The aims of the present research were to describe in more detail than previous investigations the occurrence and nature of sleep problems and behaviours in children with Down's syndrome compared with other learning disabled and non-learning disabled groups and to investigate the psychological associations of these sleep problems. The research has been conducted in two distinct phases. In the first phase, the prevalence and range of sleep disorders was investigated in a group of children with Down's syndrome (n=91)u sing parentalq uestionnaires.T he findings were comparedw ith a group of their nonlearning disabled brothers and sisters (n=54), a group of children from the general population (n=78) and a group of children with other forms of learning disability of various aetiologies (n=71). Questionnairesw ere sent via schools in one county of the UK. Overall, children with Down's syndrome and children with other forms of learning disability showed a significantly greater number of sleep disorders than the siblings and children from the general population. However, different patterns of sleep disorders were seen in the two groups of children with learning disabilities. The findings indicated that the sleep problems of children with Down's syndrome were predominantly physical in origin and were related to disordered breathing and possibly obstructive sleep apnoea. Various significant associations between sleep disorders and daytime behaviour problems, excessive daytime sleepiness and maternal stress were also found. The second phase consisted of a series of studies in which some of the issues from the first phase were investigated. Overnight recordings were carried out on a group of local children (n=31) including video and audio recording, oximetry and activity monitoring during sleep. Information on the children's daytime behaviour was collected from parents and teachers and a Continuous Performance Task assessment was performed on the children the next day. Study 1 assessed the accuracy of parents' reports of the two main features used in the clinical assessment of sleep related breathing disorders, namely restlessness during sleep and snoring. Study 2 investigated associations between objective measures of restlessness, snoring and blood oxygen saturation during sleep. Study 3 investigated associations between these objective overnight measures and daytime psychological function to determine the psychological significance of these measures in children with Down's syndrome. The research carried out and the implications of the findings are discussed together with future research possibilities.

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Recent research has begun focusing on the connections between reading and mathematics. Little research, however, has examined connections between mathematics and other reading related skills, such as spelling. Moreover, working memory may a play a significant role in both systems. Results indicated a significant predictive relationship between spelling and mathematics. Furthermore, this relationship was found to be partially mediated by measures of phonological working memory.

Although the policies and practices of special education are openly constructed around a premise of mobility and opportunity, students from low income backgrounds (‘at risk’ youth) are twice as likely to be labeled “special.” Moreover, of all the special educational categories, learning disabilities (a diagnosis deeply contested) account for the largest group of special educational students who are ‘at risk’ learners. This project is hinged on addressing how those students who are apparent beneficiaries of special educational policies and programs (evidenced by post-secondary enrolment) make meaning of their prior and current educational experiences in relation to special educational policies, services and programs. The author begins by theorizing that such disabilities may medicalize social problems while still preserving a veneer of equality. However, since not all labels have universal meanings when applied to specific social agents, they may both hinder and help some in gaining access to post secondary education. With the support of a group of four enrolled post secondary students located in the Canadian urban west-coast, who identify as learning disabled and the recipients of related interventions, this thesis provides a complex reading of the everyday that draws upon how the students’ specific cultural and material locations inform their understanding of education, ability, disability, meritocracy and normalcy. Collecting data through semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted during the Spring and Fall of 2007, the students actively engage and challenge the author’s original theoretical and methodological assumptions. Anticipating critiques of special education, the author is surprised by the students’ support of such programs. Expecting responses to interview questions to be based on a reading of meritocracy as normalcy and disability as deficit, these students weave understandings of meritocracy and normalcy to articulate their abilities without rejecting their disability labels. In terms of policy where the emphasis is placed on disability as deficit, the findings imply that policy-makers neglect the energy and labour students invest in emphasizing their abilities. For educators, this reveals an important pedagogy of inclusion by inverting assumptions that special educational students are ‘at risk’ of educational failure without unfolding the complex ways in which they actively demonstrate their abilities.

Although the policies and practices of special education are openly constructed around a premise of mobility and opportunity, students from low income backgrounds (‘at risk’ youth) are twice as likely to be labeled “special.” Moreover, of all the special educational categories, learning disabilities (a diagnosis deeply contested) account for the largest group of special educational students who are ‘at risk’ learners. This project is hinged on addressing how those students who are apparent beneficiaries of special educational policies and programs (evidenced by post-secondary enrolment) make meaning of their prior and current educational experiences in relation to special educational policies, services and programs. The author begins by theorizing that such disabilities may medicalize social problems while still preserving a veneer of equality. However, since not all labels have universal meanings when applied to specific social agents, they may both hinder and help some in gaining access to post secondary education. With the support of a group of four enrolled post secondary students located in the Canadian urban west-coast, who identify as learning disabled and the recipients of related interventions, this thesis provides a complex reading of the everyday that draws upon how the students’ specific cultural and material locations inform their understanding of education, ability, disability, meritocracy and normalcy. Collecting data through semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted during the Spring and Fall of 2007, the students actively engage and challenge the author’s original theoretical and methodological assumptions. Anticipating critiques of special education, the author is surprised by the students’ support of such programs. Expecting responses to interview questions to be based on a reading of meritocracy as normalcy and disability as deficit, these students weave understandings of meritocracy and normalcy to articulate their abilities without rejecting their disability labels. In terms of policy where the emphasis is placed on disability as deficit, the findings imply that policy-makers neglect the energy and labour students invest in emphasizing their abilities. For educators, this reveals an important pedagogy of inclusion by inverting assumptions that special educational students are ‘at risk’ of educational failure without unfolding the complex ways in which they actively demonstrate their abilities.

Although the policies and practices of special education are openly constructed around a premise of mobility and opportunity, students from low income backgrounds (‘at risk’ youth) are twice as likely to be labeled “special.” Moreover, of all the special educational categories, learning disabilities (a diagnosis deeply contested) account for the largest group of special educational students who are ‘at risk’ learners. This project is hinged on addressing how those students who are apparent beneficiaries of special educational policies and programs (evidenced by post-secondary enrolment) make meaning of their prior and current educational experiences in relation to special educational policies, services and programs. The author begins by theorizing that such disabilities may medicalize social problems while still preserving a veneer of equality. However, since not all labels have universal meanings when applied to specific social agents, they may both hinder and help some in gaining access to post secondary education. With the support of a group of four enrolled post secondary students located in the Canadian urban west-coast, who identify as learning disabled and the recipients of related interventions, this thesis provides a complex reading of the everyday that draws upon how the students’ specific cultural and material locations inform their understanding of education, ability, disability, meritocracy and normalcy. Collecting data through semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted during the Spring and Fall of 2007, the students actively engage and challenge the author’s original theoretical and methodological assumptions. Anticipating critiques of special education, the author is surprised by the students’ support of such programs. Expecting responses to interview questions to be based on a reading of meritocracy as normalcy and disability as deficit, these students weave understandings of meritocracy and normalcy to articulate their abilities without rejecting their disability labels. In terms of policy where the emphasis is placed on disability as deficit, the findings imply that policy-makers neglect the energy and labour students invest in emphasizing their abilities. For educators, this reveals an important pedagogy of inclusion by inverting assumptions that special educational students are ‘at risk’ of educational failure without unfolding the complex ways in which they actively demonstrate their abilities. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This thesis is written from a practitioner-researcher perspective and explores leadership within Learning Disability Theatres, focussing on a series of moments captured within the education and outreach programme of DIY Theatre Company, Salford, UK. The researcher presents a dialogical view of research within which knowledge-production is viewed as dynamic and processual rather than mobilised by the search for a single truth or one prescriptive method of working. Emerging from research undertaken as political activity the thesis engages with, and attempts to disrupt, dominant, normative agendas of power and knowledge which limit our notions of leadership and result in people with learning disabilities all too often being viewed as too disabled to carry out leadership roles. The thesis highlights the challenges and potential for research undertaken collaboratively with disabled co-leaders to be viewed through frameworks of Applied Theatre, Critical Disability Studies and Critical Leadership Studies and articulates a methodology-in-the-making with the potential to inform future research, practice and policy within all three disciplines. Methods include observations, arts-based Inclusive Research and interviews. Descriptions of moments of practice, written from a phenomenological perspective, offer insights into the highly relational nature of leadership practice in Learning Disability Theatres. The researcher suggests it is in such moments of practice, only visible and present in the making that new ways of thinking about and carrying out leadership in participatory theatre can be located. A critical and relational perspective opens up alternative ways of negotiating and describing leadership by and with performers and theatre-makers with learning disabilities. The term workshop-in-the-making has been coined to introduce a view of the drama workshop as an extension of improvised artistic practice within which improvisers work with light structuring, are heedful, generous, able to accept offers and to respond in the moment. Development and research of dialogical leadership are political acts which challenge normative, ableist perspectives and offer significant opportunities for development of practice, research and policy within and beyond Learning Disability Theatres. This thesis does not seek to define a single model of leadership, but highlights the value of a relational perspective in exploring the nuances, shifts and complexities of roles within leadership-in-the-making and, as a result, reveals the rich range of leadership practices often masked by more hierarchical approaches.

This research portfolio aims to further explore the issues faced by parents with a learning disability. Firstly, a systematic review of qualitative research into the social support of parents with a learning disability is presented. This not only indicated that a range of social support is provided to parents with a learning disability and received with different perceptions, but also highlighted the need for further qualitative research in the area, to gain a better insight into the lived experiences of this group of parents. Secondly, and further to the findings of the systematic review, is the empirical research study. Adopting a qualitative design (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis- IPA) (Smith, 1996; Smith et al., 2009), the study aimed to explore what parents with a learning disability understood about their learning disability and how they perceived it to impact on them in their parenting role. Analysis revealed five themes which reflect the perceptions and experiences of a sample of eight parents with a learning disability. Finally, to enable efficient and effective dissemination of the findings to the wider audience a journal article is presented. The journal article, as well as attempting to summarise the methodology used, focused on the most salient theme of the findings, which was how participants viewed themselves in relation to having a learning disability and being a parent.

A call for the design of programs focused on the development of self-awareness skills permeates the field of research and practice on postsecondary students with learning disabilities (LD). Important components of self-awareness are students' advanced understanding of learning, LD, and the social context (peers, instructors, classmates) of college learning. This study explores students with LD's conceptual understanding of learning and LD by situating it within developmental theoretical frameworks delineating the form and content of adult reasoning. Twelve female and five male college-students with LD participated in two-hour interviews. Students' thinking about others was explored by asking participants to reason about the behaviors, intentions, feelings and traits of the characters in two scenarios depicting typical dilemmas faced by students with LD. Students' conceptual understanding of learning and LD was elicited by means of open-ended questions followed by prompts. Students' responses were scored for level of cognitive complexity and coded for conceptual content. Overall, the students reasoned abstractly about learning and LD at a level of complexity expected from college-age population. They demonstrated well-developed understanding of others' expectations and motivations especially as they relate to the themes of self-identification, seeking accommodations, and understanding of LD. Students' conceptions of learning and LD presented qualitatively different variations on main themes. These variations paralleled the increase in complexity and were associated with experience(number of years of education). The overarching understanding of learning as acquiring knowledge transitioned from understanding learning as an external, given task to learning as an internal, personal-development process. The common understanding of LD as a difference transitioned from a difference related to an external label and an imposed constraint, to meaning of "difference" as a special ability, an asset, and a source of identity. These results indicate a possible progression in the evolution of the concepts of learning and LD throughout the college career of students with LD. The approach to this conceptual content and its description can inform and serve as starting points in the development of programs that foster the conceptual understanding of learning, LD, and the social-context of the educational enterprise, as a way of building these students' self-awareness skills.

Recent research has begun focusing on the connections between reading and mathematics. Little research, however, has examined connections between mathematics and other reading related skills, such as spelling. Moreover, working memory may a play a significant role in both systems. Results indicated a significant predictive relationship between spelling and mathematics. Furthermore, this relationship was found to be partially mediated by measures of phonological working memory.