Thesis (Doctor of Education) in Individualized Ph. D. Program--University of Maine, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-221).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 1999. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-107). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9955922.

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Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-126).

This dissertation focuses on the definitions and understandings of literacy support revealed by three teachers and two teacher assistants in their interactions with five children identified with learning disabilities in two grade 6 integrated classrooms. The nature of this support was revealed through interactions among students and their teachers, teacher assistants and peers while engaged in language arts activities in a pull-in, co-teaching model of support over a three-month semester. The data consist of the transcriptions of 29 separate audio-tapes of 60 minute duration which were recorded on average of two times each week. Thirty classroom interactions (each 50- minutes long) and 13 interviews with participants were recorded. The classroom support interactions and the interviews have been examined using a qualitative software tool (QSR NUD*IST) for the nature, understandings and perceptions regarding literacy support in language arts classes. Data were also analyzed for the text-accessing structures, strategies and technologies explicitly taught or made available to learners with LD in each classroom. The findings from this study add to the existing literature by identifying three dynamics of support for learners with learning disabilities in language arts classrooms. First, it offers definitions and descriptions of specific helping practices and attitudes of staff and students which serve to either access or restrict involvement in the language arts lessons. Second, it identifies attitudes and practices which diminish effective support for learners of this profile, and finally it reveals the importance of three teachers’ understanding and beliefs in three important areas that affected language arts instruction and student participation: a) adaptation and modification of curricula to suit individual needs; b) ways for learners to represent knowledge; and c) views on school-related abilities. Findings derived from the data regarding one teacher’s practices in the language arts classroom showed an inadequate understanding of these three concepts which negatively impacted the literacy experiences for the at-risk students. A second teacher’s practices showed an understanding of the concepts which resulted in satisfactory support for students with LD. The study also suggests that some of the practices directed at students with LD may have beneficial implications for general population students including First Nations children. / Graduate

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M.A. (Psychology) / Specific learning disability (SLD) implies an inability to learn in an efficient manner. An SLD child may be defined as a child with a disability in one or more of the areas of speech, language, reading writing or other school subjects, where the disability cannot be ascribed to a generally low cognitive ability, sensory disability, emotional disturbance, cultural deprivation or bad teaching methods, but may be attributed to an underlying brain dysfunction. One of the most important symptoms of SLD is an attentional deficit. There are, however, many questions regarding the nature and extent of the attentional deficit and this study attempted to provide more information in this area. Possible attentional deficits may be investigated by considering a person's ability to pay attention to relevant stimuli, as well as his ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli. Two experimental conditions, attention and disregard, were set up in this study. Firstly, the attention and disregard conditions were compared to provide a better understanding of these processes, by establishing whether the two experimental conditions produced differences in level of arousal in the subjects as reflected in the electrical activity of the brain. The primary question was then investigated, namely whether SLD children showed attentional deficits when instructed to pay attention to relevant stimuli as well as when instructed to ignore irrelevant stimuli. The secondary question considered was whether SLD children's attentional deficits were related to a lag in brain development. These issues were investigated by comparing 57 SLD and 57 normal boys of the same age in terms of the auditory evoked potential (AEP). AEPs were analysed in terms of amplitude, latency and complexity (number of components) • Significantly higher amplitudes were found during the attention than during the disregard condition in both SLD and normal boys. This was interpreted as an indication of an increased level of arousal during the attention condition. Longer latencies were found during the attention than during the disregard condition in both groups. This was regarded as an indication that more time was spent on information processing during the attention condition, perhaps as a result of the greater amount of information whi~h had to be processed during this condition. The following statistically significant differences between the SLD and normal groups were obtained. SLD boys had higher amplitudes than normal boys during the attention and especially during the disregard condition. This suggested a higher level of arousal in SLD than in normal children. The SLD child's level of arousal is probably too high to pay efficient attention to relevant stimuli, but especially tbo high to ignore irrelevant stimuli. There were also indications of differences in level of brain development. SLD subjects had longer latencies and fewer components than normals. These were regarded as indications of retarded brain development in SLD as compared with normal boys. Because of the lag in brain development, there is a slower rate of information processing as measured by latency differences, and a less differentiated style of information processing as measured by complexity differences, in SLD subjects. The lag in brain development might, in fact, be the basis for SLD boys attentional deficits. Implications of these findings for areas such as remedial education were also discussed.

This exploratory study investigated the similarities and differences between two assessment measures — the Kindergarten School Learning Profile teacher ratings and the Gordon Diagnostic System — in identifying children who would likely be at-risk for experiencing school failure as a result of attentional/impulse control deficits displayed in kindergarten. As attentional skills are believed to influence memory, visual memory was also investigated in relation to attention and impulse control. Twenty-eight teacher-nominated "high risk" kindergarten students were identified as functioning within the lowest 10% for overall school readiness. Computerized systematic random selection procedures were used to identify 30 control students. Teacher ratings of attentional and impulse control abilities manifested both within and outside of the classroom were obtained for all children and compared to their vigilant and impulse control performances on the Gordon Diagnostic System (GDS). Visual memory abilities were examined through use of the Bead Memory subtest of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition. The results obtained reveal that normally achieving students were assigned higher qualitative ratings of attention and impulse control by their teachers than were the "high risk" students. Significant relationships between impulsivity (as measured by the GDS) and teacher ratings were unsubstantiated by the data obtained. Only the "high risk" group displayed few significant correlations between teachers' ratings of attentional skills and students' vigilant performances on the GDS. Normally achieving students were found to display significantly better vigilant and impulse control skills on the GDS compared to the poorly achieving "high risk" group. Significant performance deterioration over time was evident on the Vigilance Task but not on the Delay Task of the GDS. Few significant differences between boys and girls in both impulse control and sustained attentional skills were displayed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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