Support provision for students with Special Educational Needs in Irish Primary Schools

The provision of support for students with special educational needs in schools is seen as a critical factor in the development of inclusive education. The means through which support is provided, continues to be based upon assumptions that individualized learning approaches may remediate learning difficulties. This paper reports findings from a longitudinal study of provision for students with special educational needs conducted in The Republic of Ireland. The authors identify in‐class and withdrawal approaches to support and consider the impact and efficacy of these. It is suggested that the withdrawal of students from class continues to be a dominant model, and that this approach has limitations and may not be conducive to the promotion of inclusive practice. Drawing upon data obtained through interviews with service users (students and parents/carers), and service providers (teachers, paraprofessionals, principals), and those gained from a national survey, the authors present the authentic voices of individuals to illustrate the experiences and opinions of those directly involved in special education in schools.     

Using the newspaper to support children's emerging literacy

Young children's literacy development involves emerging knowledge, skills, and attitudes about both written and oral language. However, until relatively recent years, children's oral language development has received the lion's share of attention in most early childhood programs. What young children know about written language and their natural ability to learn about writing and reading have been underestimated and misinterpreted and so have received little developmentally appropriate support from early childhood program administrators, teachers, parents, and the public.June Rose Richie is Associate Professor of curriculum and instruction, while Janet E. Foster is Assistant Professor and John M. Johnston is Professor of early childhood education, at Memphis State University, Memphis, TN.     

Language Development at Home and School: Gains and losses in young bilinguals

In this paper we examine the topic of the language development of three young bilingual children at both home and school. Our aim is to consider the language issues that arise in such children, taking into account their parents' language background and experience of school systems, language practices and 'policy' in the home, and the children's experience of a year of nursery school as reported by their teachers. We try to show how different strands of the children's experience fit together; their 'mother tongue', their mothers' aspirations for them, their teachers' view of their progression, and their competence in English, all considered against the background of current curriculum guidance. We conclude with an examination of the gains and losses these children have made in the school system so far, and with an analysis of what the roles of 'mother tongue' might be for children in these and similar circumstances.     

Pupil involvement in special educational needs disagreement resolution: some perceived barriers to including children in mediation

Recent legislation in England has encouraged the use of disagreement resolution and mediation and emphasised the need to involve pupils in their own schooling. These policies apply in the educational system generally, but are particularly significant in the area of special educational needs (SEN). Kirstie Soar, a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of East London; Katie Burke, a PhD student at Salford University, Manchester; Katia Herbst, an independent researcher offering research and development services to the not-for- profit sector; and Professor Irvine Gersch, Director of the MSc educational psychology programme at the University of East London, set out to examine how pupil involvement in informal disagreement resolution has developed across 11 English regions since its introduction. The research consisted of 12 in-depth interviews with local education authority (LEA) SEN officers, mediators and parent partnership officers (PPOs) involved in informal special educational needs disagreement resolution. The aims of the study were to determine how far children were actually involved in mediation and what, if any, barriers existed which were seen to restrict such pupil involvement. A thematic analysis of interview content was conducted. Four major themes emerged, including: the distinction between direct and indirect pupil involvement; the importance of the child's view and how it is elicited; the role of other agencies; and other barriers to pupil involvement in informal disagreement resolution. Direct pupil involvement was found to be limited and variable, but indirect pupil involvement was more prevalent. In this article, the authors note a series of recommendations concerning pupil involvement in the mediation process and, in conclusion, put forward the implications of their work for future policy, practice and research.     

Measuring the attitudes of human service professionals toward deafness

The Attitudes to Deafness Scale is a 22-item measure of attitudes toward people who are deaf designed for use with human service professionals. Attitude statements were generated from personal accounts by deaf people in the literature and from a focus group in which deaf people discussed their experience of hearing people's attitudes toward them. A 60-item scale was administered to a group of 121 clinical and forensic psychologists during their training. Item analysis was conducted to select items that effectively distinguished participants with a positive attitude from those with a negative attitude toward deaf people. The scale may be used in any context where a professional group comes into contact with people who are deaf.     

What predicts the malnutrition among a select group of Filipino older persons in institutionalized setting? A partial least square study

The overall intent of this study is to examine the relationship among several factors that influence the malnutrition of a select group of Filipino elderly in institutionalized setting. A total of 102 residents were purposively recruited from three different institutionalized care settings at the national capital region of the Philippines. A multi-aspect questionnaire was used to characterize the demographic and nutrition profiles of the participants. Data were treated statistically using the partial least square design. Notably, the study showed that 48.0% of the elderly residents in institutions were at risk of malnutrition, 36.3% were malnourished, and 15.7% have normal nutritional status. Malnutrition was found to be prevalent among the female group, aged >70 years old, functional impairment (p = <0.01), poor eating habits (p = 0.01), lower dietary intake (p = 0.01), and eating difficulties (p = 0.04). However, statistically significant relationships between eating habits (p = 0.08) and dietary intake and comorbidities (p = 0.32) and malnutrition were not established. Impliedly, administrators of homecare institutions are invited to pay greater attention to the nutritional status of the elderly by institutionalizing nutrition assessment and evaluation practices and nutrition care planning that respond to the identified nutritional needs and concern of the elderly.     

Social work with service families

Our aim in this paper is twofold. We wish to describe the work done with families referred for various problems, including child abuse, to one Area Social Services Team (Section 2). We then offer (Section 3) some comparisons to indicate the extent of the problem. The second task in subsequent sections is to use data from various sources on child abuse (Section 4), and our own information (Section 5) to suggest that Army life has inherent features exacerbating risk of child abuse. We make various conclusions, and proposals for improvement (Section 6). We draw material from the Army Welfare Inquiry Committee Report, known as the Spencer Report. 1 We would argue that the welfare of Service families requires special concern.