title: Investigating the use of coreboards by children with developmental disabilities and teachers in a school environment.

authors: Oldfield, Ainsley

subjects: Autism

abstract: Coreboards have become popular as an aid for individuals with disorders, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who may have issues with speech-language production, but who also often lack more fundamental functional communication skills. The aims of this study were to explore the extent coreboards as an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) were a useful tool for children with developmental disabilities and their teachers to communicate independently and functionally, if they were used effectively in the school environment, if they were used for their intended purpose, and if they were used to facilitate functional communication skills for children with developmental disabilities. The research in this project involved data collection on student and teacher communicative behaviour. The participants in this study were three children aged 9 to 10 with developmental disabilities and their teacher and learning support assistants. The study is a mixed-methods descriptive design and data was collected by direct observations being recorded on a data sheet. The main findings are the student participants did use the coreboard for independent communication as they each individually initiated with the coreboard less than 3% of the time and two of the student participants purpose of initiating use of the coreboard was unknown over half the time. Furthermore, if the adult participants are unable to determine what the purpose of the coreboard use is from the student participants, then the communication act will not be successful as the adult participant will not be able to respond appropriately to the student participant and the lack of success will discourage the student participants from initiating in the future.

text: Investigating the use of coreboards by children with developmental disabilities and teachers in a school environment. Coreboards have become popular as an aid for individuals with disorders, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who may have issues with speech-language production, but who also often lack more fundamental functional communication skills. The aims of this study were to explore the extent coreboards as an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) were a useful tool for children with developmental disabilities and their teachers to communicate independently and functionally, if they were used effectively in the school environment, if they were used for their intended purpose, and if they were used to facilitate functional communication skills for children with developmental disabilities. The research in this project involved data collection on student and teacher communicative behaviour. The participants in this study were three children aged 9 to 10 with developmental disabilities and their teacher and learning support assistants. The study is a mixed-methods descriptive design and data was collected by direct observations being recorded on a data sheet. The main findings are the student participants did use the coreboard for independent communication as they each individually initiated with the coreboard less than 3% of the time and two of the student participants purpose of initiating use of the coreboard was unknown over half the time. Furthermore, if the adult participants are unable to determine what the purpose of the coreboard use is from the student participants, then the communication act will not be successful as the adult participant will not be able to respond appropriately to the student participant and the lack of success will discourage the student participants from initiating in the future.

year: 2021

title: By rule or by rote? To what extent does children’s spelling improve as a result of learning words with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy, compared with phonological spelling strategies?

authors: Dymock, Susan

abstract: The present study was a randomised controlled trial designed to compare the effects of two spelling interventions on spelling of taught words and transfer words. The sample consisted of 55 seven-year-olds, including proficient and less proficient spellers, in two Year 3 classrooms. The spelling interventions were for three lessons per week, 20-minutes per lesson, over 10 weeks. In the first intervention we taught eight spelling strategies that showed children how to stretch out the sounds in words and how to use different phonological spelling strategies, including how to spell short and long vowel sounds and phonics strategies, such as use of the silent e marker, how to break long words into syllables, and the doubling rule. In the second intervention students learned the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy along with putting words to be learned into alphabetical order and writing each word in a sentence. They were not taught any strategies or rules. The control group completed comprehension, vocabulary, and punctuation activities. In order to see if the control group might implicitly learn the words, all groups in all lessons were exposed to the same words by reading a story to them that contained the words. Results for taught words showed that both intervention conditions increased participants’ spelling at an equivalent rate, greater than that of the control condition. For transfer words not taught but that followed similar patterns to the taught words, the strategy intervention showed greater transfer to spelling new words with similar patterns compared with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX condition and the control condition. For this reason we conclude that although both intervention approaches had strong local effects in terms of learning to spell specific words, teaching rule-based spelling strategies had more global effects in terms of transfer to new words than the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX for both proficient and less proficient spellers.

text: By rule or by rote? To what extent does children’s spelling improve as a result of learning words with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy, compared with phonological spelling strategies? The present study was a randomised controlled trial designed to compare the effects of two spelling interventions on spelling of taught words and transfer words. The sample consisted of 55 seven-year-olds, including proficient and less proficient spellers, in two Year 3 classrooms. The spelling interventions were for three lessons per week, 20-minutes per lesson, over 10 weeks. In the first intervention we taught eight spelling strategies that showed children how to stretch out the sounds in words and how to use different phonological spelling strategies, including how to spell short and long vowel sounds and phonics strategies, such as use of the silent e marker, how to break long words into syllables, and the doubling rule. In the second intervention students learned the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX strategy along with putting words to be learned into alphabetical order and writing each word in a sentence. They were not taught any strategies or rules. The control group completed comprehension, vocabulary, and punctuation activities. In order to see if the control group might implicitly learn the words, all groups in all lessons were exposed to the same words by reading a story to them that contained the words. Results for taught words showed that both intervention conditions increased participants’ spelling at an equivalent rate, greater than that of the control condition. For transfer words not taught but that followed similar patterns to the taught words, the strategy intervention showed greater transfer to spelling new words with similar patterns compared with the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX condition and the control condition. For this reason we conclude that although both intervention approaches had strong local effects in terms of learning to spell specific words, teaching rule-based spelling strategies had more global effects in terms of transfer to new words than the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK, FIX for both proficient and less proficient spellers.

year: 2017

title: Foresight in hindsight: Visions of the future from Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout, 1889-1923

authors: Lemberg, Nicola Johanna

subjects: history

abstract: This thesis examines seven future-focused texts authored by four New Zealanders: Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout. ‘The future’ is a neglected lens for historical research and this thesis explores the value of such an approach, using New Zealand society from the 1880s and to the 1920s as a case study. A methodological combination of textual analysis, biography, and historical contexts, including consideration of print culture, allows for nuanced examination of depictions of the future, and suggests such connections are vital to fully understanding histories of the future. This research serves as a framework to inform further exploration of historical future imaginings, either in New Zealand or in other geographic or temporal contexts.

From Vogel’s novel Anno Domini 2000 (1889) to Ngata’s 1892 essay The Past and Future of the Maori to King’s and Rout’s twentieth-century guidebooks on the care of babies and the use of contraception, the four authors utilize various textual forms to communicate their imagined future, and commonly frame their ideas within concepts of utopia and dystopia. This thesis compares the futures depicted by male and female authors, and those emerging from Māori and Pākehā cultural contexts. It examines futures envisioned by politicians, community leaders, and ostracized individuals. Shaped by preoccupations with empire, gender, and identity, these future-focused texts highlight relationships between national and global spaces. This in turn allows for a fresh exploration of New Zealand’s past, and especially the country’s colonial histories.

text: Foresight in hindsight: Visions of the future from Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout, 1889-1923 This thesis examines seven future-focused texts authored by four New Zealanders: Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout. ‘The future’ is a neglected lens for historical research and this thesis explores the value of such an approach, using New Zealand society from the 1880s and to the 1920s as a case study. A methodological combination of textual analysis, biography, and historical contexts, including consideration of print culture, allows for nuanced examination of depictions of the future, and suggests such connections are vital to fully understanding histories of the future. This research serves as a framework to inform further exploration of historical future imaginings, either in New Zealand or in other geographic or temporal contexts.

From Vogel’s novel Anno Domini 2000 (1889) to Ngata’s 1892 essay The Past and Future of the Maori to King’s and Rout’s twentieth-century guidebooks on the care of babies and the use of contraception, the four authors utilize various textual forms to communicate their imagined future, and commonly frame their ideas within concepts of utopia and dystopia. This thesis compares the futures depicted by male and female authors, and those emerging from Māori and Pākehā cultural contexts. It examines futures envisioned by politicians, community leaders, and ostracized individuals. Shaped by preoccupations with empire, gender, and identity, these future-focused texts highlight relationships between national and global spaces. This in turn allows for a fresh exploration of New Zealand’s past, and especially the country’s colonial histories.

year: 2024