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No / This pioneering book, in considering intellectually disabled people's lives, sets out a care ethics model of disability that outlines the emotional caring sphere, where love and care are psycho-socially questioned, the practical caring sphere, where day-to-day care is carried out, and the socio-political caring sphere, where social intolerance and aversion to difficult differences are addressed. It does so by discussing issue-based everyday life, such as family, relationships, media representations and education, in an evocative and creative manner. This book draws from an understanding of how intellectual disability is represented in all forms of media, a feminist ethics of care, and capabilities, as well as other theories, to provide a critique and alternative to the social model of disability as well as illuminate care-less spaces that inhabit all the caring spheres.

Experience of patients with disabilities and their close persons during hospitalisation demonstrates insufficient understanding to the needs of such people. This issue is also discussed in foreign literature, wherein the need to establish the position of a specialized worker who knows very well the conditions of the health care facility and the needs of people with disabilities is emphasized. The objective of this thesis is to point out the complex issue of the needs of people with learning disability and their close persons during hospitalisation. Hospitalisation itself is a difficult and demanding situation in any person's life. For persons with learning disability, this situation is even more serious. The thesis aims at describing the experience of persons with learning disability so that it may serve as the basis for improving their health care.

This dissertation was initiated to investigate the preprimary teacher's role in identifying and assisting learning disabled preprimars. The literature section consists of a study of the normal process of child development and the phenomenon of learning disability and its manifestation in preprimars. The philosophy of inclusion and a number of existing programmes for learners with learning disabilities were examined. The empirical research assessed the responses of preprimary teachers from the Eastern Cape to a questionnaire, their experiences in dealing with preprimars with learning disabilities in a typical preprimary group were analyzed and a summary of the findings was made. Recommendations have been given to teachers regarding the identification of learning disabilities in preprimars, the assistance and support needed to enable the teacher to assist the learning disabled preprimar and the need for additional training to equip her to do so. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Orthopedagogics)

ackground Previous research has shown that parents of children with learning disabilities (LD) and/ or autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are more psychologically distressed than parents of neuro‐typical children. The literature suggests that there is significant variation in the rates of maladjustment within this population, and the research into factors that influence parental adjustment is developing. This study aims to add to the research into the factors influencing adjustment to parenting a child with LD/ ASD. In particular, relatively under‐researched concepts such as parental acceptance, time since diagnosis, and the influence of informational support to understand a child’s needs, will be explored. Method Two hundred and thirty five parents of children aged 4‐19 participated in a questionnaire study, conducted through local additional support needs (ASN) schools and bases. Measures of psychological adjustment were gathered alongside measures of acceptance, positive gains, level of child’s challenging behaviour and demographic information. Results Along with other variables, psychological acceptance and was found to account for significant variance in parental adjustment. There were no observed relationships between adjustment and time since diagnosis, or level of informational support. Conclusions The results have implications for the understanding of the role of acceptance in parent adjustment. Implications for intervention development and future research directions are discussed, in addition to the methodological limits of the study.

While the number of students with learning disabilities entering the postsecondary environment is rising, many of these students have not yet acquired the skills to help them request necessary academic accommodations. Students with learning disabilities need to recognize how their disability affects their academic learning, and need to have the strategies and skills known as self-advocacy, so that they can request and obtain these accommodations. Unfortunately, many of these students, particularly Latino students, have not been given the opportunity to acquire advocacy skills prior to entering the postsecondary education setting. Trainor (2005) identified that Latino male students' plans for life after high school were not reflected in their individual transition plans. While the number of Latino males graduating with college degrees is declining (Sáenz & Ponjuan, 2009), Hurtado, Sáenz, Santos, and Cabrera (2008) have identified an upward trend among Latino males' self-rated academic abilities and desire to achieve. Due to Latino males avoidance of help-seeking behaviors, even when they are aware of academic resources that are available (Cabrera, Rashwan-Soto, & Valencia, 2016), they are a population that would benefit from instruction in these skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a self-advocacy intervention on Latino male college students' abilities to request academic accommodations. Findings demonstrated a functional relationship between the self-advocacy intervention and students' abilities to request academic accommodations in a role-play situation. In addition, all students were able to fully generalize the target behaviors to the real life setting as well. Last, data obtained from social validity surveys revealed the significance of the effects of the intervention on the dependent variables.

Nonverbal Learning Disability (NVLD) is a syndrome characterized by impaired social perception, visual-spatial skills, fine motor coordination, and mathematics abilities. Researchers have found that children with NVLD often have significant symptoms of inattention, and there is evidence that the majority of children with NVLD also meet clinical criteria for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Predominantly Inattentive Subtype (ADHD:PI) (Brown, 2000; Gross-Tsur & Shalev, 1995; Voeller, 1996). Although significant overlap is observed between NVLD and behavioral symptoms of ADHD, little research has focused on the specific attention problems of children with NVLD. Given the high incidence of co-morbid attention problems with NVLD (Brown, 2000), many researchers have proposed that overlapping neural regions are responsible for the similarity in attention impairments observed in both NVLD and ADHD:PI (Denckla, 2000; Stefanatos, 2001). Other researchers suggest that there are distinct neurological impairments in children with NVLD and both subtypes of ADHD that result in attention problems. Specifically, Rourke (1995) suggested a developmental sequence that results in generally intact auditory attention with impaired attention for visual stimuli in children with NVLD. This study sought to reconcile the discrepancy between conceptualizations of attention problems in children with NVLD. It was hypothesized that children with NVLD would exhibit distinct profiles of strengths and weaknesses on neuropsychological measures of attention compared to children with ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Subtype (ADHD:PI) and ADHD, Combined Subtype (ADHD:C). Specifically, it was expected that the three diagnostic groups would differ on the neuropsychological measures depending on the attention modality (auditory vs. visual). Extant neuropsychological data from 88 children between the ages of 9 and 15 years of age with diagnoses of NVLD, ADHD:PI, and ADHD:C were analyzed. Neuropsychological measures of processing speed, working memory, vigilance, and inhibition were examined to compare specific domains of attention functioning in the three groups. Evidence from the current study supported the model in which NVLD and the two ADHD subtypes represent a continuum of dysfunction dependant on overlapping neural regions. Moreover, specific attention strengths and weaknesses in children with NVLD compared to children with ADHD:PI, ADHD:C, and normative data were identified in order to inform clinical diagnosis and intervention. / text

Adults with language impairment have poor language skills, but may or may not have reading deficits. For those identified with literacy difficulties as children, deficits in the skills related to sublexical level decoding skills can persist into adulthood. Decoding deficits, current or remediated, would implicate the sublexical interaction of orthography and phonology. In addition, the heterogeneous reading profiles of adults with language impairment provide an opportunity to examine whether the deficits in this bidirectional link between orthography and phonology are related to reading deficit specifically or language impairment globally. Sixty adults, 30 with language impairment and 30 with typical language, participated in this study. Nonword stimuli, orthogonally varied based on orthographic and phonological neighborhood density, were presented in two sublexical tasks, nonword repetition and nonword spelling. The experiment revealed a pattern of similar responses for adults with and without language impairment. However, adults with impaired language had significantly poorer performance on both the nonword repetition task and the nonword spelling task. Additional analyses indicated that both language and literacy measures predicted the overall performance on the orthogonally varied nonword repetition and nonword spelling tasks. This study highlights the existence of a bidirectional influence between phonological and orthographic processing. For adults with language impairment it appears that this bidirectional link is intact at the sublexical level.

Aims: The UK policy documents ‘Valuing people’ (DOH, 2001) and ‘Valuing people now’ (DOH, 2009) presaged a new direction in learning disability services: towards a human-rights model of care with the underlying principles of rights, choice, inclusion, freedom and independence. However, despite such legislative changes, a recent review (DOH, 2008a) candidly described that people with learning disabilities have greater need for healthcare than other people, yet have worse access to the care that they actually need and poorer health outcomes. Whilst some research has explored this from the perspective of people with learning disability (Jones & Donati, 2009; Jones & Parry, 2008) there is significantly less from the perspective of support workers. This research seeks to examine the emotional and psychological experience of support workers in learning disability services. Although research has explored the experience of support workers from the perspectives of ‘stress’ and ‘burnout’, there is a dearth of research in areas such as emotions, sense-making, their constructing of systems, relationships and their underlying motivations. Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with seven support workers from three learning disability care homes. Verbatim transcripts of interviews were then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: The analysis produced two superordinate themes, both with two main themes. The superordinate theme ‘Emotional Motivation’ had the main themes ‘Personal Fulfilment and motivation’ and ‘The Emotional Struggle’. The superordinate theme ‘Demands and Coping’ had the main themes ‘Safety and Conflict within Coping’ and ‘Persecution and Protective Positions’. Implications: This research suggests that the support worker role may evoke strong feelings of pleasure but also powerlessness, blame, deficit, injustice, responsibility and anger. Support workers seem to manage these emotions in various ways: such as compensating by striving to be the ‘ideal’ carer, protecting themselves by avoiding and not elaborating on difficulties, and also projecting their difficulties onto others. Problematically, this may reinforce a work culture in which no individual actually takes responsibility for the ongoing difficulties, conflict and struggles. Thus, political and legislative changes may be negated or ineffective unless addressed within the context of this dynamic; namely, the value, emotional and meaning systems within services, i.e. the nature of the relationship between the support worker and resident. Indeed, paid staff are often the only meaningful relationship that people with learning disability have in their lives. Such findings are discussed in light of existing theory, research and practice.

In recent years there has been increased focus on vulnerability and abuse however greater attention has been paid to this in relation to children, elders and in domestic situations. Within learning disability service there has been increasing attention on physical and sexual abuse as well as attention being given to abuse as it is perceived by people with learning disabilities. The aim of this study was to explore the views of staff working within learning disability services regarding their views of vulnerability and abuse. A phenomenological approach was adopted, as this is a subject about which little is known and the lived experiences of care staff and the meanings that they attach to them were being explored. Semi-structured interview was the chosen method for data collection. Twenty informants shared their views in this study. The data generated were themed and the findings were presented in two different but complementary styles: case studies and themes representative across the entire sample. This research has highlighted a number of important issues. There is considerable difference in the meanings given to vulnerability by care staff and the range of meanings are further complicated when notions of risk are considered. A model is presented that illustrates experiences of vulnerability and confidence of the individual the impact of various experiences on those states. For example negative experience of bullying might increase vulnerability whilst positive family support might engender feelings of confidence. The study showed that staff are more influenced by personal and family values than by policy. Though this study focused on adult protection policy it was evident that this also applied in the case of other policy. The strong influence of personal values pervades all aspects of care. This was evident in the views of informants regarding abuse. Abuse is considered to range in severity from bullying, which is seen as prevalent but to an extent unpreventable, to sexual abuse which is considered by most to be taboo. Neglect and infringement of rights were in the main not seen as abuse with both being attributed to ignorance. Power, authority and/or control are felt to be essential in the management behaviour that challenges and is justified to that end. In the context of adult protection a model for safety planning is proposed that shifts the emphasis away from risk avoidance toward an enabling person centred approach that recognises the importance to the individual of excitement in life that also may involve risk.