Effect of a classroom-based intervention on the social skills of pupils with intellectual disability in Southwest Nigeria

Virtual reality and augmented reality as strategies for teaching social skills to individuals with intellectual disability: A systematic review

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) programs have proliferated significantly in recent years and they are finding their way into different educational and therapeutic purposes. This systematic review aims at analyzing the virtual reality and augmented reality programs designed to promote the development of social skills in individuals with intellectual disability. Searches were carried out in the Scopus, Science Direct, Springer and Web of Science databases in the period from 2005 to 2020. A total of six articles met the inclusion criteria. A descriptive data analysis was performed. The results show that the clinical profile of the individuals who participated in the interventions is diverse. It can be concluded that there is some scientific evidence that points to the usefulness of VR and AR in the development of intervention programs to improve the social skills of individuals diagnosed with developmental deficits. However, it is necessary to acknowledge methodological limitations such as the lack of control groups, follow-up measures and of generalization of the results.

[Impact of adapted physical activities on the health and psychological factors involved in the learning of pupils and students]

The literature documenting the positive role of adapted physical activities (APA) in academic success is flourishing. It's widely accepted that practicing APA helps you succeed. However, the pathway linking the impact of physical activity on student health to academic success remains unclear, and there is still a great deal of ground to cover. With this in mind, the aim of this article is to review what is known about the health benefits of physical activity and the psychological factors involved in learning in the school and university context.

Strategies for enhancing social skills of individuals with intellectual disability: A systematic review

Individuals with intellectual disability who suffer from comorbid mental health problems are likely to experience difficulties in socialising. Deficits in social skills are also associated with challenging behaviours and self-injury. This paper presents global evidence from a systematic review of literature on such issues as 'interventions'; 'social skills development', and 'individuals with intellectual disability'. A thorough search of various bibliographic databases identified 1 124 academic papers. Ten papers met the inclusion criteria for in-depth analysis concerning the use of interventions to develop social skills among individuals with intellectual disability. The study revealed that the social skills of individuals with intellectual disability had been fostered using different strategies, such as classroom-based intervention, emotional intelligence training, use of a peer network intervention, computer games of emotion regulation, and puppet play therapy. Furthermore, the findings suggest that various aspects like communication, bridging the gap in social skills deficits, emotional recognition and regulation, and adaptive behaviour were fostered using the identified intervention strategy. This review revealed that social skills interventions appeared modestly effective but may not be generalisable to school settings or self-reported social behaviour for individuals with intellectual disability. It is also necessary to increase the sample size in future studies to draw generalisable conclusions.

Adolescent Health Series The status of adolescent mental health research, practice and policy in sub-Saharan Africa: A narrative review

Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) has the fastest growing adolescent population in the world. In addition to developmental changes, adolescents in SSA face health and socioeconomic challenges that increase their vulnerability to mental ill‐health. This paper is a narrative review of adolescent mental health (AMH) in SSA with a focus on past achievements, current developments, and future directions in the areas of research, practice and policy in the region. We describe the status of AMH in the region, critical factors that negatively impact AMH, and the ways in which research, practice and policy have responded to this need. Depression, anxiety and post‐traumatic stress disorders are the most common mental health problems among adolescents in SSA. Intervention development has largely been focused on HIV/AIDS service delivery in school or community programs by non‐specialist health workers. There is a severe shortage of specialised AMH services, poor integration of services into primary health care, lack of a coordinated inter‐sectoral collaboration, and the absence of clear referral pathways. Policies for the promotion of AMH have been given less attention by policymakers, due to stigma attached to mental health problems, and an insufficient understanding of the link between mental health and social determinants, such as poverty. Given these gaps, traditional healers are the most accessible care available to help‐seeking adolescents. Sustained AMH research with a focus on the socioeconomic benefits of implementing evidence‐based, contextually adapted psychosocial interventions might prove useful in advocating for much needed policies to improve AMH in SSA.

Validation of the Communication Profile-Adapted in Ethiopian children with neurodevelopmental disorders

BACKGROUND

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are conditions affecting a child's cognitive, behavioural, and emotional development. Appropriate and validated outcome measures for use in children with NDDs in sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. The aim of this study was to validate the Communication Profile Adapted (CP-A), a measure developed in East Africa to assess caregivers' perception of communication among children with NDDs.

METHODS

We adapted the CP-A for use in Ethiopia, focusing on the communicative mode (CP-A-mode) and function (CP-A-function) scales. The CP-A was administered to a representative sample of caregivers of children with NDDs and clinical controls. We performed an exploratory factor analysis and determined the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, within-scale, known-group, and convergent validity of the identified factors.

RESULTS

Our analysis included N = 300 participants (N = 139 cases, N = 139 clinical controls, N = 22 who did not meet criteria for either cases or controls). Within the CP-A-mode, we identified two factors (i.e. verbal and physical communication); the CP-A-function scale was unidimensional. Combining both scales into one summary variable (the CP-A-total) resulted in a scale with excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.97; Kappa = 0.60-0.95, p < 0.001; ICC = 0.97, p < 0.001). Testing known-group validity, the CP-A-total scores were significantly higher for controls than cases (Δ mean = 33.93, p < 0.001). Convergent validity assessment indicated that scores were negatively and moderately correlated with clinical severity (ρ = -0.25, p = 0.04).

CONCLUSION

The CP-A is a valid tool for the assessment of communication among children with NDDs in Ethiopia. It holds promise as a brief, quantitative, and culturally appropriate outcome measure for use in sub-Saharan Africa.

Effect of interactive video-based instruction on learning performance in relation to social skills of children with intellectual disability

Interactive video-based instruction (IVBI) session was organized in day-care rehabilitation settings to provide training in acquiring new skills related to social skills development for targeted moderate intellectual disability (MID) population. The main objective is to inter-relate the effect of individual and collaborative interactive video-based instruction on social skills development for experimental group children with those in the comparison group. A quasi-experimental design was conducted on (n = 99, comprising 56 males and 43 females) students with MID from selected three rehabilitation centres of Guwahati, Assam, India. The mean and standard deviation of individual interactive video-based instruction (IIVBI) and collaborative interactive video-based instruction (CIVBI) was better than the conventional group. The ANCOVA result shows a significant effect of IIVBI and CIVBI in the improvement of social skills over conventional approach on students after controlling the effect of the pre-test. The interactive session in both the experimental group allowed the students to create their own space for learning social skills via different activities using IVBI. The researchers concludes that regular practice of various activities through video sessions can help children with intellectual disability to overcome minor obstacles by themselves without any additional service.

Development of a community-based, one-stop service centre for children with developmental disorders: changing the narrative of developmental disorders in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to about 15 million children with varying developmental disorders. Services for children with developmental disorders are scarce in Africa. The few available services are limited to the capital cities and are in the private sector, with the cost beyond the reach of most families. In 2016, the Centre for Early Development, Learning and Care was established in Ibadan, South-west, Nigeria. The centre provide services for children with developmental disorders is a one-stop, multidisciplinary team approach. Children are assessed on both structured and unstructured interviews. A total of 584 children were assessed between December 2016 and December 2019. One third (32.4%) of the children assessed within this period met diagnostic criteria for ASD, 29.1% had intellectual disability and 27.6% had cerebral palsy. The remaining clients (10.9%) had other disorders including ADHD, Down's syndrome, hearing impairment and visual impairment. Parents tend to downplay the severity of their children's disability. There are many challenges that are associated with the establishment of a service centre in a low resource setting. These and other experiences are discussed.

Caregiver burden in children with intellectual disability: Does special school education help?

BACKGROUND

Caregivers are playing a vital role in mentally ill patients in India. Families of children with intellectual disability encounter a high degree of stress such as physical, emotional, and financial.

AIM

The aim of this study was to compare and evaluate the caregiver burden and depression between the special school-going children and nonschool-going children with intellectual disability.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was conducted on caregivers of patients with intellectual disability at Radianz Health Care and Research Private Limited, Ahana Hospitals, Akash Special School, and M. S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation, Madurai. The Zarit Burden Interview scale was utilized to assess the level of burden experienced by the caregivers. The Major Depression Inventory scale was utilized to assess the severity of depression experienced by the caregivers. The Binet Kamat Test of Intelligence was administered by a psychologist to assess the IQ level of the children.

RESULTS

Totally 80 caregivers were participated in the study. The mothers of children with intellectual disability suffered from burden and depression when compared to the fathers (P < 0.0001). The parents of nonschool-going children had a higher level of burden and depression as compared to the parents of special school-going children (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Special school is playing a vital role for children with intellectual disability. It can be reasonably concluded from the study that both the groups face burden and depression. However, the severity of burden and depression is comparatively higher among parents of nonschool-going children.

When mathematics meets physical activity in the school-aged child: The effect of an integrated motor and cognitive approach to learning geometry

Mathematics is a science which can lead to both anxiety in children and teaching difficulties in teachers. Together, these two difficulties can increase the time spent in teaching and learning mathematics. The aim of this study is to examine the efficiency of a new integrated mathematics/geometry and physical activity program, specifically structured for increasing learning in fourth-grade pupils. Thirty-six children (age 10.36±0.55) were divided into an experimental (n₁ = 19) group and a control (n₂ = 17) group. The experimental group of subjects learned mathematics and geometry via the integrated teaching method, while the control group of subjects learned these subjects via traditional teaching methods. We administered two ad hoc tests, before and after the intervention, in order to study its effect. One test was on geometry knowledge and the other on mathematics, in which there were questions about the implemented teaching topics: rectangles, squares and their perimeters. Using a factorial 2×2 ANOVA, the results after four weeks indicated that the group of subjects who gained their mathematics and geometry knowledge through our intervention program were significantly more successful (P<0.05) than the control group. Our results suggest that the integrated teaching method proposed here could be considered a useful and efficient method for teaching mathematics and geometry based on motor tasks.