcare professionals, and educators. It is equally a concern for society at large. Individuals with autism face difficulties with their social skills. In dealing with such difficulties, evidence-based interventions, such as video modelling, have allowed researchers to make some progress in terms of changing the trajectory of the deficit of social skills in children with autism. Further, video modelling can be considered a cost-effective and time efficient form of intervention which can readily be used in the home, classroom and community. The aim of this study was to compare video modelling and point-of-view video modelling in order to see which approach was more effective on the social skills of primary children with autism in the UK, specifically concerning their verbal and action imitation skills. In the present study, a mixed-methods approach was used involving a single-subject, multiple-baseline design across three groups of participants and three treatment conditions—video modelling from the third-person perspective, point-of-view video modelling from the first-person perspective and a control group. The research design included baseline, intervention and follow-up probes using three play sets. All sessions were videotaped and transcribed for data analysis. Data from descriptive narrative records was analysed using event recording. Results suggest that point-of-view video modelling was more effective than video modelling in increasing the verbal and action imitation skills for two out of the three groups of participants in this study. However, this study has its own limitations given the small sampling size and similar other factors. In light of this, the results will be discussed in relation to existing research. Finally, recommendations for future research and practice, policy and theory will be suggested.

Although research suggests that learning and well-being are synergistic there is a lack of research focusing on the school experiences of children with intrinsic mental health problems. The aim of this research was to explore how these children perceived they could be better supported at school. The additional perspectives of their parents and teachers gave further insight into their worlds. The research objective was to examine how schools and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) could strengthen their assistance. A qualitative design was used, underpinned by a social constructionist theoretical framework. Fourteen children were recruited via CAMHS. Children, parents and teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated, to thrive emotionally and academically, these children needed to feel they belonged at school. This was pre-requisite to accepting enhanced individualised support. A sense of belonging was only apparent when the child was free from victimisation (bullying, discrimination and stigmatisation) and had good peer and teacher relationships. Belonging was promoted by increasing the child’s emotional security, which was enhanced by promoting teacher mental health knowledge, nurturing teacher and peer relationships and sensitively ensuring disclosure and confidentiality. When the children accepted assistance, they valued support that empowered them to cope resiliently at school. For example, practical one-to-one teacher help and CAMHS assistance in deciding what personal information should be shared with the school, along with emotional help with school problems. In conclusion, schools must promote a safe caring ethos, whereby emotionally literate teachers balance child well-being with attainment goals. Schools and CAMHS should tackle school distress and promote child resilience together. Presently, a lack of resource and time can prevent this, so more directives and mechanisms are needed. At the heart of this planning should be the child’s voice, as presently support is predominantly adult driven.

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of people with a 'learning disability' also receiving a diagnosis of 'mental illness'. This shift in practice, heralded as scientific progress, has not been placed under close scrutiny. The aim of the current study was to explore the impact of this recent extension of medicalised accounts on people with a 'learning disability'. A discursive psychological approach was adopted to examine how seven people with a dual diagnosis negotiated and managed their ascribed identities during interviews. The initial research questions focused on the implications of subtle operations of power for individuals with a dual diagnosis, however on examination of the data it became apparent that this phenomenon was clearly evident in the research interviews conducted for the present study. The focus of the analysis was then directed at the sequential and procedural structure of the interviews, as an illustration of how they may be understood as an artefact of asymmetrical social roles and identities. This shift allowed for a greater focus on how the participants constructed their relationships with professionals, using their interaction with the interviewer as psychologist as an exemplar. The results provide further support for findings that individuals cast as questionable utilise strategies for accounting that indicate that they are vastly more 'competent' and 'rational' than they are credited for by the 'psy'-complex. The participants' construction and negotiation of their membership to social categories demonstrates that their identities are not fixed, but instead are occasioned and contestable, and dependent on the local institutional context. A further feature of the analysis highlights the politics that surrounds talk, displayed by the participants' construction of talk with a psychologist as 'helpful', as opposed to other forms of talk, such as talk that serves to challenge, as'unhelpful'. The findings call into question the probity of applying a conceptual framework that locates assumed pathology in individuals already deemed to be wholly impaired. Furthermore, the study highlights the necessity for psychologists, policy makers and researchers to investigate the interactional nature of so called 'impairment', and to explore their roles in creating and perpetuating oppressive practices. Potential avenues for further action are discussed

At the heart of this project is the wish to forge a better understanding of the lives and subjective experiences of severely learning disabled people in adolescence. The thesis adopts an approach that starts with the subjective, lived experience of the young people and the study explores the social and emotional worlds which the young people inhabit. This takes shape as a psychosocial investigation of identity development in the young people concerned with the study. Observation, informed by psychoanalytic theory and practice, is the chosen methodology. The observer reflexively explores the relationships and emotions involved in the everyday lives of the young people concerned, within the social context of their families, enabling themes to emerge from which case studies are constructed. Relational maps are formed for each young person by bringing together the idea of ‘becoming a subject’ with the unconscious defensive structures employed by parents in stressful caring situations. These are considered in relation to broader social factors: social class, culture and ethnicity. Implications of the findings for policy and practice are described, highlighting technical and attitudinal issues. Relationship based practice and networking skills are indicated, to emphasise the nexus of care which is required by each young person and their family. This ensures that the stressful aspects of dependency are acknowledged rather than denied within contemporary discourse which idealises independence. Finally, infant observation methodology as both research tool and as an aid to practice is thought about; its important contribution in helping to uncover the subjective experience of other vulnerable and ‘hard to reach’ groups stated.