Thesis (Ph. D.) in Psychology--University of Maine, 2002. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-116).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-103). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1982.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-89).

The purpose of this study was to train teachers and peers to increase social interactions of children who had been identified as having a lack of social interactions in an inclusive preschool in Korea. Four children with disabilities were identified by teachers as lacking social interactions with peers and teachers, and were the focal subjects of the study. The focal children, four teachers, and four classes of peer children participated in two interventions, an initial training on naturalistic teaching strategies with teachers and a training on social skills with peer and focal children, and a combined intervention. A multiple probe design was employed to examine effects of the two interventions during free choice play periods. The four teachers were trained on naturalistic teaching strategies, and peers and focal children in each class participated in a training on social interactions for the first intervention phase. The second intervention was a combined intervention consisting of both naturalistic teaching strategies of teachers and a ‘group game’ in which peer children used social interaction skills with focal children. This study consisted of baseline I, training teachers and children with baseline II, the combined intervention, and the maintenance phase. The results of this study indicate that focal children’s mean percentage of social interactions with teachers and peers in free choice play periods increased from baseline I after the initial training with baseline II. The maintenance phase indicated that mean percentages of social interactions of focal children increased from the mean percentages of social interactions in baseline I. This study may contribute to issues of training teachers on naturalistic teaching strategies and children on social skill interactions in an inclusive preschool in Korea, and the United States, for promoting social interactions with children with disabilities. / text

The goal of the study was to investigate the contribution of early social skills to play development in preschool children with Autism (ASD). Two social skills, joint attention and imitation and their relationships with simple play and pretend play skills, were investigated. A longitudinal study with three phases of time was conducted to explore the sequence of the development of joint attention and imitation and play skills. Self-developed scales were used to measure the variables of interests and the reliabilities of the scales were established. Multiple regressions showed that imitation at Time 2 mediated the relation between joint attention at Time 1 and play skills at Time 3. The implication of the results for understanding the nature of play development and for design of early interventions for preschool children with ASD are also discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

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Traditional classrooms in which children are expected to sit down quietly and listen to the teacher are not attractive to students in the era of technology. Therefore, researchers have started to study the possibilities of applying modern approaches to educational contexts. The interactive nature and the attractive virtual environment of computer games have made them a high-potential context for learning purposes. Sitting in a classroom is challenging for students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)because of their inattentiveness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, so that they distract easily.However, researchers have discovered that children with ADHD are not distracted when playing computer games. Therefore, computer games can be beneficial learning contexts that can attract ADHD children’s attention in order to teach them. So far, a large number of studies have been conducted to help ADHD children. Some researchers have worked on cognitive-training approaches to improve skills such as eye gaze, emotion recognition, and working memory enhancement of ADHD children. In addition to the core deficits associated with ADHD, children with ADHDalso face difficulties in social situations, because they are not equipped with the required social skills. Therefore, they face many problems in society that they cannot solve. Consequently, they face peer rejection or social isolation and other mental health problems. Social problem solving is a step-by-step process. For ADHD children, learning the different steps of social problem solving is difficult because they are inattentive. Moreover, acting upon the steps is also hard for ADHD children because they are impulsive. We developed a simulation game, named TARLAN, wherein different steps of solving a social problemare taught to ADHD children. We designed and developed real life scenarios in which children can practise, in order to enable them to apply what they have learnt from the game to real-life situations.TARLAN was designed in three phases, from the elementary level to more advanced levels in order to help the ADHD child gradually become an independent problem solver in society. That happens by building strong scaffolding around the child’s learning on the elementary level and remove it in the more advanced levels. This scaffolding/levelling within games has positive learning outcomes. Forty children with ADHD aged 8-12 were randomly allocated to two interventions, a computer-based intervention in which children worked with TARLAN and another intervention which was a standard psychological intervention. We also had a control group in which 20 children without ADHD also worked with TARLAN. The effectiveness of our game in improving social skills as well as problem behaviour of ADHD children was evaluated using the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS), which is a standard psychologicalmeasure. The results of the SSIS showed that TARLANimproves children’s social acquisition and problem behaviour significantly more than a more expensive standard intervention led by a psychologist (role playing).Moreover, after analysingdata collected during the study,we found out that TARLANimproved children’s performance: the ADHD children reached the same performance level as children without ADHD after working with the game. These results open up the possibility of using games as helpful tools in teaching important life-changing subjects that are hard for ADHD children to learn from traditional approaches. Therefore, the educational life of ADHD children can be changedfrom a challenging experience into a rewarding and attractive experience and time and money can be saved.

The study analyzed the impact of a social skills intervention pogram with adolescent students with learning disabilities attending a school for dyslexia in central Texas. Participants of the study were 8 students aged 11 through 13. Participants were equally assigned to the intervention and control groups based on their schedules. A six-session social skills intervention program was provided to students in the intervention condition during their enrichment hours, while the control students continued to attend their regular classroom activities during this period. Non-parametric test statistics (Wilcoxon signed-rank Test and Mann Whitney U) were utilized to assess within group differences from pre- to post-test and between group differences, respectively. The results of the study suggested that even though no statistically significant differences between control and intervention groups were observed at the pre-test, scores on the Social Problem Solving Inventory-Adolescent, at post-test indicated that the intervention group significantly outperformed the control group. Neither the control nor the intervention group demonstrated any significant improvement from pre- to post-test. / text