MSc (Occupational Therapy), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / As there are no occupation based outcome measures evaluating the effect of occupational therapy in the pre-school child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) an Occupational Performance Questionnaire (OPQ) was developed to address this. The OPQ was tested for content validity and reliability before a 12 month intervention study to establish construct validity and response to change in children with ASD receiving Occupational Therapy using a Sensory Integration frame of reference (OT-SI) was done. The results of 19 subjects on the OPQ were compared with the results on two other standardised measures -the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), and Parenting Stress Index (PSI-SF) at six monthly intervals. Convergent validity between family impact on the OPQ and the PSI-SF was moderate but for occupation performance on the OPQ and the SSP it changed from negligible to moderate over 12 months. The OPQ is responsive to change as correlations between improvements in the three outcome measures were moderate. The OPQ was found to still need attention in terms of item reliability and validity.

The efforts of practice sessions in discrimination tasks with the aid of instructional cues were studied to determine their influence on the visual perceptual abilities of pre-school children . The research was conducted at the Utah State University Child Development Laboratories with twenty children. Ten of these children were three years of age and ten were four years of age at the time of the study. Of the twenty children , five boys and five girls, were given training in performing tasks requiring ability in visual perception. The remaining ten children, five boys and five girls, were not given any visual perceptual training. It was found that the ten children who had received individualized instruction during the practice sessions scored significantly higher on the visual discrimination tasks than the ten children who had received no training. The children made significant improvement through the practice sessions which was indicated by a comparison of the beginning test scores to the ending test scores. There was a significant difference in the visual perceptual abilities of girls and boys and older and younger children as measured in the visual discrimination tasks.

Little research is currently available on child care arrangements involving grandparents, at a time of significant change within the child care sector. This study explored the experiences of grandparents providing regular care of their grandchildren prior to school entry. It used narrative inquiry, a qualitative research methodology to investigate the nature of their care experiences from the perspective of grandparent carers. Narrative tests were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 17 grandparents from a range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds across Sydney and in south-west NSW, Australia. The active engagement of grandparents in the preparation of interpretive tests enabled significant depth of meaning to be discovered within grandparents' stories. The study revealed the grandparents held contrasting views in relation to their care experience. They gained significant meaning from building strong bonds with grandchildren, while also experiencing loss of autonomy, physical tiredness, and in some cases, family tension. The study found grandparent careers were not a homogenous group and identified four carer clusters grouped around grandparents' perspectives on family contribution, care obligations and personal independence. The study points to the importance of grandparents having choice in care decisions and the need to establish arrangements with adult children that are true care partnerships. / Doctor of Philosphy (PhD)

The theme of this essay is literacy training in pre-school. The theme takes it starting point in a project, where my colleagues and I noticed our children playing with writing and symbols. It leads to an exciting, reflecting and developing project, a project that will go on for six months together with twenty children in the age of five and six. The essay describes how I and the rest of the staff work with the project, and also how we try to find challenges that are meaningful for our children. When we worked with the project I ended up in a dilemma how I as a teacher was to retain the children’s joy and curiosity for writing without making it boring. How shall I as a teacher behave in this matter? Is there any right or wrong here? The research authorities in this field agree on a number of things: They agree about the importance of literacy training in pre-school. The learning should be playful in a meaningful context. The scientists also agree that self-esteem is important for the children when they are writing. If the pre-school works with self-esteem in different ways, and also with a positive reinforcement combined with an inspiring environment, this can prevent difficulties in school with writing and reading. But literacy training in pre-school seems difficulties according the scientists, which I illustrate in my essay. The essay also describes three girls writing in different ways according to the theories of the scientists. I describe literacy training and also place high emphasis on the influence of the pre-school environment. I also place emphasis on the importance of the knowledge and the pedagogical approach of the teacher.

The children's ways of showing interest in writing and reading in pre-school have always fascinated me. The joy and pride they show when they start writing their own doodles and then eventually go on to write real letters and words, is a joy so see.The origin of this essay is based on Dante 3.5 years old. He wants me to spell my name so he can write to me. When I mention the second letter, Dante happily says "E, that's what my name starts with! From the other direction" I am amazed by his thoughts, and my enthusiasm for his knowledge knows no bounds. In the same moment I become aware of Alma, who quietly has seen my reaction to Dante's skills. Alma, who doesn't claim the same adult attention, is also interested in letters and writing, but she performs her writing in silence. How did I respond to her knowledge? How do we at pre-school see the more silent children and how do we handle their abilities?In many ways this situation made me start thinking about children's writing and reading in pre-school, and how our responses might affect their abilities to become literate. I have asked myself questions like; Do we see all children's abilities and how do we encourage them?I have come to the conclusion that our main tool in pre-school is our adult presence and our total commitment to all activities of the children. I have during the writing of this essay always come back to the fact that children's development is dependent on our ways of meeting them, and on how we can help them to believe in their own abilities.On the basis of the literature I have read, I can also see how important it is that pre-school ensures that we really encourage children when they show interest in writing and reading. It's not really difficult. The only thing we need to bring is ourselves, our listening and a genuine interest. The children will show us the rest.

Each parent, while sending their child to nursery school, seeks for coordination of the family and nursery interests, justification of his/her expectations, i.e. for the training to go entirely by the family culture, for the child to be properly trained for school. Exclusively establishing of general values, considering of the family culture and that of training authority, collegial decision taking may secure the harmony, continuity and quality of the child training. The master’s work deals with the analysis of the management model principles and actions of the coordination for the training of the expectations the preschool training authorities and parental community. Theoretical fundamentals of educational services management of different Lithuanian and foreign authors have been analyzed and systemized. Essential, general preschool training authority and parental community expectations for the training have been established. The analysis of management measures that affect the assurance of the training quality and justification of the parental expectations, has been performed. A comparable analysis of the questionnaire survey results among the preschool training schools of Molėtai region, has been performed. A hypothesis has been confirmed that a proper selection of the management model helps realize the parental and employee expectations at the institution.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of how parents of children in need of special support have experienced their interaction with the pre-school. Our three main areas of interest were to investigate how several parents experienced their contact with the pre-school, if there were any experienced factors that had played a part in the contact with the pre-school and if we could conclude anything about how the curriculum had been followed in these cases, with assistance of the parents’ experiences. Our study is qualitative and we chose to interview six parents. We both participated in all of the interviews. The theoretical base of this study is rooted in the phenomenological theory and we also used the framework factor theory to complement our analysis. One of our conclusions was that the parents expressed so many different experiences that we decide not to try compare them in general. On the other hand, all of the parents expressed that they were the ones who knew their children best and due to that, another conclusion that we interpreted was that the pre-school educators should pay attention to the parents so as to ensure that their contact would work as well as possible.

Schistosomiasis is a major parasitic disease caused by parasitic helminths of the genus Schistosoma which affects children in Africa, with negative impacts on general health, growth and cognitive development. Infection and morbidity are controlled by treatment with the antihelminthic drug praziquantel. Preschool children (aged ≤5 years old) have been neglected both in terms of research and control, and it is only recently that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended praziquantel treatment and the inclusion of preschool children in control programmes. However, the burden of disease in this age group still remains poorly understood, and the performance of the currently available tools for detecting infection and morbidity is still yet to be systematically evaluated. The aim of this thesis was to compare the utility of currently available tools for diagnosing S. haematobium infection and related morbidity. The initial study cohort consisted of 438 Zimbabwean children (age range: 1-10 years) who were endemically exposed. Point-of-care schistosome-related morbidity markers applicable in the field, as well as serological biomarkers (CHI3L1, CRP, ferritin, resistin and SLPI) and inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13 and IFN-γ) that could predict early stages of immune-mediated pathology due to schistosomiasis were measured. Using a combination of applied statistical methods, the effect of treatment on factors associated with S. haematobium exposure, infection and morbidity in children aged 1-5 years was determined and the findings compared with those observed in children aged between 6-10 years old, who are the current targets of the schistosome control programmes. In this thesis, I able to demonstrate that preschool children carried significant infection, further reiterating the need for their inclusion in control programmes. Furthermore, this study demonstrated the importance of using additional sensitive diagnostic methods as this has implications on the required intervention strategies for the targeted populations. This study further revealed that preschool children can be effectively screened for schistosome-related morbidity using the same currently available diagnostic tools applicable to older children. Urinalysis markers microhaematuria, proteinuria and albuminuria are recommended in this thesis as the best choice for rapid assessment of morbidity attributed to S. haematobium infection in the field. Additionally, it was shown that the praziquantel treatment regimens aimed at controlling schistosome infection and morbidity currently designated for primary school-aged children and older populations are applicable to preschool-aged children. The involvement of serum biomarkers and immune correlates in the biological processes of inflammation suggests that these markers can be potential early predictors of schistosome-related pathology. Further research efforts are required to establish the relationship between these biomarkers and presence of schistosome-related morbidity as measured using point-of-care indicators in larger cohorts of populations chronically exposed to schistosome infections. In summary, the findings of this thesis highlight the need for the refinement of existing diagnostic methods for accurate detection of infection and morbidity in children. This will enable appropriate and timely intervention strategies, aimed at improving the current and future health of preschool aged-children to be implemented. The findings presented here will aid researchers and other stakeholders in making informed choices about intervention tools for control programmes targeting young children.

Because of the paucity of evidence with regard to dark adaptation and the vitamin A status of pre-school children, this study is made. The purpose, therefore, is to add to the available data on this subject through an investigation of the bio-photometer as a means of detecting vitamin A deficiency in pre-school children.