Designing a virtual teacher for non-verbal children with autism: Pedagogical affordances and the influence of teacher voice

The prevalence of children with autism in Asia has been estimated as comparable to that in many other countries (Jeevanandam, 2009; William et al., 2005). Within this group, approximately one-third to one-half of these children will lack functional speech (Mirenda, 2003) and have severe learning difficulties. There have been recent technological developments for teaching children with autism, for example virtual worlds (Bignell, 2008) and socially intelligent agents (Dautenhahn & Werry, 2004). However, there has been relatively little research into the effectiveness of technologically supported approaches to language development for those children who are non-verbal. The Picture Exchange Communications System (PECS) is an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) approach that has been used with children with little or no speech to develop language and communication skills. In essence the children gradually learn to communicate through exchanging pictures and symbols for desired items or outcomes. There is empirical evidence to support the value of this approach (Preston & Carter, 2009). This paper considers a technologically supported approach within this area: Computer Assisted Picture Exchange (CAPE). It examines the issue of teacher embodiment and the affordances arising from using an interactive virtual teacher avatar that responds to the child's manipulation of objects and symbols in the physical world. The paper discusses investigations to compare synthetic and natural teacher voices, and to assess their influence on the learning of communication skills by children with autism

Educational change and ICT: an exploration of priorities 2 and 3 of the DfES e-strategy in schools and colleges: the current landscape and implementation issues

Landscape review of integrated online support for learners and collaborative approaches to personalised learning activities

The compression of deaths above the mode

Kannisto (2001) has shown that as the frequency distribution of ages at death has shifted to the right, the age distribution of deaths above the modal age has become more compressed. In order to further investigate this old-age mortality compression, we adopt the simple logistic model with two parameters, which is known to fit data on old-age mortality well (Thatcher 1999). Based on the model, we show that three key measures of old-age mortality (the modal age of adult deaths, the life expectancy at the modal age, and the standard deviation of ages at death above the mode) can be estimated fairly accurately from death rates at only two suitably chosen high ages (70 and 90 in this study). The distribution of deaths above the modal age becomes compressed when the logits of death rates fall more at the lower age than at the higher age. Our analysis of mortality time series in six countries, using the logistic model, endorsed Kannisto’s conclusion. Some possible reasons for the compression are discussed.compression of mortality, lexis model, logistic model, modal age of death, oldest old mortality decline, standard deviation

Preliminary findings on carbohydrate metabolism of intact equine cumulus-oocyte complexes during in vitro maturation

Conference paper abstrac

A hierarchy of distress and invariant item ordering in the General Health Questionnaire-12

Background: Invariant item ordering (IIO) is defined as the extent to which items have thesame ordering (in terms of item difficulty/severity – i.e. demonstrating whether items are difficult [rare] or less difficult [common]) for each respondent who completes a scale. IIO is therefore crucial for establishing a scale hierarchy that is replicable across samples, but no research has demonstrated IIO in scales of psychological distress. We aimed to determine if a hierarchy of distress with IIO exists in a large general population sample who completed ascale measuring distress. Methods: Data from 4107 participants who completed the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) from the Northern Ireland Health and Social Wellbeing Survey 2005-6 were analysed. Mokken scaling was used to determine the dimensionality and hierarchy of the GHQ-12, and items were investigated for IIO. symptoms reflected the following hierarchy: anhedonia, concentration, participation, coping, decision-making and worthlessness. Results: All items of the GHQ-12 formed a single, strong unidimensional scale (H=0.58). IIO was found for six of the 12 items (H-trans=0.55), and these Limitations: The cross-sectional analysis needs replication. Conclusions: The GHQ-12 showed a hierarchy of distress, but IIO is only demonstrated for six of the items, and the scale could therefore be shortened. Adopting brief, hierarchical scales with IIO may be beneficial in both a clinical and research context