iii Abstract Sibling relationships are amongst the most influential relationships in one’s life. Bringing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) into these interactional dynamics has a marked influence on these relationships for both the sibling with ASD and the typically developing siblings. The main aim of this study was to investigate how typically developing adolescents describe their present attitudes towards their sibling with ASD, compared to their attitudes when they were younger. Thirty typically developing adolescents who have siblings with ASD were selected to complete the survey instrument, namely the Modified Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale (MLSRS). The survey instrument operated on the conceptualisation of attitudes as consisting of three components: affective, cognitive and behavioural. The results indicated that the majority of adolescents have very strong positive feelings towards their sibling (affective component), both at the time of the research and when they were younger. Their beliefs about their siblings and their relationship with them (cognitive component) have become more positive as they became older. Their actual interaction (behavioural component) was, however, found to be significantly lower than their feelings towards their siblings (both as adolescents and as younger children) and their beliefs about their relationships as adolescents. This study highlighted the need for children who develop typically to be taught how to interact effectively with their sibling with ASD and the need for siblings to be provided with age appropriate information about their sibling’s disorder. The results also indicate that although most of the children seemed to be coping well with the extra demands placed on them they would nevertheless still be able to benefit from support groups for siblings of children with ASD. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

Children acquire many skills through play. These range from fine and gross motor skills, social skills, problem-solving, to even creativity. Creativity or creative engagement is frequently a component in early preschool curricula. A pivotal repertoire to engage in behaviors deemed creative, such as art, storytelling, problem-solving, and the like, is the ability to vary one's responses regardless of the specific repertoire. Researchers have developed methods to produce response variability. However, notwithstanding the significant contributions from the literature for prompting response variability, it remains unclear how much variation in responding is socially appropriate. To fill this research gap, the purpose of this study is to characterize and understand the different ways preschool children commonly interact with the activities and materials present in a preschool classroom. In our study, we assessed children's repeat item interactions, novel item interactions, and time allocation across seven concurrently available activity centers. A multifarious pattern for item interactions emerged across children. Some children had restricted levels of novel item and center interactions, while other children had more varied novel item and center interactions. However, the variance in interactions was predominantly controlled by the center type. This study bolsters our understanding of variability and creativity within a school setting, but more importantly, it informs the task of selecting goals for applied practice with children who have restricted play or interests.

A large portion of the world’s population is multilingual. This trend is reflected in the population with communication disorders, and therefore in people with complex communication needs (CCN). People with CCN may need alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) systems to facilitate their participation in daily life. These systems are often related to the language of the person’s community. Yet, if this person lives in a multilingual community, little current research is available to guide the design of AAC systems that give access to expression in more than one language. This pilot study aimed to determine the ability of typically developing Afrikaans-English bilingual children, between the ages of 4;6 (years;months) and 6;11, to label Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) in both these languages when taught with mono medium (English) versus dual medium (Afrikaans and English) teaching. Four participants, who spoke Afrikaans and English, were included in the study. A withinsubjects crossover design was used. Each participant was taught two sets of symbols, one using mono medium and one dual medium teaching. Treatments were counterbalanced for order and set. Results tentatively showed that the teaching method was successful, with participants being able to label most symbols in English when taught in either mono (English) or dual medium. Participants were also able to label symbols in Afrikaans when taught the symbols by dual medium teaching. Some participants were spontaneously able to translate symbols taught by mono medium teaching (English) to Afrikaans. This pilot study tentatively suggests that this ability is dependent on the child’s receptive vocabulary ability in both languages, as well as their ability to express the concepts depicted by the symbols in both L1 and L2. Future research is needed with studies that include a larger sample size, to be able to draw more robust conclusions. / Mini Dissertation (M(AAC))--University of Pretoria, 2017. / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / M(AAC) / Unrestricted

State standards require kindergarten students to produce expository writing, but little research has been done regarding their abilities in this area. This study describes expository writing samples of 47 typically developing (TD) kindergarteners and 43 kindergarteners with developmental language disorder (DLD). The Expository Language Measures (ELM) Flow Chart and the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software were used to detail the language complexity and text structure features the children in the sample produced. When comparing TD and DLD children's expository written samples, no significant differences in the language and text structure measures were found. It is important to continue acquiring data regarding young children's abilities to produce expository written language. Identifying norms and areas of weakness promotes the creation of more specific and effective teaching and intervention methods.

Children with autism spectrum disorders often have deficits in the area of social skills. Because of this deficit many children with autism avoid engaging in play activities with typically developing peers. The purpose of this study was to identify the utility of a photographic activity schedule, with embedded scripts, to teach three children with autism to play a complex social game with typically developing peers. In this study we used activity schedules to train children with autism to play hide-and-seek in a group with typically developing peers. All participants were prompted using physical guidance to follow the activity schedules to play hide-and-seek. Two activity schedules were present during teaching sessions, one was the seeker schedule and the other was the hider schedule. Each group member played the role of the seeker once and then the game ended. All of the participants were able to follow the activity schedules to play hide-andseek. We then systematically faded the activity schedules to the least intrusive version necessary. We were able to fade all of the scripts and several components of the activity schedules. For two of the three participants with autism we were able to fade the schedule from two binders to a visual cue displaying the order of the seekers. For the third participant we were able to fade one binder and the majority of the components in the second binder. The participants were able to continue to play hide-and-seek with the faded versions of the schedules in a novel environment and 2-weeks after treatment concluded.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Background: Ambulation is critical to a child’s participation, development of selfconcept, and quality of life. Children with cerebral palsy (CP) frequently exhibit limitation in walking proficiency which has been identified as the primary physical disability. Traditional rehabilitative treatment techniques to improve ambulation for children with CP reveal inconsistent results. Driven gait orthosis (DGO) training is a novel approach focusing on motor learning principles that foster cortical neural plasticity. Objective: The objectives are to determine if: (i) the lower extremity muscle activation patterns of children with CP are similar to age-matched TD children in overground (OG) walking, (ii) DGO training replicates muscle activation patterns in OG ambulation in TD children, (iii) the lower extremity muscle activation patterns in OG walking of children with CP are similar to their muscle activation patterns with DGO assistance, and (iv) DGO training promotes unimpaired muscle activation patterns in children with CP. Methods: Muscle activity patterns of the rectus femoris, semitendinosus, gluteus maximus and gluteus medius were recorded in the OG and DGO walking conditions of children with CP and age-matched TD. The gait cycles were identified and the data was averaged to produce final average gait cycle time normalized values. Results: In comparing the variability of the muscle activation patterns within the subject groups, CP DGO walking was considerably lower than CP OG. In comparing the muscle activation patterns in each condition, consistent differences (p < .05) were noted in terminal stance, pre-swing and initial swing phases of gait with the DGO condition consistently revealing greater muscle unit recruitment. Conclusion: The results indicate that training in the DGO provided the ability to practice with measurably repetitive movement as evidenced by decreased variability. Consistent differences were noted in muscle activation patterns in the terminal stance, pre-swing and initial swing phases of gait when most of these muscles are primarily inactive. The alteration in ground reaction force within the DGO environment may play a role in this variance. With the goal of normalizing gait, it is important that the effect of these parameters on ground reaction forces be considered in the use of DGO rehabilitation.

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This study presents a new framework for designing pedagogy in an informed and controlled way. It considers the importance of progression of pedagogy during a learning episode, so that an instructor can modify the pedagogical approach as well as the content in a lesson. The significance and novelty of this research lie in the proposals to provide support for ADHD learners and assist them to overcome their academic weaknesses/challenges through appropriate pedagogically sound interventions. Therefore, in order to contribute to the development of a suitable pedagogical approach for children who diagnosed with ADHD, issues of having ADHD are discussed within the scope of the research. In this respect, an aetiological model of ADHD has been developed to identify different levels of impairments as well as to clarify areas in which educational pedagogies must address the limitations of ADHD learners. Early stage results described here consider evidence to determine the viability of two literature-based models, named the ‘6Ms pedagogy model’ and the ‘aetiological model of ADHD’. In identifying the need to explore an accurate pedagogical model for ADHD children, two models have been evaluated. The analysis is based on a combination of secondary analysis, qualitative, and quantitative data analysis, which covered data, collected from expert advice, including that from professionals, coaches, and teachers and from those involved in the education of learners with ADHD and parents. Evidence from findings on ADHD is married to a new model of pedagogy named the ‘7Ms pedagogy model’. The ADHD pedagogical model is then evaluated by SEN teachers serves to facilitate well-informed and targeted design decisions about pedagogy, which could provide children with support and help them overcome academic limitations. Keywords: Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder; 6Ms Pedagogy Model; 7Ms Pedagogy Model; learning theories; aetiological model; typically developing learners (TDLs); and special educational needs (SEN).