<p>People with Aspergers syndrome (AS) have proven difficulties maintaining jobs according to previous research. This is a quality study. Four women with AS were interviewed about their experience of employment. What difficulties and contributions have they experience at work? What is the self experienced need of support within the research group? The result has been analyzed with different types of “support”. The need of work related support has been analyzed with performance, assimilation, inclusion and marginalizing. In difference to previous research, social aspects of employment didn’t prove a sufficient difficulty in this study but some social difficulties were found. Misunderstandings between coworkers were found to complicate the work situations, together with their lack of ability to understand critics. Minor problems described within the research group were their need to be absolute honest. The lack of ability to deal with destructions such as surrounding noise has proven difficulties in their work role. Emotional support and clear instructions at work, together with a suitable work environment has been pointed out in the group. Key strengths found are their high levels of work ethics and their dedication to perfection.</p>

<p>Reading Recovery är ett vida spritt, individcentrerat men reproducerbart program för de svagaste eleverna efter sitt första skolår. Reading Recovery har sitt ursprung på Nya Zeeland, där professor Marie Clay med kollegor med början under 1970-talet bedrev omfattande läsforskning.</p><p>Den enskilda undervisningen sker enligt en strukturerad lektionsram under 30 minuter dagligen. Programmet bygger på genomgripande utbildning och kontinuerlig fortbildning av redan framgångsrika grundskollärare för att rusta dem för att fatta individuella, pedagogiska beslut med syfte att accelerera läs- och skrivinlärningen hos de utsedda barnen. Eleverna stimuleras att lära sig läsa och skriva genom att främst läsa korta, intresseväckande böcker samt engageras i anslutande skrivande. Betoning ligger på att eleverna ska bli självständiga och utveckla metakognitiva strategier. Elever väljs ut till Reading Recovery genom klasslärarens rekommendation samt utifrån elevens resultat på en omfattande serie tester inom den s.k. Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement; en observation av den tidiga läs- och skrivförmågan. Vanligtvis erbjuds Reading Recovery-undervisning till de 20 procent på respektive skola, vilka uppnått lägst resultat på ovanstående tester. Det grundläggande syftet med programmet är att reducera antalet elever med grava svårigheter att utveckla läs- och skrivförmåga samt att minimera kostnaden för deras utbildning.</p><p>En majoritet av eleverna i Reading Recovery når avsedda mål och i internationella jämförelser ligger Nya Zeeland vanligen bland de högst rankade länderna i läsning. Samtliga av mina respondenter vittnade om de stora fördelarna med Reading Recovery. Enligt mina observationer stämmer pedagogernas faktiska utförande väl överens med programmets ursprungliga teoribas.</p> / <p>Reading Recovery is a widely disseminated, replicable, early intervention program for the lowest performing first-grade students. Originally, Marie Clay and colleagues constructed Reading Recovery in New Zealand on the base of broad research from the 1970’s and onwards. It utilizes a uniform lesson framework and extensive professional development to help already successful teachers make individual, instructional decisions designed to accelerate the literacy learning of the selected children within one-to-one, 30-minute daily lessons. The children are stimulated to learn to read and write by reading and writing. Short stories are used and writing activities are connected to reading. Emphasis is on teachers guiding children to be independent and learn metacognitive strategies.</p><p>Reading Recovery students are identified for services based on teachers’ recommendations and the students’ performances on the Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement, with a number of wide-ranging assessments. Usually, students who score at or below the 20th percentile on the survey at a particular school are provided the intervention.</p><p>The fundamental purpose of the program is to reduce the number of students who have severe difficulty developing literacy skills and to reduce the cost of educating them. A majority of the Reading Recovery students do reach the intended goals and in international comparative studies New Zealand usually is among the top ranking countries in reading.</p><p>All my interviewees testified of the great advantages of Reading Recovery and, according to my conclusions, actual practice is well correlated with theory.</p>

<p><em>The purpose</em> of this thesis is to examine whether the teacher's background affect students' approach to mathematics teaching. Characteristically, in Sweden today is that mathematics is perceived as difficult subject and that the number of foreign teachers has increased. <em>The study examines a phenomenon</em> which the relationship between the teacher's language accent and substance difficulties.</p><p><em>The method</em> used for data collection is questionnaires, in order to investigate the phenomenon as the relationship between the teacher's accent and substance difficulties.</p><p>The investigation has been carried out based on the students' point of view, both secondary and primary school pupils. What difficulties have arisen in teaching?  What is the biggest obstacle to achieve the goals of mathematics, to understand the teacher's language accent first in order to understand the subject, or that mathematics is difficult in itself to be understood as a substance.</p><p><em>The result</em> clearly shows that the teacher's accent does not affect teaching and students' view of mathematics as a subject. The students think that mathematics is a difficult subject in itself and the difficulty arises in the abstract data that is not reality linked, and that they rely too much on independent work with individual support as the teacher does not have time to. Students' learning is influenced by other factors like the socio-coherent, which Vygotskji mean. Communication is an important prerequisite in the socio-cultural interaction. It affected in turn by various factors, like cultural affinities, and how to speak and the tone used.</p>

<p>During my practice as a teacher trainee at an upper secondary school it became clear to me that many pupils had difficulties with mathematics. I was surprised to find that many pupils seemed to get stuck on the level of attainment for the senior level of the nine-year compulsory school. As I have not studied anything about difficulties in Mathematics during my training to become a qualified teacher, I would like to get to know more about this.</p><p>After studying research done on this subject I made the following approach to the problem:</p><p>• What fields regarding Mathematics do the pupils themselves find most difficult?</p><p>• What factors have been contributory causes to these problems?</p><p>• What are the factors that have helped pupils with difficulties in Mathematics to reach the goals for the syllabuses in Mathematics?</p><p>The answers to my questionnaire and interviews resulted in the following conclusions:</p><p>• Pupils find theory of equation and conversion of units as most difficult at senior level of the nine-year compulsory school.</p><p>• Teaching should be done in special instruction groups to give the pupil the opportunity to develop his/her skills on an individual level.</p><p>• Pupils find it hard to deal with all moments in Mathematics during the time given for each course.</p><p>• The pace for teaching Mathematics is too high according to the pupils.</p><p>• Pupils wish for instructions on a lower level.</p><p>• There is often a lack of contact between teacher and pupil.</p><p>• The teacher should use more time to help the pupil receive good self-confidence and increase the motivation for instructions in Mathematics.</p> / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Under mina praktikperioder på gymnasiet som lärarstudent kom jag i kontakt med många elever som hade det svårt med matematiken. Jag förundrades över att många elever verkade ha fastnat på högstadiets kunskapsnivå. Då jag inte har fått någon undervisning om elever med matematiksvårigheter i min lärarutbildning, vill jag lära mig mer om detta.</p><p>Efter litteraturstudier kom jag fram till följande problemformuleringar:</p><p>• Vilka områden inom matematiken tycker eleverna själva att de har problem med?</p><p>• Vilka faktorer har bidragit till dessa problem?</p><p>• Vilka är de faktorer som har hjälpt elever med matematiksvårigheter att nå kunskapsmålen i matematik?</p><p>Som svar på mina enkät- och intervjufrågor kom jag fram till följande:</p><p>• Eleverna upplever ekvationslösning och enhetsomvandlingar som svårast på</p><p>högstadiet.</p><p>• Undervisning bör ske i särskild undervisningsgrupp, för att ge eleven möjlighet att utvecklas på sin egen nivå.</p><p>• Eleverna upplever att de inte har nog med tid för att hinna klart momenten i matematikundervisningen.</p><p>• Eleverna menar att tempot i undervisningen är för högt.</p><p>• Eleverna vill ha undervisning på en lägre nivå.</p><p>• Relationen mellan lärare och elev är ofta bristfällig.</p><p>• Läraren ska lägga mer tid på att stötta elevens självkänsla och försöka öka dennes motivation till matematikundervisningen.</p>

<p>The purpose of the paper is to examine how teachers in preschool is working with language stimulation for the prevention of difficulties in reading and writing before school starts. The method that was used to illuminate the problem is a qualitative interview. A specialpedagog and six preschool teacher, which is specifically focused on language stimulation in the work with children, have been included in the study. The results indicated that preschool teacher are working a lot with language stimulation. They work mostly with children throughout the group, to encourage and provide children with the tools to be able to communicate with each other and staff. Decks language are used in daily activities. The form of language stimulation creates the conditions for participation and activity, where children are stimulated by each other. Student teachers stressed that <em>signs as a support</em> is something good to work with at nursery, because it gives all the children a chance to communicate. It appears that preschool teatcher want to work more consciously with language stimulation for the prevention of reading and writingproblems and thereby affect the whole child's development positively. In my literature review it is shown that previous researches have reached similar results. Something that is highlighted in the literature are that <em>signs as a support</em> increased opportunities for communication. It could involve children, who, for various reasons do not have access to the Swedish language, such as small children who have not yet developed the language, children with bad hearing or immigrant children.</p> / <p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur pedagoger i förskolan arbetar med språkstimulering för att förebygga läs- och skrivsvårigheter inför skolstarten. Metoden som har använts för att belysa problemområdet är kvalitativ intervju. En specialpedagog och sex förskollärare, som är speciellt inriktad på språkstimulering i arbetet med barnen, har ingått i studien. I resultaten framkommer att pedagoger arbetar en hel del med språkstimulering. De arbetar oftast med hela barngruppen, för att stimulera och ge barnen verktyg till att kunna kommunicera med varandra och personalen. Språklekar används i den dagliga verksamheten. Den formen av språkstimulering skapar förutsättningar för deltagande och aktivitet, där barnen stimuleras av varandra. Pedagogerna framhåller att, <em>tecken som stöd</em> är någonting bra att arbeta med på förskolor, eftersom det ger alla barn en chans att kommunicera. Det framkommer att pedagogerna vill arbeta mer medvetet med språkstimulering för att förebygga läs- och skrivsvårigheter och därigenom påverka hela barnets utveckling positivt. I min litteraturstudie har tidigare forskning kommit fram till liknande resultat. Någonting som framhålls i litteraturen är, <em>tecken som stöd,</em> för att skapa ökade möjligheter för kommunikation. Det kan gälla barn, som av olika skäl inte har tillgång till det svenska språket, exempelvis små barn som ännu inte utvecklat språket, barn som hör dåligt eller invandrarbarn.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur skisser och dokumentation kan integreras i undervisningen på frisörprogrammet, samt undersöka om kreativt skapande med hjälp av skissen kan överbrygga inlärnings- och förståelsesvårigheter i de praktiska momenten. En kvalitativ undersökning med hjälp av intervjuer gjordes. Två lärare och fyra elever deltog i studien och besvarade frågorna om kreativt skapande, skisser och dokumentationens betydelse för inlärning och i undervisning. I ett undervisningsförsök genomfört av mig, fick eleverna skapa frisyrer kreativt utifrån egna förutsättningar. Skissen användes av eleverna för att utveckla tankar och idéer. Dokumentationen användes medvetet för att eleverna ska kunna gå tillbaka i sina arbeten och reflektera över metoder och resultat vid ett senare tillfälle. I min litteraturgenomgång belyses exempel på hur inlärning sker i samspel med andra människor. Resultatet från intervjuer, undervisningsförsök och litteraturgenomgången visar att inlärningsoch förståelsesvårigheter ofta kan överbryggas med hjälp av skisser och dokumentation av kreativt skapande.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study was to examine how sketching and documentation can be integrated into the hairdressing programme. Besides this, the study explores whether developing creativity by means of sketching can bridge learning and understanding difficulties when working with practical items. A qualitative study based on interviews was carried out. Two teachers and four students participated in the study answering questions about creating with creativity, sketching and documentation and their importance for learning and overall in hairdressing education. In an educational trial set up by myself, the students developed creative hairstyles, from their own ideas. Sketching was used by the students to elaborate thoughts and ideas. Documentation was consciously used so that the students could have a retrospective look at their work and reflect over methods and results later on. In my literature study there are illustrative examples of how learning takes place through interaction with other people. The result of interviews, educational trial and exposition of literature shows that learning and understanding difficulties often can be bridged by means of sketching and documentation of creative work.</p>

<p>The thesis opens with an exposition of different uses of the term dyslexia. In that context its conceptual relevance is discussed. The empirical studies investigate a) different aspects of validity of cognitive and achievement instruments often used in diagnostic assessment of dyslexia, b) different cognitive profiles for adults with dyslexia, and c) the relationship between cognitive and achievement measures.</p><p>Study I demonstrated the factor structure of the Swedish WAIS-R to be in close agreement with results of comparable analyses on normal and clinical groups in many countries world-wide, giving strong support for the construct validity of the Swedish WAIS-R for a group of adults diagnosed with dyslexia. The results from the three-factor solution were interpreted in terms of theoretical constructs, notably those posited by Carroll (1993) and Horn (1989).</p><p>The cognitive profiles of a sample of Swedish adults diagnosed with dyslexia—when using the three factors, the ACID profile, and the four-category Bannatyne profile—all resemble closely the profiles observed for a wide array of U.S. samples of children and adults diagnosed with dyslexia or learning disabilities. Gender differences on Digit Symbol, favoring females, were substantial in magnitude for the present sample, consistent with a bulk of research on gender differences for samples of normal individuals and of those identified with learning problems.</p><p>In Study II, factor analysis of nine Swedish achievement tests often used for dyslexia assessment yielded five meaningful factors in a group of adults diagnosed with dyslexia. Factors appeared to measure decoding, visual speed, reading comprehension, reading fluency, and phonological ability. The relationship between the five achievement factors and WAIS-R variables was subsequently examined. The Visual Speed and Reading Comprehension factors each correlated significantly with four of six global WAIS-R scores (two of three IQs and two of three factor scores). Visual Speed tended to correlate significantly with nonverbal scores and Reading Comprehension with verbal scores. Although the Phonological Ability factor did not correlate significantly with any verbal or nonverbal global score, it did correlate significantly with the Freedom from Distractibility factor and with all its component subtests—Digit Span, Arithmetic, and Digit Symbol. Decoding (technical reading skill) showed no significant relationship to any WAIS-R variable studied. More surprisingly, the Reading Fluency factor failed to show significant relationships to the WAIS-R.</p><p>Study III examined the validity of The Word Chain Test, a frequently used instrument in Swedish screening and diagnostic assessments of dyslexia. Different sources of validity evidence were evaluated. In summary, the results failed to support validity both for the WRI-index and the Wordchain subtest, suggesting that the instrument seems to be of questionable value in screening or diagnostic assessment of dyslexia.</p>

The thesis reports a follow-up study from eight years of age to adulthood for a group of students with dyslexic problems compared to a matched group of students without such problems. The empirical basis of the thesis is provided by the research project, Reading Development in Kronoberg, which has been supplemented by data from adulthood in the form of questionnaires, test results and interviews. The thesis comprises three studies. In Study I, the aim is to examine how reading and writing disabilities emerge during the first school years. The Simple View of Reading, was used to classify the poor readers into various subgroups. In Study II, the reading development of students with reading disability was examined at group and individual levels. The theme of Study III is a comparison of the living conditions of adults in a group of dyslexics compared to a group without difficulties, and to investigate how the participants in the study have tackled their problems. The results reveal a development pattern among dyslexic students, with early phonological problems persisting into adulthood in spite of substantial special education measures, in school Baseline performance at eight years of age is by far the best predictor of adult skills. No clearly discernible subgroups were found among the dyslexic students. The result profiles indicate a great variation among the participants, both regarding function and degree of impairment. Nevertheless, a number of students in the dyslexic groups have achieved surprisingly good word decoding abilities. In addition to the degree of impairment, factors such as reading development, the teaching of reading demands for reading and writing in adult life, and individual coping ability affect the outcome of the perceived difficulties. It is of the utmost importance that special needs education in the future be guided by a thorough assessment and follow-up program where manifest reading and writing skills as well as underlying cognitive functions are profiled. Moreover, intervention should follow evidence-based methods in order to prevent educational failure and social maladjustment among pupils. The thesis demonstrates that reading and writing disabilities have major consequences for educational achievement and working life outcomes, in addition to many other aspects of adult livelihood.

The thesis opens with an exposition of different uses of the term dyslexia. In that context its conceptual relevance is discussed. The empirical studies investigate a) different aspects of validity of cognitive and achievement instruments often used in diagnostic assessment of dyslexia, b) different cognitive profiles for adults with dyslexia, and c) the relationship between cognitive and achievement measures. Study I demonstrated the factor structure of the Swedish WAIS-R to be in close agreement with results of comparable analyses on normal and clinical groups in many countries world-wide, giving strong support for the construct validity of the Swedish WAIS-R for a group of adults diagnosed with dyslexia. The results from the three-factor solution were interpreted in terms of theoretical constructs, notably those posited by Carroll (1993) and Horn (1989). The cognitive profiles of a sample of Swedish adults diagnosed with dyslexia—when using the three factors, the ACID profile, and the four-category Bannatyne profile—all resemble closely the profiles observed for a wide array of U.S. samples of children and adults diagnosed with dyslexia or learning disabilities. Gender differences on Digit Symbol, favoring females, were substantial in magnitude for the present sample, consistent with a bulk of research on gender differences for samples of normal individuals and of those identified with learning problems. In Study II, factor analysis of nine Swedish achievement tests often used for dyslexia assessment yielded five meaningful factors in a group of adults diagnosed with dyslexia. Factors appeared to measure decoding, visual speed, reading comprehension, reading fluency, and phonological ability. The relationship between the five achievement factors and WAIS-R variables was subsequently examined. The Visual Speed and Reading Comprehension factors each correlated significantly with four of six global WAIS-R scores (two of three IQs and two of three factor scores). Visual Speed tended to correlate significantly with nonverbal scores and Reading Comprehension with verbal scores. Although the Phonological Ability factor did not correlate significantly with any verbal or nonverbal global score, it did correlate significantly with the Freedom from Distractibility factor and with all its component subtests—Digit Span, Arithmetic, and Digit Symbol. Decoding (technical reading skill) showed no significant relationship to any WAIS-R variable studied. More surprisingly, the Reading Fluency factor failed to show significant relationships to the WAIS-R. Study III examined the validity of The Word Chain Test, a frequently used instrument in Swedish screening and diagnostic assessments of dyslexia. Different sources of validity evidence were evaluated. In summary, the results failed to support validity both for the WRI-index and the Wordchain subtest, suggesting that the instrument seems to be of questionable value in screening or diagnostic assessment of dyslexia.

No description available.