Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) provides many individuals with little or no functional speech (LNFS) with a means to function within their daily environments and lives. AAC comprises the use of either or both unaided (the individual with LNFS‘s body) and aided (high- and low-technology devices) methods for communicating. High-technology non-dedicated devices like the iPad™ with Proloquo2Go have changed the future of augmentative and alternative communication. This study aimed to determine and compare the attitudes of typically developing children towards an unfamiliar peer with LNFS who uses a high-technology nondedicated communication device, namely the iPad™ with Proloquo2Go (Video 1), and the same unfamiliar peer with LNFS using a low-technology communication board (Video 2). Seventy-eight (78) children between the ages of 9; 00 -12; 11, participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups and a 2 x 2 crossover design was utilized. Group 1 was required to watch two videos in a specific sequence, one video of an unfamiliar peer with LNFS communicating with the high-technology non-dedicated iPad™ with Proloquo2Go, followed by a video of the same unfamiliar peer with LNFS in a communication interaction using a low-technology communication board. Participants were required to complete a Communication Aid/Device Attitudinal Questionnaire (CADAQ) after viewing each video. Participants in Group 2 watched the same videos in an alternating sequence in order to counterbalance effects of order. Results revealed that the video of the unfamiliar peer with LNFS using the iPad™ with Proloquo2Go was perceived more positively by the participants within certain dimensions of the CADAQ and the possible reasons are described. This is followed by a critical evaluation of the study and recommendations for future research. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / Unrestricted

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita or A.M.C. is a disorder, which is characterized by multiple contractures of the joints. The disorder presents with varied grades of severity. Despite the physical deformities, intelligence is intact. The aim of this research was to explore the social coping experiences of an adolescent living with Arthrogryposis. This research was a qualitative study. The research design was a case study. Phenomenology was the theoretical framework used. The data collection was done by using one sample, an adolescent living with Arthrogryposis who shared her social coping experiences. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. This research was a personal journey for the researcher because he too lives with Arthrogryposis. Objectivity was maintained. After securing the participant’s consent,I emphasized anonymity, confidentiality and the voluntary nature of the study to her.The significance of this research was to develop an understanding of and support for people living with Arthrogryposis and for the disabled in general. The major issues, which arose from this research was the role of transport, social relationships,communication with the non-disabled, the role of the community, making friends, the role of the parent in socialization and others’ perceptions of Arthrogryposis. There were limitations to the study, which included interviews, which were partially inaudible, the absence of the participants’ father, the shyness of the participant, the social inexperience of the participant, lack of other participants and complications with transportation.

Attitudes are usually defined as feelings for or against something (Remmers and Gage, 1955). They are very important in the lives of people because they help determine future success in an individual's life. Because of them one works to get the things he wants, one votes for or against certain issues, one joins a cause, opposes something, or attempts to influence others.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized primarily by social skills deficits that can impair the individual’s ability to develop and maintain meaningful relationships. Research has shown that social skills training provides lasting improvement in social interactions. However, many factors can hinder the availability of intervention groups outside of major metropolitan areas. Individual online social skills interventions have been shown to translate to increases in everyday social skills, and while further investigation is required, current literature suggests that there is great potential for live, interactive online social skills groups to provide similar benefits to in-person intervention groups. Thus, online groups may be one solution to the barriers to accessing available resources. This study sought to explore the feasibility of conducting a live, interactive online social skills group by comparing two groups using the same curriculum; one in-person group that met in a lab on a local college campus, and one piloted online group that met through Zoom, a video conference platform, each for 14 weeks. Each group also participated in person in social activities on campus to gather preliminary generalization data. The online intervention was acceptable to therapists and participants, and a group of therapists who implemented both delivery models reported some advantages and disadvantages of an online format for social skills, expressing a preference for in-person delivery model when possible, but acceptability of online delivery where in-person groups are not available. The online model showed somewhat lower levels of participation, but slightly higher attendance rates than the in-person model. Understanding both the advantages and disadvantages to online social skills, clinicians can utilize the method the best fits their needs.

Die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Herausstellung von Risikofaktoren aggressiven Verhaltens gegenüber Eltern, Lehrkräften, Mitschüler*innen und Beziehungspartner*innen im Jugendalter. Einer sozialökologischen Perspektive folgend werden dabei sowohl Eigenschaften der Mikrokontexte Familie und Schule als auch individuelle Faktoren untersucht und in ein allgemeines Risiko- und Resilienz-Modell zur Aggression im Jugendalter integriert. Die beiden Entwicklungskontexte der Familie und Schule stellen zwei der bedeutsamsten Instanzen der kindlichen und jugendlichen Sozialisation dar. Sowohl in der lerntheoretischen Aggressionsforschung als auch in viktimologisch ausgerichteten Zugängen zum Untersuchungsgegenstand ist Gewaltexposition – entweder direkt in Form des Erlebens von Gewalt (Viktimisierung) oder indirekt in Form des Beobachtens von Gewalt – als bedeutsamer Risikofaktor für eigenes Gewalthandeln identifiziert worden. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt der kumulativen Dissertation liegt daher auf der Frage, welche Rolle Erfahrungen der Gewaltexposition in den Sozialisationskontexten Familie und Schule für aggressives Verhalten spielen und inwieweit dieser Zusammenhang durch anderweitige positive und negative Sozialisationserfahrungen abgeschwächt oder verstärkt werden kann. Die zentralen Forschungsfragen lauten: 1) Welche familialen, schulischen und individuellen Faktoren sind mit aggressivem Verhalten Jugendlicher gegenüber zentralen Sozialisationsagenten (Eltern, Lehrkräfte, Mitschüler*innen, Beziehungspartner*innen) verbunden? 2) Wie interagieren diese Risikofaktoren sowohl untereinander als auch mit Schutzfaktoren aus den Sozialisationskontexten Familie und Schule in Bezug auf die Erklärung von aggressivem Verhalten im Jugendalter?

Co-rumination is a communication process that has been linked to depressive symptoms among adolescents. The first aim of this study was to examine the directionality of the associations, regarding co-rumination with peers and mothers, as well as comparing co-rumination about the mothers’ and the adolescents’ problems. The second aim was to investigate if gender moderates the associations between co-rumination with peers and depressive symptoms. We used self-report data from two measurement points with a one year interval from the 5-year longitudinal “Three City Study”. Participants were pupils aged 15-17 years at the first measurement point (n = 2,914) and mothers to a subset of the adolescents (n = 44). The results showed that co-rumination with peers was associated with increases in depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were associated with decreases in co-rumination with mothers about the mothers’ problems. Preliminary analyses showed that co-rumination with mothers about the mothers’ problems was correlated with co-ruminating about adolescents’ problems. The findings support the notion that co-rumination, especially with friends, is related to depressive symptoms among youth. This, as well as the ways in which mothers communicate with their adolescents, might be important to consider when discussing interventions for adolescents’ depressive symptoms.

Children with autism spectrum disorders often have deficits in the area of social skills. Because of this deficit many children with autism avoid engaging in play activities with typically developing peers. The purpose of this study was to identify the utility of a photographic activity schedule, with embedded scripts, to teach three children with autism to play a complex social game with typically developing peers. In this study we used activity schedules to train children with autism to play hide-and-seek in a group with typically developing peers. All participants were prompted using physical guidance to follow the activity schedules to play hide-and-seek. Two activity schedules were present during teaching sessions, one was the seeker schedule and the other was the hider schedule. Each group member played the role of the seeker once and then the game ended. All of the participants were able to follow the activity schedules to play hide-andseek. We then systematically faded the activity schedules to the least intrusive version necessary. We were able to fade all of the scripts and several components of the activity schedules. For two of the three participants with autism we were able to fade the schedule from two binders to a visual cue displaying the order of the seekers. For the third participant we were able to fade one binder and the majority of the components in the second binder. The participants were able to continue to play hide-and-seek with the faded versions of the schedules in a novel environment and 2-weeks after treatment concluded.

No description available.

Kriminologisk forskning har sedan länge fokuserat på brottslighet och antisocialt beteende. Däremot har en mindre grupp individer genomgående uppgett att de aldrig ägnat sig åt antisocialt beteende och avstår således från brottslighet. Forskning inom detta område har varit jämförelsevis begränsad, men det har föreslagits att individens avhållande bygger på ett uteslutande från kamratgrupper som ett resultat av dennes oönskade egenskaper (t.ex. stark moraluppfattning). Andra menar istället att det är den starka moralen i sig som avhåller personer från att begå brott, vilket är en hypotes som testas i denna studie. Det görs genom att jämföra personer som uppger att de aldrig har begått brott, med personer som endast gjort det vid enstaka tillfällen. Detta i ljuset av variablerna moral, umgänge med brottsliga kamrater och tid som spenderas med vänner i ostrukturerade miljöer. Vidare undersöks eventuella könsskillnader. Med utgångspunkt i data från det longitudinella projektet Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Developmental Study (MINDS) har logistiska regressioner använts för att undersöka direkta och medierande effekter. Resultaten visar att hög moral predicerar ett avhållande från brott utan en medierande effekt av brottsliga kamrater. Umgänge med brottsliga kamrater predicerar istället brottslighet hos ungdomarna, medan spenderad tid i ostrukturerade miljöer varken predicerar avhållande eller brottslighet. Könsskillnader som fanns indikerar på starkare moral hos kvinnor och att effekten av densamma hos män är beroende av umgänge. Moral bör därför inte ses som en uteslutande egenskap utan snarare som en viktig brottshämmande faktor. / The scientific focus of criminological research has since long been on criminal and antisocial behaviours. However, a group of individuals reporting that they have never engaged in delinquent behaviour (delinquency abstainers) have consistently been identified and until only recently not rendered much scientific interest. It has by some been proposed that delinquency abstention is a result of individuals being excluded from peer groups due to undesired characteristics (e.g. high sense of moral beliefs), although this notion is contested. Morality has by others instead been perceived as having a direct effect on abstention, which is the hypothesis tested in this study. It does so by comparing delinquency abstainers to low-frequency non-abstainers with regards to moral belief, delinquent peer association, and time spent unsupervised with peers, and furthermore examines the effects across gender. Logistic regressions were run to examine direct and mediating effects using data from the longitudinal project Malmö Individual and Neighbourhood Developmental Study (MINDS). Results indicate that strong moral beliefs have a direct effect on abstention and are not mediated by delinquent peer association. Associating with delinquent peers did in turn predict non-abstention but spending time unsupervised with peers did neither predict abstention nor delinquency. Some gender differences found points towards stronger morality amongst females and that the effect of morality for males depends on peer association. Morality should therefore not be perceived as an undesirable characteristic which excludes individuals from peer groups but rather an important factor in the inhibition of delinquency.

Although K-12 online learning has experienced exceptional growth, research in the area has lagged behind. This dissertation addressed this gap in the literature using a multiple article dissertation format. The first article used survey data from two online English courses at the Open High School of Utah (OHSU) to examine students' reported interactions with content, peers, and instructors. The large majority of students viewed all investigated types of interaction as educational and motivational. Students perceived learner--instructor and learner--content interactions to have significantly higher educational value than learner--learner interactions, and viewed learner--instructor interaction to be significantly more motivational than learner--content interaction. Furthermore, nine significant correlations were found between the time students spent on human interaction and course outcomes. The second article examined learner-parent and parent-instructor interactions within the same context. Similar to the first article, survey data was used to measure parents' and students' perceived quantity and quality of parental interactions with students and teachers. It was found that generally students and parents viewed parent--instructor and learner--parent interactions as motivational. Students viewed learner--parent interaction as significantly more motivational than did their parents. The quantity of reported parental interactions tended to negatively correlate with course outcomes. These negative correlations may be the result of parents' tendency to increase interaction levels following poor student performance and may not reflect the actual impact of parental interactions on individual student learning. When discussing the results in the second article, the claim was made that future research should look beyond the quantity of interactions and develop a theoretical framework that identifies and categorizes the roles of individuals in improving student outcomes. The third article of this dissertation presents such a framework that can help guide K-12 online research and design. The Adolescent Community of Engagement (ACE) framework consists of four main constructs that make up a K-12 online learning community. The first three (student engagement, teacher engagement, and peer engagement) build on previously established online frameworks that originally emerged from higher education contexts. In addition, the ACE framework recognizes the role of parents in their child's learning and introduces a fourth construct, parent engagement, which builds on two previously established face-to-face frameworks.