Dutch law mandates that every secondary special education school develops post-secondary transition plans for their students. Currently, there are no established guidelines for creating these...Show moreDutch law mandates that every secondary special education school develops post-secondary transition plans for their students. Currently, there are no established guidelines for creating these transition plans. This study aimed to investigate two potential factors that could be considered, specifically for students with autism: IQ and social-emotional functioning. To examine the relationship between IQ, social-emotional functioning, and transition plans, this research assessed the correlation between IQ and transition plans, the correlation between social-emotional functioning and transition plans, and whether IQ or social-emotional functioning more strongly predicted transition plans. Recruitment resulted in a sample of n= 14 participants: with n= 13 boys and n= 1 girl. N= 7 was assigned the transition profile Labor and n= 7 was assigned the transition profile Post-Secondary Education, none of the participants were assigned the transition profile Daytime Occupation. This study utilized the developmental prospect plans of the students. Upon data analysis, it was found that there was no significant correlation between IQ and transition planning (p = .428), no significant correlation between social-emotional functioning and transition planning (p = .855), and neither IQ nor social-emotional functioning emerged as a stronger predictor for transition planning. The limitations of the current research were a small sample size, the variability of entries in the developmental prospect plans and the multidimensionality of the variables IQ and social-emotional functioning. Future research should be done to investigate the replicability of the current findings within a bigger sample and the potential of alternative variables that may be associated. Teachers working with students with autism may need additional training to understand the complexities of transition planning beyond the intellectual or social-emotional functioning. Considering these findings, it is concluded that neither IQ nor social-emotional functioning should be used as sole criteria for transition plans for autistic students in secondary special education.Show less
Parental sensitivity refers to the degree to which parents are aware of their child’s signals, and respond quickly and appropriately to those signals. This parental sensitivity plays an important...Show moreParental sensitivity refers to the degree to which parents are aware of their child’s signals, and respond quickly and appropriately to those signals. This parental sensitivity plays an important role in raising children. In this study, correlations between sensitive parenting, parental self-confidence in raising children, child temperament and child age were investigated. Twenty-one parents participated in an online meeting in which they played for eight minutes with their 3-5 year-old child. Two to four weeks after the first meeting, parents participated in a second online meeting in which they also played for eight minutes with their child. After the first meeting, parents filled in a questionnaire about their sensitivity, their self-confidence in raising their child, and child temperament. The following questions were investigated: ‘are parental self-confidence in raising children and parental sensitivity correlated?’; ‘is child temperament or parental self-confidence in raising children more closely correlated with parental sensitivity?’; and ‘to what extent does child temperament affect the correlation between child age and parental sensitivity?’. Using a correlation, multiple regression and moderator analysis, no correlations were found. Parental sensitivity was not correlated to parental self-confidence in raising children, child temperament or child age. These results indicate that interventions for increasing parental sensitivity must not focus on parental self-confidence or child temperament, but for example on how parents can practice sensitive parenting or how parents can react sensitively when their child is angry.Show less
By identifying and preventative intervening in children and adolescents with externalizing problem behaviour at an early stage, efforts are made to prevent bigger problems later on. It is important...Show moreBy identifying and preventative intervening in children and adolescents with externalizing problem behaviour at an early stage, efforts are made to prevent bigger problems later on. It is important to know which factors are related to externalizing problem behaviour, so that identifying and treatment can focus on those. Current research focuses on the relationship between gender, age, inhibition and emotional facial recognition with externalizing problem behaviour. Previous research was inconsistent or little research has been done. 232 children and adolescents (𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑒 = 10.51; SD = 1.39), of which 79.3% were boys and 20.7% were girls, completed the Shifting Set Visual (SSV) to measure the level of inhibition and the Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) to measure the emotional facial recognition. The teachers of the children and adolescents completed the Teacher Report Form (TRF) to measure the degree of externalizing problem behaviour of the child or adolescent. The results show that boys have a higher degree of externalizing problem behaviour than girls. A lower inhibition level is related to a higher degree of externalizing problem behaviour than a higher inhibition level. Average emotional facial recognition appears to influence the relationship between inhibition and externalizing problem behaviour, whereas below-average emotion facial recognition did not. Also, age does not appear to be linked to externalizing problem behaviour. The results implicate that focussing on the inhibition level during identifying and treatment of externalizing problem behavior, is useful. They also imply that boys have a higher risk of a higher degree of externalizing problem behaviour than girls. Although expected, below-average emotional facial recognition did not appear to influence the relationship between inhibition and externalizing problem behaviour. This indicates that emotional facial recognition does not have to be taken into account during the signalling and treatment. More research is needed to make the findings more certain.Show less
Introduction: Children with autism experience difficulties in daily life due to impairments in social functioning and adaptive functioning. These impairments differ from person to person, as autism...Show moreIntroduction: Children with autism experience difficulties in daily life due to impairments in social functioning and adaptive functioning. These impairments differ from person to person, as autism concerns a spectrum of symptoms. As metacognition (the ability to monitor and control one’s own thought processes) is said to be related to executive functioning and social cognition, impairments in metacognition might explain difficulties in daily functioning of autistic children. Therefore, the relationship between metacognition, emotion recognition and the quality of children with ASD-symptoms was examined. Method: 25 boys and 21 girls between the age of 8-16 (M = 10) from primary- and secondary schools in and around Leiden participated by performing the Thinking Aloud- task (metacognition) and Morphed Face Emotion Recognition Task, as well as completing the Cantril ladder (quality of life. One parent of each participant completed the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 to measure ASD-symptoms. Results: ASD-symptoms did not significantly correlate to metacognition (F(1.39) = 1.911, p = .175, R² = .047). Furthermore, metacognitive skills did not significantly predict emotion recognition skills (,F(1.41) = .073, p = .789, R² = .002). Neither metacognition nor emotion recognition was a significant predictor of the quality of life of children (F(2.40) = .683, p = .511, R² = .033). Conclusion: Due to the small sample, the current findings should be interpreted carefully. However, this study underscores the importance of examining the individual strengths and needs of children to promote their personal development and well-being. Future research within a larger sample should further investigate the role of metacognition in relation to the well-being of children in different contexts to better support pupils according to their neurocognitive strengths and weaknesses. This might not only contribute to the well-being of the individual child, but might also be beneficial for society as a whole.Show less
Girls are less likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to boys. This may be due to poorly understood sex differences in a number of domains, including social cognition....Show moreGirls are less likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to boys. This may be due to poorly understood sex differences in a number of domains, including social cognition. In order to gain more insight into gender differences in ASD, the current study investigates the extent to which autism traits and social cognition are predictors of internalizing problem behavior, taking into account the differences between boys and girls. Internalizing problem behavior of 35 boys and girls between the ages of six and sixteen was measured using the CBCL. The results showed that the degree of autism characteristics, as measured by the SRS-2, is a significant predictor for internalizing problem behavior. However, no significant difference was found between girls and boys. Also, social cognition, as measured by the MFERT, was not a significant predictor of internalizing problem behavior, and no stronger relationship was found for girls compared to boys. The results imply that a higher degree of autism traits and lower social cognition do not pose a greater risk for internalizing problem behavior in girls than in boys. Possible explanations for these results are focused on the current diagnostic criteria. Future research is desirable to gain more insight into whether genderspecific criteria for autism are necessary in the diagnosis of autism. It is therefore recommended that follow-up research be carried out into the representativeness of the female phenotype within the current diagnostic criteria for autism.Show less
Children diagnosed with a autism spectrum disorder are dealing with social difficulties in everyday life. They tend to have more problems during social interaction than children without autism....Show moreChildren diagnosed with a autism spectrum disorder are dealing with social difficulties in everyday life. They tend to have more problems during social interaction than children without autism. Also, children with autism experience lower levels of social well-being and higher levels of social anxiety. The current study examines whether the severity of social impairments affects the social well-being of children with autism. A total of 48 Dutch children with autism (38 boys, 7 girls), between age 8 and 17 were included in the current study. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) was used to measure the severity of social impairments. To measure the ability to recognize emotions and expressions, the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces-set (KDEF) was used. The Nederlandse Persoonlijkheidsvragenlijst (NPV-J) was used to measure the degree of social anxiety. No significant results were found in the current study, which implies that social impairments has no clear effect on social anxiety.Show less
Aim: The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the orthopedagogical knowledge on Angelman Syndrome (AS) and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), to create a useful framework for identifying support needs...Show moreAim: The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the orthopedagogical knowledge on Angelman Syndrome (AS) and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), to create a useful framework for identifying support needs and to obtain more structure and uniformity in existing knowledge. This is done on the basis of two research questions: 1) What are the characteristics (genotype and phenotype) of the Angelman Syndrome and the Prader-Willi Syndrome? 2) Is it known from literature whether people with AS or PWS have an intensive need for care? Is a distinction noticeable between the group from the literature and the group of clients with AS, who all have an intensive care demand, in the SCORE research? Method: For the first research question, extensive literature research at meta level was performed. In addition, the literature has been analyzed on the basis of the domains of the AAIDD-model. A multiple case study was conducted for the second research question. Of the 225 clients, 2 were clients with AS and there were no clients with PWS. The results of the BSID-III, CI, VABS, DBC-A and the SMS have been analyzed. Results: People with AS have a profound intellectual disability. There is a severe disorder in every domain of the VABS. There is little to no participation in society. People with AS often have sleep disturbances, seizures, ataxia, and motor development delays. The living environment differs for each client. People with PWS have a mild intellectual disability with an average IQ between 60-70 but in addition also have severe medical and physical challenges. Conclusion: People with AS have an intensive need for care due to their low functioning level. More research is needed on the health care needs of people with PWS to conclude whether they have intensive care needs.Show less
