H.P.L.M. Korzilius

Cyberbullying among students with intellectual and developmental disability in special education settings

Objective: To explore the types, prevalence and associated variables of cyberbullying among students with intellectual and developmental disability attending special education settings. Methods: Students (n = 114) with intellectual and developmental disability who were between 12–19 years of age completed a questionnaire containing questions related to bullying and victimization via the internet and cellphones. Other questions concerned sociodemographic characteristics (IQ, age, gender, diagnosis), self-esteem and depressive feelings. Results: Between 4–9% of students reported bullying or victimization of bullying at least once a week. Significant associations were found between cyberbullying and IQ, frequency of computer usage and self-esteem and depressive feelings. No associations were found between cyberbullying and age and gender. Conclusions: Cyberbullying is prevalent among students with intellectual and developmental disability in special education settings. Programmes should be developed to deal with this issue in which students, teachers and parents work together.

Behavioral Treatment of Challenging Behaviors in Individuals with Mild Mental Retardation: Meta-Analysis of Single-Subject Research.

A meta-analytic study on effectiveness of behavioral and psychotherapeutic treatments for challenging behaviors in individuals with mild mental retardation is reported. Eighty articles were examined. For each comparison, several study variables and two effect sizes (percentage of nonoverlapping data-PND and percentage of zero data-PZD) were evaluated (Ms = 75% and 35%, respectively). Studies in which experimental designs and methods of experimental functional analysis were used had significantly larger PNDs than those with AB designs and descriptive methods, respectively. Functional analysis, reliability of recording, generalization, and internally valid designs resulted in larger PZDs. We found that behavioral interventions for challenging behaviors are effective with people with mild mental retardation.

Exogenous melatonin for sleep problems in individuals with intellectual disability: a meta-analysis.

Recent meta‐analyses on melatonin has raised doubts as to whether melatonin is effective in treating sleep problems in people without intellectual disabilities. This is in contrast to results of several trials on melatonin in treating sleep problems in individuals with intellectual disabilities. To investigate the efficacy of melatonin in treating sleep problems in individuals with intellectual disabilities, we performed a meta‐analysis of placebo‐controlled randomized trials of melatonin in individuals with intellectual disabilities and sleep problems. Data were selected from articles published on PubMed, Medline, and Embase between January 1990 and July 2008. We examined the influence of melatonin on sleep latency, total sleep time, and number of wakes per night. Quality of trials was assessed using the Downs and Black checklist. Nine studies (including a total of 183 individuals with intellectual disabilities) showed that melatonin treatment decreased sleep latency by a mean of 34 minutes (p<0.001), increased total sleep time by a mean of 50 minutes (p<0.001), and significantly decreased the number of wakes per night (p<0.05). Melatonin decreases sleep latency and number of wakes per night, and increases total sleep time in individuals with intellectual disabilities.

English in Dutch commercials: Not understood and not appreciated

ABSTRACT Advertising agencies are increasingly using English in Dutch commercials because of financial and image reasons. This paper investigates how often commercials that contain English occur and the extent to which they are understood. It shows that one third of Dutch commercials contain English words and phrases that are announced using a Dutch accent based on the American-English model. It further shows that consumers display a rather negative attitude towards the English used in the commercials and that only one third was able to give a rough indication of its meaning.

Low Intensity Behavioral Treatment Supplementing Preschool Services for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Severe to Mild Intellectual disability.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of low intensity behavioral treatment (on average 6.5h per week) supplementing preschool services in 3-6-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder and severe to mild intellectual disability. Treatment was implemented in preschools (i.e., daycare centers) and a discrete trial teaching approach was used. Twelve children in the treatment group were compared to 22 children receiving regular intervention. At pre-treatment, both groups did not differ on chronological age, developmental age, diagnosis and level of adaptive skills. Eight months into treatment, children receiving behavioral treatment displayed significantly higher developmental ages and made more gains in adaptive skills than children from the control group. No significant differences between groups were found on autistic symptom severity and emotional and behavioral problems.

Cost Comparison of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention and Treatment as Usual for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Netherlands.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) may result in improved cognitive, adaptive and social functioning and reductions in autism severity and behavioral problems in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For a subset of children, normal functioning may be the result. However, due to the intensity (20-40 h per week for 3 years with a low child staff ratio) implementation costs are high and can be controversial. Estimated costs for education, (supported) work and (sheltered) living for individuals with ASD in The Netherlands are applied in a cost-offset model. A compelling argument for the provision of EIBI is long term savings which are approximately € 1,103,067 from age 3 to 65 years per individual with ASD. Extending these costs to the whole Dutch ASD population, cost savings of € 109.2-€ 182 billion have been estimated, excluding costs associated with inflation.

Communication in Individuals with Rett Syndrome: an Assessment of Forms and Functions

In the present study we assessed the forms and functions of prelinguistic communicative behaviors for 120 children and adults with Rett syndrome using the Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA) (Sigafoos et al. Communication Disorders Quarterly 21:77–86, 2000a). Informants completed the IPCA and the results were analysed to provide a systematic inventory and objective description of the communicative forms and functions present in each individual’s repertoire. Results show that respondents reported a wide variety of communicative forms and functions. By far most girls used prelinguistic communicative behaviors of which eye contact/gazing was the most common form. The most often endorsed communicative functions were social convention, commenting, answering, requesting and choice-making. Problematic topographies (e.g., self-injury, screaming, non-compliance) were being used for communicative purposes in 10 to 41% of the sample. Exploratory analyses revealed that several communicative forms and functions were related to living environment, presence/absence of epilepsy, and age. That is, higher percentages of girls who showed some forms/functions were found in those who lived at home, who had no epilepsy and who were relatively young.

Communicative functioning in individuals with Angelman syndrome: a comparative study

Purpose: To assess expressive communication in individuals with Angelman syndrome. Method: Communicative functioning of individuals with Angelman syndrome (AS) (n = 109) was compared with individuals with mixed etiologies (n = 117) using the Verbal Behaviour Assessment Scale (VerBAS). Results: Within-group analyses of those with AS revealed that the communicative function of manding was significantly more developed than tacting and echoing, and that tacting was significantly more developed than echoing. Low mean total VerBAS-scores were found with individuals who had epilepsy and used anticonvulsant medication, and with those who had profound developmental disabilities. In the comparison group, the function of manding was significantly more developed than both tacting and echoing, while tacting did not differ from echoing. Between-groups analyses revealed that individuals with AS had significantly lower scores on tacting and echoing, but not on manding. Conclusion: The overall pattern of VerBAS scores for individuals with AS suggests a possible communicative phenotype.

Behavioural flexibility in individuals with Angelman syndrome, Down syndrome, non-specific intellectual disability and Autism spectrum disorder

BACKGROUND Little is known about behavioural flexibility in children and adults with Angelman syndrome and whether people with this syndrome have more or less problems in being behaviourally flexible as compared with other people. METHOD Behavioural flexibility scores were assessed in 129 individuals with Angelman syndrome using 11 items from the Behavioural Flexibility Rating Scale-Revised (Green et al. 2007). Level of behavioural flexibility scores in individuals with Angelman syndrome (N = 129) was compared with that of people with non-specific intellectual disability (ID) (N = 90), Down syndrome (N = 398) and Autism spectrum disorder (N = 235). RESULTS Comparative analyses show that individuals with Angelman syndrome were more flexible than those with non-specific ID (P < 0.001) and those with Autism spectrum disorder (P < 0.01). There were no differences in behavioural flexibility scores between individuals with Angelman syndrome and those with Down syndrome (P = 0.94). CONCLUSION It is concluded that individuals with Angelman syndrome are comparatively flexible in their behaviour.

Promoting intercultural communicative competence through foreign language courses

LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE is important in intercultural business communication (IBC) studies. But equally important is developing intercultural communicative competence, that is, a recognition of the cultural factors influencing behavior in business encounters around the globe (Beamer, 1992; Bennett, 1986; Varner, 2001). This article suggests how tertiary-level foreign language (FL) courses can be contextualized to promote intercultural learning geared to “achieving an awareness of cultural diversity and an understanding of different modes of living and behaviour” (Krück, 1992, p. 299). It describes the learning projects and tasks incorporated into the 1st-year IBC program at Nijmegen University in the Netherlands, where an integrative approach to course programming was introduced in 2001-2002.