Engaging Community Partners to Enrich Preschoolers Learning Experiences with Dramatic Inquiry

Interdisciplinary teams of adults are needed to enhance the capacity of schools to provide the most appropriate educational experiences for young children who have or are at risk for developmental delays and disabilities (Division for Early Childhood, 2014). When educators, families, and community partners connect around shared goals, we begin to reimagine instructional opportunities and create more equitable access to educational resources for children and families. We share insights from community partners who participated in a collaborative dramatic inquiry study designed to enrich preschoolers’ learning experiences and serve children and families

Enhancing Collaborative Practices with Preprofessional Occupational Therapists and Early Childhood Special Education Student Teachers: A Pilot Study

This article presents the Collaborative Design Model as a tool for developing collaboration and self-efficacy for preprofessional educators and service providers. As student populations continue to become more diverse, preprofessionals entering the classroom must be prepared to collaborate with colleagues effectively and efficiently to address the variety of needs presented in the classroom. Little research exists on the collaboration among preprofessional teachers and preprofessional occupational therapists. The proposed model provides a method for supporting preprofessionals in collaborating to meet the needs of students at risk for or with disabilities. Initial pilot findings suggest the Collaborative Design Model could potentially increase self-efficacy and collaboration skills for preprofessionals working in the classroom

Perceived barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people: a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adolescents and young adults frequently experience mental disorders, yet tend not to seek help. This systematic review aims to summarise reported barriers and facilitators of help-seeking in young people using both qualitative research from surveys, focus groups, and interviews and quantitative data from published surveys. It extends previous reviews through its systematic research methodology and by the inclusion of published studies describing what young people themselves perceive are the barriers and facilitators to help-seeking for common mental health problems.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty two published studies of perceived barriers or facilitators in adolescents or young adults were identified through searches of PubMed, PsycInfo, and the Cochrane database. A thematic analysis was undertaken on the results reported in the qualitative literature and quantitative literature.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Fifteen qualitative and seven quantitative studies were identified. Young people perceived stigma and embarrassment, problems recognising symptoms (poor mental health literacy), and a preference for self-reliance as the most important barriers to help-seeking. Facilitators were comparatively under-researched. However, there was evidence that young people perceived positive past experiences, and social support and encouragement from others as aids to the help-seeking process.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Strategies for improving help-seeking by adolescents and young adults should focus on improving mental health literacy, reducing stigma, and taking into account the desire of young people for self-reliance.</p

Oxford guide to low intensity CBT interventions

Mental disorders such as depression and anxiety are increasingly common. Yet there are too few specialists to offer help to everyone, and negative attitudes to psychological problems and their treatment discourage people from seeking it. As a result, many people never receive help for these problems. The Oxford Guide to Low Intensity CBT Interventions marks a turning point in the delivery of psychological treatments for people with depression and anxiety. Until recently, the only form of psychological intervention available for patients with depression and anxiety was traditional one-to-one 60 minute session therapy---usually with private practitioners for those patients who could afford it. Now Low Intensity CBT Interventions are starting to revolutionize mental health care by providing cost effective psychological therapies which can reach the vast numbers of people with depression and anxiety who did not previously have access to effective psychological treatment. The Oxford Guide to Low Intensity CBT Interventions is the first book to provide a comprehensive guide to Low Intensity CBT interventions. It brings together researchers and clinicians from around the world who have led the way in developing evidence-based low intensity CBT treatments. It charts the plethora of new ways that evidence-based low intensity CBT can be delivered: for instance, guided self-help, groups, advice clinics, brief GP interventions, internet-based or book-based treatment and prevention programs, with supported provided by phone, email, internet, sms or face-to-face. These new treatments require new forms of service delivery, new ways of communicating, new forms of training and supervision, and the development of new workforces. They involve changing systems and routine practice, and adapting interventions to particular community contexts. The Oxford Guide to Low Intensity CBT Interventions is a state-of-the-art handbook, providing low intensity practitioners, supervisors, managers commissioners of services and politicians with a practical, easy-to-read guide---indispensible reading for those who wish to understand and anticipate future directions in health service provision and to broaden access to cost-effective evidence-based psychological therapies

A multiscale stratigraphic investigation of the context of StW 573 ‘Little Foot’ and Member 2, Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa

The Sterkfontein Caves is currently the world\u27s richest Australopithecus-bearing site. Included in Sterkfontein\u27s hominin assemblage is StW 573 (‘Little Foot’), a near-complete Australopithecus skeleton discovered in Member 2 in the Silberberg Grotto. Because of its importance to the fossil hominin record, the geological age of StW 573 has been the subject of significant debate. Three main hypotheses have been proposed regarding the formation and age of Member 2 and by association StW 573. The first proposes that Member 2 (as originally defined in the type section in the Silberberg Grotto) started to accumulate at around 2.58 Ma and that the unit is contained within the Silberberg Grotto. The second proposes that Member 2 started forming before 3.67 ± 0.16 Ma and that the deposit extends into the Milner Hall and close to the base of the cave system. The third proposes a ‘two-stage burial scenario’, in which some sediments and StW 573 represent a secondary and mixed-age accumulation reworked from a higher cave. The stratigraphic and sedimentological implications of these hypotheses are tested here through the application of a multiscale investigation of Member 2, with reference to the taphonomy of the StW 573 skeleton. The complete infilling sequence of Member 2 is described across all exposures of the deposit in the Silberberg Grotto and into the Milner Hall. Sediments are generally stratified and conformably deposited in a sequence of silty sands eroded from well-developed lateritic soils on the landscape surface. Voids, clasts and bioclasts are organized consistently across and through Member 2 conforming with the underlying deposit geometry, indicating gradual deposit accretion with no distinct collapse facies evident and only localized intra-unit postdepositional modification. The stratigraphy and sedimentology of Member 2 support a simple single-stage accumulation process of Member 2 and a primary association between the sediments of Member 2 and the StW 573 ‘Little Foot’ skeleton

Modifications in Perfringolysin O Domain 4 Alter the Cholesterol Concentration Threshold Required for Binding

Changes in the cholesterol content of cell membranes affect many physiological and pathological events, including the formation of arterial plaques, the entry of virus into cells, and receptor organization. Measuring the trafficking and distribution of cholesterol is essential to understanding how cells regulate sterol levels in membranes. Perfringolysin O (PFO) is a cytolysin secreted by Clostridium perfringens that requires cholesterol in the target membrane for binding. The specificity of PFO for high levels of cholesterol makes the toxin an attractive tool for studying the distribution and trafficking of cholesterol in cells. However, the use of the native toxin is limited given that binding is triggered only above a determined cholesterol concentration. To this end, we have identified mutations in PFO that altered the threshold for how much cholesterol is required to trigger binding. The cholesterol threshold among different PFO derivatives varied up to 10 mol % sterol, and these variations were not dependent on the lipid composition of the membrane. We characterized the binding of these PFO derivatives on murine macrophage-like cells whose cholesterol content was reduced or augmented. Our findings revealed that engineered PFO derivatives differentially associated with these cells in response to changes in cholesterol levels in the plasma membrane