An expert system in school psychology for PMHP

Primary Mental Health Project (PMHP) is a program for early detection and prevention of problems with school adjustment. PMHP identifies young children that have the potential for school problems early in their school careers, and uses trained paraprof essionals as child associates to work preventively with these children. To implement this program, several evaluation forms must be filled out for each student, to determine which children should, or should not, be referred to the program. Unfortunately, a limited number of PMHP professionals are available to evaluate students. Due to this limitation, it was the desire of the author to create an expert system that would take as input the PMHP evaluation forms and produce two forms of output: a profile on each student, giving ratings on various categories and making suggested referrals to the PMHP program when appropriate, and for students referred to PMHP, objectives or goals to be reached within some given timeframe

Educating young children with autism: a conflict over methodologies

There currently is controversy on how best to educate children with autism that focuses on preeminent leaders in the field of autism, their disparate views, and the requirement that all children with disabilities be provided with a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). The controversy has affected large numbers of children with autism, their families, and the school districts charged with educating them. Information detailing the elements of several nationally significant programs has been provided, including a review of the research supporting each program\u27s efficacy. Two studies were initiated to explore the educational services provided to children with autism in Heartland Area Education Agency (AEA) 11, the largest AEA in the State of Iowa. The results of Study One suggest that generic special education programs may not meet the FAPE requirement for educating students with autism. In contrast, the children in Study Two did demonstrate a statistically significant increase in skills over a one year period. A critical difference between studies one and two was the implementation of teacher training. All the teachers of the students in study two had successfully completed a five day course, provided by Heartland AEA, on strategies to use in educating students with autism. Some of the teachers had received training under the TEACCH model and others in the evolving HAND in HAND model developed by Heartland. The two models share many common elements. Both models involve five intense days of training that furnish topical lectures followed by the opportunity for teachers to implement the techniques described in the lectures. They also afford teachers the opportunity to work with students with autism and both provide immediate constructive feedback to teachers from the trainer assigned to each child. The TEACCH and HAND in HAND models share common elements but the HAND in HAND model places a greater emphasis on behavioral techniques. The results suggest that when teachers implement the skills offered by the five-day training of either model, students are afforded a FAPE

Identifying gifted African-American students: A case study of a Louisiana school system

In 1995, the Office for Civil Rights conducted a compliance review of the Bayou Parish School System (a pseudonym) in Louisiana. The review revealed a statistically significant underrepresentation of African-American students in the Bayou Parish gifted program. This case study examined how African-American representation in a gifted program may be increased through the use of research-based interventions implemented by the Office for Civil Rights. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect and analyze data. Documents from the Office for Civil Rights and the Louisiana Department of Education were examined to: (a) show patterns of African-American and nonminority student populations in the Bayou Parish gifted program from 1994 to 2001 and (b) obtain a detailed description of the interventions created by the Office for Civil Rights for the purpose of increasing the gifted African-American population. A member of the Bayou Parish Pupil Appraisal Team involved with gifted student testing was interviewed to supplement this information. The results from these data showed that the percent in the identified gifted African-American population increased from 8.0 percent in 1994 to 12.9 percent in 2001. The Office for Civil Rights believed the increase in identified gifted African-American students to be a result of (a) an increase in the number of students referred for an initial gifted screening by teachers and parents, (b) adoptions of new IQ tests that were believed to be less culture-biased, and (c) lowering the initial screening cutoff score by one point to allow more African-American students the opportunity for an individual evaluation. ANOVA, descriptive statistics, and interviews were used to examine differences in the beliefs of groups of teachers based on their demographic information. Teachers agreed that (a) gifted student identification should include the use of qualitative data, (b) giftedness can develop in children over a period of time, and (c) the gifted identification system should be periodically re-evaluated. They were uncertain about the use of culture-fair tests and the sole use of standardized tests to identify giftedness. Teachers\u27 beliefs about giftedness were attained through (a) special education and psychology classes in which giftedness was discussed, (b) inservice training, and (c) exposure to their schools\u27 gifted program. The college courses seemed to have had the strongest influence on teachers\u27 conceptions of giftedness

Integrating Data Mining and Social Network Techniques into the Development of a Web-based Adaptive Play-based Assessment tool for School Readiness.

A major challenge that faces most families is effectively anticipating how ready to start school a given child is. Traditional tests are not very effective as they depend on the skills of the expert conducting the test. It is argued that automated tools are more attractive especially when they are extended with games capabilities that would be the most attractive for the children to be seriously involved in the test. The first part of this thesis reviews the school readiness approaches applied in various countries. This motivated the development of the sophisticated system described in the thesis. Extensive research was conducted to enrich the system with features that consider machine learning and social network aspects. A modified genetic algorithm was integrated into a web-based stealth assessment tool for school readiness. The research goal is to create a web-based stealth assessment tool that can learn the user's skills and adjust the assessment tests accordingly. The user plays various sessions from various games, while the Genetic Algorithm (GA) selects the upcoming session or group of sessions to be presented to the user according to his/her skills and status. The modified GA and the learning procedure were described. A penalizing system and a fitness heuristic for best choice selection were integrated into the GA. Two methods for learning were presented, namely a memory system and a no-memory system. Several methods were presented for the improvement of the speed of learning. In addition, learning mechanisms were introduced in the social network aspect to address further usage of stealth assessment automation. The effect of the relatives and friends on the readiness of the child was studied by investigating the social communities to which the child belongs and how the trend in these communities will reflect on to the child under investigation. The plan is to develop this framework further by incorporating more information related to social network construction and analysis. Also, it is planned to turn the framework into a self adaptive one by utilizing the feedback from the usage patterns to learn and adjust the evaluation process accordingly

Reliability and Factor Structure of the Salon Differential a Neuropsychological Screening Instrument

Educational Psycholog

The relationship between scholastic performance and neuropsychological functioning in a sample of institutionalised children

Bibliography: pages 299-316.Professional staff attached to Child Welfare in Cape Town are aware of the lack of academic attainment of a large number of children in alternative care. The current research investigated the relationship between scholastic performance and neuropsychological functioning in a sample of institutionalised children from culturally deprived families. A multiple case study of 21 children, ranging in age from 6 to 16 years, comprising 10 girls and 11 boys attending the same primary school, provided data on neuropsychological, behavioural and family history dimensions. A multi-model assessment approach tapped diverse sources of evidence, including the following 5 parameters: 1) The Sensory Parameter: Snellen's Visual Acuity test, and either Merryweather & Steenkamp's or Wepman's Auditory Discrimination tests. 2) The Motor Parameter: Denckla's Revised Neurological Examination for Subtle Signs and the Purdue Pegboard fine motor speed and coordination tests. 3) The Language Parameter: The UCT Graded Reading, Speed Reading and Graded Spelling tests. 4) The Integrative Parameter: Visuographic functioning included the Beery Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test and the WISC-R Mazes subtest. General intelligence was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised. Memory function was gauged both by the Benton Visual Retention Test (multiple choice format) and the WISC-R Digit Span subtest. Concentration was examined by combining 3 WISC-R subtest measures (Arithmetic, Digit Span & Coding) to yield a "Freedom from Distractibility" index. 5) The Personal Parameter: This included details of the children's heights and weights, as well as information regarding their self-concepts, measured by the Attitudes Towards Self Scale, a semantic differential self-report scale, developed by Nieuwoldt & Cronje. Written responses to 2 projective techniques, which included Wish fulfilment and Incomplete sentences, provided material for content analyses that yielded insights into attitudes to a variety of topics, including school, family life, hopes and fears