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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Research endeavoring to determine the effect of a mild sensorineural hearing-impairment on academic performance has resulted in conflicting conclusions. To date, there has been limited research on the educational implications of a mild hearing loss in the elementary grades but very few studies have utilized a normal-hearing control group to compare with the hearing-impaired and none have examined whether a relationship exists beyond sixth grade. This study measured the academic performance of mildly hearing-impaired children by comparing them with their normal-hearing counterparts. The achievement scores of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills from twelve pairs of children in the 5th through 8th grades were compared. The results revealed no statistical significance between the two groups for grade levels, age, or subject matter areas. However, the grade equivalent mean score of the hearing-impaired group was poorer than that of the normal hearing control group in the 4th and 5th grade. Scores on sub-tests were also lower for the hearing-impaired students during these same grades. After 5th grade a pattern was not observed, with this small number of students. The study discusses the implications of these results indicating the hearing-impaired student is at academic risk through 5th grade.

Academic cheating frequency, motivating factors for cheating, and student reasons for cheating have been studied extensively for decades, but nearly all of the research has been conducted with typically-developing students. To date, only one published study has examined cheating among students with learning disabilites, despite over 2 million students in American schools having been diagnosed with a learning disability. Students who engage in academic cheating, as well as students who have learning disabilities, are more likely to have low levels of self-efficacy, hold more performance goal orientations, and have higher levels of impulsivity. Therefore, in the present study, individuals with a learning disability were expected to cite significantly more reasons for cheating related to those three variables, as well as to endorse cheating as being acceptable in more academic situations. Learning disability status, cheating tolerance, and reasons for cheating were measured in 77 Amazon Mechnical Turk adult participants through self-report surveys. Results revealed no difference in cheating tolerance between individuals with learning disabilities and their typically-developing peers. Individuals with a learning disability cited significantly more reasons for cheating related to low self-efficacy and performance goal orientations compared to their typically-developing peers, but not for reasons related to impulsivity. Strengths, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

The purpose of this project was to examine and explore negotiating strategies for parents with children with disabilities. The research showed there were insufficient materials for teaching negotiating strategies to parents to assist them in obtaining critical or basic services for their special needs children. Many families lack financial resources, have English-language barriers, and have educational challenges when facing school administrators that possess these vital resources. These circumstances mean that parents may feel intimidated and disempowered when meeting with school officials. By providing a simple and easy-to-use guide of Negotiating Strategies, parents can be empowered and encouraged to use their skills for negotiation, conflict management, power, networking and mediation during an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting. The guide will increase awareness and understanding for parents when participating with school administrators, allowing them to capitalize on their rights for seeking appropriate and needed services for their children with disabilities.

The Nigerian educational system is humanistic, nationally centered and open to all cultural, ethnic and tribal influences. The policy of Nigeria is to realize mass and practical education. However, the present system is highly selective and academically oriented. This study is done while education in Nigeria is in a period of revolution. Radical changes have been taken to keep up the national demand for progress and power. Dyslexia, one of the leading causes of reading difficulties, is a term still unknown to some educators in Nigerian schools. This stems mainly from the fact that Nigerian public schools lack sufficient personnels trained in the area of Special Education in general and Remedial Reading in particular.

Young adults with disabilities face barriers that affect their financial capability and financial inclusion in the marketplace. Barriers include a lack of autonomy, skills, and opportunities. This mixed method strengths and needs assessment aimed to explain and explore the financial skills and goals of young adults with disabilities. A standardized scale captured young adults with disabilities financial skills, photovoice participatory action research documented their valued financial skills and goals, and semi-structured interviews notated parents financial aspirations and goals for their daughters and sons. The mixed methods analysis suggested young adults with disabilities underlying financial skills fell 25 percent below the average score among U.S. adults; valued financial skills and goals included their hobbies, talents, and continued education to pursue a livelihood; and parents aspired that their daughter or son acquired meaningful employment, independence to include financial independence, and money management skills.

Historically, disabled people have not been viewed as innovators of humor because disability is associated with tragedy. My dissertation challenged the association of disability with tragedy by positioning disabled comedians as educators and ambassadors of disability rights. I reviewed the literature on disability and humor as well as disability oppression, which disability humor challenges. I used phenomenology as well as culturally responsive methodologies to examine what disabled comedians are achieving with their humor and what nondisabled audience members learned from attending their performances. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning was used to examine learning outcomes for audience members. I examined historical and contemporary Black humor, which is much older than disability humor in order to investigate what may be the future of disability humor.