Magister Artium - MA / There is a high prevalence of sexual risk behaviour among adolescent females in South Africa. As such several intervention programmes are being offered by government, non-profit organisations and the private sector. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand adolescent females’ experiences and perceptions regarding adolescent sexual risk behaviour after their involvement in a youth development programme, offered by the Department of Social Development, in a selected community in the Eastern Cape, South Arica. As such a combination of an exploratory and descriptive design was employed, using a feminist approach to contextualise the phenomenon under investigation. Fifteen females between 18 and 25 years who participated in the YOLO programme participated in the study. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted, and thematic data analysis yielded five themes and several subthemes. The findings indicate that adolescents engage in risky sexual behaviours from a very early age. The beneficial impact of the YOLO programme, its contribution towards improved decision making, reduced sexual risk behaviours and awareness of the influence of peer pressure are key findings. Recommendations for policy, social work practice and further research are offered. These include the need for research that addresses sexual risk behaviours in pre-adolescence. Improved insight into how to target sexual risk behaviours during pre-adolescence are regarded as a significant preventative measure. Moreover, government and policy makers should conduct more rigorous evaluations of youth development programmes focused on reducing risky sexual behaviour. Ethical clearance was granted by the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee, at the University of the Western Cape, and the Department of Social Development in the Eastern Cape.

[pt] Crianças que, a partir dos 3 anos de idade, recebem o diagnóstico de transtorno autista, apresentam falhas nos comportamentos comunicativos nãoverbais, já no primeiro ano de vida. Isto as impede de engajar-se em trocas sociais recíprocas com os seus cuidadores, ocasionando prejuízos severos em todo o seu desenvolvimento. Intervenções precoces com base na abordagem desenvolvimentista focalizam estas dificuldades iniciais, de modo a impedir ou amenizar os prejuízos secundários causados pelas mesmas. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a aplicabilidade de um programa de intervenção precoce, de abordagem desenvolvimentista, baseado no programa norte-americano de Klinger e Dawson (1992), atualizado por estudos de vídeos familiares de Osterling e Dawson (1994) e de pesquisas de atenção compartilhada de Carpenter, Nagell e Tomasello (1998). Os participantes foram duas crianças, de 2 anos e 09 meses, que apresentavam dificuldades iniciais características do transtorno do espectro autista e suas respectivas cuidadoras. O programa consistiu em desenvolver 16 comportamentos pré-verbais nestas crianças. Mostrou-se aplicável e eficaz, desenvolvendo 9 comportamentos em uma criança e 6 em outra. / [en] Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder around their third year usually present deficits in non-verbal communicative behaviors at one year of age. Such deficits keep them from engaging in reciprocal social exchanges with their caregivers, which causes severe impairments in their development. Early intervention based on a developmental approach focuses on these inicial deficits in order to minimize late impairments caused by them. The present study aims at assessing an early intervention program, which was based on the Klinger & Dawson (1992) program, modified according to the results from a homevideo study by Osterling & Dawson (1994) and a joint attention research by Carpenter, Nagell & Tomasello (1998). The participants were two 33- month-old children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and their respective caregivers. The intervention program consisted in facilitating the development of sixteen preverbal behaviors by these children. It was effective: one of the children developed nine behaviors while the other one developed six.

Cette thèse développe deux axes de recherche en ergonomie : le développement de l'activité de travail au cours du projet et l'utilisation d'objets intermédiaires dans la conception. Sur la base de la participation d’un projet de conception de nouveaux laboratoires de biotechnologie, un ergonome a organisé des simulations pour discuter les solutions de projet et impliquer les utilisateurs finaux dans les décisions de conception. L'utilisation d'objets intermédiaires comme support pour la réalisation des simulations est une stratégie commune pour l'intégration de l’expérience de travail dans la conception, et pour l'organisation de la participation des usagers. Durant les simulations qui ont été réalisées, une maquette faite de Lego été utilisée, ainsi que d'autres objets intermédiaire pour aider l'utilisation de la maquette et l'action de l’ergonome au cours du projet. A partir de propositions de solutions pour les espaces de travail, les opérateurs produisent des représentations sur la manière dont leur activité pourra être mise en oeuvre dans les futurs environnements. La thèse montre que ce faisant, les opérateurs développent des références souhaitables sur leur activité, au travers desquelles ils imaginent comment leur travail peut être réalisé d’une manière plus efficiente et plus sûre.. L’analyse montre que les solutions émergent au travers d’une tension entre deux pôles, ce qui est « souhaitable » et ce qui est « possible ». A travers ce processus se développent des solutions pour les espaces et pour l’activité. Mais pour que l’ergonome soit capable de conduire ce processus de développement dialogique entre la conception des espaces et l'activité, il estnécessaire d'avoir les instruments appropriés. À cette fin, on fera dans cette thèse des propositions pour la création et l'utilisation d'objets intermédiaires pour l'action ergonomique. / This thesis is developed on two lines of research in ergonomics: the development of the work activity during the project and the use of intermediary objects in the design process. Based on the participation of biotechnology laboratories project, anergonomist conducted simulations to discuss the project solutions and involve workers in the design decisions. The use of intermediary objects as a support for the realization of simulations is a common strategy for integrating work experience in the design and organization of users’ participation. For the simulations performed it was used a scalemodel made of Lego, besides of other intermediary objects to help the use of the scalemodel and action ergonomist during the project. From proposition of workspaces design solutions users formulate representations of how the activity will be developed in these future environments. This thesis shows that they are also capable of develop new desirable references the activity in which they imagine that their work could be conducted in a more efficiently or safe way. Through the tension between these twopoles, the “desirable” and the “possible”, solutions for the project tend to converge. The results of this process develop proposals for workspaces and also for the activity. But for the ergonomist be able to conduct the development of this dialogical process between the workspace design and activity, it is necessary to have the appropriate instruments. To this end, we propose in this thesis references to the creation and use of intermediary objects in ergonomic action.

South Africa shifted from the residual approach to adopt a developmental approach to social service delivery through adopting the White Paper for Social Welfare (RSA, Ministry for Social Welfare and Population Development, 1997). This mandated the shift from social welfare services to developmental welfare services. Included in these services is the foster care service; this is a child protection service which addresses section 28 (1b) of the South African constitutional endorsement, which states that “children have the right to family, parental or alternative care” (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). In April 2010, the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 was initiated and implemented as legislative policy on the matter, with guidelines concerning the delivery of foster care services within the developmental approach. The goal of the study was to identify and describe barriers in the implementation of the foster care services within a developmental approach in Nkangala District, Mpumalanga. The research followed a qualitative approach whereby data was collected through focus group discussions. The participants were 13 social workers from seven child protection organisations in Nkangala District, Mpumalanga. From the key findings it was gathered that the majority of foster care social workers have no conceptual or contextual understanding of the delivery of foster care services within the developmental approach. The researcher recommends the formation of training manuals for Nkangala District foster care social workers, which clearly define developmental foster care services and the role of social workers. The researcher also recommends that social workers in Nkangala District take up the responsibility of being up to date with new developments that arise in social service delivery. The researcher further recommends that the Department of Social Development should consider reviewing the amount of money allocated to Non-profit Organisations for developmental statutory services, so as to ensure effective service delivery. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Social Work and Criminology / MA / Unrestricted

The changeover of the South African government in 1994, brought along a need for transformation on all levels of society, including social welfare. As part of this transformation the South African government adopted the developmental approach to social welfare. Within this policy framework the government expects all social welfare services to be developmental. Existing services, including statutory social work services, should thus be reoriented to make them developmentally focused (White Paper for Social Welfare, 1997:7). The researcher has, however, identified a lack of clear guidelines for the transformation process of social welfare services and particularly of statutory social work. The goal of this study was therefore to investigate how statutory social work services can be rendered in a developmental manner, that is, in an empowering and upbuilding manner, and to formulate guidelines for social work practice in this regard. For this study, the researcher utilised the qualitative approach. The respondents included were seven social workers and six clients in the study as respondents, representing five welfare organisations in Tshwane. The key findings indicated that the developmental approach to statutory social work entails an emphasis on family preservation, which implies prevention and early intervention as well as reunification strategies. The findings also indicate that, although social workers are aware of what the developmental approach entails, this emphasis currently does not exist in practice due to various reasons, including the fact that social workers are overburdened and under-resourced. The recommendations of this study are captured in guidelines for developmental statutory social work and guidelines for creating an enabling environment for statutory social work services. The guidelines for developmental statutory social work include various strategies for prevention and early intervention, while the guidelines for creating an enabling environment especially emphasise creating working partnerships with the government and other professionals and organisations. / Dissertation (MSD)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

L'apprentissage par renforcement permet à un agent d'apprendre un comportement qui n'a jamais été préalablement défini par l'homme. L'agent découvre l'environnement et les différentes conséquences de ses actions à travers des interactions avec celui-ci : il apprend de sa propre expérience, sans avoir de connaissances préétablies des buts ni des effets de ses actions. Cette thèse s'intéresse à la façon dont l'apprentissage profond peut aider l'apprentissage par renforcement à gérer des espaces continus et des environnements ayant de nombreux degrés de liberté dans l'optique de résoudre des problèmes plus proches de la réalité. En effet, les réseaux de neurones ont une bonne capacité de mise à l'échelle et un large pouvoir de représentation. Ils rendent possible l'approximation de fonctions sur un espace continu et permettent de s'inscrire dans une approche développementale nécessitant peu de connaissances a priori sur le domaine. Nous cherchons comment réduire l'expérience nécessaire à l'agent pour atteindre un comportement acceptable. Pour ce faire, nous avons proposé le cadre Neural Fitted Actor-Critic qui définit plusieurs algorithmes acteur-critique efficaces en données. Nous examinons par quels moyens l'agent peut exploiter pleinement les transitions générées par des comportements précédents en intégrant des données off-policy dans le cadre proposé. Finalement, nous étudions de quelle manière l'agent peut apprendre plus rapidement en tirant parti du développement de son corps, en particulier, en procédant par une augmentation progressive de la dimensionnalité de son espace sensorimoteur / Reinforcement learning allows an agent to learn a behavior that has never been previously defined by humans. The agent discovers the environment and the different consequences of its actions through its interaction: it learns from its own experience, without having pre-established knowledge of the goals or effects of its actions. This thesis tackles how deep learning can help reinforcement learning to handle continuous spaces and environments with many degrees of freedom in order to solve problems closer to reality. Indeed, neural networks have a good scalability and representativeness. They make possible to approximate functions on continuous spaces and allow a developmental approach, because they require little a priori knowledge on the domain. We seek to reduce the amount of necessary interaction of the agent to achieve acceptable behavior. To do so, we proposed the Neural Fitted Actor-Critic framework that defines several data efficient actor-critic algorithms. We examine how the agent can fully exploit the transitions generated by previous behaviors by integrating off-policy data into the proposed framework. Finally, we study how the agent can learn faster by taking advantage of the development of his body, in particular, by proceeding with a gradual increase in the dimensionality of its sensorimotor space

[pt] Segundo a abordagem desenvolvimentista, as falhas inatas na capacidade de conexão afetiva das crianças autistas prejudicam o seu engajamento nas interações sociais, ocasionando dificuldades em todo o seu desenvolvimento. Intervenções precoces com base nesta abordagem focalizam as dificuldades iniciais do transtorno autista, de modo a saná-las ou amenizá-las e assim fazer com que as crianças autistas se desenvolvam o mais tipicamente possível. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo a construção de um programa de intervenção precoce que favorecesse o desenvolvimento dos comportamentos do desenvolvimento infantil típico em crianças recém-diagnosticadas autistas, através do fomento da conexão afetiva destas crianças nas interações sociais. Os participantes foram cinco crianças recém-diagnosticadas autistas, entre os três e quatro anos de idade no início da intervenção, e os seus respectivos cuidadores. O programa consistiu em desenvolver a conexão afetiva, seis tipos de interações sociais com as suas variações e vinte e cinco comportamentos do desenvolvimento infantil típico nas crianças atendidas. Estas interações e comportamentos basearam-se nos trabalhos de Brazelton e Cramer, 1990; Carpenter, Nagell e Tomasello, 1998; García-Perez, Lee e Hobson, 1997; Klinger e Dawson, 1992; Leslie, 1987; Maestro et al, 2001; Osterling e Dawson, 1994; Tomasello, 2003 e Wainwright e Fein,1996. O programa mostrou-se eficaz por conseguir desenvolver a conexão afetiva, interações sociais e comportamentos em todos os participantes, embora o grau desta conexão, que variou em cada criança atendida, influenciou o modo como estas interações e comportamentos apareceram no desenvolvimento de cada uma delas. / [en] According to the developmental approach a deficit in the capacity of affectively engaging with others is basic to autism and its impairments in social engagement and developmental deficits. Developmental-based early interventions have targeted this innate deficit in order to minimize developmental deficits and to promote typical behaviors in children with autism and related disorders. The aim of this study was to design an intervention program to promote typical behaviors in early diagnosed autistic children through the support of affective engagement during social interaction. Participants were five 3-4-year-old children recently diagnosed autistic and their caregivers. The program targeted the development of affective engagement, six varieties of social interaction situation and twenty-five typical behaviors. Social interaction situations and typical behaviors were based upon previous work by Brazelton and Cramer, 1990; Carpenter, Nagell and Tomasello, 1998; García-Perez, Lee and Hobson, 1997; Klinger and Dawson, 1992; Leslie, 1987; Maestro et al, 2001; Osterling and Dawson, 1994; Tomasello, 2003 and Wainwright and Fein, 1996. Results showed that the program succeeded in developing affective engagement, social interaction and typical behaviors in every children. Nonetheless, social interaction and typical behaviors could differ among children depending on their degree of affective engagement.

The transition from the previous Child Care Act 74 of 1983 to the new Children’s Act 38 of 2005 has been chaotic. Since the introduction of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, and its subsequent implementation in April 2012, there has been instability in rendering child protection services. This state of affairs has been caused by some serious loopholes and shortcomings in the new legislation; challenges faced by social workers in adapting to it; lack of capacity of the stakeholders in the child protection field; and the shortage of resources to implement it. The goal of the study was to explore the challenges faced by social workers working in child protection services in implementing the Children’s Act 38 of 2005. The researcher conducted this study from a qualitative approach. The study was applied and exploratory in nature and utilised a collective case study design. There were 18 social workers in the employ of Johannesburg Child Welfare who participated in the study. They were selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected by means of focus group discussions. The findings show that social workers face institutional and infrastructural barriers in implementing the Children’s Act. Furthermore, social workers face massive human resource challenges in the implementation of the Children’s Act and these stem from the shortage of social workers; inadequate training of social workers and high case loads. Shortcomings that have been realised in the implementation of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 relate to the transfer of children to alternative placements; different interpretations of different sections of the said Act; the fundamental change to a court based system of renewing the placement of children; contradictions of the Children’s Act with other legal statutes and societal values; and the over reliance of the child protection system on the foster care system to provide income support for children. The study concluded that the Children’s Act needs to be amended to address its pre-statutory, statutory and post-statutory shortcomings, which create many challenges in its implementation. The study also concluded that the shortage of social workers and/or inadequate training contributes to high case loads, which in turn, influences the effectiveness of child protection services. Recommendations on addressing the challenges faced by social workers in implementing the Children’s Act include the establishment of a kinship care grant; amending the Children’s Act; organising training for all role players involved in implementing the Children’s Act; and addressing technical issues on the implementation of the Children’s Act. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

[pt] O presente trabalho se propõe a fazer um levantamento de estudos que concebam o autismo como um distúrbio de contato afetivo. Para isso, será utilizada a perspectiva desenvolvimentista que concebe que todo o desenvolvimento psicológico é fruto de uma construção social e não apenas uma maturação biológica determinista. O engajamento afetivo é o que possibilita o desenvolvimento da interação social da criança. Ocorrendo falhas na relação afetiva entre mãe e bebê podem ocorrer déficits no desenvolvimento das intersubjetividades primária e secundária. Como consequência, ocasionam prejuízos na comunicação e na fala. Por meio do estudo do desenvolvimento típico, veremos o que não ocorreu no autismo. Como uma forma de ilustrar a pesquisa serão apresentados relatos autobiográficos de pessoas portadoras do espectro autista. Esses fragmentos auxiliam na compreensão de como autistas vivenciam a questão afetiva. / [en] This work proposes to make a raising of studies that conceive the autism as a disturbance of affective contact. To become it possible, the developmental perspective will be used because it conceives that every psychological development is the result of a social construction and not just a determinist biological maturation. The affective engagement is what makes possible the development of the child s social interaction. When failures occur in the affective relation between mother and baby, shortages can occur in the primary and secondary intersubjectivities. Damages in the communication and in the speech occur, as consequence. By the study of the typical development, we ll see what didn t occur in the autism. To illustrate the research, autobiographical narratives of people with autistic spectrum will be presented. These fragments help in the comprehension of how autistics live the affective matter.

[pt] Estudos apontam para a importância dos pais como co-terapeutas no tratamento de crianças com o diagnóstico de Transtorno do espectro do autismo. Ao revisarmos algumas das principais pesquisas que preocupam-se com o engajamento dos pais na terapia, podemos observar melhoras significativas, como: aumento da generalização das habilidades aprendidas, melhora significativa do contato afetivo, aumento da atenção compartilhada e principalmente, melhora da comunicação verbal e não verbal, indicando a eficácia da inclusão dos pais na terapia. Por ser a comunicação a principal área de intervenção, citaremos o desenvolvimento da comunicação em crianças típicas e nas crianças autistas. Modelos como o ESDM (Early Start Denver Model/Modelo Denver de intervenção precoce; Rogers e Dawson, 2010) e o PRT (Pivotal Response Treatment/Tratamento de Respostas Pivôs; Koegel e Koegel, 2006) consideram importante e necessário o treinamento destes pais para um melhor desenvolvimento das crianças. Ambos utilizam técnicas comportamentais e desenvolvimentistas para estimularem habilidades sociais, comunicativas e cognitivas. Por isso, tornou-se necessário citarmos os dois tipos de abordagens. O objetivo deste estudo é fazer uma pesquisa bibliográfica, realizando uma revisão teórica das metodologias citadas e de pesquisas que utilizam estas metodologias para o treinamento de pais como co-terapeutas de seus filhos autistas. Avaliar a eficácia da participação destes pais no tratamento de seus filhos e propor uma intervenção baseada no grupo de pais, serão objetivos importantes. Grupos de treinamento e de apoio são apresentados como sugestões para que os pais sejam orientados e também apoiados. / [en] Studies points to the importance of parents as co-therapists in the treatment of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. On reviewing some of the major researches that are concerned with the engagement of parents in therapy, we observed significant improvements, such as increase of the generalization of skills learned, significant improvement of affective contact, increase of the shared attention and especially a greater verbal and nonverbal communication, indicating the effectiveness of the inclusion of parents in therapy. For communication to be the main area of intervention, we will cite the development of communication in typical children and in children with autism. Models such as the ESDM ( Early Start Denver Model; Rogers and Dawson, 2010) and PRT (Pivotal Response Treatment; Koegel and Koegel, 2006) consider important and necessary training of these parents for a better development of children. Both use behavioral and developmental techniques to stimulate social, communicative, and cognitive skills. Therefore, it became necessary to cite these two kinds of approaches. The purpose of this study is to do a bibliographic research, making a theoretical review of the above methodologies and researches, using these models for training parents as co-therapists for their autistic children. Evaluate the effectiveness of the involvement of these parents to treat their children and propose an intervention based on the parents group, will also be important objectives in this study. The proposal for a group of parents is presented to motivate their engagement in the treatment of these children and increase the quality of social and affective interactions. Groups of training and support are provided as suggestions for parents are also advised and supported.