3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item An investigation into the use of mental imagery by children with autism(2012-03-14) Hadfield, TracyWith the increasing prevalence of autism on a worldwide scale, new teaching methodologies need to be explored in order to educate children with autism helping them to achieve their maximum potential. It has previously been established that many individuals with autism use visual opposed to verbal modes of thinking and learning. In this study action research was used to examine if high imagery instructional methods of teaching could be used as a teaching tool for autistic children attending a special needs school. This study examined whether there was a change in the classroom performance of three autistic children after a 5 month period of high imagery instruction, as compared against a baseline of response to previous instruction, as well as the pattern of verbal and non verbal abilities manifested at time of intake into the programme. Analysis of the results of initial cognitive, language and perceptual tests was thus undertaken for diagnostic purposes, combined with analysis of initial response to teaching prior to high imagery intervention. Once this base-line had been established, analysis of school readiness and scholastic tests was then undertaken pre and post intervention, combined with in-depth interviews with the children’s teacher, analysis of developmental diaries and analysis of work done as part of the school programme followed by each child over a five month period of intervention. At baseline all three children were found to have phonological weaknesses, as evidenced by difficulties isolating onset sounds in words, difficulties with rhyming and difficulties in skills such as blending sounds into words. Two of the children in the sample showed little to no response to the high imagery instruction, and continued to have difficulties with reading and pre-reading tasks involving working with the sound structure of the English language. The third child in the sample showed an increase in phonological skills and in reading, writing and spelling abilities in response to high imagery instruction, as well as an increase in both vocabulary and the non-verbal abilities involved in drawing . It was noted at base-line as well as throughout the study that visual memory was an area of strength for this child, but not for the other two children in the sample. The child who made progress was also able to use his visual strengths to develop associations between sounds and letters. The conclusions from this exploratory study are that not all children with autism learn through use of visual strategies in teaching. The success of high imagery teaching strategies when used with a child with well developed visual memory abilities would suggest that high imagery instruction could be a useful and successful teaching strategy where children with autism exhibit well developed visual modes of thought. Strengths in visual memory and in visual association may be indicators of the likelihood that a child with autism will respond positively to high imagery instruction.Item Becoming a writing consultant: the initial experience of working in an academic writing centre(2010-03-12T11:37:51Z) Simpson, Zachary StormItem The Phonic Inventories: Using spelling error patterns to identify children with potential learning difficulties(2008-05-19T12:58:10Z) Grasko, Dina NicoleThe Phonic Inventories are an instrument consisting of three spelling tests. This study explored the potential of this instrument to be used in group administration to identify children with potential learning difficulties. This was done with a sample of full-time mainstream and full-time remedial learners. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to establish if the Phonic Inventories could distinguish the spelling error patterns of learners in different grades for mainstream and remedial. A distinct pattern of key errors was found, which was similar for mainstream and remedial learners. There were performance changes over grade for mainstream learners but not for remedial learners. This suggests the Phonic Inventories may be measuring an underlying spelling ability which progresses in normal learners and not remedial learners. A stepwise regression analysis was used to establish whether the Phonic Inventories predict performance on contrast spelling tests. A good degree of fit was found between the tests, suggesting the Phonic Inventories are measuring the same abilities as other spelling tests, with the advantage of providing additional information. Finally, a discriminant analysis found errors made on the Phonic Inventories to predict group affiliation between the mainstream and remedial group to a good degree. It was concluded that the Phonic Inventories have strong potential as a group administered screening instrument for identifying children with potential learning difficulties.Item The Use of Mental Imagery in Improving the Simultaneous and Successive Processing Abilities of Grade V Learners with Learning Disorders of Reading and Written Expression(2007-02-16T10:40:50Z) Els, KarenThis study forms part of a series of studies on the use of mental imagery in learning. Preliminary data suggests that high mental imagery techniques are as effective as phonological based techniques in the remediation of the English language abilities of learners with difficulties in reading and written expression, and may lead to greater improvements where children have previously not learned using phonic approaches to learning to read, write and spell. Preliminary data further suggest that cognitive improvements, which cannot be explained purely by maturation factors, are also apparent as a result. The primary focus of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of high mental imagery techniques in improving the simultaneous and successive processing abilities of Grade V learners with learning disorders of reading and written expression. It also aimed to explore the usefulness of mental imagery techniques in improving the English spelling, reading and writing abilities of these learners. Eight Grade V learners attending a remedial primary school were selected to participate in this study. These learners were those who, in view of their scholastic history, were considered to be ‘treatment resisters’, implying that they had progressed poorly and had not responded well to other forms of traditional remedial intervention received in improving their English language abilities. Each participant’s cognitive, spelling, reading and writing abilities were pre and post tested utilising various psycho-educational and cognitive psychological assessment tools and their phonic skills were analysed. The sample received six months of bi-weekly individual remedial tuition in accordance with the remedial intervention strategy of the study group to which the participants had been randomly assigned. Four participants were tutored via high mental imagery techniques (experimental group) and four participants tutored utilising a phonological approach, forming the contrast group. Aggregated case study methodology was utilised to analyse the data. The results of this pilot study suggest that high mental imagery techniques are useful in improving the successive and simultaneous processing abilities and reading, spelling and writing skills of learners suffering learning disorders of reading and written expression. It should be noted that statistical analysis of the results was not undertaken owing to the small numbers of participants comprising the sample. However, when results obtained were analysed on a case by case basis as well as through aggregated case contrasts, there were strong indications to suggest that the gains made by the those participants tutored using high mental imagery techniques exceeded those of participants tutored in phonological techniques.Item Queer reading,queer writing(2006-02-10) de Waal, Shaun AndréThis MA dissertation uses “queer theory” to read existing literary texts and to inform the riting of new fictional works. In the opening literary-critical essay, which functions as an ntroduction to queer theory, I give an overview of its development and conceptual formation, then go on to demonstrate how it may provide useful and fruitful readings of a writer such as William Burroughs. The central and longest section of this dissertation is a group of short fictions that engage with queer theory, using some of its insights to generate investigations of sexuality, power, social relations, and to inspire formal experiments in keeping with the spirit of queer theory. In conclusion, I look back upon this group of short fictional texts and link them to the issues raised in the essay on Burroughs and queer theory.Item Imagery,cognition and memory: The influence of mental imagery on improving reading, writing, and spelling abilities of grade 4 children with learning disabilities(2006-02-09) Booth, LyndallA learning disability, by inhibiting learning, renders the scholastic years of a young child fraught with trying and frustrating experiences. Cases of learning disabilities that are being identified are however on the increase. Thus, with the prevalence rate growing and with the knowledge that learning disabilities in the areas of reading, writing and spelling account for a large majority of all diagnosed cases, it has become necessary to devise alternative teaching methods. The Targeted Revisualisation programme which is a high imagery based programme being one such programme that might ease the difficulties that such a child may experience. This research hence aimed to explore the link between mental imagery and memory and to further explore the effectiveness of the Targeted Revisualisation programme on reading, writing and spelling abilities of grade 4 children with learning disabilities. Using a primarily qualitative methodology, in particular the aggregative case-survey method, this aim was achieved. The sample - obtained from Japari Remedial School - constituted eight children in grade 4 who had been diagnosed as having learning disabilities in the areas the Targeted Revisualisation programme addresses. The sample strategy employed may thus be considered quota, non-probability sampling. The eight children in the sample were then assigned to either the experimental group - receiving tutoring using the programme - or to the contrast group that received traditional remedial tutoring, both of a six month duration. With the end analysis the sample illustrating that both groups benefited from their respective tutoring and that the Targeted Revisualisation programme proved an effective tool for the improving of reading, writing and spelling abilities of such children. Furthermore, it was found from this research that children with learning disabilities do use mental imagery as a learning aid for learning words and that there is indeed a strong link between mental imagery and memory.