La Transición: parent perspectives on transition for Latino youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities

The transition to adulthood can be a challenging time for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its complexity, however, may be magnified for families who have immigrated to the United States. This study examined the transition expectations and experiences of six first-generation, Latino parents and their transition-aged (14–22) children with intellectual disability, autism, and/or multiple disabilities. Through individual interviews held in Spanish or English, parents offered insights into (1) their visions of success for their child, (2) the distinct barriers they face as immigrant families, and (3) their suggestions for schools and adult agencies related to supporting strong transitions. Their portraits of desired outcomes were quite individualized and reflected high expectations. Factors identified as inhibiting successful transitions included persistent language barriers, the views of certain professionals and community members, and exclusion from typical school experiences. Parents encouraged schools to support family advocacy, foster greater student independence, expand adult programming, and reduce segregated educational placements. We present implications for educators on working with Latino families, as well as offer recommendations for future research.     

Academic development through the contextualization of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: reflections drawn from the recent history of Trinidad and Tobago

Whilst the case for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has been made, there has been little discussion on how such scholarship might lead academic development at the local level. Through analyzing the recent history of Trinidad and Tobago this paper proposes that the conceptualization of SoTL should embrace the nuances of its particular context. It is argued that, since gaining independence, the education system of Trinidad and Tobago has failed to shake off the remnants of its former colonizer and that the Ministry of Education has looked to import educational ‘best practice’ from other countries. This paper suggests that ‘borrowing’ the drivers of development is culturally naïve and, instead, proposes that educational change should be led through a context-specific examination of the relationship between scholars of teaching and learning and the society in which they find themselves.     

Domain general constraints on statistical learning

All theories of language development suggest that learning is constrained. However, theories differ on whether these constraints arise from language-specific processes or have domain-general origins such as the characteristics of human perception and information processing. The current experiments explored constraints on statistical learning of patterns, such as the phonotactic patterns of an infants' native language. Infants in these experiments were presented with a visual analog of a phonotactic learning task used by J. R. Saffran and E. D. Thiessen (2003). Saffran and Thiessen found that infants' phonotactic learning was constrained such that some patterns were learned more easily than other patterns. The current results indicate that infants' learning of visual patterns shows the same constraints as infants' learning of phonotactic patterns. This is consistent with theories suggesting that constraints arise from domain-general sources and, as such, should operate over many kinds of stimuli in addition to linguistic stimuli.     

Kindergarten teachers adjust their teaching practices in accordance with children’s academic pre‐skills

This study examined the extent to which kindergarten children’s academic pre‐skills are associated with their teachers’ subsequent teaching practices. The pre‐skills in reading and math of 1268 children (655 boys, 613 girls) were measured in kindergarten in the fall. A pair of trained observers used the Classroom Assessment Scoring System instrument to observe 49 kindergarten teachers on their emotional support, classroom organisation and instructional support in kindergarten in the spring. The results of the multilevel modelling showed that low levels of academic pre‐skills in kindergarten classrooms in the fall predicted high classroom quality in the classrooms later on. The results suggest that the overall level of children’s academic pre‐skills in the classroom plays an important role in the ways in which teachers adapt their instructional practices to the needs of a particular classroom.