Instructional Methods that Foster the Reading Development of Students with Significant Intellectual Disabilities
Pages 13-20
Colleen Wood-Fields, Sharon Judge and Silvana M.R. Watson

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/2292-2598.2015.03.01.3

Published: 26 March 2015

Abstract: Educational legislation has made reading a priority for students with significant intellectual disabilities (ID) and associated speech, language, sensory, or physical impairments. Historically, reading instruction for students with significant ID has focused on sight word instruction, with limited exposure to other essential reading skills. This article focuses on the evidence-based instructional methods that effectively and efficiently foster the reading development of students with significant ID. The authors reviewed the literature from the past 20 years on reading interventions for students with significant ID. In spite of access and opportunity barriers that have inhibited the reading development of students with significant ID, a synthesis of the empirical research on reading instruction suggests that students with significant ID and associated disabilities can learn phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension skills with direct instruction. Implications for providing reading instruction that effectively promotes reading development are discussed and areas for future research are identified.

Functional Measurement of Special Education Teachers’ and Students’ Expectations Toward Job Training for Persons with Intellectual Disability
Pages 35-42
Guadalupe Elizabeth Morales-Martinez, Ernesto Octavio Lopez-Ramirez, Maria Guadalupe Villarreal-Treviño and Yanko Norberto Mezquita-Hoyos

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/2292-2598.2015.03.01.5

Published: 26 March 2015

Abstract: Persons with intellectual disability (PWID) have fewer opportunities for enrolment in school programs and post-school employment than do their peers with typical development. Evidence suggests that attitude toward PWID is a main factor in either promoting or limiting better life conditions for this population. In this paper, the goal was to determine the cognitive information integration rules underlying the expectations of 174 special education teachers and students with regard to job training for PWID. In order to accomplish this goal, four factors (Gender, Severity of disability, Type of task, and Emotional traits) were orthogonally combined to implement a cognitive algebra study design. We obtained 48 experimental conditions, with each one presented as a scenario describing a PWID in a work training situation. Participants read these scenarios and were asked to judge the probability of the success of PWID with regard to learning the skills needed to complete the required work.Patterns of response allowed us to identify low, moderate, and high viewpoints with regard to participants’ judgments of predicted success. Personal factors (Emotional traits and Severity of disability) and the Type of task factor were considered the most important in influencing the participants’ judgment. These factors seemed to be integrated in a complex systematic cognitive pattern. Implications from this type of result with regard to PWID and work training are discussed in this paper.

Structural and Functional Neuroimaging of Restricted and Repetitive Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Pages 21-34
Jenna M. Traynor and Geoffrey B.C. Hall

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/2292-2598.2015.03.01.4

Published: 26 March 2015

Abstract: A prominent symptom of Autism Spectrum Disorder includes restricted and repetitive behaviours. This symptom has been divided into three subtypes: repetitive motor behaviour, insistence on sameness and circumscribed interests. In the past, the neural correlates of these behaviours have been largely understudied. More recently, neuroimaging studies have pointed to a number of neural networks that may underlay these behaviours. However, results from this work have been varied and remain difficult to integrate. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent neuroimaging studies on restricted and repetitive behaviours in autism, and to provide an organized framework that will permit a clearer understanding of the neural correlates of these behaviours. Using a developmental perspective, this review will identify that there are distinct and overlapping neural networks that are associated with repetitive motor behaviour, insistence on sameness and circumscribed interests. In addition, this review will identify a series of executive and affective function tasks that have proven efficacious in the study of repetitive behaviour.

Might we be Calling Problems Seen in Autism Spectrum Conditions: ‘Poor Theory of Mind,’ when Actually they are Related to Non-Generalised ‘Object Permanence’?
Pages 43-48
Wenn B. Lawson and Brynn A. Dombroski

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/2292-2598.2015.03.01.6

Published: 26 March 2015

Abstract: Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and the delayed development of object permanence is often not questioned, and is rarely understood. The following paper attempts to explore this idea and suggests reasons for why such development is delayed and the possibility that certain difficult behaviours seen in children with ASC are less likely to be connected to having poor theory of mind and more connected to lacking generalized concepts of object permanence.