Communication aids in the classroom: the views of education staff and speech and language therapists involved with the Communication Aids Project

The findings presented in this paper are part of an independent evaluation study of the Communication Aids Project (CAP). The study was carried out between July 2003 and April 2004 and looked at the impact of CAP on children receiving communication aids and evaluated the CAP strategy of assessment and delivery. In this paper the views of education staff and speech and language therapists who were working with communication aid users in school are presented. The professionals who were interviewed provided positive feedback on the existence of CAP, on the assessment for the communication aid, particularly where the use of the aid in the classroom was considered, and on the children's increased participation in classroom and learning activities since receiving the aid. They also highlighted the issue of managing parents' expectations regarding the use of aids and the value of and need for continued training for professionals working with communication aids in the classroom. The authors of this article, Jannet Wright, senior lecturer, Chris Donlan, senior lecturer, Caroline Newton, lecturer, and Michael Clarke, lecturer, from University College London; Claire Lister, from the Institute of Child Health, London; and Jasmina Cherguit, assistant psychologist, draw upon their findings to develop recommendations for future policy, practice and professional development.     

Parental socialization, vagal regulation, and preschoolers' anxious difficulties: direct mothers and moderated fathers

Parental supportiveness and protective overcontrol and preschoolers' parasympathetic regulation were examined as predictors of temperamental inhibition, social wariness, and internalizing problems. Lower baseline vagal tone and weaker vagal suppression were expected to mark poorer dispositional self-regulatory capacity, leaving children more susceptible to the influence of parental socialization. Less supportive mothers had preschoolers with more internalizing problems. One interaction between baseline vagal tone and maternal protective overcontrol, predicting social wariness, conformed to the moderation hypothesis. Conversely, vagal suppression moderated several links between paternal socialization and children's anxious difficulties in the expected pattern. There were more links between mothers' self-reported parenting and child outcomes than were noted for direct observations of maternal behavior, whereas the opposite tended to be true for fathers.     

Outsourcing in higher education: the known and unknown about the practice

Outsourcing or privatising services in higher education is a common practice, but what do we really know about it? Is outsourcing effective? It is imperative that these questions be addressed since outsourcing is becoming a norm in higher education institutions. Scholars, institutional administrators and policymakers need to understand the outsourcing phenomenon and whether it is beneficial. However, there has been little research documenting the cost-effectiveness or difference in the quality of service associated with outsourcing. This study reviews 30 empirical articles to find out whether outsourcing is effective, examines the knowns and unknowns about outsourcing, and the theories often used in outsourcing in higher education. The findings show that the effect of outsourcing varies across the institution, and ranges from the positive, negative, mixed, to no effect. Over time, outsourcing may become expensive for both institutions and students because of the profit factors intrinsic within private enterprises.     

An exploratory product evaluation of the Manchester Motor Skills Programme

This study is an exploratory product evaluation of the Manchester Motor Skills Programme (MMSP). A mixed methodology was used to explore intended, unintended, positive and negative outcomes for four Key Stage 2 (KS2) children with motor skills difficulties who participated in the MMSP. The children’s motor skills, social skills and self-esteem were assessed using standardised measures pre- and post-intervention and at follow-up. Semi-structured interviews and a focus group were used to elicit the views of pupils, the class teacher and the group leader. Results indicated positive yet variable improvements in motor skill domains which were sustained at three month follow-up. Qualitative data highlights some perceived improvement in children’s social skills, confidence and use of meta-cognitive strategies and an unexpected perceived outcome for one child with co-existing speech and language difficulties. The responses of this group highlight some individual factors which practitioner educational psychologists (EPs) should consider when planning motor skills interventions with schools.     

Quelques Erreurs Pouvant être Liées à Une Difficulté à Concevoir un Ensemble Comme un Objet Distinct De Ses éléments Chez Des étudiants Et Des étudiantes Universitaires

As a first step of a project on learning difficulties in elementary set theory, we carried out a study aimed at identifying some of the difficulties encountered by a group of 21 mathematics majors taking a course on logic and set theory. In this paper, we shall discuss one of the difficulties that we observed, namely a difficulty in conceiving a set as an object distinct from its elements, i.e. failing to fully grant sets the status of objects. This difficulty may be related to the following three types of errors that we observed in the students' first assignment: (1) confusing belonging and inclusion, (2) confusing the union of sets A, B, C, ... with the set whose elements are A, B, C, … and (3) adding or deleting curly brackets. We shall present excerpts from the students' work illustrating these three types of errors and explain how they may be related to a difficulty in conceiving a set as an object distinct from its elements.     

Assessment of Autism Symptoms From 6 to 18 Months of Age Using the Autism Observation Scale for Infants in a Prospective High-Risk Cohort

The objectives were to characterize behavioral signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in younger siblings of diagnosed children (high-risk; HR) and examine classification features of the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI). Participants (501 HR and 180 low-risk [LR]) were assessed between 6 and 18 months using the AOSI and at age 3 for ASD diagnoses. Total AOSI scores differentiated HR infants later diagnosed with ASD starting at 12 months. ROC analyses identified 12- and 18-month cutoff scores associated with 0.52 sensitivity and 0.74 specificity and 0.73 sensitivity and 0.65 specificity, respectively. Although classification accuracy does not support use as a standalone screen, the AOSI identifies features associated with ASD starting at 6 months and differentiates HR infants with ASD by 12 months.     

Promoting ecologic health resilience for minority youth: Enhancing health care access through the school health center

Ethnic minority youth experience problems in access to healthcare, yet little is known about how to enhance utilization. This article will discuss the demographic realities of children of color in the United States, with a focus on health care needs and access issues that have an enormous influence on health status. The article will consider health policy as it describes the considerable barriers to quality health care for minority youth such as a lack of a usual source of care and limited health insurance. An ecologic model is presented that incorporates cultural values and community structures into the school health center. Enhancing access and utilization through the school setting is viewed as promoting ecologic resilience in youth. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 265–278, 2003.     

Teaching sustainable entrepreneurship to engineering students: the case of Delft University of Technology

Sustainability, enhancement of personal skills, social aspects of technology, management and entrepreneurship are of increasing concern for engineers and therefore for engineering education. In 1996 at Delft University of Technology this led to the introduction of a subject on sustainable entrepreneurship and technology in the course programmes of Chemical Engineering and Materials Sciences Engineering. This subject combines lectures, project work in which a business plan is written, sustainability and presentation training. This paper shows that it has been possible to combine entrepreneurship, sustainability and project education successfully in a subject for undergraduate engineering students and describes background, assumptions, outline, results and recent adjustments of this subject. It includes a discussion on how to integrate sustainability and entrepreneurship in terms of triple P (People, Profit, Planet) and how to incorporate it pragmatically in the key elements of a business plan: (1) business idea, mission and strategy; (2) context, stakeholder and market analysis; (3) marketing; (4) production; (5) organisation and management; (6) finance and reporting. Attention is paid to results regarding the business plan, spin-off like start-ups and also to the learning results of both students and lecturers. It ends drawing some lessons derived from the subject’s results and the learning experiences of both students and lecturers.