Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Educational and Counselling Psychology. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/01/11). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Psychology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Objectives: There is body of evidence that suggests parents who have a child with a learning disability experience increased stress levels. In addition, research has found a bidirectional relationship between parental stress and child challenging behaviour. Other investigations in this area have found parental stress to be a significant predictor of intervention outcome, and it has been suggested that it should be targeted prior to any child focused intervention. The aim of the current study is to examine the effectiveness of an intervention that targets both parental stress and child challenging behaviour, in families who have a child with a learning disability Design & Method: The study employed a questionnaire based, quantitative, within and between groups methodology. The design included two groups, both parents of children with learning disabilities. Group one, attended three sessions targeting parental stress and three on child challenging behaviour and completed measures on parental stress, mood, coping and child behaviour. Group two, received ‘treatment as normal’ and completed the same measures. Results: Correlations were conducted to look at the relationship between parental stress, coping, mood and child behaviour. The results partially supported a relationship between parental stress, child challenging behaviour and coping. The ANOVA revealed a significant decrease in anxiety scores for the intervention group over time. The results provide some support the effectiveness of the sessions in reducing parental stress but not child challenging behaviour. Conclusions: The findings provide some support for the use of a brief intervention for parents who have a child with a learning disability. The results indicate high levels of stress and child challenging behaviour, which has been linked to increased risk of mental health problems in both child and parents. The current intervention may be appropriative for families with lower levels of stress and behaviour problems, and alternative approaches may be more suitable to families with chronic difficulties.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Kevin D. Stark. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Capella University, 2003. / Title from screen (viewed on February 20, 2009) School of Psychology, Capella University. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-78)

The present research aims to evaluate the extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics, identifying the moderators of this delay and determine the longitudinal predictors of their mathematical achievement. For five decades, studies have reported that deaf children lag behind their hearing peers in mathematics (Gottardis, Nunes and Lunt, 2011). Background factors such as age, degree of hearing loss, presence of cochlear implant and types of educational provision were previously hypothesised to be moderators of the extent of this delay but, up to now, they have not been tested. Pagliaro (2010) argued that number knowledge, working memory and degree of hearing loss could be possible causes of deaf children’s difficulties in mathematics but no clear conclusions were reached. The present investigation aims to provide insight into the causes of deaf children’s delay in mathematics. The survey study addressed the first aim of the present study. The maths test of the Performance Indicators for Primary School (PIPS) was used as outcome measure. Factors related to deaf children (degree of hearing loss, age, years in education, presence of cochlear implant, gender, causes of deafness) and background factors (highest maternal education, language used at home, type of educational provision) were assessed as possible predictors and moderators of the extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics. The overall extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics was of -1.76 SDs. The older the children get and the more years they spend in special schools for the deaf or in units for hearing impaired, the wider is their gap in mathematics achievement compared with their hearing peers. It is, therefore, necessary to intervene in their mathematical learning in the early years of schooling in order to create pathways for improvement. The second aim of the present study was addressed through a longitudinal design. Logical-mathematical reasoning, working memory and counting ability were chosen as predictors of deaf children’s mathematical attainment on the basis of theoretical framework, evidence from longitudinal studies and from the analysis of the difficulties that deaf children have in these factors compared with hearing peers. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to assess the independence of the contributions of logical-mathematical reasoning, working memory and counting ability to the prediction of deaf children’s mathematical achievement measured through the PIPS. Age, years in education, type of educational provision and non-verbal intelligence were used as controls. Counting ability and working memory did make independent contributions to the prediction of deaf children’s mathematical success but logical mathematical reasoning was by far the strongest predictor. When the predictors were entered in the model, none of the control variables predicted significantly deaf children’s mathematical achievement. This study makes several empirical contributions. First, it established age, years in education and types of educational provision as moderators of the extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics. Second, it determined the plausibility of a causal link between logical-mathematical reasoning, counting ability, working memory and deaf children’s mathematical achievement. The implication is that schools must explicitly plan to improve deaf children’s mathematical reasoning, counting ability and working memory when they are in kindergarten and in the first years of school in order to help the children’s mathematical development.

This thesis studied young, struggling readers, all of whom had participated in the Reading Recovery literacy intervention, and investigated whether differential progress was made by children learning English as an additional language when compared with their native, English-speaking peers. The children were assessed on a pre- and post-test basis on literacy measures associated with reading comprehension in a UK context. Following a Pilot Phase, 52 children who were learning English as an additional language, and 48 native, English-speaking children were recruited from twenty-three primary schools in 8 local authorities across the UK. The children were administered standardised literacy measures, including the British Abilities Scale (BAS) single word reading test, the British Picture Vocabulary Scales (BPVS) vocabulary knowledge test, the Phonological Assessment Battery (PHAB) pseudo-word reading test, and two reading comprehension measures: the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) and the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC). Statistical analyses were conducted on the data and the results indicated that differential progress was made by the groups, after initial levels of decoding or vocabulary were covaried. The first research question investigated the differential progress made by the two groups, and over the course of the intervention, the EAL children made more progress after controlling for initial skills at entry. After controlling for initial vocabulary levels, the EAL group made more gains than their NS peers, as measured by the BAS single word reading assessment. The second research question examined differential predictors of reading comprehension, and multiple regression analyses showed that vocabulary was a stronger predictor for EAL learners, whereas decoding was found to be a stronger predictor for NS learners. The findings suggest that it is important to develop the vocabulary abilities of EAL learners, as the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension acquisition was found to be stronger for this group than for the NS group. The findings also suggest that NS children’s decoding abilities must be supported, as the relationship between single word reading and the acquisition of reading comprehension was found to be stronger for this group than for the EAL group.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Business and Public Administration and Dept. of Political Science. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2005. / "A dissertation in public affairs and administration and political science." Advisor: Joseph F. Singer. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed March 12, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64 ). Online version of the print edition.

Thesis (M.N.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 93-98. Also available online.