M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / The child finds himself in an educational situation. Numerous factors can lead to a problematic educational situation. The child then does not meet with specific moral-normative, affective and cognitive norms that are expected of him. The child becomes noticeable as a result of his behaviour, and both child and educator require specialized help in order to normalise the educational situation, the educational dynamic and the selfactualization of the problematic educational situation. Above mentioned implies orthopedagogical intervention. The research in question is aimed at the child experiencing a disharmonious educational situation as a result of a learning disability and negative self-concept. The focus of the study is an effort to apply pedotherapeutic and orthodidactical assistance in the form of story-telling in order to address both the learning deficiencies and the affective problems of the learning disabled (Group B) pupil younger that 9 years. The following issues regarding self-esteem building in learning disabled children are considered: repeated failures, labelling and expectations. The pedotherapeutic situation must be seen as an educational situation (Dumont, 1969: 54) and thus one must not lose sight of the educational essence during therapy. The aim of the pedotherapeutic intervention is to support the child to the changing of unfavourable meanings and restoring of the disharmonic educational dynamics. The aim of the orthodidactical intervent~on is to support the child in the process of overcoming his learning disabilities. Since the beginning of time, language has been used as a communication medium. People communicate their thoughts and their desires and expose their deepest feelings through the medium of language. Language can thus be seen as an expressive and projective means. It is often by means of language that therapy can take place. In therapy children often find it threatening to express their feelings and problems verbally.

M.A. (Psychology) / Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is now recognised as the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood, affecting children from their earliest infancy through school and into adult life. (Shaywitz and Shaywitz 1991). It is prevalent in both clinical and normal populations and consensus ofopinion seems to be that approximately 3% to 5% of the childhood population has ADHD.( Barkley 1990) The impact that this disorder has on the child and his immediate world cannot be underestimated, nor can the reciprocal basis to these behaviours be ignored. While the basic contention of this paper is that ADHD has a strong biological/hereditary basis to its development, nevertheless account must be taken ofthe impact of the child's behaviour on his surrounding world, and the impact again in turn ofthat world on the child's behaviour. In this reciprocal interaction between the child and the world, definitional problems arise wherein those diagnosed with ADHD do not consistently show hyperactivity.

M.A. (Counselling Psychology) / The treatment of learning- and associated socio-emotional problems as found in ADHD has long been researched and practiced. The treatment still doesn't seem 100% effective since it helps in some cases but worsens effects in others. The literature aroused the possibility that other disorders could occur under the same behavioural symptoms as displayed in ADHD. One of these is Tourette's disorder ...