Research suggests that several factors affect children and adolescents with alopecia areata (AA). While hair loss is mostly associated with individuals undergoing chemotherapy, AA also causes individuals to lose the hair on their scalp and elsewhere on the body. This loss can be particularly devastating to children and adolescents, and can affect them socially, as well as psychologically. A mixed method research design was used to combine survey data with interview transcripts and field notes to capture a more detailed picture of AA and its effect on children and adolescents. The data reported here were extracted from a larger study utilizing nine demographic items, four independent variable items (gender, age, duration of diagnosis, age of onset), and 27 dependent variable items regarding impact factors. Subsequently, six follow-up interview questions were used with a small group for additional context. An exploratory factor analysis revealed five impact factors: Confidence/Self-Esteem, Psychological Effects, Appearance/Acceptance, Socialization, and Communication. Female participants reported significantly greater difficulty adjusting and managing AA than did their male counterparts. While most participants revealed a positive attitude about themselves, the majority were affected psychologically by this condition. Open communication with family and friends gave comfort and support to the vast majority.
This study investigated the effects of alternative narration, highlighted text, picture/word-based captions, and interactive video searching features for improving comprehension of nonfiction academic video clips by students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). Combined multiple baselines across participants and alternating treatment designs were employed to evaluate the factual comprehension by five postsecondary participants with ID/DD. Comprehension was measured by the number of correct oral responses after watching regular, nonadapted videos in the baseline phases, as well as after watching adapted videos and after searching videos for answers via hyperlinks in the treatment and maintenance phases. Findings included: (a) the participants improved their factual comprehension of video content significantly after viewing videos modified with alternative narrations and various captioning adaptations, which resulted in additional significant improvements after students had an opportunity to search the video for answers and adjust their original oral responses; (b) the participants performed equally well regardless of the type of captions (highlighted text or picture/word-based); and (c) there was no significant difference in participant comprehension between motion videos and static images. Adapted videos offer innovative solutions for legally required access and active participation of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in grade- and subject-linked academic curriculum.
Mathematics and special educators who taught in middle schools that had or had not made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) were surveyed to compare their motivation across three domains on a Teacher Motivation Survey: Work Environment, Professional Identity, and Career Satisfaction. Educators from schools who had met AYP reported a significantly better Work Environment, also referred to as collective efficacy, than that of educators from schools that had not met AYP. There were no statistically significant differences for special or mathematics educators, whether from a school that had or had not met AYP. Other results from the Teacher Motivation Survey are presented, including qualitative analyses from open-ended queries in the survey. Implications for expanding this research as well as more immediate applications and actions for school administrators are noted.
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