Thesis (LLM) --University of Limpopo, 2010

Ten subjects ranging from 9 to 16 years in age wi.th IQ's ranging from 23 to 62 were randomly selected as contingent or noncontingent subjects for two experiments. Five subjects received contingent access to two electronic games for performance within a specified learning session, while five subjects received noncontingent access to the games. These experiments were designed to determine the effect on performance, attending, and compliance skills in the classroom, when contingent access to the electronic games was based on performance. The development of fine motor skills and/or eye-hand coordination skills as a result of game usage was examined. The generalization of any effect to the remainder of the classroom day was also evaluated. The experimental design for these experiments was a single subject multiple baseline design for data on performance with the additional collection of attending and compliance data in a multiple baseline fashion. Probes were utilized to assess generalization effects. A change in performance related to experimental manipulation was noted in three of five of the contingent subjects, while support for subsequent change in attending and compliance was demonstrated by fewer subjects (one subject in regard to attending; three subjects in regard to compliance) . No changes in performance, attending, or compliance related to experimental manipulation were demonstrated by subjects receiving noncontingent access to the games. Nine of ten subjects (contingent and noncontingent) demonstrated gains in age equivalencies on the Upper Limb Coordination subtest of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency in excess of the duration of the experiment. In addition, six of ten subjects demonstrated gains on the Fine Motor Composite of this test.

In 1992, the Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) as an application over the Internet using TCP/IP protocol as stated in the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3). Accessing local IS to process data is no longer appropriate in the revolution of distributed processing. Web environments are heterogeneous and portable. First, the Web was developed for textual publishing purposes. However, in parallel the rapid advances of related technology and the incredible growth of ubiquitous data, the Web has evolved from a static medium for information sharing into an interactive multimedia platform that includes video, sound, animation, with dynamic links. In the light of these advancements, Web accessibility and associated problems (eg. People with deafness), represent a serious obstacle that prohibits people with special needs from accessing telecommunication systems. The Deaf Community’ is almost a closed community that has its own language (i.e. sign language), customs and traditions. There is little research around the world investigating direct machine translation of sign language. To avoid machine translation and associated problems, this thesis built on current Web technology to integrate Signage Information into the Web environment. As part of this integration, it made use of an ‘Intermediary Signage Object’ rather than intermediate transmission of video-based sign language. Finally, this thesis provides a Sign Language Annotation tool. It generates an XML document in order to process signage object content. The Graphical Usage Interface (GUI) contains a display window that plays customized sign language clips according to the sign viewers’ preferences. The Signage Tool extends IBM VideoAnnEx Tool to include sign language attributes and related data. In addition, it has been developed for different types of users involved with the deaf community (i.e. hearing impairment, hard of hearing, and sign language interpreters.) / Master of Science (Hons.)

In 1980 Jackson and Knowles presented a paper at the Australian Group for the Study of Mental Deficiency [A.G.S.O.M.D.] conference in Launceston, Tasmania. The paper, titled "Primary School Children's Perceptions and Understandings of Mental Retardation", reported in detail responses on twenty questions from the sixty-three item questionnaire instrument used in their study. These twenty questions reflected stereotyped responses of an alarming nature. If these responses were a reflection of how Australian children generally thought, then integration of the intellectually handicapped child into mainstream classes would be counter productive. The current study was initiated to help assess the attitudes of Australian Capital Territory children to the Intellectually Handicapped. The twenty significant questions from the Tasmanian study were formed into a questionnaire and administered to 769 children in Years 3 and 6 from six Government and two Catholic schools in the Australian Capital Territory. In most cases the results were in direct contrast to those obtained in Tasmania. At first glance this meant that the attitudes of Australian Capital Territory children towards the Intellectually Handicapped were much less stereotyped than those of Tasmanian children. Further investigation, however, led to the discovery that the results from the Tasmanian study were spurious. The date had not been accurately computerized, giving a result that was probably the reverse of what Tasmanian children actually thought. Four supplementary hypotheses, comparing the responses of Years 3 and 6 girls and boys, Government and Private schools, exposed and unexposed schools, were tested. The analysis of the data for these hypotheses supported, to some degree, past findings that older children and girls have less stereotyped attitudes towards the Intellectually Handicapped than younger children and boys. The responses of Government schools versus Private schools were varied. Three of the five significantly different responses indicated a less stereotyped view was held by Government school children, while two of these significant questions indicated a less stereotyped view was held by Private school children. With regard to exposed and unexposed schools, the two significantly different responses indicated less stereotyped views were held by the nonexposed children. Future directions are indicated in the sections dealing with Limitations and Future Directions.

This field study report is concerned with the development, implementation and evaluation of a Diploma of Special Education (UG2) teacher training program. In March, 1974, the Advanced Education Beard of Mew South Wales requested that Nepean College of Advanced Education, Westmead, implement a one year training course for Generalist (Resource) Teachers in Special Education to begin in February, 1975. The lecturers in special education, Mr. Richard Fee and Mr. George Comino, proceed to design a training program which departed radically from the approach adopted by the other colleges of advanced education in New South Wales (Mitchell, Newcastle, Kuring-gai, Alexander Mackie). Instead of following the noncategorical/ commonality approach used at these colleges, Nepean chose the categorical method. With this method, the education of a number of different handicapped children is studied separately (i.e. mentally retarded, orthopaedically handicapped, etc.) rather than by studying the various disorders collectively (i.e. Exceptional Children in Society, Exceptional Children in School, etc.). In order to evaluate the effectiveness of Nepean's approach to training special education teachers, on-going and summative evaluation in a variety of forms was carried out during the first semester. This evaluation which included the administration of a pilot Teacher Competency in Special Education Self-Rating Scale clearly demonstrated that the first intake of 29 students made significant increases in their ability to teach exceptional children. The results of the evaluation also assisted the lecturers in determining areas of course weakness which could be alleviated during the second semester.

Some syntactic aspects of the oral language of 20 mildly intellectually handicapped, 20 normal seven year old and 20 normal ten year old children were examined in order to determine the comparative development of the mildly intellectually handicapped children and some of the difficulties they might experience. The language was classified into 24 categories for various types of analysis. These types included traditional counts and an examination of the types of subordination as well as of non-conventional usage. In addition, Developmental Sentence Scoring (Lee : 1974) was used to assess the maturity of personal pronoun and main and secondary verb usage. The sentence repetition technique was employed as a means of assessing competence in a variety of later-developing structures. Questions were designed to assess ability in other specific syntactic areas. Analysis of variance was used to compare group scores and determine if any significant differences occurred. Several significant differences did occur. The findings provided strong evidence that the language of mildly intellectually handicapped children is more like that of children of the same chronological age than it is like that of children of the same mental age and that it is less mature than the former. These handicapped children experience considerable delay in the development of pronouns and verbs and have a high incidence of non-conventional usage. This study also provided evidence of the continuing language development of normal primary age children. Some methods of sampling and analysing oral language were found to be of particular value. Of these the sentence repetition technique seems promising both as a research tool and as a classroom instrument for assessing individual children's language competence. The importance of this and similar research lies in its implications for educational programming.

<p>Stroke innebär ofta fysiska, kognitiva och beteendemässiga funktionsnedsättningar som påverkar både den drabbade och dennes familj. Tonåringar, speciellt flickor, anses ha störst risk att utveckla emotionella problem när föräldern blivit sjuk. Förälderns stöd till barnet är väsentligt men även sjukvårdspersonalens. I denna studie undersöktes hur barn uppmärksammas till strokedrabbade föräldrar samt vilket stöd som erbjuds. Fem överläkare och fem sjuksköterskor på en neurologisk rehabiliteringsklinik i Mellansverige intervjuades. Materialet analyserades induktivt genom meningskoncentrering. Det framkom att stödet som ges är situationsberoende, inget strukturerat stöd för barn finns och generellt ses anhöriga som resurser. Ett bra anhörigbemötande ska erbjudas men barnomhändertagandet borde bli bättre. Ökade kunskaper efterfrågades för att kunna stödja barn i kris. En mer familjecentrerad sjukvård behövs för att man ska kunna uppmärksamma barns behov vid förälderns sjukdom.</p>

This study compared the effect of two sources of instruction and verbal encouragement on the participation of individuals with mental retardation (MR) in a 10-week physical activity program. Participants were 17 adult employees of a sheltered workshop (5 females, 12 males) ranging in age from 30 to 65 years. The program was offered at work 3 days per week and involved aerobic dance activities. Group engagement in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) was systematically observed and was compared using a reversal design. Condition A involved an exercise leader plus an exercise video to deliver instructional cues and verbal promotion of participation. Condition B used an exercise video as the only source of instruction and verbal promotion. The exercise videos were designed specifically for the participant group to address the low fitness levels and limited ability to make activity transitions. Data indicated that, on average, a higher percentage of the group was engaged in MVPA when the leader-plus-video condition (A) was applied. However, the difference was not practically meaningful when the administrative ease and cost-effectiveness of videos are considered. Further, a considerable overlap of data points in the graphical analyses indicated that withdrawing the leader did not control exercise behavior. Program attendance was variable but remained high over the course of the study. Group engagement levels were higher during the sessions with fewer participants, which suggested that a small group of highly compliant participants were more consistently on-task. Work performance was not negatively impacted when employees took time out of their workday to participate in physical activity. It is of importance that several participants continued to participate in the exercise program over the 4-week maintenance phase. This study provided a convenient, inexpensive method for adults with MR to independently participate in physical activity. / Graduation date: 1999

The use of consultation as a means of delivering educational instruction to students with disabilities in the general physical education setting is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States and is most frequently operationalized in a triadic model. In this model the adapted physical educator serves as the consultant, the general physical educator serves as the consultee, and the student serves as the target, or the one who receives the intervention. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to answer the following questions. What are adapted physical education specialists' perceptions about consultation as a delivery model for individuals with disabilities? How do adapted physical education specialists define an effective consultation model for adapted physical education? How do adapted physical education specialists define their role in the consultation process? Six adapted physical education specialists participated in this study. Analysis included two in-depth individual interviews, a one-day field observation with each participant, researcher notes, and a final focus group including, definition, situational context factors, effectiveness, skills, training, consultation model preferences and roles. It was apparent from these participants that consultation interactions on behalf of students with disabilities varied greatly based on the multidimensional and dynamic nature of the educational environment. Results showed that the use of consultation was more prevalent with middle and high school students. It was also found that adapted physical education (APE) consultation could be presented on a continuum from proximal to distal, dependent on the degree of interaction between the APE specialist, the general education teacher and the student. The effectiveness of consultation was dependent upon the general education teacher's attitude, the APE specialist's skills, and the degree of administrative support. Finally, five roles of the APE consultant were delineated from the participants' descriptions of their job-related interactions. These roles were; advocate, educator, courier, supporter/helper, and resource coordinator. / Graduation date: 1999

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the effectiveness of integrated and segregated settings in elementary physical education. The efficacy of each setting was measured by the quantity of opportunities to respond (OTR) and the quality of those responses. This study examined the frequency and motor appropriateness of OTRs for children with developmental disabilities in integrated and segregated physical education classes. This study utilized a single subject alternating conditions design. Four students, 7 to 11 years, with developmental disabilities participated in this study. All participants received both general (integrated) physical education and adapted (segregated) physical education services throughout the 1997-1998 school year. Subjects were videotaped during the lesson focus portion of both the integrated and the segregated physical education settings once each week for a total of five weeks. Data on the frequency and motor appropriateness of the OTRs were collected and analyzed for each participant in both settings. Students with developmental disabilities generally made more responses in the segregated physical education setting. The motor appropriateness of these responses were similar in both segregated and integrated settings, although it was marginally higher in the segregated setting. The results of this investigation demonstrated that students with developmental disabilities received higher quantities of OTRs in the segregated physical education setting. However, there was little difference between settings with respect to the quality of the OTRs for three of the four subjects. For this reason and other suspected academic and social benefits of integration, an integrated physical education setting may prove beneficial for a number of students with disabilities. / Graduation date: 1998