The problem of this study was the examination of selected case-finding approaches for locating handicapped individuals. It was designed to (1) determine the rank order of effectiveness of selected case-finding approaches, within specific census tracts, in locating handicapped individuals aged three to to twenty-one years inclusive, (2) to project the most effective case-finding approach within census tract areas with specified factors of mean income, median education level, and primary home language, and (3) to determine the probability of locating handicapped individuals by a case-finding approach other than the one determined to be the most effective.

While preference assessments are effective at identifying potential reinforcers, they consume large amounts of time and resources. Multiple variations have been developed in order to save time and money when conducting assessments such as briefer versions, pictorial formats, and verbal formats. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of three different brief MSWO procedures at identifying effective reinforcers for children with developmental disabilities. The procedures of the current study examined a tangible brief MSWO procedure which provided access to the edibles, a pictorial brief MSWO procedure which provided access to the edibles, and a pictorial brief MSWO procedure which did not provide access to edibles. After hierarchies from all three assessments were identified, reinforcer assessments were conducted to determine the efficacy of highly preferred stimuli. Results indicated that all three formats were able to identify effective reinforcers, with similar hierarchies produced for three out of four participants.

The purpose of the study is to classify the retarded children from the viewpoint of selection for special education to determine the probable percentage of slow-learning children in the elementary school, and to evaluate the provisions made for the retarded group.

No description available.

In a criminal investigation, witnesses may get asked by the police to provide a perpetrator’s description or to generate a composite image of the perpetrator’s face. Due to their elevated vulnerability to victimisation people with a learning disability (LD) may be more likely than other members of the wider community to find themselves in such situations. Research regarding face recognition and description abilities of this group has been to some extent neglected in the eyewitness research literature. Consequently, guidance for practitioners on how to effectively generate facial composite images with LD witnesses is limited. The current research addresses this issue, by investigating basic and applied face recognition and description abilities in individuals with mild learning disabilities (mLD) during a series of experimental studies. Moreover, potential facilitating measures are introduced and assessed. Five studies were conducted during the course of this thesis. In the first study a survey was designed to collect information on currently used composite systems by UK law enforcement agencies and how operators perceive and treat witnesses with LD. The survey findings confirmed the initial assumption that individuals with LD may indeed find themselves in the situation of having to describe a perpetrator’s face to an investigative officer. Furthermore, the results emphasised the lack of guidance available to operators on how to best meet the special needs of this particular witness population. Study 2 investigated basic face recognition and description abilities in people with mLD and revealed that overall they performed at a lower level than the non-LD controls. Despite this finding, mLD individuals as a group performed above chance levels and they displayed variability in performance depending on the introduced measures. iv Studies 3 and 5 investigated these abilities in a more applied setting, namely during the construction of facial composites with contemporary facial composite systems. Study 3 revealed that composites generated with the E-FIT system, a featural system, were considerably poorer than those created by their non-LD counterparts. Studies 4 and 5 attempted to improve mLD individuals’ performance by applying visual prompts and by using a more holistic facial composite system, i.e. EvoFIT. There was little evidence of the former being advantageous for witnesses with mLD, however, EvoFIT significantly enhanced composite construction abilities in the mLD participants. Finally, the practical and theoretical implications of the main findings are discussed.

No description available.

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.

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) typically learn less history content than their peers without disabilities and show fewer learning gains. Even when they are provided with the same instructional strategies, many students with SLD struggle to grasp complex historical concepts and content area vocabulary. Many strategies involving technology have been used in the past to enhance learning for students with SLD in history classrooms. However, very few studies have explored the effectiveness of emerging mobile technology in K-12 history classrooms. This study investigated the effects of mobile devices (iPads) as an active student response (ASR) system on the acquisition of U.S. history content of middle school students with SLD. An alternating treatments single subject design was used to compare the effects of two interventions. There were two conditions and a series of pretest probesin this study. The conditions were: (a) direct instruction and studying from handwritten notes using the interactive notebook strategy and (b) direct instruction and studying using the Quizlet App on the iPad. There were three dependent variables in this study: (a) percent correct on tests, (b) rate of correct responses per minute, and (c) rate of errors per minute. A comparative analysis suggested that both interventions (studying from interactive notes and studying using Quizlet on the iPad) had varying degrees of effectiveness in increasing the learning gains of students with SLD. In most cases, both interventions were equally effective. During both interventions, all of the participants increased their percentage correct and increased their rate of correct responses. Most of the participants decreased their rate of errors. The results of this study suggest that teachers of students with SLD should consider a post lesson review in the form of mobile devices as an ASR system or studying from handwritten notes paired with existing evidence-based practices to facilitate students’ knowledge in U.S. history. Future research should focus on the use of other interactive applications on various mobile operating platforms, on other social studies subjects, and should explore various testing formats such as oral question-answer and multiple choice.

Assertive training was investigated to determine its usefulness in teaching mildly retarded women to become more assertive. The 10 subjects (ages 18-35, WAIS VIQ 50-75) were randomly assigned to either the assertive training or the control group. Experimental subjects received 5 weeks of daily assertive training sessions which employed modeling, behavior rehearsal, and focused instructions in a group setting. Specific components of assertive behavior were taught in the following order: (a) assertive refusals, (b) assertive requests, (c) posture, (d) eye contact, and (e) loudness, Results of a behavioral role-playing task administered to both groups before and after treatment revealed that assertaive training subjects made significantly greater improvement than controls in their assertive content, Additionally, these subjects manifested significantly more improvement than control subjects on a global assertiveness measure.

This master thesis deals with the questions of teaching the small school children to read. Particularly, there is paid attention to teaching children with reading disorders. The theoretical part of the thesis specifies the reading disorders and the methods of work which lead to the succesful training of the reading abilities. The practical part of the thesis subsumes working with children of the small school "ZŠ Josefa Suka" and the kindergarten "MŠ Křečovice,preparing materials for teaching reading to either children without any learning disabilites or those with disabilites and verifying the materials in practical training.