Research has shown that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the commonest neurodevelopmental disorders which has a negative impact on a child. However, to date limited research has been conducted on learners, and specifically those learners with ADHD, within a National Education stream. Furthermore, running concurrently with this are new developments in education in South Africa. An inclusive educational policy favours the incorporation of all children into a mainstream scholastic setting, regardless of their diverse needs. In addition to educational changes for children with ADHD, many parents are presently unable to afford the medication commonly used to treat the disorder, resulting in both parents and teachers having to manage these children with limited professional support. It is widely accepted that early assessment and intervention are necessary in order to maximise a child’s potential. For this reason, the primary aim of this study was to explore and describe the developmental profile of children with ADHD on the Griffiths Mental Development Scales-Extended Revised (GMDS-ER). Further aims were to compare the performance of the clinical sample to a normal South African sample. In order to achieve these aims, a quantitative, exploratory-descriptive research design was employed. The sample (N = 38) of ADHD were selected by means of a non-probability, purposive sampling procedure, from various pre-school and primary schools in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The normal sample (N = 38) was drawn from an existing database created during the revision of the Scales. Information was collated using the Conners 39 Item Teacher Rating Scale, biographical data, as well as the results of an assessment from the GMDS-ER. In this study the general performance of the ADHD sample on the GMDS-ER was found to be above average. Furthermore the performance of these children on the six Subscales of the GMDS-ER ranged from average to superior, with the poorest performance being on the Eye and Hand Co-ordination Subscale, and the best performance being on the Performance Subscale. Significant differences between the ADHD and normal sample were found on the General Quotient (GQ) as well as three of the six Subscales, namely, the Hearing and Speech, Eye and Hand Co-ordination and Performance Subscales. Generally, the results of the study suggest that a specific developmental profile for children with ADHD exists. Additionally, the study highlighted the success with which the GMDS-ER can be utilised on a specific clinical population.

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a key enabling technology for the migration of circuit-switched PSTN architectures to packet-based IP networks. However, this migration is successful only if the present problems in IP networks are addressed before deploying VoIP infrastructure on a large scale. One of the important issues that the present VoIP networks face is the problem of unwanted calls commonly referred to as SPIT (spam over Internet telephony). Mostly, these SPIT calls are from unknown callers who broadcast unwanted calls. There may be unwanted calls from legitimate and known people too. In this case, the unwantedness depends on social proximity of the communicating parties. For detecting these unwanted calls, I propose a framework that analyzes incoming calls for unwanted behavior. The framework includes a VoIP spam detector (VSD) that analyzes incoming VoIP calls for spam behavior using trust and reputation techniques. The framework also includes a nuisance detector (ND) that proactively infers the nuisance (or reluctance of the end user) to receive incoming calls. This inference is based on past mutual behavior between the calling and the called party (i.e., caller and callee), the callee's presence (mood or state of mind) and tolerance in receiving voice calls from the caller, and the social closeness between the caller and the callee. The VSD and ND learn the behavior of callers over time and estimate the possibility of the call to be unwanted based on predetermined thresholds configured by the callee (or the filter administrators). These threshold values have to be automatically updated for integrating dynamic behavioral changes of the communicating parties. For updating these threshold values, I propose an automatic calibration mechanism using receiver operating characteristics curves (ROC). The VSD and ND use this mechanism for dynamically updating thresholds for optimizing their accuracy of detection. In addition to unwanted calls to the callees in a VoIP network, there can be unwanted traffic coming into a VoIP network that attempts to compromise VoIP network devices. Intelligent hackers can create malicious VoIP traffic for disrupting network activities. Hence, there is a need to frequently monitor the risk levels of critical network infrastructure. Towards realizing this objective, I describe a network level risk management mechanism that prioritizes resources in a VoIP network. The prioritization scheme involves an adaptive re-computation model of risk levels using attack graphs and Bayesian inference techniques. All the above techniques collectively account for a domain-level VoIP security solution.

No description available.

Although drug therapy is the more common treatment of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and has been shown to reduce symptoms, the benefits of the theraputic drugs are temporary, and the therapy can have adverse side effects. For these reasons, many prefer not to use drug therapy for ADHD. Alternative treatments have been shown to have some efficacy, especially when used in conjunction with drug therapy. Dynamic Systems theory suggests that an intervention which combines graphomotor exercises with music may have a positive effect on a child's behavior and attention. A 2 x 2 pretest-posttest design tested the hypothesis that both children diagnosed with ADHD as well as children without ADHD would significantly improve on measures of attention, behavior inhibition and handwriting when those children received the graphomotor and music intervention. The intervention was designed according to the instructions in the handbook "Training the Brain to Pay Attention the Write Way" authored by Farmer and published by Writebrain Press in Denver, Colorado in 1993.

The aim of this study was to describe the laryngeal anatomy, perceptual, acoustic and aerodynamic vocal characteristics of school-aged children with and without ADHD. The predisposition that children with ADHD have for laryngeal injuries are recurrent in nature and are more often than not overlooked as laryngitis. Previous studies have reported varied results on the prevalence rates of paediatric VFN within the school-aged ADHD population. A static, two-group comparison was used in the study to investigate the clinical, perceptual, acoustic and aerodynamic vocal characteristics of children between 7 and 9 years old with and without ADHD. The study replicated the protocol as executed by Barona-Lleo and Fernandez (2016) with additions. The Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP) and the Voice Range Profile (VRP) as additions to the assessment of vocal parameters were used with which comparable dysphonia severity index (DSI) scores were calculated. Once-off clinical, perceptual, acoustic and aerodynamic voice assessments were conducted on 20 age-gender matched participants. The difference in assessment results between the vocal characteristics of children without a history of ADHD (control group) and those of children with ADHD (ADHD group) was then investigated and described. Forty five percent (n=9) of the total sample population had laryngeal pathology. Comparable parent reported etiological voice symptoms and vocal habits were seen across both groups. Both groups performed similarly across both perceptual and aerodynamic voice assessments. Acoustically, the control group achieved significantly higher producible pitches than the ADHD group (p=0.028) and were found to have more dysphonic DSI scores than their ADHD group peers (p=0.034). Prepubertal, school-aged children with or without ADHD may have similar vocal characteristics than previously thought. This variation in school-aged children warrants further research into larger sample sizes with this population with a special focus on the effect that CNS stimulants may have on the voice. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / MCommunication Pathology / Unrestricted

Bakgrund: ADHD är en neuropsykiatrisk störning där symtomen kännetecknas av ouppmärksamhet, impulsivitet och hyperaktivitet. ADHD är en av de vanligaste diagnoserna bland barn och många barn som diagnostiseras har problem med utbildning och fungera socialt. Barnets symtom påverkar familjelivet och familjer med ett barn med ADHD visade sig ha mer utmaningar än andra familjer Syfte: Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att beskriva föräldrars erfarenheter av att leva med ett barn som har diagnosen ADHD Metod: En beskrivande litteraturstudie. Totalt 10 kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar inkluderades. Artiklarna söktes i databaserna Cinahl och Medline via PubMed. Huvudresultat: I resultatet framkom att föräldrar som levde med ett barn med ADHD upplevde utmaningar som väckte många olika känslor i dem. Föräldrar fick inte alltid ihop livspusslet samtidigt som de skulle hantera barnets symtom, vilket resulterade i höga nivåer av stress. Föräldrar upplevde stigmatiserande attityder och ett missnöje mot vården och samhället. Föräldrar var överens om att det fanns en oförståelse kring ADHD och uppfattade vägen till en diagnos som en svår, ensam och lång process. Slutsats: Att vara förälder till ett barn med ADHD visade sig vara tufft och utmanande. Resultatet visade att det behövs mer resurser, utbildning och forskning för att kunna ge familjer hjälpen de behöver. Okunskap kan leda till skador, både för familjerna i hemmet, inom vården och framförallt barnen som lider av denna funktionsnedsättning. Med rätt professionell hjälp kan familjerna få en fungerande vardag. För att sjuksköterskor ska kunna ge den bästa möjliga omvårdnad krävs rätt förutsättningar och verktyg som sedan kan föras vidare till familjerna. / Background: ADHD is a neuropsychiatric disorder in which the symptoms are characterized by inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. ADHD is one of the most common diagnoses among children and many children who diagnosed have problems with education and function socially. The child's symptoms affect family life and families with a child with ADHD were found to have more challenges than other families. Aim: The aim of this literature study was to describe parents' experiences of living with a child diagnosed with ADHD. Method: A descriptive literature study. A total of 10 qualitative scientific articles were included. The articles were searched in the Cinahl and Medline databases via PubMed. Main findings: The results showed that parents who lived with a child with ADHD experienced challenges that aroused many different emotions in them. Parents did not always get the puzzle of life together while dealing with the child's symptoms, which resulted in high levels of stress. Parents experienced stigmatizing attitudes and dissatisfaction with care and society. Parents agreed that there was a misunderstanding about ADHD and perceived the path to a diagnosis as a difficult, lonely and long process. Conclusion: Being the parent of a child with ADHD proved to be tough and challenging. The results showed that more resources, education and research are needed to be able to give families the help they need. Ignorance can lead to injuries, both for the families at home, in care and especially the children who suffer from this disability. With the right professional help, families can have a functioning everyday life. In order for nurses to be able to provide the best possible care, the right conditions and tools are required, which can then be passed on to the families.

Syftet med denna studie är att utveckla kunskapen om sambandet mellan ADHD-symptom och utsatthet för brott genom att undersöka sambandet mellan särskilda symptom relaterade till ADHD, rutinaktiviteter och utsatthet för brott. Det finns inte mycket forskning om hur ADHD-symptom kan påverka utsattheten och därav ämnar studien att minska kunskapsluckan. Studien är en kvantitativ studie där 203 respondenter, män och kvinnor, mellan åldrarna 16-100 år besvarar en enkät med olika frågor om ADHD-symptom, rutinaktiviteter och utsatthet för brott. Först gjordes deskriptiv univariat analys av de beroende respektive oberoende variablerna. Vidare gjordes bivariata analyser av ADHD-symtom och utsatthet för brott i kombination med rutinaktiviteter. Slutligen gjordes den binära logistiska regressionsanalysen som undersökte ifall ADHD-symtom kan predicera utsatthet som utfall, vilken jämförs med modeller för rutinaktiviteter. Resultatet påvisar statistiskt signifikanta samband mellan ADHD-symtom och utsatthet för brott, respektive upprepad utsatthet för brott. I den binära logistiska regressionsanalysen framkommer det att både ADHD-symtom och rutinaktiviteter enskilt kan predicera utsatthet för brott, respektive upprepad utsatthet för brott som utfall, men förmågan att predicera utsatthet ökar när symtom och rutinaktiviteter kombineras. Den primära slutsatsen av denna studie är således att kombinationen av ADHD-symtom och rutinaktiviteter är den bästa prediktorn för utsatthet för brott, respektive upprepad utsatthet för brott som utfall. / The aim of this study is to evolve the knowledge of the relationship between symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and crime victimization, by examining correlations between particular symptoms related to ADHD, routine activities and crime victimization. There isn't much research on how ADHD-symptoms can affect victimization and therefore this study aims to reduce the knowledge gap. The study is performed as a quantitative survey, where 203 respondents, male and female, between the ages 16-100 years answer questions about different symptoms related to ADHD, routine activities and crime victimization. The analysis began with a descriptive univariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, followed by a bivariate analysis of ADHD-symptoms combination with routine activity. Finally the binary logistic regressionanalysis was used to create models of prediction to test if symptoms of ADHD can predict crime victimization and repeated crime victimization in comparison with routine activity. The results show statistically significant associations between symptoms related to ADHD, crime victimization and repeated crime victimization. In the binary logistic regression analysis it appears that both symptoms of ADHD and routine activities individually can predict crime victimization and repeated crime victimization. However, the combination of these increase the ability to predict crime victimization and repeated crime victimization The primary conclusion of this study is thus that the combination of ADHD symptoms and routine activities is the best predictor of crime victimization and repeated crime victimization.

The purpose of this exploratory and descriptive study was to determine the association (if any) between the self-concept awareness and emotion- focused coping of children with ADHD. Theories informing this study were Barkley’s conceptualisation of ADHD, Bandura’s social cognitive theory as a means of understanding self-concept awareness and Gonzales and Seller’s theory of emotion- focused coping. The study was conducted by means of an intervention research design. I purposively selected two children with ADHD and their respective parents, educators and therapists to participate in the study. Ebersöhn’s intrapersonal regulation intervention was implemented with the child participants at different intervals. Both child participant’s self-concept awareness and emotion- focused coping strategies were assessed pre- and post intervention, through the use of formal interviews and observations. The data was analysed and interpreted through thematic analysis. The following themes emerged; self-concept awareness, adaptive emotion-focused- coping strategies and maladaptive emotion- focused coping strategies. Findings of the study confirmed that prior to the intervention, the two child participants were predisposed towards emotion- focused coping, especially maladaptive emotion- focused coping strategies. Post- intervention findings suggested that increased self-concept awareness resulted in the use of two adaptive emotion- focused coping strategies (namely relaxation methods and re-appraisal) with maladaptive emotion- focused coping (namely direct- active physical aggression and direct-passive aggression) remaining. Thus, an association exists between self-concept awareness and emotion- focused coping in children with ADHD. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests as a developmentally inappropriate pattern of inattention, and hyperactivity or impulsivity. ADHD is a multifactorial disorder with inter alia deficits in selective attention processing. The current diagnosis of ADHD is error-prone as it relies on subjective descriptions and external observations of behavior. Measures that are less reliant on subjective descriptions can enable more accurate and informative diagnoses of ADHD. Wang et al. (2016) have identified two event-related potential (ERP) components, posterior contralateral N2 (N2pc) and distractor positivity (PD) as predictors of ADHD symptom severity in children. N2pc reflects target selection and PD reflects distractor suppression during visual selective attention. The present study aimed to examine how target-evoked N2pc and distractor-evoked PD related to attentional capacity in non-clinical adults. Participants were presented with a visual search paradigm and a self-report scale, the Everyday Life Attention Scale (ELAS). The amplitude of target-evoked N2pc and distractor-evoked PD amplitude was compared to ELAS score in multiple linear regression models. Results displayed that the peak amplitude of target-evoked N2pc was a significant predictor of attentional capacity (as measured with ELAS), while the peak amplitude of distractor-evoked PD was not associated with attentional capacity. Participants with higher attentional capacity (ELAS score) displayed less negative peak amplitudes of target-evoked N2pc. This seems to suggest that target selection, but not distractor suppression in nonclinical adults can predict attentional capacity. However, due to a limited sample size, further research is needed before drawing any major conclusions.

This study investigated the effects of a standing desk on academically engaged time during instruction. The study was conducted with two male students with a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The first participant was in first grade and the second was in eighth grade. The target behaviors for these participants were on-task engagement with academic content during instructional periods in the classroom. The intervention took place in the students’ general education classrooms by introducing a standing desk into the classroom. A traditional ABAB reversal intervention design was used for the first grader, while the eighth grade participant had an alternating treatments design. The results of the study show the standing desk had a mild effect for the first grade student while it had a more positive effect on the eight grade student. Social Validity indicates that the intervention was well received by teachers but slightly less by students