The present study examined the interrelationship of risk for recidivism, treatment readiness and responsivity, treatment-related change, treatment attrition, and recidivism among sexual offenders. It provided a cross validation of selected risk assessment measures, including the Static-99R, STABLE 2007, and Violence Risk Scale – Sexual Offender version (VRS-SO), as well as a clinical rating scale, the Treatment Readiness, Responsivity, and Gain Scale: Short Version (TRRG:SV). The primary focus of the study was to evaluate the relationship between treatment-related change and recidivism. The study was archival and participants included 185 federally incarcerated adult male sex offenders who participated in the Clearwater Sex Offender Treatment Program at the Regional Psychiatric Centre (Saskatoon, SK) between 1997 and 2001 and were followed up for an average of 9.3 years (SD = 3.0) post-release. Twenty percent of the sample was convicted for a new sexual offense, 45% for any new violent (including sexual) conviction, and 61% for any new conviction. The Static-99R, STABLE 2007, and VRS-SO all predicted violent recidivism (AUC = .62 to .72), as did the TRRG:SV (AUC = .32 to .37). Moreover, the dynamic risk measures demonstrated significant incremental validity, controlling for the Static-99R, in the prediction of sexual and violent recidivism. Treated participants made significant pre- to post-treatment changes on the VRS-SO, STABLE 2007, and TRRG:SV. Changes on the VRS-SO were significantly associated with lower rates of violent recidivism, with and without controlling for pre-treatment risk. Changes on the TRRG:SV were significantly associated with lower rates of sexual and violent recidivism. Significant predictors of treatment attrition were identified in the domains of criminal history, pre-treatment risk, treatment readiness and responsivity issues, and institutional adjustment. Implications for offender assessment, management, and rehabilitation are discussed.

No description available.

The two principal aims of this study were: (a) to evaluate the effectiveness of existing pre-primary education for Indian children and (b) to determine the relative effectiveness of three current school readiness programmes. Random samples of pupils, with varying preschool backgrounds, were drawn from Class i children attending selected Indian primary schools in the Greater Durban area. Information relating to the four groups formed in this way are given below: Sample A: pupils who had attended registered private pre-primary schools (N = 50); Sample B: pupils who had attended departmental bridging module classes (N = 40); Sample C: pupils who had attended community-run preprimary classes (N = 50) ; and Sample D: pupils who had had no formal preschool education (N = 30). To make the four groups comparable, variables such as age, sex, intelligence and socio-economic status were controlled. In keeping with the abovementioned aims the following sets of comparisons were made: (a) the performances, on a test of school readiness, of those pupils who had had some form of formal preschool education (Groups A, B and C) were compared with those who did not receive any such education (Group D); and (b) the performances, on a test of school readiness, of pupils who came from the three different types of preschool backgrounds (A, B and C) were compared with one another. Questionnaires were also completed by a sample of Class i Junior Primary teachers in the Greater Durban area (N = 35). Teachers were asked to comment and report on issues relating to pre-primary schools and classes, the extent of pupil readiness for Class i, the effectiveness of school readiness tests, and matters relating to the Class i curriculum. The purpose of this part of the study was to identify problems in subject areas related to preschool education so that appropriate remedial action could be suggested. There was consensus among Class i teachers that preschool education promotes school readiness. This was confirmed by the results of this study. Groups A, Band C which had received preschool education performed significantly better than group D which comprised pupils who had had no preschool education. The findings also indicated that the preschool programme offered by the departmental bridging module classes was more effective in promoting school readiness than the programme offered by either the registered private pre-primary schools or community-run preprimary classes. Teachers rated the programme offered by Departmental bridging module class to be the most effective for preparing children for formal education. The registered, private pre-primary schools came second, and the community-run classes, third. This rating was again confirmed by the findings of this study. When it came to rating the various subjects in the Class i curriculum in order of difficulty, the following rank-orders were obtained: English (most difficult) followed by Mathematics, Writing, Environmental Studies, Art and Music. They also identified specific short-comings among Class i pupils in each subject area. A number of recommendations are made so that the problems identified by the investigation can be addressed. These relate to pre-primary educational provision, resources and support services, the environment as a resource, teaching, testing and the curriculum. Education authorities, pre-primary teachers, parents and Junior primary teachers are urged to adopt a team approach in the solution of problems relating to young children's education. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1993.

In this research an attempt was made at establishing the value of the Reception Class programme. Bridging the gap between home and school has received a lot of attention in the past decade and although numerous suggestions have been put forward, a pattern of hit-or-miss has developed. This research aims to present a suggestion of successful entry into the formal phase of education for every child, regardless of colour, at a much lower cost for both authorities and parents. In an attempt to determine the success of the Reception Class programme, three measures were used: the First Grade Screening Test (AGS), the HSRC Test for 5-6 year olds and as a qualitative measure a questionnaire completed by the class one teachers of the school where the Reception children entered the formal phase of education in 1990. Results of these tests showed that the Reception Class programme was the most successful in achieving a high level of school readiness and on all three measures these pupils did significantly better than their peers who had attended pre-primary schools, crèches, day-care centres and those who had come straight from home. An analysis of test items showed that the Reception Class pupils had excelled in areas involving concentration and listening skills, fine muscle control and application of knowledge. The HSRC Test for 5-6 year olds showed evidence of well developed problem solving skills and a sound knowledge of mathematical language. Although the sample as such was found to be sufficient, a limitation of this study is the fact that all four the Reception Classes could not have been included in this research. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1990.

Background: Reading rate is a measure of fluency, reflecting the level of reading performance especially in children, which is not typically measured during routine eye examinations. Optometric clinical tests such as Snellen visual acuity are often poor predictors of everyday reading performance, as they test the smallest print a person is able to read rather than fluency. Conventional reading rate tests for educational purposes presents with many limitations; they concentrate on linguistic skills, increase in complexity as the reading progresses, limited by the readers vocabulary but more importantly, they do not take the level of the child's vision into consideration. There is currently no reading rate chart that is designed with optometric notations specifically for children with normal vision and low vision. It is therefore necessary to design a reading rate chart that takes the above limitations into consideration. Aim: This study aimed to design a chart that can be used to measure reading rates in normal sighted and low vision primary school children. Methods: The aim of the study was achieved in four parts; the design, reliability, validity of a reading rate chart and finally the testing of the chart on low vision participants. In the design of the chart, ten frequently used words in grade one English reading books were randomly selected from five primary schools in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The reliability and validity of the chart were established on normal sighted children, aged nine to twelve years from two primary schools in the Durban area chosen by convenience sampling method, with sample size of 100 for reliability and 100 for validity. Reliability was established with test and retest reading rates using the new chart while validity was established by determining the reading rates using new the chart and the Wilkins reading rate chart. Data were analyzed using the Paired t-test, Pearson correlation, and Bland and Altman method. Finally, the testing of the new chart without and with low vision device, on fourteen low vision children, aged eight to nineteen years, attending a school for the visually impaired in KwaZulu-Natal. Data was analyzed using Paired t-test and Pearson correlation. Results: The words were arranged in random order, ten words per row and ten rows per paragraph. The chart consisted of six paragraphs (versions A, B, C, D, E and F) with six acuity levels and four optometric notations. Each version was printed on a separate sheet, in Arial and Times New Romans fonts and printed in black ink on approximately white cardboards. In reliability, the mean test and retest reading rates were 77.65 ± 25.30 and 78.23 ± 24.70 (p = 0.29, R² = 0.95). In Bland and Altman method, the mean difference was −0.58 with confidence limits at +10.07 and -11.23. In validity, reading rate for Wilkins chart and the new chart were 75.82 ± 23.64 and 74.92 ± 23.58 (p = 0.01, R² = 0.99) respectively. In Bland-Altman method, the mean difference was +0.90, upper limit at +6.33 and lower limit at –4.53. The mean reading rate, of the low vision children, without and with the low vision device were 59.32 ± 24.08 words per minute (wpm) and 67.04 ± 25.63 words per minute (wpm) respectively (p = 0.09 and r = 0.82). Conclusions: This chart can be used for reading rate assessment for both normally sighted and low vision children and is statistically reliable and valid. / Thesis (M.Optom.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2012.

Based on previous research readiness for strategic change has found to impact employee commitment and flexibility positively, by increasing the willingness to embrace and adapt changes faster. However, the relationship has mainly been investigated within the health care industry or from a national perspective, but lacks empirical research taking organizational culture into account. This study aims to investigate the relationship between readiness for strategic change, employee commitment and flexibility, with organizational culture as a moderating factor. The survey was conducted at an organization belonging to a multinational company including participants in four different countries. The results only showed partial support for the investigated relationship, and significant differentials between areas was also found to be present. A main finding was the major impact by organizational culture for employee commitment and flexibility at the presence of strategic changes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of short-term Hands-On, Minds-On science process skills on the acquisition of general readiness to learn by kindergarten children.Three null hypotheses were formulated to examine differences between the scores of an experimental group of kindergarten children who had engaged in Hands-On, Minds-On science process investigation and a control group of kindergarten children who had not engaged in such investigation. The students engaged in approximately eight hours of science process investigation. Differences due to sex were examined in Hypothesis II. Differences which may be attributed to student ability as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test were examined in Hypothesis III.A fourth factor, class effect was also examined.The research utilized a modified Posttest-Only Control Group design. The posttest was the California Achievement Test, Level 10, Form E.The participants for the study were 86 kindergarten students from four intact classes. The control group was comprised of 47 students and the experimental group a total of 39 students. These students attended a small rural school corporation with a enrollment of approximately 1,240 students.The use of the Wilk's Lambda Multivariate Tests of Significance yielded the following information at the .05 level of significance:No significant difference was found between children who had or had not engaged in Hands-On, Minds-On science process instruction. The significance of F between the two groups was .106.No significant difference was found based on sex differences of the students who participated in this study. The significance of F between males and females was .917.A significant difference was found between high and low ability students who participated in this study. The significance of F to three places, between the two groups was .000.A four-way univariate analysis of variance analogous to the multivariate analysis was performed on each component of the vector (Visual Recognition, Sound Recognition, Reading Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Language Expression, and Mathematics) and tested at the .05 level of significance. The results indicated that each component of the vector was significant at the .05 level with the independent variable ability.Based on the researcher's findings recommendations for further research were made. Two of the most promising were increased science time for student participation and development of a test which measures a broader spectrum of the curriculum, including science. / Department of Elementary Education

A six week parent-child shared reading intervention targeting children's emergent literacy and emotion knowledge was implemented for 33 Head Start home-based families. This pilot study tested the hypothesis that the nominal addition of social emotional components to an evidenced-based shared reading intervention (dialogic reading) would result in additive effects in regards to parent and child outcomes. The study utilized a pre-post test design involving random assignment of families to one of two treatment groups. Both groups received the standard dialogic reading intervention, while parents in the DR ES (dialogic reading plus emotion skills) received an additional nominal dose of training in how to be nurturing towards their child during reading and how to use the story as a catalyst to talking about emotions. Differential effects between the two interventions were not found. Specifically, no clinically significant group effects were found for children's print concepts knowledge and emotion knowledge (emotion labeling and perspective taking) at post-test. Similarly, no effects emerged for parents' reading related behaviors, namely, application of verbal prompts, and displayed warmth. Effect sizes, as measured by eta squared, were also consistently low for all dependent measures, ranging from .00 for children's perspective taking and parents' displayed warmth to .03 for parent verbal prompts. Significant time effects emerged for all outcome variables with the exception of parent warmth, with effect sizes ranging from d = 0.31 (parent warmth) to d = 1.31 (parents' dialogic reading prompts), with an average effect size of d = 0.61. This study is the first to explore the potential impact of combining emotional content into the dialogic reading intervention. It refocuses attention on the contexts that promote children's school readiness skills. Results suggest that the potential benefits of dialogic reading extend beyond parent and children reading related skills, and may include children's emotional development. Findings warrant further investigation of interventions that support parents in maximizing the benefits of shared reading.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--Kutztown University, 1988. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2763. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-79).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dept. of Psychology. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2006. / "A dissertation in psychology." Advisor: Christopher Keith Haddock. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Oct. 31, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-66). Online version of the print edition.