Predictors of family burden in families caring for children with special needs

Having a child with special needs has a significant impact on family life. While adapting to this new situation, parents often face difficulties related to the care of their children, family relations, and financial situation. The present study examined differences between family burden and spousal support perceived by mothers and fathers of children with special needs and investigated predictors of perceived family burden and spousal support. A total of 394 parents of children with disabilities (197 couples) from a large urban city in Northern Turkey participated in this survey study. Results showed the perceived family burden and spousal support differed significantly between couples. Mothers of children with special needs had significantly higher perceived family burden and significantly lower perceived spousal support in comparison to fathers. Moreover, perceived spousal support significantly predicted family burden perceived by mothers and fathers. Implications in relation to services offered to families of children with disabilities along with the recommendations for future research in this area are discussed

Erken müdahale ve erken çocuklukta özel eğitim alanında Tavsiye Edilen Uygulamalara (TEdU) ilişkin Türk paydaşların bakış açılarının incelenmesi

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türkiye'deki kilit paydaşların (öğretmenler, ebeveynler, yöneticiler ve yükseköğretim öğretim elemanları) Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'nde Özel Gereksinimli Çocuklar Konseyi Erken Çocukluk Birimi tarafından geliştirilen Tavsiye Edilen Uygulamalar (TEdU) hakkındaki görüşlerini incelemektir. Bu çalışmada, nicel araştırma tekniklerinden betimsel tarama yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Çalışmaya, Türkiye'nin yedi şehrinden 122’i öğretmen, 100’ü ebeveyn, 40’ı yönetici ve 32’si ise yüksek öğrenim kurumlarından çalışan öğretim elemanları olmak üzere toplam 294 kişi katılmıştır. Bu çalışmada veriler araştırmacılar tarafından TEdU temel alınarak geliştirilen bir anket aracılığıyla toplanmıştır. Çalışmada gruplar arasındaki farklılıkları araştırmak için tek yönlü ANOVA analizleri yapılmış ve istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir ana etki gözlenmemesi durumunda hangi gruplar arasında farklılık olduğunu belirlemek için Tukey post-hoc analizi uygulanmıştır. Bulgular, 65 uygulamanın hepsinin geçerlilik ölçütünü karşıladığını göstermiş olup tüm TEdU’ların Türkiye'deki paydaşlar tarafından önemli olarak algılandığını ortaya koymuştur. Bu çalışmanın bulguları, öğretmenlerin ve özel gereksinimli küçük çocuklara hizmet sağlayan diğer uzmanların uygulamalarında TEdU’ları kullanmasını kolaylaştırmak için sistem düzeyinde destek ve altyapı geliştirme ihtiyacını ortaya koymaktadır

VIRTUAL LEARNING IS NOT FOR MY CHILD! A PARENTAL PERSPECTIVE OF PRACTICES USED WITH CHILDREN WITH AUTISM DURING THE PANDEMIC

Once the COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic, most countries temporarily closed schools and shifted to home-based distance education. Each country had its own way of implementing education remotely. Turkey used an enhanced version of the currently existing Education Information Network (EBA) to deliver distance education to all children including those with autism. The rapid shift from face-to-face education to home-based virtual learning created unprecedented challenges and impacted development and learning of children with autism who often need individualized and systematic instruction. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore parental perceptions about effectiveness of distance education practices for children with autism and challenges they faced during visual learning. A total of 208 parents of children with autism participated in quantitative data collection while 18 also attended to individually conducted interviews. Results indicated many families did not use EBA to support their children’s learning and the content of virtual learning opportunities through EBA was not appropriate for the characteristics of children with autism. Implications for future practice and research as well as the limitations of this study were discussed

Can Ultrasound or pH Influence Pd Distribution on the Surface of HAP to Improve Its Catalytic Properties in the Dry Reforming of Methane?

The influence of ultrasound and different pH pre-treatments during the metal doping/modification of a hydroxyapatite (HAP) support is investigated. HAP is first synthesised via a hard-template synthetic route using carbon nanorods followed by their full physiochemical characterisation. The HAP was found to be crystalline and comprised a mesoporous structure as observed via XRD and nitrogen adsorption with a BET surface area of 97.57 (±1.16) m2 g−1. Ultrasound-assisted ion exchange (IE) and incipient wetness impregnation (IW) methodologies were employed to decorate the surface of HAP with Pd0 and are compared to previous procedures. The influence of pH upon the distribution of Pd0 throughout the samples during the doping process is also studied. All the prepared samples were evaluated for their catalytic activity towards dry reforming of methane (DRM) and the reaction was monitored via a thermal conductivity detector, coupled with gas chromatography (GC-TCD). It was found that ultrasound-assisted IE significantly accelerated the process from 3 days to 3 h and with the Pd0 metal remaining highly distributed upon the HAP with minor changes in catalytic conversions. Moreover, the ultrasound-assisted IW method successfully improved the Pd0 distribution and catalytic performance. On the other hand, the dispersion of the metal was unaffected after pH treatments in IE with no catalytic improvements observed, in contrast to IW, where considerable increase in metal distribution and subsequently catalytic performance was observed

Brand line positioning in the Norwegian mass-produced beer market : a comparative brand association study

The purpose of this thesis is to compare the image positioning of two Norwegian beer brand lines in terms of consumer perceptions. Despite recent popularity of microbrewery research, it argues that industrial breweries are more profitable, and should not be neglected. An introduction to the realm of brand equity is provided. It poses three research questions about two brands: 1) which associations are most frequently reported; 2) which associations differentiate the brands, and; 3) do they drive brand attitudes? Thereafter, information about the product category, the Ringnes and Hansa brand lines and owners, distribution chain and recent developments is disclosed. Consumer-Based Brand Equity and other theory relevant to consumer behavior and brand management is presented. Following the theoretical framework, two hypotheses are developed, deducted from publicly available brand information. A combined-methods approach was applied to collect primary data in two processes. To answer the first research question and develop additional hypotheses, a pilot study (n = 21) was conducted using semi-structured interviews on a convenience sample consisting mostly of students. It was finalized by developing a new set of three hypotheses. The main study (n = 342) utilized a survey strategy to collect quantitative data to be used in the analysis. Selfselected questionnaire respondents were automatically assigned a brand condition for comparison purposes. The process of each study was presented separately, including discussions of validity, reliability and statistical assumptions. Indications of perceived brand differences were found and summarized comparatively. All five null hypotheses that the brands were perceived to be equal, were rejected in favor of Hansa. Significant relationships between test variables and brand attitude were found by correlation, and potential drivers of brand attitude were explored using multiple regressions. Findings indicate that Hansa is positively differentiated from Ringnes by unique heritage and sports associations, however, generalizations cannot be made. Implications of findings are discussed along with limitations and recommendations.nhhma

Effectiveness of embedded instruction in early childhood special education: a literature review

Empirical literature acknowledges the importance and benefits of inclusive education. However, cautions have been noted in the literature with respect to providing children with disabilities with appropriate opportunities to learn new skills in inclusive settings. One approach that has been used in early childhood special education to provide instruction for young children with disabilities is called embedded instruction. The purpose of this literature review was to evaluate the effectiveness of embedded instruction for young children with special needs. The examination of findings revealed that embedded instruction is an effective practice to teach a range of skills to children with various developmental delays and disabilities in inclusive preschool classrooms. Moreover, children who learn new skills through embedded instruction generalise these skills across people, setting, activities, and materials and maintain these skills over time. RESUME: La litterature empirique reconnait l'importance et les benefices de l'education inclusive. Des conditions ont toutefois ete notees, dans la litterature, en vue de procurer aux enfants presentant un handicap des occasions appropriees de faire de nouvelles acquisitions dans un environnement inclusif. Une des approches utilisee dans l'education speciale precoce pour favoriser l'instruction des jeunes enfants presentant un handicap est appelee l'instruction integree. Le but de cette revue de litterature etait d'evaluer l'efficacite de l'instruction integree pour ces enfants. L'analyse des resultats revele que l'instruction integree est une pratique efficace quant a l'acquisition d'une gamme d'aptitudes par des enfants ayant des retards varies de developpement et des deficiences, dans les classes prescolaires inclusives. De plus, les enfants qui ont fait de nouvelles acquisitions, grace a cette instruction integree, generalisent leurs acquis aupres de personnes, lieux, activites et objets divers, et conservent ces capacites dans le temps. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Wichtigkeit und Vorteile inklusiver Erziehung sind in der empirischen Literatur anerkannt. In der Literatur wird jedoch Zuruckhaltung festgestellt, wenn es darum geht Kindern mit Behinderungen angemessene Gelegenheiten zum Erlernen neuer Fertigkeiten zu bieten. Eingebettete Anleitung ist ein sonderpadagogischer Ansatz der in der Arbeit mit jungen Kindern genutzt wird. Zweck der vorliegenden Literaturstudie ist die Evaluierung der Effektivitat eingebetteter Anleitung fur junge Kinder mit besonderen Bedurfnissen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eingebettete Anleitung tatsachlich ein effektiver Ansatz ist um Kindern mit verschiedenen Entwicklungsverzogerungen und Behinderungen den Erwerb diverser Fertigkeiten zu ermoglichen. Kinder, die durch eingebettete Anleitung neue Fertigkeiten erwerben, ubertragen diese auf andere Personen, Umgebungen, Aktivitaten und Materialien; sie erhalten die Fertigkeiten uber langere Zeit. RESUMEN: La literatura empirica reconoce la importancia y los beneficios de la educacion integrada. En todo caso, se nota cierta precaucion en la literatura, en cuanto a las oportunidades apropiadas para adquirir nuevas habilidades que los medios integrados le dan a ninos con discapacidades. Un metodo usado en la educacion especial para ninos pequenos con discapacidades es la llamada instruccion incorporada. El objetivo de este estudio bibliografico es evaluar la efectividad de la instruccion incorporada para ninos pequenos con discapacidades

Investigation and comparison of Turkish and American preschool teacher candidates' attitudes towards inclusion of young children with disabilities

AYDIN, Burak/0000-0003-4462-1784; Rakap, Salih/0000-0001-7853-3825; PARLAK RAKAP, ASIYE/0000-0001-8315-8628WOS: 000383574600007Inclusion of young children with disabilities into general education classrooms is a common practice that has been implemented for many years in developed countries around the world and many developing countries have been creating and implementing laws and regulations to support inclusive education in early years. Although extant literature includes a commonly agreed definition for inclusion, the implementation of inclusive practices varies across countries. A critical factor for successful implementation of inclusive practices is teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities. the purpose of this study was to compare Turkish and American pre-service preschool teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of young children with disabilities and their willingness to work with children with severe behavioural, physical, and cognitive disabilities. A total of 123 pre-service teachers participated in the study. the results showed that pre-service teachers across two countries had similar attitudes towards inclusion and their attitudes were positive. Additionally, both groups of pre-service teachers reported more favourable attitudes towards working with children with severe physical disabilities than those who have severe cognitive and behavioural disabilities. Implications for future research and practices are discussed