Brain function underlying adaptive sensorimotor control in children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder

One child in every classroom (6% of children) suffers from Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Children with DCD exhibit marked impairments in movement planning and adaptive visuomotor behavior. However, few studies have investigated the brain functions that underlie behavioral difficulties exhibited by children with DCD. The overarching objective of this dissertation was to examine brain function using electroencephalography (EEG) both at rest and during the performance of visuomotor tasks of different levels of complexity (i.e. static vs. dynamic task environments) to determine if deficits in motor behavior are related to disrupted brain function in children with DCD. The first study revealed that the cortical activation patterns exhibited by children with DCD at rest were different than their typically developing (TD) peers, particularly for the left motor cortical region. Moreover, the activation patterns of children with DCD were similar to the patterns previously reported for young TD children, suggesting a "maturational lag" in brain activation specific to motor function. For the remaining studies, children performed line drawing movements on a computer tablet towards visual targets presented on a computer screen. These studies examined whether or not children with DCD exhibit different cortical activation patterns during the execution of goal-directed drawing movements. In Study 2, children performed simple drawing movements to stationary targets. The performance of children with DCD followed the same age-related developmental trajectory as TD children. However, children with DCD engaged motor planning and control brain areas to a greater extent throughout the movement compared to TD children, suggesting greater cortical effort to complete the task. For the last two studies, children performed drawing movements in dynamic environments in which visual stimuli cued participants to either abruptly stop ongoing movements (Study 3.1) or to modify movements online to displaced target locations (Study 3.2). Results from Study 3.1 demonstrated that children with DCD do not have difficulties inhibiting movements, a finding that may be attributed to similar cortical activation patterns as the TD children in response to stop signals. Study 3.2 revealed that children with DCD exhibit difficulties modifying movements online, which may be due to a lack of preparatory cortical activation in this group. Taken together, this dissertation provides evidence that disrupted cortical function both at rest and during movement planning may underlie differences in motor performance in DCD

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOPE AND CAREER DECISION READINESS IN ADOLESCENTS WITH EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES OR BEHAVIOR DISORDERS IN AN ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL SETTING

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between hope and career development in students with emotional disturbances or behavior disorders who were attending an alternative middle and high school. Additionally, this researcher wanted to see if students’ participation in career counseling had an interactive effect. A total of 65 male and female middle and high school students were recruited to complete the Hope Scale, Children’s Hope Scale, My Vocational Situation, and a demographic information sheet. The data analysis included calculations with Pearson’s Correlational Coefficient, regression, and t-tests. Significant relationship was found between hope and career development. Statistical significance was also found between hope and males and hope and African-Americans. When career-counseling-participation data were added to the analysis, statistical significance was also found for hope and females, hope and African-Americans, and hope and age. The findings of this study point to the positive relationships between hope and career development that exist in students with emotional disturbances or behavior disorders. Participation in career counseling is related to elevated levels of hope in females, African-Americans and the students of different ages. This study discusses the findings and the important implications for parents, counselors, educators, and special education and disability programmers. Future research directions and practices are also discussed

Understanding the Perceptions of High School Dropouts with Disabilities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Over the last 5 years, high school students with disabilities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) have experienced a higher rate of dropout compared to their peers, adding to an ever-widening gap in learning and graduation rates. The rationale for this study was the growing numbers of dropouts among students with disabilities that contribute to high rates of poor performing schools and create a burden on the local and federal government as the CNMI employment rates decline and reliance on the U.S. government for support increases. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of students with disabilities who drop out of high school, their perceptions of the learning environment, and the factors that contributed to their decisions to drop out. The conceptual framework was the constructivist theory. To answer what influenced high school students with disabilities to drop out of school and to what extent their perceptions of the constructivist element of belonging, engagement, or advocacy contributed to their decision to drop out, a qualitative case study design was used. Interviews were conducted with 10 former students who dropped out between 2013 and 2016 school years from high schools in the CNMI. Thematic analysis was used for emergent themes. Findings included that students do not receive their high school diploma because school policies prevented them due to age and lack of credits. Poor learning environments hindered students\u27 engagement. Poor teachers\u27 advocacy also hindered students\u27 graduation. The findings can be used by school district leaders and staff in the implementation of effective interventions for improving graduation outcomes for students with disabilities in order for these students to become contributing members of society through gainful employment and enhanced quality of life

The Sociology of Food and Eating

Food is an important aspect of our lives as it is a basic human necessity and it is intriguing to see how the culture of food is influenced sociologically. For the final project, I focused on the Sociology of Food and Eating in the U.S. by discussing three different aspects which are how the food is made, distributed, and consumed. More specifically, I analyzed the politics of pesticides, how class inequality affects food distribution, and why the U.S. enjoys larger serving sizes.https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/gender_studies/1076/thumbnail.jp

Age-related Difference in Kinematics and Cerebral Cortical Processes during Discrete Drawing Movements in Children and Adults

Research has shown developmental improvements in drawing movements during childhood. These changes may be related to protracted structural development and myelination of cortical brain structures underlying motor planning and control. However, no study to our knowledge has examined the relationship between cortical development and the emergence of accurate visuomotor behavior. This thesis characterized age-related differences in kinematics and cerebral cortical processes during the performance of discrete drawing movements in children, as compared to adults. Three groups were included in the study: young girls (6- to 7-year-olds), older girls (9- to 11-year-olds), and adult females (n=15, each). Participants performed 5cm center-out drawing movements with the dominant hand (right hand), while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. All participants exhibited similar task-related cortical communication (coherence) and activation (relative spectral power) in several frequency bands. Activation of motor neural resources (motor cortical potentials) in the midline pre-motor and motor regions was also similar across age groups. The similarity of the brain activation patterns for these measures may contribute to the comparable behavioral performance among all groups for root mean squared error (straightness) and movement length. However, other features of the young children's brain activation patterns and motor control were different than the older children and/or adults. Specifically, the young children showed increased activation of frontal (executive process) areas, whereas the older children and adults exhibit increased relative activation in task-relevant sensorimotor areas (as measured by spectral power) in frequencies related to sensorimotor processes and attention. Similarly, increased coherence in the lower beta and gamma bands, indicative of local networking, was found in the adults between the frontal and central regions, and the frontal and parietal areas. Moreover, the adults show increased activation of the contralateral sensorimotor areas time-locked to the onset of movement, compared with the young children. The increased activation of the motor areas and visuomotor networks during movement planning may contribute to faster, smoother, and more consistent behavioral performance for the older children and adults, not evident in the young children

Demographic Disparities in 1-to-Many Facial Identification

Most studies to date that have examined demographic variations in face recognition accuracy have analyzed 1-to-1 matching accuracy, using images that could be described as "government ID quality". This paper analyzes the accuracy of 1-to-many facial identification across demographic groups, and in the presence of blur and reduced resolution in the probe image as might occur in "surveillance camera quality" images. Cumulative match characteristic curves(CMC) are not appropriate for comparing propensity for rank-one recognition errors across demographics, and so we introduce three metrics for this: (1) d' metric between mated and non-mated score distributions, (2) absolute score difference between thresholds in the high-similarity tail of the non-mated and the low-similarity tail of the mated distribution, and (3) distribution of (mated - non-mated rank one scores) across the set of probe images. We find that demographic variation in 1-to-many accuracy does not entirely follow what has been observed in 1-to-1 matching accuracy. Also, different from 1-to-1 accuracy, demographic comparison of 1-to-many accuracy can be affected by different numbers of identities and images across demographics. Finally, we show that increased blur in the probe image, or reduced resolution of the face in the probe image, can significantly increase the false positive identification rate. And we show that the demographic variation in these high blur or low resolution conditions is much larger for male/ female than for African-American / Caucasian. The point that 1-to-many accuracy can potentially collapse in the context of processing "surveillance camera quality" probe images against a "government ID quality" gallery is an important one.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Conference submissio

Department of Music Student Symposium Recital

The 2015 Annual Student Symposium Recital features students from the Department of Music nominated by the music faculty to recognize excellence in scholarship and creative achievement. The performance includes selections from senior capstones in music (senior recitals, projects, lecture-recitals, theses), original music compositions, music performed for competitions, original dance choreography, and faculty-student collaborative chamber music works