<p> The goal of this study is to contribute to understandings of parent-school relationships involving parents of students with autism by exploring notions of belonging with a small group of parents. The purpose of the study is to describe the experiences of middle school parents of children with autism. From these descriptions, I examined how parents of students with autism might contribute to understandings of belonging in school-family partnerships and enable schools and families to collaborate more effectively. This study addresses an apparent gap in understandings of belonging of parents of children with autism in their relationships with their child's school. As parents are asked to make connections with their children's school in parent-school partnerships, understandings of those connections are vital to generating and sustaining meaningful and effective relationships between parents and schools. This study uses thick descriptive methods (Geetz, 1973) to examine the phenomenon of belonging in parent-school partnerships among a small group of parents of middle school children with autism. The experiences of the parents in this study suggest that parents of middle school students with autism seek a sense of belonging in their relationships with those they work with regarding their children's schooling. This study also suggests that a sense of belonging may be an essential element of effective parent-school partnerships.</p>

Special Educational Needs (SEN) in Jordanian schools appears to be in a state of confusion. Numerous obstacles exist that hinder teachers from providing sufficient services for children with learning difficulties. This study investigates the current service provision for students with learning difficulties in Jordanian schools. Semi-structured interviews (N=31) with SEN teachers were conducted in two phases (23 and 8 respectively). Goffman (1963) was utilised as a theoretical framework, to interpret and understand the data, especially concerning that of social stigma. The analysis revealed that SEN teachers in Jordan faced various difficulties responding to the needs of their students with learning difficulties (LDs), which inevitably had a negative effect upon their performance. The results indicated that the difficulties arose from: parents who denied the disability of their children, classroom teachers who refused to cooperate with resource room teachers (responsible for teaching children with LDs), pre-service teachers who had little training in SEN, non-disabled peers who bullied their disabled peers, school administrators who had little understanding of the needs of children with LDs, and finally the Ministry of Education’s supervisors who were better equipped to support the educational needs of typically developing children. These negative attitudes are rooted strongly in local culture and seem to overlap with expressed religious values. Negative attitudes also varied among parents according to their socio-economic class and the type of school (public and private) their child attended. It appeared that the services provided in private schools were more in tune with the needs of children with LDs than those in public schools. Ultimately, I conclude that there is an urgent need for the reconstruction of services in Jordan to support children with LDs. Teacher training should be aimed specifically at equipping resource room teachers to cater effectively for students with LDs, and legislation should facilitate a shift of responsibility to the Jordanian Ministry of Education and away from the Ministry of Social Development. Most importantly, there is a need to facilitate a dialogue that seeks to amend attitudes towards disability in general and LDs in particular.

This thesis’s purpose is twofold. The first purpose is to present both information about what twice-exceptionality is and to make recommendations based on the existing research as to how parents or guardians can become more effective advocates and advocate for effective programming and services for their children who are twice-exceptional. While this thesis focuses on a specific subset of twice-exceptional students, those who are both gifted and have autism, a good deal of the material presented will be applicable to children who are gifted with learning disabilities. Effective parent advocacy looks the same across exceptionalities: producing the best educational experience based on the child’s unique needs. Strengths-based programming has been demonstrated to benefit twice-exceptional students no matter the disability, however the areas of deficit will vary depending on the specific disability a child has and his/her unique learning profile. The resources for information on special education law and twice-exceptionality will be useful to parents regardless of the twice-exceptional child’s disability. The second, and I feel most important, purpose of the thesis is to provide those parents/guardians with a “Quick Start Guide to Advocacy” to help them get started on the path to becoming the most effective advocate they can be for their child(ren). While educators and school administrators are expected to have a solid understanding of the rights and responsibilities of all stakeholders, many times parents are thrust into the world of special and gifted education with no preexisting knowledge. The aim of this thesis is to help bridge this gap for parents and guardians of this unique subset of students.

This outcome study investigates whether music therapy can improve the emotional well-being of adolescents who are at risk of exclusion or underachievement. Specifically, it addresses music therapy’s impact on students’ self-esteem, anxiety, attitude towards learning, behaviour and relationships with peers. The setting for the research was a mainstream secondary school and its federated special school for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Over nineteen months, a mixed methods design was used to observe change in students before and after music therapy. One group received twenty, weekly, individual sessions, and the other formed a wait-list group for comparison and then received the same treatment. At four different times during the project quantitative data were collected from students, teaching staff and school records, and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with the students before and after their period of intervention. The study found that music therapy made a positive difference. The high level of treatment adherence (95%) of all twenty-two students confirmed music therapy’s appeal to this client group. The majority of teachers (58%) reported improvement in students’ social development and attitude overall, and for some mainstream students (56%) recognition of self-concept increased. The conviction with which students conveyed their positive experiences of music therapy was striking. The study supports the author’s argument for therapeutic support to be made available at secondary schools and promotes a student-centred approach, as exemplified in the thesis. It concludes that music therapy can be effective for youth at risk but requires more participants in subsequent investigations for it to be proved statistically.

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of parents who have a child diagnosed with a developmental disability who received Early Intervention services in Thailand. A phenomenological approach was used in the design of the study. Open-ended interviews were conducted with eight participants who lived in Thailand and had a child with a developmental disability. Only participants whose children were 5 years old or younger at the time of the study were interviewed. Five themes emerged from the data, including the journey, helpful versus unhelpful attitudes and actions, systems and services in Early Intervention, challenges, and positive outcomes. Implications for professionals, policy-makers, and society are discussed, including areas for future research on Early Intervention in Thailand.</p><p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf [181]-194.

The magnitude of ethnic minority students' special education placement has been criticized on methodological grounds. Particularly, Reschly & Bershoff (1999) identified the prevalence rate calculation in Office of Civil Rights reports as over estimating the special education placement of ethnic minority students. Reschly & Bershoff (1999) identified the prevalence rate calculation found in descriptive epidemiology research for use. The present study calculated prevalence rates through the descriptive epidemiology method. The present study examined the role of cultural concerns in the assessment and placement practices of ethnic minority students in special and gifted education. The role of cultural concerns was particularly noted in federal and state definitions of special education categories. Campbell & Fiske's (1952) MMTM approach was outlined to conceptualize the cultural concerns research. The present study found that African-American students were overrepresented in the Emotional Disturbance (ED) and Specific Learning Disabled (SLD) categories, underrepresented in the Gifted (GI) category, and placed at a proportional rate in the Mentally Retarded (MR) and Speech Language Impaired (SLI categories. Hispanic students were overrepresented in the SLD and SLI categories, underrepresented in the GI and MR categories, and placed at a proportional rate in the ED category. Native American students were overrepresented in the SLD and SLI categories and underrepresented in the ED, MR and GI categories. Asian/Pacific Islander students were overrepresented in the GI category, underrepresented in ED category, and placed at a proportional rate in the SLI, MR, and SLD categories. Anglo students were overrepresented in the GI, ED, SLI, and SLD categories and underrepresented in the MR category. The significant finding on the proportional placement of African-American students in the MR category suggest that prevalence rates are reviewed. The underestimate of ethnic minority students in the GI category suggest a broadening to include cultural definitions of giftedness. Of the cultural concerns reviewed, cultural role taking, which may include consultation with interpreters, cultural advisors, healers along with training, was found critical in the assessment of cultural variables in psychopathology and placement of ethnic minority students in special and gifted education. Lastly, school practices such as problem solving approaches as well as culturally responsive teaching are recommended for use as prereferral interventions.

Hard-of-hearing individuals currently possess an ambiguous status in the Deaf and Hearing worlds. Neither Hearing nor Deaf themselves, they often exhibit characteristics of both groups. Current educational policy maintains that the public school environment represents the best placement option for hard-of-hearing children. Yet, there is a large body of research which points to academic, linguistic and social difficulties in the mainstream. In addition, there is some evidence that hard-of-hearing individuals often experience confusion in their sense of personal identity in mainstreamed environments, upon recognition that they often cannot fully present themselves as a "Hearing" person, which is what is often expected of them. However, the literature suggests that hard-of-hearing people often gain an enhanced sense of self-identity and esteem upon learning of, meeting, and interacting with Deaf people. The placement of hard-of-hearing children in a school for the deaf, especially one offering an ASL/English Bilingual/Bicultural program, is one possible means of resolving the academic, linguistic, social and identity conflicts of hard-of-hearing individuals. However, this placement option is met with resistance by some who fear that advances in education, speech skills, or identification with Hearing people will be lost. The results of an ethnographic study of four hard-of-hearing adolescents educated within an ASL/English Bilingual/Bicultural program for deaf and hard-of-hearing children are presented. Aspects of the academic achievement, linguistic, social and identity development of these students are introduced and compared to both within-group and previous research findings. Implications of this research are discussed and strategies for further educational and personal growth of these students will be offered.

<p>Programs for gifted students have been criticized for narrowly defining giftedness as merely cognitive or academic performance. Teacher referrals are usually an important component of identifying gifted students. Teacher perceptions, low expectations, and lack of cultural competence are perceived as barriers to the access of Gifted and Talented Education programs for African American students. This study examined the impact of teachers&rsquo; knowledge of Gardner&rsquo;s Multiple Intelligence Theory (Gardner, 1983, 2006, 2011) on their perception of giftedness in the referral of African American students to Gifted and Talented Education programs. Research questions were: (a) What is teachers&rsquo; knowledge of the current district criteria for referral of students to Gifted and Talented programs? (b) Are there differences in the conceptions of referral criteria of teachers with training in MI Theory vs. teachers without training in MI Theory? (c) Are there differences in teacher attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs on giftedness in teachers having training in MI Theory vs. teachers having no training in MI Theory? (d) How do cultural factors impact teacher perceptions of giftedness in African American students, in teachers with training in MI Theory vs. teachers without training in MI Theory, and the referral of African American students to Gifted and Talented Education programs? Using a mixed-methods approach, a quasi-experimental design and qualitative inquiry were utilized. Findings indicated that all teachers demonstrated limited knowledge of district referral criteria. However, teachers having MI Theory training demonstrated greater knowledge of the district&rsquo;s Alternative Referral and Identification Criteria. Conceptual differences were found in the need for alternative pathways such as peer nominations. Findings noted differences for teachers having training in MI Theory with greater knowledge of characteristics of giftedness and the impact of that knowledge on cultural factors relating to students&rsquo; use of non-standard English in the perception of giftedness. Greater focus on leadership is needed in the current federal definition of giftedness. Overall, findings suggested that training in Multiple Intelligence Theory provides a framework for greater understanding of the multifaceted attributes of intelligence, which may result in greater opportunities to identify non-traditional areas of giftedness in African American students. </p>

<p>This study is an exploratory case study on supervisors' and front line managers' current practices towards the promotion of the socialization of employees with disabilities with their non-disabled peers. The researcher interviewed eight participants, four men and four women, purposefully selected from Connecticut and Indiana in person or over the phone. Various supporting secondary data documents were located by the researcher on the internet to further explain the work place's role in the promotion of socialization of employees with disabilities with their coworkers. Utilizing the Social Identity (Turner, 1975) and Social Categorization (Tajfel, 1970) theories to further explain the phenomenon of social integration of employees with disabilities as it relates to the under employment of Americans with disabilities when compared to their non-disabled counterparts, the researcher hopes to answers the following research questions: How are supervisors and front line managers in various work place arenas currently promoting social integration of employees with disabilities with their non-disabled coworkers? How are supervisors and front line managers in various work place arenas currently utilizing work place accommodations, when requested, to promote the social integration of employees with disabilities with their non-disabled peers? Once socially integrated, are supervisors and front line managers in various workplace arenas able to retain employees with disabilities for the long term? </p>