Private speech in children with ADHD and their typically developing peers during problem-solving and inhibition tasks

This study compared private speech of children with ADHD and normal controls during problem solving and inhibition tasks. Thirty-two children (16 children with ADHD and 16 matched controls) aged 6–11 years participated. Consistent with previous studies, children with ADHD produced more task-irrelevant and task-relevant external private speech than control children during problem-solving tasks, but did not differ in their use of task-relevant internal private speech. During the inhibition/attention task (Continuous Performance Test-II), children with ADHD produced more task-relevant external and more task-relevant internal private speech, suggesting that they may have employed a less mature strategy to aid in self-regulation. The educational implications of the current study are that there should be an increased awareness of the developmental nature and functional significance of private speech and how private speech usage may differ in children with ADHD.     

Listening harder: Queer archive and biography

This article emerges from a wider study on bicultural film archiving practice. It focuses on Jonathan Dennis as a subject of (my) archiving, and as a distinctive archivist himself in relation to a specific archive at a particular moment. Dennis practice differed significantly from North American and European conventions contemporaneous with his life work. The charismatic founding director of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (formerly The New Zealand Film Archive) Jonathan Dennis (1953–2002) became a conduit for tensions and debates during the 1981–2002 period in relation to indigenous and non indigenous presentation of (film) archival materials. This resulted in a film archive and curatorship practice which differed significantly from that of the North American and European archives he originally sought to emulate. As a Pākehā (non Māori/indigenous New Zealander) with a strong sense of social justice he argued for an awareness of geographical location and cultural context in his work. He supported a philosophical shift in archival practice, by engaging indigenous peoples in developing creative and innovative exhibitions and programmes from the 1980s period until his death.

Note: From 1988 the official name for the New Zealand Film Archive was Ngā Kaitiaki o ngā Taonga Whitiāhua (Guardians of the Treasured Images of Light). Since August 2014 the institution is called Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero to acknowledge the acquisition of the state-owned Television NZ Archive and Sound Archives from Radio NZ. For brevity’s sake the Archive is referred to throughout as NTSV (Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision).

Key: NTSV PP JD refers to the NTSV Personal Papers of Jonathan Dennis (uncatalogued at time of writing).     

Contemporaneous and Longitudinal Associations of Sibling Conflict with Family Relationship Assessments and Family Discussions about Sibling Problems

The first purpose of this study was to examine contemporaneous and longitudinal associations of maternal and paternal measures of family functioning with observational and self-report assessments of sibling conflict. The second purpose was to determine whether the ways in which families attempt to solve siblings' problems are associated with contemporaneous and longitudinal assessment of sibling conflict. The results indicate that paternal equality of treatment and family harmony during family discussions about sibling problems, as well as parents' perceptions of family cohesiveness, are associated with lower sibling conflict levels.     

Deaf college students' comprehension of relational language in arithmetic compare problems

In this study of deaf college students' performance solving compare word problems, relational statements were either consistent or inconsistent with the arithmetic operation required for the solutions. The results support the consistency hypothesis Lewis and Mayer (1987) proposed based on research with hearing students. That is, deaf students were more likely to miscomprehend a relational statement and commit a reversal error when the required arithmetic operation was inconsistent with the statement's relational term (e.g., having to add when the relational term was less than). Also, the reversal error effect with inconsistent word problems was magnified when the relational statement was a marked term (e.g., a negative adjective such as less than) rather than an unmarked term (e.g., a positive adjective such as more than). Reading ability levels of deaf students influenced their performance in a number of ways. As predicted, there was a decrease in goal-monitoring errors, multiple errors, and the number of problems left blank as the reading levels of students increased. Contrary to expectations, higher reading skills did not affect the frequency of reversal errors.     

The Research and Development in Organisations Approach and the Evaluation of a Mainstream Behaviour Support Initiative

This paper describes the evaluation of a local authority behaviour support initiative that involved the re-location of four behaviour support teachers from pupil referral units into three mainstream secondary schools to work with pupils at risk of exclusion. The evaluation was largely illuminative (Parlett, 1981) and focused on the effect of changing off-site behaviour support to in-school support. The research approach taken incorporated a Co-operative Inquiry strand (Heron, 1996) where researchers and behaviour support teachers worked together to design major aspects of the research process. This enabled research outcomes to inform educational practice, and gave a reflective, formative aspect to the study. The overall approach to the design of the study was informed by the Research and Development in Organisations (RADIO) model developed by Knight and Timmins (1995). The application of this approach in the context of the study is described along with a brief account of the findings. Finally, brief comment is made on the way in which the RADIO approach might contribute to educational psychologists' work at the local education authority and whole school levels.     

Exploring the Usefulness of the Monsen Problem‐solving Framework for Applied Practitioners

This paper explores the reflections of practising educational psychologists on the usefulness of a framework used in training for the role of educational psychologist. The Monsen problem‐solving framework is taught on the M.Sc. Educational Psychology Programme at Strathclyde University. The framework aims to support learning in the processes of conceptualising complex and ill‐defined problems and in subsequently developing effective interventions. It offers systematic steps to help structure, organise and analyse the complexities of problems in a coherent way, facilitating understanding and transparency of processes for both psychologists and clients. How effective is the training device in ensuring that problems are understood and addressed in practice? Does the framework influence or shape the work of the fully‐fledged practitioner? The present study indicates that the Monsen framework is perceived to be highly effective in some executive areas and that these aspects transfer well to applied practice. However there is less transferability in those aspects relating more directly to psychological theory and thinking, in particular the formulation of hypotheses and the sharing of the problem dynamics with stakeholders. Respondents describe the limitations of the model in the contexts of collaborative working, time management and competing theories and frameworks. These issues are discussed in relation to professional practice and accountability. It is proposed that the advantages of using the Monsen model may be even clearer if the role of psychological theory is more fully articulated within the framework.