Hefziba Lifshitz

Attitudes towards inclusion: the case of Israeli and Palestinian regular and special education teachers

The goals of the present study were to examine the effects of an intervention programme on sense of efficacy and attitudes towards inclusion of pupils with six types of disability, among Israeli (N = 66) and Palestinian (N = 192) teachers. We also studied how these attitudes were related to their general attitudes towards education; whether regular (N = 125) and inclusive teachers (N = 103) would differ; and how attitudes towards inclusion and sense of efficacy were correlated. The intervention, which was adapted to the needs of inclusive teachers, was comprised of the three components of attitudes, cognitive, emotional and behavioural. Results showed, as hypothesized, that in all types of disability the Israeli, compared to Palestinian teachers, showed significantly higher willingness to include pupils with special needs. The clash between the individualistic nature of special education and the national orientation of the Palestinian teachers, coupled with the ‘stigmatizing effect’, may explain their being high in conservatism and progressiveness, and their negative attitudes towards inclusion of pupils with sensory impairment and mental retardation before the intervention. The intervention programme was more beneficial to the regular teachers, compared to the special education teachers. The correlations between the attitudes and sense of efficacy were increased following the intervention; the negative attitudes towards inclusion of moderate/severe learning disabilities/emotional disturbances and mild mental retardation can be explained by the tolerance and expectation theories.

The efficacy of reciprocal teaching in fostering the reading literacy of students with intellectual disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of strategy instruction on the reading literacy of students with mild and moderate intellectual disability. Students aged 15–21 with intellectual disability (n=35) participated in 24 sessions of literacy strategy instruction (experimental condition) or remedial literacy‐skill acquisition‐ lessons (control condition). The main objective of strategy instruction was to foster comprehension monitoring. Through shared dialogues, students were trained to generate questions about text, to summarise what was read, to clarify difficult words and to make predictions. The strategies were taught using the reciprocal teaching method developed by Palincsar and Brown. This method involves provision of support adjusted to students’ difficulties and peer teaching of strategies. Control subjects were exposed to direct instruction of basic reading skills that were presented sequentially and practiced solitarily by the students. Opportunities were given to respond to questions and to summarise but no strategy instruction was provided to foster comprehension monitoring. Two different measures of comprehension and a measure of strategy use were administered to test for variation across different methods of instruction. Findings on all measures provide support for the claim that strategy instruction is indeed superior to traditional remedial methods of skill acquisition in fostering reading literacy comprehension. These findings challenge the common perception that literacy is an organic impossibility for people defined as intellectually disabled. Moreover, the results add to recent research in sociocognitive instruction that supports the need to modify prevailing methods of reading curriculum and suggests a reconceptualisation of the comprehension process and its instruction to students with intellectual disabilities.

Effects of Training in Conceptual Versus Perceptual Analogies Among Adolescents and Adults With Intellectual Disability

The objective of this study was to investigate whether adolescents and adults with mild and moderate intellectual disability (ID) can improve their level of analogical reasoning following a short but intensive teaching stage within a dynamic assessment procedure. The sample was composed of two age groups: adolescents (n = 24, ages 15 to 21) and adults (n = 24, ages 30 to 73). All subjects were administered the Children’s Conceptual and Perceptual Analogical Modifiability (CCPAM) test and the Abstract Verbal Thinking Test. A repeated-measures MANCOVA of Type of Test X Age Group X Time X ID Level, with Abstract Verbal Thinking score as a covariate, indicated significant pre- to postteaching improvement across all age groups and ID levels. Significant interactions were found for Age Group X ID Level, and for Type of Test X ID Level X Time. Among the adolescents, the moderate group scored significantly higher than the mild group; the mild group benefited more from teaching in perceptual analogies. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that, for conceptual analogies, the synonyms subtest added 10% to the prediction of CCPAM postteaching score; for the perceptual analogies, the verbal analogies subtest added 9% to the prediction of CCPAM postteaching score. Our findings support the central assertion of the structural cognitive modifiability theory relating to the possibility of change in individuals with ID even at advanced ages.

Meta-analysis of explicit memory studies in populations with intellectual disability

This meta‐analysis combines the effect size (ES) of 40 explicit memory experiments in populations with intellectual disability (ID). Eight meta‐analyses were performed, as well as contrast tests between ES. The explicit memory of participants with ID was inferior to that of participants with typical development (TD). Relatively preserved explicit memory performance was found among participants with Williams syndrome compared with participants with TD and with Down syndrome. The mean ES between the groups with ID vs. TD, when control group selection was based on chronological age, was greater than when comparison was based on mental age. There was no difference in the ES between recall and recognition tests. Verbal memory was more impaired than visual memory.

Analogies solving by individuals with and without intellectual disability: Different cognitive patterns as indicated by eye movements☆

Eighteen adults with intellectual disability (ID) and 20 children with typical development (TD) matched for cognitive level, participated in this study. Participants solved perceptual and conceptual analogies (from the Conceptual and Perceptual Analogical Modifiability Test-CPAM) while having their eye movements monitored. As predicted, the overall percent of correct answers was significantly higher for the TD group compared to that of the ID group. Comparison of the eye movement pattern of each group while solving the analogies revealed that in addition to the quantitative difference between the groups, there is a qualitative difference in the process of solving the analogies. The difference in the scanning pattern between the TD and the ID groups is interpreted as a reflection of two different types of strategies, Constructive matching and Response elimination, respectively.

Durability of Effects of Instrumental Enrichment in Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

21 adults with intellectual disabilities were examined three years after participating in a cognitive intervention program in order to assess the durability of their cognitive achievements. The sample consisted of two age groups: 30-49 years (n=12) and 50-59 years (n=9). The primary intervention method was the Instrumental Enrichment Program. The effects of the intervention were examined by three types of thinking instruments: logical thinking (Reversal and Verbal Abstraction Tests), predictive thinking (Maze Tests), and insightful thinking (Postures and Children Tests). These tests were given five times: two times prior to the cognitive education program, spaced two months apart; two times after the cognitive education program, spaced two months apart; three years after the program. This repeated-measurement was used to compensate for the absence of a control group (an absence due to reality-based technical considerations). The original study yielded significant improvement from Time 2 to Time 3, and two months later (Time 4), showing a divergent effect for two types of thinking. The follow-up evaluation (Time 5) showed a drop in the cognitive functioning relative to Time 4, but not to Time 3, a finding that indicates a durability effect. The results support Feuerstein’s structural cognitive modifiability theory, according to which long-term individual changes are possible regardless of the individual’s age and cognitive functioning level.

Later Life Planning Training Program

Abstract Data are provided on the outcome of an assessment on a knowledge of aging and futures planning tool administered to 38 adults, age 40 and older, with an intellectual disability living in community residences in Israel. The subjects participated in the Later Life Planning Training Program (LLPTP-Heller, Factor, Stern, & Sutton, 1996) which is designed to teach people with intellectual disability about later life planning issues, and increase their participation in choice making. Comparisons were made between two samples, one Israeli and one American. Differences were found on three areas of the LLPTP: Choice-making, Life Satisfaction, and Social Support. These were attributed to variations in living situations and cultural differences. Within group differences for the Israeli sample were observed for age, sex, and living arrangement (hostel and apartments) in the areas of Choice-making and Life Satisfaction. Implications of these differences for the delivery of LLPTP are discussed.

Explicit memory among individuals with mild and moderate intellectual disability: educational implications

We previously reported a meta‐analysis of explicit memory studies in populations with intellectual disability (ID). The current study discusses the educational implications of this meta‐analysis. The main factors at the core of these implications can be divided into two categories: those related to task characteristics (e.g., depth of processing, task modality, test type), and those related to participant characteristics (e.g., chronological age, aetiology). Recommendations include: (1) exposing participants with ID to deep rather than shallow encoding, and using visual scaffolding when teaching verbal material; (2) designing memory tests based on recognition more than free recall, and using various types of questions; (3) teaching individuals with ID memory strategies even though they might only be used later because memory could improve with age; and (4) designing instruction based mainly on linguistics skills for individuals with Williams syndrome and instruction based mainly on visuo‐spatial and gesture skills for individuals with Down syndrome.

Jewish Law and the Definition of Mental Retardation

Abstract The main goal of the presentation is to explore the status of people with intellectual disability within Jewish Law (Halacha), to compare it with the traditional definition of mental retardation from 1983 and the latest American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) definition from 1992. Although, in its formative stages, Judaism did not have the diagnostic means or instruments useful for defining intellectual disability, its definitions are quite similar to the 1992 AAMR definition. This new definition eliminated the use of retardation levels and called on professionals to relate to people, who are intellectually disabled according to the abilities and limitations in the persons diverse areas of functioning. The status of people with intellectual disability within Jewish Law was determined according to the degree to which the person can understand acts, which have halachic implications. The goal of the discussion of the halachic status of people with mental retardation is to facilitate their integration within the community and this perception is quite similar to the 1992 definition.

Enhancing the comprehension of visual metaphors in individuals with intellectual disability with or without down syndrome

This study is the first to investigate the effectiveness of deep and shallow intervention programs in the acquisition of visual metaphor comprehension in individuals with non-specific intellectual disability (NSID; aged 15-59, N = 53) or Down syndrome (DS; aged 15-52, N = 50). The deep intervention program was based on dynamic assessment model for enhancing analogical thinking. The shallow intervention program involves memorizing a metaphorical relationship between pairs of pictures. Visual metaphor comprehension was measured by the construction of a metaphorical connection between pairs of pictures. The results indicated that both etiology groups exhibited poor understanding of visual metaphors before the intervention. A significant improvement was observed in both interventions and both etiology groups, with greater improvement among individuals who underwent the deep processing. Moreover, the latter procedure led to greater generalization ability. The results also indicated that vocabulary contributed significantly to understanding unstudied metaphors and that participants with poorer linguistic abilities exhibited greater improvement in their metaphorical thinking. Thus, individuals with ID with or without DS are able to recruit the higher-order cognitive abilities required for visual metaphor comprehension.