The locus coeruleus (LC) projects ubiquitously to the cortex, and noradrenaline (NA) exerts powerful neuromodulatory control on cortical excitation and inhibition. Previous work has shown that NA plays an important role in motor processes, and further posits that dysregulation in NA function could be one of the culprits of motor-related deficits in many neurodevelopmental disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder. In order to characterize the change in NA levels during motor learning in awake and behaving mice, I employed a newly developed optical NA sensor, combined with in vivo two-photon imaging, to visualize spatiotemporal activation patterns of NA in the motor cortex. This experimental approach allows us to track and chronically image the same region of the motor cortex over multiple days, thus permitting the characterization of NA activity throughout the entirety of the motor learning process. I found that NA levels increase significantly during the initial phase of learning, which coincides with the structural and functional plastic changes that have been previously reported in the motor cortex during early stages of motor learning. The NA activity returns to baseline levels as the mice develop their movement strategy; however, the regions of NA release become more spatially clustered during the learning process. The results reported in this thesis provide a novel glimpse into the dynamics of NA activity in the motor cortex during motor learning, and it will provide new direction for the development of therapeutic strategies and diagnostic criteria for motor-related dysfunction in neurodevelopmental diseases.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty Of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology & Special Needs Education at the University Of Zululand, 2018 / The study sought to explore and examine experiences of parents with regard to the education of their autistic children in special schools. Previous studies in this area looked at the inclusion of autistic children and focused on educators’ attitudes or perceptions. Thus this study intended to get parents’ perspectives, their ideas and views about the education of their children with autism spectrum disorder in special schools. To find out if they are satisfied, and explore what seem to be the concerns and challenges, the study adopted a qualitative case study design. Data were generated from nine mothers who had children attending special schools. They were purposively sampled from three special schools for children with intellectual impairment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with mothers regarding their views and concerns about the education of their autistic children. A thematic content analysis was used to extract common themes from the collected data. Major findings were that most parents were happy and satisfied with the education of their children, though some lacked understanding and thorough knowledge about autism and special education. Parents raised concerns about lack of therapists in special schools when their ASD children need the intervention of speech and language therapists and occupational therapists. It was also found that parents struggle to access preprimary education for their children. It is recommended that special schools create forums where parents have a platform to voice their opinions and concerns. In conclusion, the study was able to give insight into parents’ experiences, views and concerns with regard to the education of autistic children. Knowing parents’ concerns and opinions may help improve the provision of education for autistic children. With the recent release of the Draft on National Strategy for Autism (September, 2017), perhaps parents’ hope for improvement in provision of education for autistic children might be realized

Shortages in the teaching field are greatest among special education teachers. This may be due to recent regulations and an increase in the number of students diagnosed with disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of administrative support, stress, and self-efficacy on special education teachers' intent to remain in the profession and to determine whether special education teachers of students with ASD experience the same retention obstacles that other special education teachers do. The conceptual framework for the study was social cognitive theory, which states that people are proactively involved in their life choices and make conscious decisions based on external environmental factors, internal personal factors, and their behaviors. In the Northeastern United States, 128 elementary, middle, and high school special education teachers, of which 60 work with students with ASD, completed an adaptation of the survey, Teacher Efficacy Belief System-Self. Four research questions examined the relationships among administrative support, stress, self-efficacy, and intent to remain in the teaching profession. Their answers were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation, ordinal logistic regression, and 1-way ANOVA. Results indicated that special education teachers for students with ASD experienced a higher level of stress, which, in turn, was negatively correlated with intent to remain in the teaching field and administrative support. This study is expected to contribute to positive social change by highlighting the interplay among administrative support, self-efficacy, and stress; it could also inform the development of effective plans to support new teachers and increase their intent to remain in the field.

A lack of knowledge about individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can create stereotypes, which serve as barriers to interaction. Television is a component in the development of social attitudes in teenagers. Using social learning theory as a framework, the purpose of this quantitative 2-group, posttest only, experimental design was to determine whether observational learning could be effective in generating positive teen attitudes toward peers with ASD. Senior high school students (N = 130) completed the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons (ATDP) Survey to determine whether observing a video clip can positively affect the attitudes of teens about their peers with ASD. A t test for independent sample groups was used to compare mean scores on the ATDP. According to study findings, 18-year-old students who watched a video clip of a panel of teens with ASD had more positive attitude scores (M = 74.91, SD = 8.4) than did the 18-year-old students who watched an innocuous video clip (M = 48.57, SD = 9.1), t (128) = 17.14, p < .0001. This finding was in alignment with the research on the impact of media on teen attitudes. The media representation of persons with disabilities may facilitate social change by helping to reduce negative stereotypes and to promote positive attitudes about person with specific disabilities. Positive attitudes toward teens with ASD can lead to positive social interactions between teens with and without ASD. In addition, this research may produce social change by fostering social experiences and opportunities for teens with ASD to learn social behaviors and social language by modeling their typical peers.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The study examined the impact of the “big 5” personality traits on caregiver burden during the period when individuals with ASD transition from high school. Participants (N = 117) were caregivers of individuals with ASD who either will graduate within two years or graduated from high school within the past two years. Participants completed questionnaires measuring study variables predicted to be associated with caregiver burden as guided by the Double ABCX model of family adaptation, i.e., autism symptom severity, problem behaviors, pile-up of life demands, personality traits, social support, cognitive appraisals, and coping strategies. Primary caregivers reported moderate burden in the transition period. Specifically, although caregivers experienced stress in the transition period, they were less overwhelmed than the period when one’s child first receive the ASD diagnosis. Increased problem behaviors, higher neuroticism, lower extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, lower levels of social support, fewer use of challenge appraisals, and greater use of threat appraisals and passive-avoidance coping strategies predicted greater caregiver burden. Passive-avoidance coping mediated the relationship between caregiving stress and four personality traits respectively (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness). The results support the potential importance of personality traits in explaining differences in caregiver stress in families of those with ASD and further indicated that the association between personality and burden was mediated by caregivers’ use of maladaptive coping strategies, i.e., passive-avoidance coping. The findings also have potential applicability for interventions to reduce caregiver burden. Several factors were identified that could help alleviate the stress. For example, parents should be encouraged to avoid using threat appraisals and passive-avoidance coping strategies. In addition, interventions could be developed to provide support or strategies to parents to handle child’s behavioral problems and thus reduce stress.

The number of children being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), an impairment that affects an individual’s social-communication abilities and behavior, is currently 1 in 68. An estimated 50,000 students who have ASD are reaching adulthood and exiting secondary education annually―a phenomenon known as the Autism Tsunami. There is a lack of services available to support this wave of young adults with ASD to be self-sustaining, contributing members of their communities. This is evidenced by the 37% of adults in their early 20s, who have ASD, and who have never worked or attended any postsecondary educational program. Due to the lack of appropriate accommodations in many of these programs, there is a low rate of completion for those who enroll. With an increase in positive educational outcomes in K-12 education, there are a burgeoning number of individuals holding the diagnosis of ASD able to enroll in postsecondary education at IHEs. For these students, the predicament of attending an IHE may pose unique challenges despite their ability to complete academic work. There is an ever-increasing need to support individuals with ASD while they attend IHEs, however there is a scant amount of emerging literature on this topic. This exploratory case study was conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the ways in which Nathan, a student with ASD, was supported while he attended North Coast University (NCU), with the intent to inform further research, and affect the practice of service providers who work with students with ASD who are attending IHEs. The results of this study yielded an in-depth understanding of how NCU Disability Service providers, David and Richard, and Nathan’s mother, Sandy, supported him as he attended NCU, and of his lived experience of support. The Interactional Model of Disability, a model that views disability as caused by both the individual’s impairment and external environmental influences, was used as the theoretical lens in this study. The findings of this study are as follows. Although Nathan has incredible perseverance and academic ability, without support he would not have had the same level of success. The early proactive, nonacademic approach to supporting students with ASD used by NCU was instrumental in Nathan’s success and in helping him to become more independent. Coaching an intervention used as part of the NCU approach was highly effective for Nathan. David and Richard’s dedication to positive student outcomes played a role in Nathan’s success. Support from his mom was essential, but needed to be invisible. The ubiquitous nature of the issue of disclosure of disability emerged, as well as how Nathan experiences ASD.

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No description available.

Updated: Current version includes the name of Supervisor, and Co-supervisor. Error corrected in preliminary pages. / Background: Emerging evidence suggests that there is both within-disorder heterogeneity and across-disorder overlap in the clinical presentation of children with ASD, ADHD, and OCD. Two prevalent dimensional phenotypes in children with these NDDs that warrant close attention, and are suitable for cross-disorder investigation, are internalizing and externalizing problems. Objectives: The current study uses a data-driven, diagnosis-agnostic approach to identify homogenous clusters that describe behavioural profiles of internalizing and externalizing problems within and across ASD, ADHD, and OCD. Methods: Data on 1565 children (M = 10.76 years) were drawn from the Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorder (POND) Network. Non-hierarchical clustering approaches were used to empirically derive, distinct behavioural profiles of internalizing and externalizing problems indexed by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Empirically derived groups were characterized using measures of adaptive functioning indexed by the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment (ABAS-II), and interpreted in relation to original diagnoses. Results: Cluster analyses identified four distinct behavioural profiles that cut across all diagnostic groups: High Internalizing Externalizing (HIE; 15%), High Externalizing (HE; 21%), Low Internalizing Externalizing (LIE; 38%), and Low Externalizing (LE; 26%). Derived clusters had variable levels of adaptive behaviours and reflected different behavioural profiles than the ones defined by the original diagnostic category groups of ASD, ADHD, and OCD. Conclusion: Data-driven, diagnosis-agnostic approaches can inform our understanding of the between and within phenotypic heterogeneity seen in ASD, ADHD, and OCD. Empirical ways of classifying children with homogeneous behavioural profiles may complement existing diagnostic models in our efforts to develop cross-disorder, more personalized interventions for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / ASD, ADHD, and OCD are heterogenous neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) with some overlapping clinical characteristics and etiological factors. Internalizing and externalizing behavioural problems persist across these three NDDs, and in this study, are used to identify unique behavioural profiles. Study findings reveal four groups with distinct behavioural profiles of internalizing and externalizing problems that are not identified by the original diagnostic groups. This empirical way of classifying children with similar behavioural profiles can be used in combination with diagnostic labels to enhance transdiagnostic interventions that can be tailored to each child’s needs.

Abstract The acquisition of a sufficient vocabulary is crucial in order to learn a language. It is suggested that, to comprehend a text well, at least 95% of the words should be recognized and understood. Hence, it is of value to investigate different methods of learning new words. The study compares two different methods of learning new words in English, the translation method, i.e. learning unknown words by using L1 translations, and the explanation/synonym method, which means learning unknown words by using explanations and synonyms in L2. This was undertaken by inviting a group of pupils use the two methods and then comparing the results between the tests. The research question was to establish whether there are any differences between these two methods. The study aimed to investigate whether one of the methods shows better results than the other and, if so, to what degree. To achieve this, data was collected from students at the Swedish IM-program at the upper secondary school. In this case, all the participants had been diagnosed within the ASD-spectre. This investigation is of interest because the Swedish curriculum is reluctant to permit the use of translation between the learners’ L1 and L2. The analysis of the findings indicates a slight advantage for the explanation/synonym method. The difference is not so substantial that any certain and far reaching conclusion can be drawn as to which method is the most effective, especially with such a relatively small study. The indication is that both methods can be useful in teaching, particularly when combined with other vocabulary learning activities. Keywords: Vocabulary acquisition, English, ASD-spectre, IM-program