M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / The purpose of this study was to assess the differential and relative effects of cortical immaturity and non-cortical immaturity in specific learning disabled children on the development of maladaptive behavior. For this purpose twenty specific learning disabled children were selected according to certain criteria. This group was divided into a group of children with specific learning disabilities with cortical immaturity, and a group with specific learning disabilities without cortical immaturity. Acontrol group consisting of ten children without any learning disabilities was also selected. The three groups thus obtained were assessed on indices of aggression, withdrawal, class- and learning problems, and personal and social efficacy. The results indicated that specific learning disabled children manifested more maladaptive behavior than non-specific learning disabled children. Concerning the differential effect of cortical immaturity and noncortical immaturity in specific learning disabled children on the development of maladaptive behavior there were no meaningful differences. The recommendation was made that future studies should control contaminating variables among which socio-economic class differences and parental child rearing practices.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / In every classroom there are probably pupils with learning problems. If these children can be identified before they fail and appropriate assistance can be provided at that stage, learning failure can be prevented or curbed. This study was undertaken against the background of growing dissatisfaction with the current systems of remedial provision to a relatively limited number of pupils after learning problems have manifested and the prognostic outcome seems accordingly bleak, A study of the literature was undertaken to gain a perspective on the nature and extent of the current practices of identification, evaluation and remedial assistance as well as the sensibility of the implementation of a more preventive child guidance practice. Although prevention is the obvious answer in the fight against learning problems, a study of the relevant literature revealed that the accent within the field still lies on remediation after the manifestation of learning problems and scholastic underachievement - and not prevention. Intensive and time-consuming evaluation, diagnosis and subsequent categorization (according to certain definitions of so-called "remedial pupils"), deprive many pupils with learning problems of assistance. This is still to a great extent the reigning policy of the education departments in Southern Africa. Less than 5% of all pupils receive remedial help outside the regular classroom in addition to the work done in class. In the literature important changes are predicted in the remedial approach to learning problems. A pragmatic swing can be expected as more and more . experts in Southern Africa and abroad voice the opinion that it seems sensible to determine in general what a pupil can and cannot do, and then to try and stimulate what he cannot do by means of a specifically devised program. After a study of the literature to determine the sensibility of a more preventive approach to learning problems on a wider basis, a short test battery and a support program were compiled.

The problem n this study was to develop a set of indicators, utilizing sources that presently exist in the schools, for screening high school students for language and/or learning disabilities. By the time the adolescent reaches high school, the opportunity to help him is limited.

M.A. (Psychology) / Although recent research findings suggest that perceptualmotor training in the education of the child with learning problems is irrelevant and superfluous, clinicians have maintained that this method has notable success. The primary objective of the study was to explore the consequences of perceptual-motor therapy on the academic achievement, intellectual ability, and personality development of the MBD child. The subjects used were children in the aid classes of eight different schools. These children had been classified by the school psychologists and doctors as showing symptoms of MBD. A Solomon Four Group Design was utilised in the experimental investigation. This entailed the division of subjects into experimental and control groups. These groups were further subdivided so that half of each group received pre-testing and the other half no pre-testing. All the subjects received posttesting. Thus practice effect could be separated from treatment effect. There were sixty five subjects in the study, thirty two in the experimental group and thirty three in the control group.

D.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Writing is an academic skill critical to students in today’s schools as it serves as a predominant means for demonstrating knowledge during school years (Graham, 2008). However, for many students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), learning to write is a challenging, complex process (Lane, Graham, Harris, & Weisenbach, 2006). Students SLD have substantial writing challenges related to the nature of their disability (Mayes & Calhoun, 2005). This study investigated the effects of computer graphic organizer software on the narrative writing compositions of four, fourth- and fifth-grade, elementary-level boys with SLD. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to explore the effects of the computer graphic organizer software on four dependent variables: total number of words, total planning time, number of common story elements, and overall organization. Prior to baseline, participants were taught the fundamentals of narrative writing. Throughout baseline and intervention, participants were read a narrative writing prompt and were allowed up to 10 minutes to plan their writing, followed by 15 minutes for writing, and 5 minutes of editing. During baseline, all planning was done using paper and pencil. During intervention, planning was done on the computer using a graphic organizer developed from the software program Kidspiration 3.0 (2011). All compositions were written and editing was done using paper and pencil during baseline and intervention. The results of this study indicated that to varying degrees computer graphic organizers had a positive effect on the narrative writing abilities of elementary aged students with SLD. Participants wrote more words (from 54.74 to 96.60 more), planned for longer periods of time (from 4.50 to 9.50 more minutes), and included more story elements in their compositions (from 2.00 to 5.10 more out of a possible 6). There were nominal to no improvements in overall organization across the 4 participants. The results suggest that teachers of students with SLD should considering use computer graphic organizers in their narrative writing instruction, perhaps in conjunction with remedial writing strategies. Future investigations can include other types of writing genres, other stages of writing, participants with varied demographics and their use combined with remedial writing instruction.

This study involving 43 intermediate and secondary level students with learning disabilities investigated two major areas. First, the relationship between four facets of self-concept and academic locus of control were examined. Second, the influences special education placement variables have on self-concept and locus of control were investigated. Academic self-concept, general self-concept, math self-concept and verbal self-concept were measured by the Self Description Questionnaire III. Academic locus of control was measured by the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire; it also gives scores for internal locus of control for success and internal locus of control for failure. The special education placement variables were: age at first placement in a learning assistance centre (resource room); number of years spent in learning assistance centre; age at first placement in a self-contained special education class; number of years in a self-contained special education class; present placement (intermediate grade level or secondary grade level) and grades repeated. The data indicated that general self-concept and academic self-concept were not related. Math self-concept, verbal self-concept and academic self-concept tended to be negative and general self-concept tended to be positive. No statistically significant relationship was found between academic self-concept and internal academic locus of control. The sample tended to have negative academic self-concepts and internal academic locus of control. A positive relationship was found between general self-concept and internal academic locus of control. Internal locus of control for academic failure was positively correlated with internal locus of control for academic success. A positive relationship was found between mathematics self-concept and verbal self-concept, with the majority of students having negative self-concept in both areas. The age of first placement in a learning assistance centre and the number of years spent in the program did not influence either self-concept or locus of control. Age at first placement in a self-contained special education class did not relate to self-concept or locus of control. The number of years a child spent in a self-contained special education class was inversely related to internal academic locus of control. No differences in self-concept or locus of control were found between intermediate and secondary grade level students. An inverse relationship was found between grades repeated and internal academic locus of control. After failing only one grade, students still had an internal academic locus of control, but failing two or more usually indicated an external academic locus of control. Limitations of this study were the problems with definition of the term learning disabilities and classification for the purposes of programming. As a result of this study, it was concluded that further study of the influence special education programming has on the self-concept and locus of control of learning disabled students should be of a longitudinal or ethnographic nature. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The provision of specialised education in South Africa has reflected inequalities from the previous apartheid regime, particularly among the disadvantaged sectors of the population. There have been inadequate institutions that cater for specialised education in some instances and nothing at all in other cases. However, it has been observed that even where there are institutions that provide for specialised education or learning support, parents, and in certain instances educators, do not take timeous advantage thereof. The review of literature relevant to this study involves: the historical development and the understanding of the phenomenon of learning difficulties; the role of parents in the education of their children and in home-school partnerships, both generally and more specifically with reference to the South African context. The study was conducted against the theoretical background of systems theory. Systems theory views the various levels and entities as sub-systems within the larger system, which is the social context. The functioning of the whole, that is, the social context, is dependent on the interaction within and between the ‘smaller’ systems. The family (parents) and the school (educators) form sub-systems, and both of them share the membership of the child. These two sub-systems need to collaborate with each other to ensure maximum development of the child. This study sets out to explore and describe factors that prevent parents from seeking learning support for their children early, when they start failing in the foundation phase. The research question arose from the observation of the tendency by parents to bring their children for assessment long after the children had been experiencing repeated failures across the three primary school phases, namely the foundation, intermediate and senior phases. In most cases, parents brought the children when they were in the intermediate or senior phase, in spite of having had several failures in the foundation phase as well. It was this delay by parents to seek learning support for the children that became a cause for concern to the researcher and prompted an investigation in order to answer the question: What factors prevent parents from seeking learning support for their children in the Foundation Phase? A case study design was chosen in order to explore answers to the question posed above. The purpose of using a case study was an endeavour to gain an understanding of the research question from the participants’ perspective. The case study was made up of sub-cases that were parents of children who all went to a particular school at the time of their referral for assessment of learning difficulties. The data collected through unstructured interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method. The finding that emerged as a major factor that prevented parents from seeking learning support when children started failing in the foundation phase was ignorance of the phenomenon of learning difficulties and what could be done in the face of it. The other factors that were identified related to parents’ understanding of their children’s learning difficulties; their being illiterate; and the belief in cultural issues. Recommendations were suggested for both the Educational Psychologist and educators relating to the need for parent education on the learning and development of their children with specific emphasis on learning difficulties. The role parents can play in partnership with educators was also highlighted. / Mrs. H. Krige

No description available.

Bibliography: pages 287-309. / There is a need for time-efficient screening assessment, preliminary to diagnostic evaluation, in order to identify learning disability children attending schools in the Cape Flats area. This practical issue needs to be addressed despite the controversy that rages concerning the theoretical aspects of learning disability, its problematic measurement issues and the confusion of research findings in the field. Three main issues are implicated when addressing this problem: (i) the theoretical controversy pertaining to the concept of learning disability. (ii) the theoretical issues concerning measurement and test theory related to the screening and prediction of learning disability. (iii) the practical issue of the validity and accuracy of a rating scale (in this research the Pupil Rating Scale) in relation to a standardized test used as a control (in this research the Aptitude Test for School Beginners). A literature survey indicated that the controversy pertaining to the field of learning disability is largely attributable to the lack of precise definition of the concept which affects research methodology and the interpretation of results. Using a psychological-educational definition of learning disability and attempting to avoid the methodological shortcomings of previous research, the present study adopted a longitudinal predictive approach to screening pupils of the Cape Flats area. These pupils all attended schools for the population group, designated Coloured (mixed blood) in South Africa.