Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2009. / English Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> Many students with Down syndrome now receive reading instruction in either inclusion-focused or skill-based instructional settings. There are, however, varied results in the level of reading skills that students with Down syndrome attain. The focus of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference in the reading skill acquisition of students with Down syndrome between those students placed for reading instruction by grade and those students placed in a developmentally appropriate classroom. The specific type of quantitative research design used was quantitative non-experimental because the study used archival data collected in previous testing for a different evaluation. This study analyzed the Wisconsin Alternate Assessment for Students with Disabilities (WAA-SwD) of 136 elementary school students with Down syndrome. The study compared the reading scores of students with Down syndrome placed for reading instruction in a classroom by chronological age with scores of Down syndrome students placed in an a developmentally appropriate classroom. The research questions related to whether there was a significant difference in reading skills acquisition for elementary school students with Down syndrome after receiving either grade-based or skill-based instruction. The hypotheses were tested using a <i>t</i> test. Based on the analysis, there was no significant difference in reading skills acquisition for elementary school students with Down syndrome when their scores were grouped by the two types of instruction (grade-based versus skill-based) they receive after controlling for the student&rsquo;s demographic characteristic of grade level. The importance of this study can inform the educational community of the specific response to the question of the consequence of placement for reading instruction on reading acquisition. The findings provided from this research study will benefit future studies and classroom planning.</p><p>

<p> The influence of sign language comprehension on reading has been well-documented in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary-aged deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HOH) children and adults. There is limited research into the predictive nature of sign language comprehension on literacy outcomes in D/HOH children in preschool and early elementary school, however. This research addressed this gap by investigating group differences between D/HOH children who primarily communicated through sign language alone and D/HOH children who primarily communicated through sign supported spoken language on measures of American Sign Language (ASL) comprehension, sign supported English (SSE) comprehension, letter/word recognition, and reading comprehension. The relationship between ASL comprehension and SSE comprehension on word identification and reading comprehension was also examined. A longitudinal design was utilized and data analyzed with linear mixed models. Participants were D/HOH children 4-6-years-old at the beginning of the study and followed for two years. </p><p> Children who communicated primarily through sign language alone had significantly higher comprehension of ASL than children who communicated primarily through sign supported spoken language. There were no significant group differences in growth of ASL comprehension, however. There were no significant group differences in comprehension of SSE, letter/word recognition, passage comprehension or growth pattern in these skills. Both ASL comprehension and SSE comprehension predicted letter/word identification and passage comprehension final status whereas only SSE comprehension predicted growth pattern. When word identification was examined in addition to the language predictors, the random effects of the model could not be estimated so statistical inferences for the predictive utility of ASL comprehension on reading comprehension above SSE comprehension and word identification could not be drawn. </p><p> Implications for service delivery in early intervention, progress monitoring of language skills, instruction, and personnel preparation are discussed. Because of the significant variation in language development initial status, further research is recommended into sources of individual variation in language outcomes. Future longitudinal research is needed to examine the age range from early childhood through elementary school, include multiple measures of linguistic competence, and identify the influence of new hearing technology and language experience. Furthermore, intervention studies aimed at improving language development are warranted given its relationship with literacy.</p><p>

Background and Aim: The spiritual lives of people with ID has been under researched (Swinton, 2002; Turner et al., 2004) and as yet, no research has been carried out comparing faith-based and non-faith-based services for people with ID. This research explores and compares a faith-based care organisation with a non-faith based care organisation with the aim of investigating the significance of spiritual/religious based principles as modes of care to the quality of life of individuals, acknowledging that non-faith based care providers may provide ‘a spiritual/religious environment’, explicitly or non-explicitly. Method: A mixed-method design using both qualitative and quantitative methods was utilised. Six months were spent volunteering within each community in order to engage in participant observation of both care organisations. Quantitative methods included the Quality of Life Questionnaire; Self-esteem Scale and the Social Network Guide in addition to semi-structured interview schedules. Results: People with ID were found to enjoy spiritual/religious based activities, with spirituality being an important aspect of their quality of life. Staff from the non-faith based service provided religious spiritual care mainly through church attendance, whilst staff from the faith-based service provided both religious and non-religious spiritual care. Staff from both care services reported that practical implementation of spiritual/ religious care tended to be overridden by legalistic administrative tasks, communication issues and staff availability. Conclusion: There is a need for ID services to not only acknowledge but also facilitate spirituality in the lives of people with ID.

La straordinaria attenzione sociale e culturale che nelle ultime decadi si è rivolta alla diagnosi di autismo/sindrome di Asperger chiama a una riflessione più ampia per contestualizzarne levenienza come oggetto culturale. Il presente lavoro muove in tale direzione, proponendosi di individuare le coordinate sociali, istituzionali e culturali che hanno portato a una simile esposizione delle disabilità relazionali. Storia quindi dello spettro autistico e sua preistoria, ovvero ricerca su come le forme della non conformità alle attese dellaltro nellinterazione in presenza siano state tematizzate, anteriormente al modello medico e ai suoi albori. A fianco della ricerca storica si è inoltre cercato di sostanziare il discorso di contestualizzazione culturale dello spettro autistico in quellambito settoriale dei Disability Studies che sono i Critical Autism Studies attraverso una ricognizione degli autori e dei temi. / A extraordinária atenção social e cultural que nas últimas décadas tem se dado ao diagnóstico do autismo/síndrome de Asperger convida a uma reflexão mais ampla para contextualizar o seu acontecimento como objeto cultural. É nesta direção que se move o presente trabalho, buscando identificar as coordenadas sociais, institucionais e culturais que levaram a tal exposição da deficiência relacional. Fala da história do espectro do autismo e sua pré-história ou a investigação sobre como as formas de não-conformidade com as expectativas da interação na presença do outro foram contextualizados, antes do modelo médico e em seus primeiros dias. Além disso, também têm procurado articular o discurso da contextualização cultural do espectro do autismo na area dos estudos sobre a deficiência chamada Critical Autism Studies por meio de um levantamento analítico dos autores e dos temas.

<p> Disability is often perceived as a rare phenomenon that only affects a small number of people (Dewsbury, Clarke, Randall, Rouncefield, &amp; Sommerville, 2004), despite the fact that 12% of the U.S. public schools student population receives special education services (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016) that remove them from the general education setting. This state of affairs contradicts the mandates of IDEA (Ginsburg &amp; Rapp, 2013) and perpetuates the idea that it is acceptable to ostracize those who are born different (Waldschmidt, 2015). This qualitative study reported the findings from 16 interviews with secondary educators from Southern California regarding the inclusion of students who are disabled in the general education setting. An analysis of these interviews showed that the participants&rsquo; views of disability adhered to either the medical or social model of disability, and influenced what they perceived as barriers to, or facilitators of, inclusion. The findings also showed that the participants felt three major components were necessary for the successful implementation of inclusion: (positive) teacher perspectives, a campus culture that fosters inclusion, and administrative leadership. Implications for this study include: (a) the use of a disability studies framework throughout administration and teacher training programs; and (b) the hiring of employees who reflect the student population, such as people with disabilities.</p><p>

<p> Teaching students with Intellectual Disability (ID) is a relatively new endeavor. Beginning in 2001 with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the general education curriculum integrated algebra across the K-12 curriculum (Kendall, 2011; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices &amp; Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), and expansion of the curriculum included five intertwined skills (productive disposition, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and conceptual understanding) (Kilpatrick, Swafford, &amp; Findell, 2001). Researchers are just beginning to explore the potential of students with ID with algebra (Browder, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Harris &amp; Wakeman, 2008; Creech-Galloway, Collins, Knight, &amp; Bausch, 2013; Courtade, Spooner, Browder, &amp; Jimenez, 2012; G&ouml;ransson, Hellblom-Thibblin, &amp; Axdorph, 2016). Most of the research examines the development of procedural fluency (G&ouml;ransson et al., 2016) and few researchers have explored high school level skills. </p><p> Using a single-case multiple-baseline across participants design, the study proposes to teach two algebra skills to six high school students with ID, creating an equation (<i>y</i> = <i>mx</i> + <i> b</i>) from a graph of a line and creating a graph from an equation. The six high school students with ID will be recruited from a school district in central Virginia. The intervention package modeled after Jimenez, Browder, and Courtade (2008), included modeling, templates, time delay prompting, and a task analysis. Results showed that all six individuals improved performance during intervention for the target skills over baseline; results also indicated that in three out of the six cases some generalization to the inverse skill occurred without supplemental intervention. The ability of individuals with ID to generalize the learning without intervention provides some evidence that individuals with ID are developing conceptual understanding while learning procedural fluency.</p><p>

Guided by feminist social constructionism, intersectionality and the social construction of disability, this thesis investigates the ways that sexual assault support workers and disability support workers in a medium-sized Ontario city construct women survivors of sexual assault who have a developmental disability, and how their service delivery reflects these constructions. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with sexual assault support workers and disability support workers. Results suggest that these workers construct their service users in multiple, sometimes conflicting, ways, resisting and reproducing several ableist and sexist social constructions. Furthermore, sexual assault support workers and disability support workers often construct their service users in opposing ways. This reveals a divide between the two types of organizations. Bridging this gap may have the potential to improve services for women survivors of sexual assault who have developmental disabilities.

abstract: Despite the changing social, legal, and political context in influencing the definition of mental disability, medical scholarship has maintained its position as the primary reference to interpret mental disability in the immigration system. This preliminary study examines the role of medical scholarship in attributing to the exclusion of undesired immigrants through its definition of mental disability. This paper focuses upon immigration cases to determine the patterns that emerge when immigration intersects with mental disability. The data consists of four immigration court cases in 1951-1985, 1986-2005, 2006-2015, which mark the shift of immigration policy in the United States of America (US). The court documents are collected from websites that provide online access to these documents. The examination of the cases focuses on three important criterions: a summary of cases, mental disability circumstances, and judges’ considerations. This paper uses the analysis of political deviance in courtroom settings to get an understanding of the shift in the definition of mental disability in the immigration court by tracing economic, political, and social environments that are intertwined and relevant in creating a ‘mental disabilitiy’ definition. This study suggests that medical scholarship has historically become powerful in shaping mental disability as a form of social control. From historical and case analysis, there have been changes in policies and processes toward immigrants appear to take place in the aftermath of major events—World War II, AIDS epidemic, 9/11 terrorist attack, and now Covid-19 pandemic. Preliminary examination of documented cases suggests future analysis could look at how these major events shape immigration processes and policies that more heavily rely on definitions of mental illness and use competency to stand trial proceedings to indefinitely detain people. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Justice Studies 2020

The problem examined in this study was the lack of policy in New York State regarding the provision of prioritized residential services for intellectually disabled individuals who are being cared for by an aging caregiver. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and document the needs experienced by aging parents regarding securing the future of their intellectually disabled adult child. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Sabatier’s advocacy coalition framework. The research questions examined the lived experiences of aging parents caring for an adult child with an intellectual disability what parents perceive their needs are in order to secure their adult intellectually disabled child’s future. Data were retrieved from 5 parents who resided in New York State. The findings from this study confirmed existing literature indicating that aging parents will need to secure residential placement or alternative living arrangements before they can no longer care for their adult intellectually disabled child. Another finding from this study was that the pertinent service delivery program does not provide direct assistance to these families. Therefore, advocacy was a necessary action in order to obtain services. The voices of the parents could influence policy makers to make aging parents with an adult intellectually disabled child a higher priority when seeking residential placement, provide direct representation from OPWDD, and provide residential placement that fits the ID adult’s needs. These programmatic changes may result in positive social change for this population