Software Tools for Empowering Instructional Developers

In response to the perceived need of many organizations to increase the quantity, quality, and timeliness of training, their shortage of experienced instructional developers, and constrained training budgets, software systems are being created to assist both novice and expert instructional technologists. The underlying philosophies and goals of such “ID automation” tools and their potential effects upon the organizations who adopt them as well as upon the human performance technology profession must be examined so that they will help to empower rather than hinder their users.     

Empowering Young Children for Success in School and in Life

This article describes the power of goal-setting in order to help children become self-motivated and responsible for their actions. It also provides a road-map for a successful process by describing the following strategies: changing negative thoughts into positives, creating affirmations, designing action plans and utilizing visualization. This process enables both educators and parents to enhance children’s social/emotional development which is essential for their success in school and later on in life.     

让技术为学生提供更强大的参与经验——访哈佛大学学习技术专家克里斯·德迪博士

访谈者:德迪博士您好,非常感谢您在繁忙的工作之余能够接受我们的访谈.请首先谈谈您是好如何进入学习技术这个领域的?     

Empowering Culturally Diverse Families of Young Children with Disabilities: The Double ABCX Model

Many culturally diverse families and their young children with disabilities or delays are not provided appropriate early intervention/early childhood special education services, especially not in a culturally sensitive and meaningful context. Families with diverse backgrounds often feel helpless and stressful because their values are not respected, concerns are not identified, and therefore their needs are not met due to the lack of support from appropriate resources. The purpose of this article is to provide a positive strategy to empower families of young children with special needs and who are from culturally diverse backgrounds through a family-centered, strength-focused family system model: Double ABCX model. Procedures of implementing the double ABCX model was described and discussed. Supported by previous research and the current case studies, the double ABCX family adaptation model has found to be an effective approach to serving diverse families of children with disabilities.     

Friendships in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Studies of friendships in children with developmental disabilities have evolved primarily from the research on children with typical development. As a result, the theories, definitions, and difficulties in measuring friendship have also been carried over to the research on children with developmental disabilities. Children with developmental disabilities, however, present unique issues that warrant consideration. Special consideration should be given to measurement issues, developmental level, the etiology or type of disability of the child, the experience and context of the child with the disability, and individual characteristics. Given these considerations, we make some suggestions for the study of friendships in atypical children.     

Friendships in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Studies of friendships in children with developmental disabilities have evolved primarily from the research on children with typical development. As a result, the theories, definitions, and difficulties in measuring friendship have also been carried over to the research on children with developmental disabilities. Children with developmental disabilities, however, present unique issues that warrant consideration. Special consideration should be given to measurement issues, developmental level, the etiology or type of disability of the child, the experience and context of the child with the disability, and individual characteristics. Given these considerations, we make some suggestions for the study of friendships in atypical children.     

Developmental Outcomes for Children at High Risk of Dyslexia and Children With Developmental Language Disorder

We followed children at family risk of dyslexia and children with preschool language difficulties from age 3½, comparing them with controls (N = 234). At age 8, children were classified as having dyslexia or Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and compared at earlier time points with controls. Children with dyslexia have specific difficulties with phonology and emergent reading skills in the preschool period, whereas children with DLD, with or without dyslexia, show a wider range of impairments including significant problems with executive and motor tasks. For children with both dyslexia and DLD, difficulties with phonology are generally more severe than those observed in children with dyslexia or DLD alone. Findings confirm that poor phonology is the major cognitive risk factor for dyslexia.     

Selecting Software with Caution: An Empirical Evaluation of Popular Beginning Reading Software for Children with Early Literacy Difficulties

It seems appropriate, if not necessary, to use empirically supported criteria to evaluate reading software applications. This study's purpose was to develop a research-based evaluation framework and review selected beginning reading software that might be used with struggling beginning readers. Thirty-one products were reviewed according to criteria that addressed interface design, instructional design, and beginning reading content. Findings suggested that the software sample generally did not meet the evaluation standards. Results also indicated that software rating highly on interface design tended to rate lower on beginning reading content. Based on these results, implications for practice and next steps for research are also discussed.     

Early Intervention for Behaviour Problems in Young Children with Developmental Disabilities

This article reviews research on intervention for young children with dual developmental and behavioural problems. It makes a case for intervention to include family variables and to occur in the preschool years. Behaviour problems are common in young children with developmental disabilities. If untreated these problems are likely to persist and become more challenging and severe in adulthood. Behaviour problems interfere with cognitive, social and emotional development, create additional family stress, often lead to exclusion from community services, and result in additional financial costs to the community. Intervention research provides some support for the effectiveness of parent management training and interventions based upon applied behaviour analysis. However, randomised controlled trials with adequate follow-up periods are required, along with the measurement of outcomes for the family as a whole.     

从儿童发展视角看学前儿童玩具的设计和选择

儿童的生活离不开玩具.儿童在身体发育、认知发展等方面与成人明显不同,在探索玩具方面具有独特性.在为学前儿童设计、选择玩具时要注意玩具的年龄适宜性和年龄跨度,重视对儿童非言语指标的观察和评估,以便为儿童提供符合其发展需要的玩具,促进儿童发展.     

Selecting Books for Children Birth Through Four: A Developmental Approach

The selection of books to read to young children matters enormously in the role books play for enriching children’s lives. This paper reviews the scientific evidence for the appropriate selection of books, and argues that care in selecting books targeted to children’s developing skills will enhance the power and the pleasures of reading to young children.     

Classrooms for Children with Developmental Disabilities: Sound‐field and public address amplification systems compared

Background noise poses adverse effects on speech sounds and affects student learning, especially for children with developmental disabilities. Sound‐field and public address amplification systems can help to solve this problem by amplifying speech sounds relative to background noise. This study surveyed school classrooms for children with special needs, and compared the performance of a sound‐field and a portable public address system in classroom environments. Unoccupied room noise levels and reverberation times were measured in eight classrooms at four Hong Kong schools for children with special needs. Speech levels in each classroom were measured under three conditions: without amplification, with public address system amplification, and with sound‐field amplification. Speech‐to‐noise ratios were calculated for each condition. Noise and unamplified speech‐to‐noise ratio values exceeded recommended acoustic standards in all classrooms. When sound‐field and public address amplification systems were installed, speech‐to‐noise ratios improved considerably. When either amplification system was used, a uniform sound‐field resulted. The applicability of both types of amplification system and their relative merits in special education classrooms are discussed.