Sensory processing disorder in a primate model: evidence from a longitudinal study of prenatal alcohol and prenatal stress effects

Disrupted sensory processing, characterized by over- or underresponsiveness to environmental stimuli, has been reported in children with a variety of developmental disabilities. This study examined the effects of prenatal stress and moderate-level prenatal alcohol exposure on tactile sensitivity and its relationship to striatal dopamine system function in thirty-eight 5- to 7-year-old rhesus monkeys. The monkeys were from four experimental conditions: (a) prenatal alcohol exposed, (b) prenatal stress, (c) prenatal alcohol exposed + prenatal stress, and (d) sucrose controls. Increased D(2) receptor binding in the striatum, evaluated using positron emission tomography neuroimaging, was related to increased withdrawal (aversion) responses to repetitive tactile stimuli and reduced habituation across trials. Moreover, prenatal stress significantly increased overall withdrawal responses to repetitive tactile stimulation compared to no prenatal stress.     

Instructional design career environments: Survey of the alignment of preparation and practice

Conclusions This survey explored practitioners’ perceptions and opinions about the match between their academic preparation program and the demands and challenges of their practice, as well as their opinions of exemplary programs for preparing graduates for professional practice in their career environment. Since the data collected were opinions and perceptions of participants and not observed behaviors, caution should be used in the interpretation and application of the results. In addition, the small and diverse sample compromises the generalizability of the findings. However, the survey provides a picture of the success of IDT programs in contextualizing the preparation of instructional designers and suggests several topics, like flexibility of program offerings and coverage of cultural workplace aspects, that represent areas for potential program improvement. The results of this study should serve to encourage IDT program administrators to survey their own graduates for valuable data on program strengths and weaknesses.     

Effect of attention therapy on reading comprehension

This study quantified the influence of visual attention therapy on the reading comprehension of Grade 6 children with moderate reading disabilities (RD) in the absence of specific reading remediation. Thirty students with below-average reading scores were identified using standardized reading comprehension tests. Fifteen children were placed randomly in the experimental group and 15 in the control group. The Attention Battery of the Cognitive Assessment System was administered to all participants. The experimental group received 12 one-hour sessions of individually monitored, computer-based attention therapy programs; the control group received no therapy during their 12-week period. Each group was retested on attention and reading comprehension measures. In order to stimulate selective and sustained visual attention, the vision therapy stressed various aspects of arousal, activation, and vigilance. At the completion of attention therapy, the mean standard attention and reading comprehension scores of the experimental group had improved significantly. The control group, however, showed no significant improvement in reading comprehension scores after 12 weeks. Although uncertainties still exist, this investigation supports the notion that visual attention is malleable and that attention therapy has a significant effect on reading comprehension in this often neglected population.     

Mathematics Assessment for Children with English as an Additional Language

The research reported in this paper was carried out to establish whether children in England who spoke English as an additional, rather than a first language performed significantly less well in mathematics than their counterparts whose first language was English. An evaluation of the two National Curriculum Mathematics Assessment instruments for Year 2 children in England provided the context. The sample consisted of over 600 children, mainly of Asian origin, who spoke English as an additional language. Their mathematics results were compared to those of children who spoke English as a first language, and it was established that, overall, mean scores were significantly lower for children with English as an additional language. This was true for all four of the most highly represented additional language groups, and for both assessment instruments. An item analysis of the written test indicated that the difference was not constant across all items.     

Daily Companionship in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Changing Developmental Contexts

The study employs time-sampling data to examine age differences in the quantity and quality of children's and young adolescents' daily experience with their families, friends, and alone. Participants (ages 9-15) carried electronic pagers for 1 week and reported their companionship, location, and affect at random times when signaled by the pagers. Findings show a dramatic decline in amount of time spent with family, with older students reporting half as much time with their families as younger students. Among boys, this family time was replaced by time spent alone; among girls, by time alone and with friends. Affect reported when with family became less positive between the fifth and seventh grade, but was more positive again in the ninth grade for boys. Affect with friends became more favorable across this age period; affect when alone did not vary. These age differences suggest changes in adolescents' daily opportunities for cognitive growth, emotional development, and social support.     

Preparing Instructional Designers for Different Career Environments: A Case Study

The competency requirements, content, culture, and value systems of business and industry career environments can differ significantly from that of the higher education context where instructional design and technology (IDT) students receive their formal training. Therefore, faculty should consider how they might provide flexibility in their programs to allow IDT students to experience the contexts in which they choose to work following graduation. The article reports on the results of a case study of an exemplary IDT program identified through a national survey. The emphases and preparation practices of faculty in the case study program were noted to provide an example of how one program successfully prepares its graduates for a variety of career environments, and specifically for a business and industry environment. By studying the successes and challenges of specific programs, new or existing programs may gain ideas for building or re-working existing programs to better meet the needs of students desiring contextualized preparation for different career environments.     

The Diploma Disease in Egypt: learning,teaching and the monster of the secondary leaving certificate

Eygpt's education system is dominated by the secondary leaving certificate, the thanaawiya aama examination. From the earliest primary years, schooling is characterised by examination orientation and ritualisation. These features, in addition to Egypt's relatively late drive towards modernisation accompanied by centralisation and newly forged social divisions, clearly categorise Egypt as a victim of the ‘diploma disease’. Attempts to reform the assessment system are being hampered by the continuing perception of current school qualifications as the means to success, whether in the public or private sector, within Egypt or abroad.