The prevalence and correlates of abuse among children with autism served in comprehensive community-based mental health settings

OBJECTIVE: To determine the demographic and psychosocial correlates of physical and sexual abuse among children with autism. METHODS: Data collected from 1997 to 2000 through the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their Families Program on 156 children with autism were used. Data included a baseline assessment of child and family psychosocial experiences and presenting problems associated with referral into system-of-care service, demographic information, and a clinical record review to obtain psychiatric diagnosis. Binary and multinomial logistic regression was used to determine the association of different characteristics of children who were abused compared with those who were not abused. RESULTS: Caregivers reported that 18.5% of children with autism had been physically abused and 16.6% had been sexually abused. Physically abused children more likely had engaged in sexual acting out or abusive behavior, had made a suicide attempt, or had conduct-related or academic problems. Sexually abused children more likely had engaged in sexual acting out or abusive behavior, suicidal or other self-injurious behavior, had run away from home, or had a psychiatric hospitalization. In adjusted multivariate models, the relationship between sexual abuse and sexual acting out, running away from home and suicidal attempts persisted. CONCLUSION: Based on the prevalence of abuse and its association with various behaviors, clinicians should be as attuned to the psychosocial histories of children with autism as they are for other children, and consider the potential of abuse when these behaviors are observed.     

The rate of acquisition of formal operational schemata in adolescence: A secondary analysis

A theoretical model of cognitive development is applied to the study of the acquisition of formal operational schemata by adolescents. The model predicts that the proportion of adolescents who have not yet acquired the ability to perform a a specific Piagetian-like task is an exponentially decreasing function of age. The model has been used to analyze the data of two large-scale studies performed in the United States and in Israel. The functional dependence upon age was found to be the same in both countries for tasks which are used to assess the following formal operations: proportional reasoning, probabilistic reasoning, correlations, and combinatorial analysis. Different functional dependence was found for tasks assessing conservation, control of variables, and prepositional logic. These results give support to the “unity” hypothesis of cognitive development, that is, the hypothesis that the various schemata of formal thought appear simultaneously.     

Erratum: Correction to Description of Analytic Method

Erratum. Child Development 76, 841-855.Online publication date: 14-Jul-2005.     

Cognitive Profiles in Elementary Algebra: the PÉPITE Test Interface

The work presented here is part of a multidisciplinary project, called the PÉPITE project. Its aim is to set up a system to diagnose student profiles starting from a multidimensional analysis grid to evaluate their competences in elementary algebra. This paper deals with the design, the making and the evaluation of an interface in Computer Based Learning Environments. In it, we present the method adopted to set up software which proposes tasks to the students and collects data for the diagnosis module.We consider here the problems linked to the re-use of didactic know-how based on pencil-and-paper tasks and in particular how to transfer these tasks to a data processing environment. These problems are considered from the interface designer's point of view. In an attempt to make this clear, we make a distinction between ergonomic problems connected with the functioning of the interface and problems related to the field of application. © IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers     

Studienplatzfinanzierung: Internationale Erfahrungen und Implikationen für eine Einführung in ?sterreich

Steigende Studierendenzahlen, knappe ?ffentliche Budgets und neue Anforderungen an die universit?re Ausbildung erfordern eine permanente Reflexion und gegebenenfalls entsprechende Anpassungen an Finanzierungsmodelle. Die internationale Praxis zeigt dabei eine Vielzahl von alternativ ausgestalteten Modellvarianten und -kombinationen, wobei die Studienplatzfinanzierung ein international weit verbreitetes Modell darstellt. Dieser Beitrag fasst die wesentlichsten Ergebnisse einer vom Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung in diesem Zusammenhang beauftragten Studie zusammen. Gezeigt werden neben den Grundlagen einer Studienplatzfinanzierung die aktuellen internationalen Trends, ein systematischer L?ndervergleich sowie m?gliche Konsequenzen einer etwaigen Implementierung in ?sterreich.     

Evolving Pedagogical Patterns: The Work of the Pedagogical Patterns Project

This paper is a summary of the pedagogical patterns project. The project started in 1996 with the aim of collecting and disseminating experiences of teaching and learning about object technology. We adopted a pattern format early on, although the specific format has evolved over time. In this paper we give an overall view of the project: where it started, how the material we have collected has evolved and matured, and where we need to go from here. More material from the project is available from our website www.pedagogicalpatterns.org, and our publications.