The current study presents the use of a humanoid robot to facilitate compliant behaviors to two types of directives in four children with autism. The children participated in a three-month intervention program that incorporated core components of the SCERTS model in order to facilitate social communication (Prizant, Wetherby, Rubin, & Laurent, 2003). Treatment sessions were comprised of 40 minutes of traditional treatment and 10 minutes of interaction with a humanoid robot. Pre- and post-intervention assessment were conducted, each involving a 5 minute interaction with the child's mother, in which they were presented with directives in the form of physical manipulation and verbal requests accompanied by a gesture or model. These pre- and post-intervention sessions were recorded, analyzed, and coded for compliant and non-compliant behavior to the directives, as well as any eye contact, language, or reciprocal action that accompanied their behavior. The overall results were variable, revealing that two participants made notable gains, one child remained consistent, and another participant showed a decrease in compliant behavior in the post-intervention sessions. Further research should be conducted to include a longer period of baseline and intervention, more systematic identification of the most effective probes for the child, and documentation of the child's physical and emotional state.

<p>The aim in this essay is to investigate students’ attitudes to homework in grade six, and closerstudy the attitudes of the students who think homework is difficult and boring. I have chosento investigate and find out why homework is perceived as boring and cumbersome for somestudents in sixth grade. I hope to identify the aspects that contribute to the negativeconsequences that arise in connection with the homework. The following questions are usedto make the study: Do some students experience homework as boring and difficult? Do somestudents get any form of support at home, if so, how do students perceive the support fromhome? How do students feel that homework affects their leisure?What is the reason that the homework is perceived as difficult and boring according to thestudents? How should the shape of homework change according to the students who believethat homework is difficult and boring?</p><p>I have chosen to do the study with older students who have more experience with homework.I used both qualitative and quantitative methods, those are interviews and questionnaires. Ichose to focus only on those students who have a negative attitude to homework, which iswhat interested me most. The result was shown in both the questionnaires and interviews thatthe majority of students feel that homework is boring and difficult. It has been shown thatstudents in the interview have a very positive attitude to short and personalized homework.The students believe that other forms of homework, such as experimenting, cooking, solvingcrossword puzzles would be more fun to do. All students believe that they could managedifficult homework if they were more interesting and fun.</p><p> </p>

The aim in this essay is to investigate students’ attitudes to homework in grade six, and closerstudy the attitudes of the students who think homework is difficult and boring. I have chosento investigate and find out why homework is perceived as boring and cumbersome for somestudents in sixth grade. I hope to identify the aspects that contribute to the negativeconsequences that arise in connection with the homework. The following questions are usedto make the study: Do some students experience homework as boring and difficult? Do somestudents get any form of support at home, if so, how do students perceive the support fromhome? How do students feel that homework affects their leisure?What is the reason that the homework is perceived as difficult and boring according to thestudents? How should the shape of homework change according to the students who believethat homework is difficult and boring? I have chosen to do the study with older students who have more experience with homework.I used both qualitative and quantitative methods, those are interviews and questionnaires. Ichose to focus only on those students who have a negative attitude to homework, which iswhat interested me most. The result was shown in both the questionnaires and interviews thatthe majority of students feel that homework is boring and difficult. It has been shown thatstudents in the interview have a very positive attitude to short and personalized homework.The students believe that other forms of homework, such as experimenting, cooking, solvingcrossword puzzles would be more fun to do. All students believe that they could managedifficult homework if they were more interesting and fun.

<p>Research in pre-college engineering education has been on a sharp rise in the last two decades. However, less research has been conducted to explore and characterize the engineering thinking and engagement of young children, with limited attention to children with special needs. Conversations on broadening participation and diversity in engineering usually center around gender, socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, and to a lesser extent on neurodiversity. Autism is the fastest growing neurodiverse population who have the potential to succeed in engineering. In order to promote the inclusion of children with autism in engineering education, we need to gain a deep understanding of their engineering experiences. </p> <p> </p> <p>The overarching research question that I intend to answer is <i>how do children with mild autism engage in engineering design tasks</i>? Grounding this study in theories of Constructivism and Defectology, I focused on children’s engagement in engineering design practices and the ways their parents supported their engagements. To engage children with mild autism in engineering, I have developed an engineering design activity by considering suggestions from these theories and previous literature on elementary-aged children’s engagement in engineering design, and by focusing on individuals with mild autism strengths in STEM. This activity provides opportunities for children to interact with their parents while solving engineering design problems. The families are asked to use a construction kit and design their solutions to the problem introduced in the engineering design activity. The engineering design activity consists of a series of five challenges, ranging from well- to ill-structed.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is an exploratory qualitative case study, using a multiple case approach. These cases include 9-year-old children with autism and their families. Video recordings of the families are the main source of data for this study. Triangulation of data happens through interviewing parents and children, pictures of children’s artifacts (i.e. their prototypes), and use of the Empathizing-Systemizing survey to capture background information and autism characteristics. Depending on the data source, I utilized different methods including video analysis, thematic analysis and artifact analysis. </p> <p>This study expands our understanding of what engineering design can look like when enacted by children with mild autism, particularly as engineering design is considered to be a very iterative process with multiple phases and actions associated with it. The findings of this study show that these children can engage in all engineering design phases in a very iterative process. Similarities and differences between these children’s design behaviors and the existing literature were discussed. Additionally, some of the behaviors these children engaged in resemble the practices of experienced designers and engineers. The findings of this study suggest that while children were not socially interacting with their family members when addressing the challenges, their parents played an important role in their design engagement. Parents used different strategies during the activity that supported and facilitated children’s engineering design problem-solving. These strategies include soliciting information, providing guidance, assisting both verbally and hands-on, disengagement and being a student of the child. </p> <p> </p> This study provides aspirations for future research with the aim to promote the inclusion of children with neurodiversity. It calls for conducting similar research in different settings to capture the engineering design engagement of children with mild autism when interacting with teachers, peers, siblings in different environments. Additionally, the findings of this study have implications for educators and curators of engineering learning resources.

Research has suggested that emotion regulation may be an important predictor of problematic outcomes for children. In particular, the lack of emotion regulation and the inability to effectively utilize emotion regulation have been investigated within the context of children's problematic behaviors. Thus, identifying variables that may be related to the development of emotion regulation abilities in children may prove important for formulating the psychological interventions that are used with young children. One important protective variable may be the parent-child relationship, as empirical evidence suggests that multiple characteristics associated with parenting and the parent-child relationship are intertwined with the emotional development of children. Therefore, this study examined the relationships among parental self-efficacy, parenting style, parents' perceptions of their children· and perceived emotion regulation abilities in preschool children. Thirty-six parents with children between the ages of 2- and 6-years old who were attending private preschool facilities in the greater Orlando area completed measures regarding their parenting behaviors and characteristics, as well as about their children's emotional and behavioral functioning. Results of this study indicate that parenting self-efficacy predicts significantly parenting style and parents' perceptions of children, but does not predict significantly discipline style, and that the parenting variables examined in this study predict significantly reported levels of children, s emotion regulation. These findings emphasize the importance of research investigating the relationships among parenting behaviors and emotional development in young children for bettering the outcomes of these children.

Turn-final gaze at the interlocutor has been suggested to fill different functions in conversation: being monitoring, regulatory or response-seeking. 16 Swedish toddlers use of turn-final gaze in dyadic interaction with their parents was investigated at the ages 1;0, 1;6, 2;0, 2;6 and 3;0. The turn-final gaze behaviour was investigated for correlations to child age and language level. Additionally, child turn-final gaze in turn-final questions, in turns longer than 5 seconds and in different interaction contexts was examined.Results showed that the use of active turn final gaze increased over ages 1;0-2;0. No correlations between child use of turn-final gaze and child language level could be found. In turn-final questions, 93% of the turn-final gaze was active, i.e. was not present at the start of the turn. Turn-final gaze was used both during conversation and object-oriented interaction at all ages.A monitoring-response-seeking function of turn-final gaze was proposed to be used by the toddlers as a means to get the parent’s encouragement and approval of the child’s interactive language use. Additionally, the importance of choosing a suitable measure type of turn-final gaze while investigating small children was stressed. / Turfinal blick på motparten i ett samtal har föreslagits fylla olika funktioner: övervakande, styrande eller responssökande. 16 svenska småbarns användning av turfinal blick i dyadisk interaktion med sina föräldrar studerades vid åldrarna 1;0, 1;6, 2;0, 2;6 och 3;0. Turfinalt blickbeteende undersöktes angående potentiella korrelationer till barnens ålder och språknivå. Dessutom granskades barnens turfinala blickanvändning i turfinala frågor, i turer längre än 5 sekunder och i olika sorters interaktionskontext.Resultaten visade att användandet av turfinal blick ökade mellan åldrarna 1;0 och 2;0. Inga korrelationer mellan barnens användning av turfinal blick och deras språkliga nivå kunde hittas. I turfinala frågor var 93% av den turfinala blicken aktiv, dvs inte närvarande vid turens start. Turfinal blick förekom både i konversation och objektsorienterad interaktion vid alla åldrar.En övervakande/responssökande funktion hos turfinal blick föreslogs användas av småbarn som ett sätt att få förälderns uppmuntran och bekräftelse på barnets interaktiva språkanvändning. Dessutom poängterades vikten av att välja ett relevant sätt att mäta turfinal blick vid studier av små barns blickbeteende. / MINT: Modelling infant language acquisition from parent-child interaction (MAW 2011.007)