Academic literature on the topic 'Children with mental disabilities – Education – Western Australia'

IN this article we argue that, despite the complex arrangement of laws and policies for education in Australia, there is no legal mandate to ensure that inclusive education occurs. Although the legislative framework for inclusion appears deficient compared with other western countries, there are avenues for persons with a disability to seek redress. The legislative structure for education in Australia is presented from a constitutional basis. The duties, rights and responsibilities of teachers, specifically when including children with disabilities in their regular classrooms, are examined from a legal perspective. Finally, recent cases which have challenged regular class placements for children with disabilities are reviewed.

In Western Australia (WA), similar to practices elsewhere, there has been a strong focus on the need for schools to reconsider their practices to increase opportunities for more equitable and inclusive access for all children. Subsequent to a major review of service provision for students with disabilities in WA (Department of Education and Training, 2004), a Building Inclusive Schools initiative is being implemented in all Government schools (Department of Education and Training, 2003). This paper explores how, following a trial inclusive program, one middle school is utilizing this initiative to further its own inclusive practices. To support this review a collaborative partnership has been established between the school and a university to provide an avenue for deliberate reflection on the processes employed to develop the school’s vision of Education For All by Incorporating Diversity. A model on sustaining education for all is identified and the impact of government directives is investigated. Consideration is given to the likely impact on the school of systemic procedures being developed to support the progress of the Building Inclusive Schools initiative.

Statement of the problem. Currently, there is a trend of digitalization of educational practice, including preschool education for children with health limitations (hereinafter HL). This determines the relevance of the development of digital educational resources (hereinafter DER). This development is determined by the need to disclose the DER didactic potential in the educational activities of preschool children. The purpose of the article is to reveal the didactic potential of DER in the formation of temporal representations in senior preschool children with mild mental retardation. The methodology (materials and methods) of research is based on the theoretical provisions of developmental learning, the laws of mental development in normal and impaired children, the requirements of normative legal acts, the analysis of foreign (S. Parsons, K. Guldberg, K. Porayska-Pomsta, J. Marsh, E. Wood, L. Chesworth, B. Nisha, etc.) and Russian scientists (N.N. Glazkova, O.I. Kukushkina, V.N. Mogileva, V.V. Klyputenko, etc.) on the use of DER in the educational practice of children with normative development and with disabilities, including scientific positions reflecting the need to develop and use information technology in the education of preschool children (M. Prensky, V. Vangsnes, R. Zevenbergen, S. de Castell, J. Jenson, etc.). Research results. In the course of the analysis the following results are presented: the essence of the concept of temporal representations is revealed; the structure of the digital game is characterized and the positive aspects of the use of these technologies in education are highlighted, based on the experience of implementing these resources both in Russian and Western countries; the didactic potential of DER with its structural components based on the requirements of regulatory legal acts and laws of mental development in senior preschoolers with mild mental retardation is revealed. Conclusion. The analysis conducted in the course of the study has revealed the didactic potential of DER for the formation of temporal representations in senior preschool children with mild mental retardation. This, in its turn, allows us to identify further prospects in the development of DER for this nosological group of children.

The entrance of parents into substance abuse treatment provides a unique opportunity to discuss parenting with them, and to inquire about the psychological wellbeing of their children. This is important because parental substance abuse is associated with an increased risk for the development of mental health problems in children. In this study, clients from a Dutch outpatient treatment facility who had custody of or regular contact with their children completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) about their children aged 4 to 17 years (<em>N</em> = 99), after being referred to a parenting consultation with a specialized professional. Compared to other studies conducted in Western Europe and Australia with similar at-risk populations, the SDQ results in the present study suggested a lower percentage of children with psychosocial problem behavior. Still, 29% of the children in our sample showed psychosocial problems in the clinical range. According to logistic regression analyses, which tested associations between client and family characteristics and risk of psychosocial problems, 5 factors (client’s gender, education level, presence of financial debts, child’s age, and absence of siblings) were associated with a higher likelihood of one or more types of psychosocial problems. Present findings suggest that, of children whose substance-abusing parents enter outpatient treatment, almost one third may have psychosocial problems that require further assessment and treatment.

The article analyzes the issues of inclusion and special education in the creative heritage of Sofia Rusova – teacher, citizen, politician, state maker, who considered them in the context of world scientific achievements of the interwar period of the XX century. Inclusion, as a process of increasing the participation of all citizens in society, including those with physical or mental disabilities, involves the development and implementation of specific solutions that will allow each person to participate equally in academic and public life. The evolution of the idea of inclusion and the birth of special education S. Rusova closely linked with the understanding and interpretation of the leading principles of pedagogy, general and social psychology, sociology, philosophy of education, historical and pedagogical searches of the late XIX - early XX century. Perhaps the most important source of new pedagogical ideas of S. Rusova, embodied in the writings of the interwar period (“New School of Social Education”, “Education and Sociology of Durkheim”, “Social Education: Its Importance in Public Life”, “Public Issues of Education” became acquainted with the latest trends in Western European pedagogy, which allowed her to keep up with the times, psychologize pedagogy. Extensive education, fluency in the leading European languages (first and foremost, French) made it possible for S. Rusova to access the original literature - works by J. Dewey, E. Claapared, G. Kerschensteiner, V. Lai, E. Meiman, and G. Spencer with the most prominent pedagogical figures of the 1920s and 1930s, including O. Decroly and M. Montessori, and studying the experience of their practical work. Guided by the statement that “ development of the child is influenced by three main factors: education, heritage, and environment”, based on the experiments of foreign (German, Belgian, Czech) researches, the scientist revealed the specifics of social and educational impact of the environment, preparing the groundwork inclusion as a set of conditions, methods and means of their implementation for joint learning, education and development of the educational recipients, taking into account their needsand opportunities. At the same time, I emphasize the shaft that no child “is passively influenced by the environment: it takes from it what its individuality seeks.” The issue of special education, in particular, the psychological and pedagogical principles of working with children with intellectual disabilities, is most fully revealed in S. Rusova's work, “Something about defective children in school”. It clearly traces the idea that children of all walks of life are necessarily subject to process education and training. According to S. Rusova, children with deviant behavior (in particular, “child offenders”), for whom the conditions for education as a factor of their re-education should be created, and for the needs of such schools, should not be left out of the educational influence in order to organize teacher training “with a deep psychological understanding of their sick students, with a heart warmed with love for them, and with a certain understanding of their social and pedagogical task: to return these children to citizenship ...”. Summarizing the above, it can be argued that the issues of inclusion, studying, education of children and young people with special educational needs, as represented by the property of Sofia Rusova are a significant contribution to Ukrainian and world pedagogical thought, an important factor in the revival of national educational systems in the teaching experiences of the past.

Abstract Flexible learning programs (FLPs) provide a place for students who have disengaged and disconnected from mainstream schools. Despite the legislative framework in Australia supporting the participation of students with disability in their local mainstream schools wherever possible, very little research focusing on whether students with disability are being excluded from, or dropping out of, mainstream schools into these FLPs has been conducted. In this paper, we report on the findings of an online cross-sectional survey of FLP leaders about their student populations, with a focus on the 10 most prevalent disabilities among Australian children. Data from the 22 participants who completed all items of the survey were analysed. The participants’ (n = 22) schools represented a total enrolment of 2,383 students in FLPs across Australia: Tasmania (n = 3), Victoria (n = 5), New South Wales (n = 5), Queensland (n = 4), Western Australia (n = 3), and South Australia (n = 2). We found that while there was an apparent overrepresentation of students with certain types of disabilities in FLPs, others were not overrepresented at all. The findings of this preliminary study are discussed, with an exploration of issues relating to why students with some disabilities may be more likely to disengage, or be excluded, from mainstream schooling while others are not, as well as recommendations for future research.

The issue of education for disabled children is of major concern with a view to achieve the goal of universal primary education. Nepal, being a signatory of Education for All and the Salamanca Declaration (1994), has adopted a policy of inclusive education ensuring the presence, participation and achievement of children having different abilities in the schools. Altogether 53,681children (1.3percent of the total enrolment) having different abilities were enrolled at primary schools of Nepal in 2009. Of them the proportion of children with physical and mental disabilities was high as compared to other types. The enrolment of disabled children varies spatially by region and district. Among disabled enrolled at primary school, The Western and Mid-western Mountain Region share the highest proportion i.e. 3.7 percent each. Among district, Surkhet shows the highest proportion (4.3 percent) of disabled children enrolled. Socio-economic condition of the household and disability of children are directly or indirectly interlinked. The positive correlation between district level Human Poverty Index (HPI) and enrolment of children having disability clearly show this. However, the role of other factors cannot be undermined. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ttp.v11i0.11553The Third PoleVol. 11-12Page : 45-49

IntroductionChildren who have been in out-of-home care have faced significant issues during their lives, and they are considered one of the most vulnerable groups in society. Given the limited evidence in Western Australia about outcomes for care-leavers, this study represents a base line for future studies of care-leavers outcomes. Objectives and ApproachA retrospective cohort study exploring the outcomes for young people born between 1990-1995, who have reached at least 18 years of age and have had a period of care, compared to other similar children in WA. This project used administrative linked data from the Department of Communities Child Protection and Family Support Division, Departments of Health, Education, and Corrective Services. This study undertook a descriptive approach to compare outcomes for young people who have left out-of-home care, and logistic regression modelling to explore the odds of having poorer outcomes among those who had a period in care. ResultsYoung people aged 18 years and over who had been in out-of-home care had worse outcomes compared to controls. Care-leavers had nearly twice the hospital admission rate of those who never had contact with the child protection system, almost three times more likely to have a mental health related contact, less likely to achieve a high school completion certificate and attend University, and more likely to have a juvenile community sentence or adult detention. A group of young people who had a period in care were identified as more likely to have ‘poorer outcomes’ compared to the rest of the Care group if they: were Aboriginal; female; born in a more disadvantaged area; and first entered care after the age of 10. Conclusion/ImplicationsYoung people who have been in care are at high risk of a range of poor outcomes, even compared to other children who have experienced similar disadvantage. Regardless of the causes, it is incumbent upon the State as acting ‘parents’ to provide the best possible support to improve their outcomes.

<p>There is a strong commitment by education authorities for computer technology to become part of the curriculum in most Australian schools, however, little research has been focussed on how this will happen.</p><p>Many schools and education systems have had to rely on a trial and error method of implementation, resulting in a limited awareness of, and consideration for the:</p><blockquote>...issues of equal opportunity or disadvantage. In fact, many of them (school staff) did not recognize a need for any special provision to address disadvantage due to gender, ethnicity, race or physical or mental handicap, (Jennings and Bradley, 1984, p.10).</blockquote><p>The findings of this broad based review of Western Australian computing programmes was possibly an indication of general trends Australia wide. In 1985 the National Advisory Committee in Computers in Schools recommended that:</p><blockquote>...planning committees will need to make special provision to encourage access to the program by groups such as girls, aboriginals, disadvantaged students and the disabled, (1985, p. 29).</blockquote><p>It appears that only limited research is available to guide these committees on the identification of the special provisions needed to encourage access to the programme by these special groups. Given the cross-cultural context many educationalist work in, and the implications this holds for Aboriginal schools children, research into computer education for Aborigines is urgently needed.</p><p>This paper presents the research findings of a study which collected data on school and community perceptions about the introduction of computer technology and the implementation of computer education into six Western Australian Government schools with substantial Aboriginal enrolments. A significant number of factors were found to influence the take-up of the technology by individuals in schools. These factors, although focusing on Aboriginal education, were relevant to most school contexts and implementation plans for innovation.</p>

While home schooling is by no means a new phenomenon, the last three decades have seen an increasing trend in the engagement of this educational alternative. In many countries, including Australia, a growing number of families are opting to remove their children from the traditional schooling system for numerous reasons and educate them at home. In response to the recent home schooling movement a research base in this area of education has emerged. However, the majority of research has been undertaken primarily in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, with very few studies having examined home schooling in Australia. The existing corpus of research is also relatively small and incomplete. Also, certain categories of home schoolers and the processes involved in their undertaking of this modern version of a historically enduring educational alternative have been overlooked. In particular, children with disabilities appear to be one of the home schooling groups that have attracted very little research world wide. This group constituted the focus of the study reported in this thesis. Its particular concern was with generating theory regarding how parents deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year. Data gathering was largely carried out through individual, face-to-face semi-structured interviewing and participant observation in the interpretivist qualitative research tradition. However, informal interviews, telephone interviews and documents were also used to gather supplementary data for the study. Data were coded and analysed using the open coding method of the grounded theory model and through the development and testing of propositions. The central research question which guided theory generation was as follows: 'How do parents within the Perth metropolitan area in the state of Western Australia deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year?' The central proposition of the theory generated is that parents do so through progressive modification and that this involves them progressing through three stages over a period of one year. The first stage is designated the stage of drawing upon readily-available resources. The second stage is designated the stage of drawing upon support networks in a systematic fashion. The third stage is designated the stage of proceeding with confidence on the basis of having a set of principles for establishing a workable pattern of home schooling individualised for each circumstance. This theory provides a new perspective on how parents deal with the home schooling of their children with intellectual disabilities over a period of one year. A number of implications for further theory development, policy and practice are drawn from it. Several recommendations for further research are also made.

Doctor of Philosophy
The current study explored the formative processes of twelve student teachers constructing role understandings in the context of their experiences and interactions with people with disabilities. In particular, it examined the participants’ changing notions of self-as-teacher and their unfolding perceptions of an inclusive educator’s role in teaching children with disabilities. The research aimed to investigate personal and professional forms of knowledge linked with the prior subjective life experiences of the student teachers and those arising from their interactions in situated learning experiences in community settings. The contextual framework of the study focused on the development of the student teachers’ unique understandings and awareness of people with disabilities through processes of biographical situated learning. The investigation examined participants’ voluntary out-ofcourse experiences with people with disabilities across three community settings for the ways in which these experiences facilitated the participants’ emerging role understandings. These settings included respite experiences in families’ homes of young children with disabilities receiving early intervention, an after-school recreational program for primary and secondary aged children and adolescents with disabilities, and an independent living centre providing post-school options and activities for adults with disabilities. ii Two groups participated in the current study, each consisted of six student teachers in the Bachelor of Education Course at the Bathurst campus of Charles Sturt University. Group One participants were in the second year compulsory inclusive education subject and Group Two participants were in the third year elective early intervention subject. The investigation examines the nature of reflexive and reflective processes of the student teachers from subjective, conflict realities in an attempt to link community experiences with real-life issues affecting inclusive educational practices. The voluntary community experiences engaged the research participants in multi-faceted interactions with people with disabilities, providing thought-provoking contexts for their reflections on observations, responses and reactions to situations, such as critical incidents. The participants engaged in reflexive and reflective processes in records made in learning journals and in semi-structured interviews conducted throughout the investigation. Results were analysed from a constructivist research paradigm to investigate their emerging role understandings. Prior to this study there had been few practical components in the compulsory undergraduate inclusive education subject which meant that previously student teachers gained theoretical knowledge without the opportunity to apply their learning. Many student teachers had expressed their feelings of anxiety and uneasiness about what they should do and say to a person with a disability. Thus, the community experiences were selected in order to give a specific context for student teachers’ learning and to provide participants with expanded opportunities to consider their professional identity, social awareness and acceptance of people with disabilities. iii An analysis of the data demonstrated the centrality of reflection within a situated teaching and learning framework. Understandings of prior experiences and motivation were shown to interact with the outcomes of the community experiences through an on-going process of reflection and reflexivity. This reconstructing process encouraged learners to reflect on past, present and projected future experiences and reframe actions from multiple perspectives as a way of exploring alternatives within broader contexts. The data reveal the participants’ engagement in the community experiences facilitated their awareness of wider socio-cultural educational issues, while focusing their attention on more appropriate inclusive teaching and learning strategies. The reflective inquiry process of identifying diverse issues led participants to consider other possible alternatives to current community practices for better ways to support their changing perspectives on ideal inclusive classroom practices. The dialogic nature of participants’ on-going deliberations contributed to the construction of their deeper understandings of an inclusive educator’s role. The findings of the study identified external environmental and internal personal factors as contributing biographical influences which shaped the student teachers’ emerging role understandings. The results emphasised the value of contextual influences in promoting desirable personal and professional qualities in student teachers. Importantly, situated learning enhanced participants’ unique interpretations of their prospective roles. As a result of analysing their insights from interactions in community contexts, the student teachers had increased their personal and professional understandings of individuals with disabilities and broadened their perceptions of their roles as inclusive educators. Thus, the study found that encouraging a biographical reflexive and reflective orientation in participants was conducive iv to facilitating changes in their understandings. Overall, the outcomes had benefits for student teachers and teacher educators in finding innovative ways for integrating biographical perspectives into situated teaching and learning approaches. The study showed that contextual influences facilitated deeper understanding of role identity and produced new ideas about the nature of reflexivity and reflection in guiding student teachers’ learning. (Note: Appendices not included in digital version of thesis)

Text in Afrikaans
In hierdie studie het die navorser die probleem van kurrikulumdifferensiasie vir Wiskunde Graad R aangespreek, sodat leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid ook sukses in Wiskunde Graad R kan ervaar. Die primêre vraag wat aangespreek is, is hoe die vereiste begrippe en vaardighede van die Kurrikulum- en Assesseringsbeleidsverklaring (KABV), vir Wiskunde Graad R aangepas kan word vir leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid. Die belangrikheid van die studie lê in die verskil wat differensiasie kan maak aan 'n leerder se geleentheid om sukses te ervaar volgens sy vermoë. Die doel hiervan is om leerkragte wat leerders met erge intellektuele gestremdheid onderrig, te bemagtig. Dit word gedoen deur aanpassings en aktiwiteite voor te stel wat tot voordeel van hierdie leerders in hul onderrigprogram geïmplementeer kan word. Dit sal daartoe bydra dat hierdie leerders die vereistes wat in die kurrikulum gestel word, in ’n beperkte mate kan bereik. Die navorsing is onderneem vanuit 'n inklusiewe perspektief aan die hand van 'n literatuurstudie en kwalitatiewe navorsing (gevalle-studie) wat semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude ingesluit het. Die resultate toon dat differensiasie wel moontlik is en dat daar verskeie aanpassings en aktiwiteite is wat leerkragte kan gebruik om hierdie leerders die geleentheid te bied om sukses te kan ervaar.
In this study the researcher addressed the challenges of curriculum differentiation for Mathematics Grade R to ensure that learners with severe intellectual disability may experience success. The primary question addressed was the manner in which the concepts and skills requirements of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), for Mathematics Grade R can be adjusted to suit the needs of learners with severe intellectual impairment. The importance of this study lies in the significant impact that differentiation can make in providing the opportunity for a learner to experience success according to his abilities. The purpose of this study was to empower teachers of learners with severe intellectual disability with the necessary knowledge, enabling them to successfully implement adaptations. This would allow the learners to achieve the requirements of the proposed curriculum, to a limited extent. Qualitative (case study) research was conducted from an inclusive perspective using a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that differentiation is possible and that there are several adaptations and activities that could be used by teachers to offer these learners the opportunity to experience success.
Inclusive Education
M. Ed. (Inklusiewe Onderwys)