The Development and Evaluation of a Culturally Appropriate Home-based Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The limited research regarding Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) suggests a serious lack of understanding of the disorder, a scarcity of ASD services, and few trained professionals. In addition, there are few studies of evidence-based practices to support families of children with ASD which are culturally appropriate in KSA. Research on families’ experiences of raising children with ASD indicated an urgent need for professional support. Home-based interventions (HBIs) administered by parents of children with ASD have been found to be an effective method to receive ASD services within the naturalised home environment. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate a culturally appropriate HBI to support families and their children with ASD in KSA

SPARC 2018 Internationalisation and collaboration : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2018 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the launch of our Doctoral School, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 100 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

What is revealed about disability services and how they are communicated to autistic students in higher education institutions in the UK and Saudi Arabia through the medium of the university website: A documentary analysis

Disability services in higher education (HE) settings broadly focus on removing barriers to learning and enhancing students’ learning and development. This research focuses on understanding how disability services are presented to students with autism in the websites of Saudi and UK HE institutions. University websites are especially important for students with disabilities, including students with autism, as these are likely to be the first medium they encounter regarding how a university views them and responds to their needs. However, little, if any, research seems to have previously been conducted in this area. A clear need therefore exists to understand how the disability services presented to this population are mediated via such websites. The research project reported in this thesis was conducted in three stages. The first stage involved identifying the types of services that seem to be offered to university students with autism in the websites of 153 UK and 58 Saudi Arabian universities, as well as manually evaluating the visibility and navigability of these websites using a set of criteria. Identifying the types of services that seem to be offered in HE institutions’ websites helped develop a better understanding of these services and facilitated the second stage of this research. The second stage involved a sample of 15 Saudi and UK HE institutions’ websites that seemed to offer autism-specific services rather than just generic services, which were examined through in-depth discourse analysis and thematic analysis. This stage closely evaluated how HE institutions communicated their autism-specific provisions to the visitors of their websites. The third stage involved content analysis and thematic analysis of the websites of four universities—two from Saudi Arabia and two from the UK—as well as a comparison of these universities in terms of the influences that seemed to shape the organisation of their disability services. This stage aimed to understand the differences between the UK and Saudi contexts in the disability services offered to autistic students. The findings of this research show the nature of the provision offered according to the websites of Saudi and UK universities and the way this provision is communicated. The results of this study may benefit students on the autism spectrum, as well as professionals in the field, by revealing how disability service centres seem to understand the needs of university students with autism, as portrayed through their websites

SPARC 2019 Fake news & home truths : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2019 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also our first ever Doctoral School Best Supervisor awards, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 90 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant, innovative and collaborative PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the inspiring, relevant and impactful research in progress, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. Find an abstract that interests you, and say “Hello” to the author. Who knows what might result from your conversation? With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research needs interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised and rewarded by all major research funders. Engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers. Even better, our free ice cream van means that you can have those conversations while enjoying a refreshing ice lolly

Strategies, Practices, and Methods of Educators who Work with Students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD): Review of the Current Trends and Challenges

The purpose of this literature review is to search, analyze, and identify the most significant trends, practices, and issues in the field of special education, especially the category of learning disabilities. As research expands, education, schools, and teachers of students with SLD go through different changes that require them to learn and dig deeper. These changes include ongoing practices, strategies, learning styles, interventions, and other trends for students with SLD. This paper discusses the current and common trends in educating individuals with SLD in 2022. Living with an advanced form and devices of technologies makes educators think about the ideal method of knowing and practicing its related subjects and complicated components. Research has shown that different teachers expressed challenges and issues regarding the new subjects and trends they must deal with, including their current practices, class behavior management, parents involvement, and students overall outcomes and achievements. The trends in the special education field are always progressing over time as the research goes on. Changes and trends sometimes make teachers struggle with the way they teach and accommodate their students with disabilities, especially those with SLD. This article applied specific procedures in this literature review, including identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion or exclusion. The major database used in this review was carried out following certain criteria and search engines, such as Google, The Saudi Digital Library, ResearchGate, Google scholar, Eric, SAGE, Scopus, and other engines. About 50 articles were detected and were under analysis. Some of these articles were excluded due to the issue of not meeting the criteria, such as different topics, coverage of the disability, and population type. After the analysis, more than 30 articles were included in this review. The findings of the papers were qualitatively analyzed and described. The findings showed different main themes, including assistive technology, accessibility, evidence-based practice, cultural consideration and responsiveness, and parental support and student independence. The results showed that teachers and practitioners still face these issues when dealing with those with SLD. The findings of this review can predict a basis for teachers, parents, care agencies, and decision-makers. This paper will discuss and outline detailed information about what this century has for those with learning difficulties and the possible practices and challenges that students, parents, and teachers currently encounter

Dental Hygienists’ Practices, Attitudes, and Confidence in Providing Care to Child Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Problem: Given the growing number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) over the past decades and their significant need for access to dental care, it becomes essential to have dental hygienists adequately prepared to provide care to child patients with ASD. This study aimed to assess dental hygienists’ practices, attitudes, and confidence levels in providing care for child patients with ASD. Methods: An 18–item, adapted survey was validated and administered to participants at the Virtual ODU Continuing Education Annual Conference. Data was collected via Qualtrics® from 187 dental hygienist attendees. The survey domains studied included demographics, practice settings, attitudes, practices, and confidence levels. Survey methods included multiple–choice questions with Likert Scales responses ranging from “strongly disagree to strongly agree,” “never to often,” “little confidence to very confident,” “unconfident to very confident,” and “no impact to high impact,” and an open–ended question. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Fisher\u27s exact test was performed to determine if years of experience predictor practicing dental hygienists’ practices, attitudes, and confidence levels in providing care to child patients with ASD. A p–value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Old Dominion University Health Sciences Human Subjects Review Committee approved the study as exempt (#1818330–2). Results: Of the 187 attendees, the response rate was 31% (n=58). Although most participants, 87.93% (n=51), reported providing care to a child patient with ASD in a clinical setting, 82.35% (n=42) reported the percentage of child patients with ASD treated within a month as 1–10%. The majority used ASD–specific practices to overcome the characteristic challenges and had positive attitudes and confidence in providing care to child patients with ASD. However, the attitudes of participants with ≤10 years of experience were significantly more positive than those of participants with \u3e10 years of experience on understanding the unique needs of children with ASD (p=0.04), understanding the dental needs of children with ASD (p=0.01), comfort level working with children with ASD (p=0.04), and enjoyment in providing care to children with ASD (p=10 years of experience (p=0.03). Over half of the participants, 51.72% (n=30), disagreed that their dental hygiene education program prepared them to treat child patients with ASD, and almost all the participants, 91.38% (n=53), were interested in the interventions that reduce dental anxiety in child patients with ASD and completing continuing education courses. Conclusion: Years of experience and prior training impacted dental hygienists’ reported attitudes and confidence in caring for child patients with ASD. Increased curricular content and clinical experiences in treating child patients with ASD may be needed to give dental hygienists the necessary skills to treat child patients with ASD

Inclusion of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Mainstream Primary Schools in Saudi Arabia: A Case Study of Two Girls’ Schools

The research described in this thesis considers the inclusion of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in mainstream primary school education in Saudi Arabia. Inclusion is a term used here to describe the practice of educating disabled pupils in mainstream schools alongside their non-disabled peers. Although the inclusion of disabled pupils in mainstream schools has increased in Saudi Arabia in recent years, the policy is in its infancy and, as of yet, many teachers are unsure about implementing inclusive educational practice. The study focuses on ASD, a developmental disorder that affects social perception and development, and the efforts made by the educational system in Saudi Arabia to introduce an inclusive educational programme to educate pupils with ASD in mainstream schools. This research focuses on the methods used to educate children with ASD in a mainstream environment, and how successful the uptake and application of inclusion has been. The research considers several aspects within the topic of the inclusion of children with ASD in Saudi Arabian mainstream primary schools: the extent to which these children are currently included; the main factors that encourage or discourage the adoption of inclusive practices in these schools; the perspectives of parents, teachers, non-SEN children, and staff regarding inclusion; and the lessons that can be learned from those schools that have adopted inclusive practices. The research takes the form of a qualitative study involving the case studies of two primary mainstream schools in Saudi Arabia (one public and one private), incorporating interviews and classroom observations. The main findings of this research are that teachers at both the public and the private schools made an effort to treat pupils with ASD equally in the mainstream classroom, and non-SEN pupils at both schools made a considerable effort to welcome and include pupils with ASD in scheduled and unscheduled activities. Also, the parents of pupils with ASD noticed that their child’s social skills improved after spending time at a mainstream school. However, several problems were found concerning the implementation of inclusive practice at both schools. It seems that teachers lacked an understanding of the needs of pupils with ASD, and auxiliary staff was not available to assist beyond the resources room. There was a lack of communication between staff and parents. Members of staff were not available to help pupils with ASD interact during unscheduled periods of the school day; as a result, the non-SEN peers of pupils with ASD, especially at the public school, felt overly responsible for the care of pupils with ASD in their class. The research contributes to current knowledge on the inclusion of pupils with ASD in mainstream primary schools by exploring how inclusive practice relating to pupils with ASD has been implemented in Saudi Arabia, the importance of staff assistance for some pupils with ASD, and by exploring how inclusion of pupils with ASD is implemented and what works in an all-female environment. The research also explores the differences between the inclusion of pupils with ASD and the integration of their needs in school life. What we now know about inclusion is that it brings out the caring side of non-SEN pupils, and through this extensive study of how the inclusion of pupils with ASD affects all participants in the school community, we are now aware that inclusion, with extra support and involvement of teaching staff, can be effectively implemented in Saudi Arabian primary schools