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Elisabeth Damerau (2021) Participation: Listen to the students' voices! What students who study according to the curriculum of compulsory school for children with intellectual disabilities think about participation. Master degree in Special education, 120 p, Department of School Development and Leadership, Faculty of Education and society, Malmö University. This study aims to contribute to a wider understanding of participation with a focus on students with intellectual disabilities (ID). Theoretically the investigation draws on sociocultural theory, situated learning and the participation model. Based on qualitative interviews with sex students, all of whom are studying according to the curriculum of compulsory school for children with ID. This study offers a unique student perspective. The interviews centered on the students' perception of their schooling and their future. All interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results indicate that the majority of the students consider that their previous education in compulsory school was vastly diffrent from their current education in compulsory special school. The biggest differences are that they consider them-selves participate in a completely different way and that the overall learning environment is better; specifically, less noisy environment makes it easier to concentrate and get peace of mind. Students also mention that they have many more and better relationships to their classmates and teachers, compared with their education in the compulsory school. After finishing 9th grade, the majority of the students want to continue to upper secondary special school due to the benefits cited. However, it is clear that not all the students are aware of the restrictions resulting from an education in upper secondary special school. The majority of the students have very clear future goals and know what they want to work with, but their school affiliation means that the students are unlikely to fulfill their careers objectives; a leaving qualification from upper secondary special school makes the students ineligible for higher education. To adress this inequality, -Swedish colleges and universities could make adjustments to the eligibility criteria and welcome students with ID. The study concludes that that would be a win-win situation for the students as well for society as a whole.

The aim of this study is to explore how some teachers in compulsory education for pupils with intellectual disabilities work with assessing the knowledge development in pupils in their daily work. The study is based on four semi structured interviews with teachers in compulsory education for pupils with intellectual disabilities. The results of the study show that teachers enjoy working in compulsory education for pupils with intellectual disabilities and that they think that assessment is a big part of everyday schoolwork. The teachers are aware of how the assessment process is supposed to work but their knowledge level, that the result shows, is not always sufficient to find useful methods and tools for assessment. This result shows that it is formative assessment which is largely applied. Teachers use many methods and contexts that enable assessment of pupils´ knowledge such as talks, observations and documentation. The results show that feedback is used partly to make visible the student´s knowledge level to the teacher, and partly to make the development of knowledge visible to the student himself. The object feedback is to show where the student is, what the goal is and how the student should get there. Several of the teachers strive to encourage students´ participation in their own learning process by developing the knowledge goals together and through frequent feedback. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur några lärare i grundsärskolan resonerar kring bedömning av elevernas kunskapsutveckling. Studien belyser lärarnas erfarenheter kring bedömning ur ett brett perspektiv och i det vardagliga skolarbetet. Studien bygger på fyra halvstrukturerade intervjuer med lärare som arbetar i grundsärskolans årskurser 1-6. Resultatet visar att lärarna trivs att arbeta i grundsärskolan och att de tycker att bedömning utgör en stor del av det vardagliga skolarbetet. Resultatet visar att lärarna har kunskap om hur bedömningsarbetet är tänkt att fungera men en kunskap som inte alltid är tillräcklig för att finna användbara metoder och redskap för bedömning. I resultatet framträder att det är formativ bedömning som till största delen tillämpas. Lärarna visar många metoder och sammanhang som möjliggör bedömning av elevernas kunskapsutveckling såsom samtal, observationer och dokumentation. Resultatet visar att återkoppling används dels för att synliggöra elevens kunskapsutveckling för läraren och dels för att synliggöra kunskapsutvecklingen för eleven själv. Återkopplingens syfte är att visa var eleven är, vad målet är och hur eleven ska nå dit. Flera av lärarna eftersträvar elevernas delaktighet i sin egen kunskapsprocess genom att utarbeta kunskapsmålen tillsammans och genom tät vardaglig återkoppling.

I läroplanerna för grund- och grundsärskolan står att läsa om skolans uppdrag att låta varje elev finna sin unika egenart för att aktivt kunna ta del i samhället. Många lärare inom och utom särskolan bär på frågan om hur de ska möta elever med utvecklingsstörning på bästa sätt. Utifrån syftet att undersöka hur elever med utvecklingsstörning uttrycker sig kring bilden av sig själva och hur de ser på sina möjligheter att verka i samhället, samt genom arbetets frågeställning, söks efter hur elever med utvecklingsstörning beskriver bilden av sig själva och sig själva i relation till sin egen utvecklingsstörning, hur de beskriver samhällets syn på gruppen utvecklingsstörda samt hur de beskriver sin framtid som samhällsmedlemmar. Goffmans stigma-teori, tillsammans med Anonowskys KASAM, används som arbetets teoretiska ramverk.   Självbilden, hur du ser på och värderar dig själv, står i nära samklang med samtidens syn på människa och samhälle. Dels formas bilden av dig själv genom reflektion över det egna jaget, dels genom interaktion med omgivningen. Vi har alla olika förutsättningar med oss in i livet som underlättar eller försvårar processen att bygga en självbild som är hållbar och ger en rättvis spegling av vår identitet. En sådan förutsättning är att ha en intellektuell funktionsnedsättning, en utvecklingsstörning. Samhällets syn på personer med utvecklingsstörning har varierat genom tiderna. Uttryck som ”sinnesslö”, ”bildbar” och ”obildbar” säger mycket om hur en tidigare samtid såg på funktionsnedsättningen. Idag förs diskussioner kring begreppet ”utvecklingsstörning”, vilka värderingar som ligger bakom och vad begreppet signalerar i ett samhällsperspektiv.   Denna fallstudie bygger på en kvalitativ metod som gett möjlighet att lyfta fram nyanser, samband och underliggande värderingar. Via semistrukturerade intervjuer beskriver fyra respondenter från gymnasiesärskolan synen på sig själva och andra. Den hermeneutiska ansatsen innebär tolkning och förståelse av beskrivningar av självbild och hur den formats i skolkontexten.   Särskoleklassen beskrivs som en trygg plats för lärande och byggande av vänskapsrelationer, en plats för tillhörighet och sammanhang. Tydligt blir ändå att alla fyra respondenter är medvetna om den samhälleliga stigmatisering som funktionsnedsättningen utvecklingsstörning bär på. Samtidigt är det en ljus framtidsyn, ett vanliggörande, som målas upp av respondenterna där banden till föräldrar blir allt vagare och där önskan finns om en egen bostad, familj, barn och arbete.

Diploma Work Bibliotherapy as a tool of developing communication skills pupils with mild intellectual disabilities deals with opportunity of using bibliotherapy and its elements within Czech langage lessons. The educator by the means of appropriate reading materials affects the verbal expression advancement of pupils with mild intellectual disabilities. The aims to develop suitable exercises and arrange them into a bibliotherapy program, to show the beneficial effect that working with texts can have on the pupils' communicative competence, and to make certain that the program operates as expected, through working directly with the pupils, observing them and evaluating the different outputs of the program. Outcomes of the research prove pupils' improvements in desired sphere. Keywords Intellectual disabilities, mild intellectual disabilities, pupils with mild intellectual disabilities, bibliotherapy, bibliotherapy program, communication skills

Accommodating students with disabilities in a general education class often requires instructional modification and extra student support. Research has shown that making required changes can evoke different responses from teachers and can influence their willingness to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities. However, research has not examined the relationships between middle school teachers' preparation for and experiences with inclusion instruction and their attitudes toward inclusion. The purpose of this correlational study was to explore possible relationships between middle school teachers' attitudes about including students with mild to moderate disabilities in the general education setting and the teachers' education level, length of time teaching, and role as general or special education teachers. Social learning theory informed the study. Teachers from 3 middle schools in a large, primarily suburban school district in the southern United States were identified and sent the link for an online survey that included both demographic questions and the Attitude Toward Teaching All Students validated research instrument (N = 220). Despite several efforts to acquire enough responses to determine statistical significance, the sample obtained (n = 55) was too small for those calculations. However, Spearman correlations calculated with the smaller sample acquired indicated possible relationships between variables and indicated conducting the study in another location with a larger sample would provide valuable insights into teachers' behaviors and beliefs. This study contributes to positive social change by demonstrating a need to examine teachers' background and experiences and their attitudes toward and, as a result, behaviors in inclusion settings.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Research has shown that attributions and behavioral reactions toward individuals may be based on their appearance; our studies examined how appearance-based assessments for individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) determined how others think and react toward a target individual. Two studies examined the effects of appearance and identification on perceptions (i.e., agentic and communal traits) and behavioral reactions (i.e, self-efficacy expectations, anxiety, willingness to interact) toward targets. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that individuals with atypical appearances were rated higher on communal than agentic traits. Study 2 revealed that greater self-efficacy expectations and lower anxiety were associated with individuals with atypical appearances and individuals identified as having an ID. These studies increase understanding of perceiver-focused and target-focused factors related to bias toward individuals with IDs.

Background: Assessment of dementia in adults with intellectual disabilities poses specific challenges. Firstly, there is a paucity of validated, standardised and appropriate neuropsychological assessments of memory for adults with intellectual disabilities. Secondly, there are difficulties determining whether performance on neuropsychological assessments are attributable to preexisting intellectual disabilities, ‘normal’ ageing or part of a dementing process. A systematic review was therefore carried out to examine if there are memory changes associated with ‘normal’ ageing in the Down syndrome population. Following this an exploratory empirical research project was undertaken to examine one aspect of construct validity (i.e. convergent validity) of an associative memory test in a sample of adults with intellectual disabilities. This research project is presented as a journal article titled ‘Convergent validity of the Visual Association Test (VAT) in adults with intellectual disabilities’. Methods: 40 participants aged between 18-45 years were recruited from Community Learning Disability Teams. Participants completed the VAT and subtests of the modified Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG-DS). IQ was assessed using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). Correlational analysis of the test variables were carried out. Participants with a diagnosis of dementia were excluded from the study. Results: All participants performed well on the VAT irrespective of age, gender or IQ. It was well received by participants. No significant correlations were found between the VAT and the subtests of the CAMCOG-DS or with the subtests of the WAIS-IV. Therefore, there was no evidence of convergent validity with this test in this sample of participants. Conclusions: While the VAT was found to be an easy, quick test to use with people with intellectual disabilities and all participants scored above ‘floor’ level, it was not found to have convergent validity with the CAMCOG-DS. Further research is needed to determine if the VAT represents a useful tool for assessment with this population.

The researcher is of the opinion that parents find it difficult to handle an adolescent with an intellectual disability and to cope effectively with the challenges that emerge. The adolescent with an intellectual disability can be described as a complex development phase and presents specific challenges that demands more than that of an adolescent without an intellectual disability. The purpose of the research study was to address the needs of parents of adolescents with intellectual disabilities. A qualitative research approach was used to achieve an in-depth and integrated view of the social world of the participants (Fouché & Delport, 2011b:64). During the research study, 22 participants were identified through an accidental sample and contributed to the research study. Data was collected during five focus group interviews with the help of a semi-structured interview framework. During the research study, all ethical aspects were applied. The data obtained during the research study was thematically analyzed. During the study the following themes were identified: * Theme 1 Lack of knowledge and understanding of intellectual disability. * Theme 2 Social- and behavioural implications of an intellectual disability. * Theme 3 The influence of the adolescent‟s intellectual disability on parents and/or teachers. * Theme 4 Resources. The research study has shown that access to relevant information of intellectual disability for parents and teachers are limited and that intellectual disability can be regarded as a very complex psychological disorder. Parents and teachers of such children experience positive and negative emotions in terms of the adolescent‟s disorder. Lack of parental involvement and financial resources inhibit the guidance of the adolescent with an intellectual disability. Parents and teachers recognize that they need additional resources that will guide them in terms of the child‟s intellectual disability. During the research study six resources were identified namely: training, skills, community support, professional services, educational opportunities, and future - and job opportunities. / MSW (Child Protection), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014