Michelle Donelly

Self-Concept of Boys with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) experience difficulties in motor coordination. During the last decade there has been increasing interest in the psychosocial aspects of children with motor coordination difficulties. To date, the majority of studies have focused on the perceived competence and global self-worth of children with DCD. This study examined the self-concept in academic and nonacademic domains of 30 boys (aged 7 to 12 years) with DCD. Results indicated that boys with DCD had significantly poorer self-concept for physical abilities and peer relations when compared to normative mean values. Severity of motor difficulties was significantly related to self-concept for physical abilities and reading. Self-concept plays an integral role in the holistic management of children with DCD.

‘They’re taking the place of my hands’: perspectives of people using personal care

This study investigated the experience of personal support provided by paid service providers. Numerous studies have investigated personal care assistance). However, there is a paucity of research on the experience of receiving personal assistance delivered by formal services. People who were using formal personal care services (participants) were engaged in in‐depth interviews about their experiences. The results of a thematic analysis of transcript data are reported. Findings indicate that the participants wanted their personal autonomy facilitated when they received assistance. This was achieved when the carer replaced the participant’s ‘hands’ and followed the choices and preferences of the participant when providing assistance. A number of barriers prevented participants from achieving self‐determination. This included the carer’s attitudes and aversions to tasks, formal training and rules and regulations set down by the personal care service providers.

How effective are programs based on conductive education? A report of two studies

This report provides an overview of descriptive data collected during evaluation of two programs based on conductive education principles that were established in Sydney in the early 1990s by groups of parents of preschool and school-aged children with motor disabilities. Peto-trained conductors were brought from Hungary to work in the programs. Results showed that in both groups, the amount of progress made by individual children varied widely, with some children showing almost no change and others showing improvement in selected skills; particularly potty training and the plinth exercises in the preschool group and standing from the floor or a chair in the school-aged group. There was almost no change in academic and communication skills and no evidence of attempts to generalise trained skills to untrained tasks or contexts. Some children reacted negatively to the program. It must be recognised that, for children of this age group, developmental changes should be expected to occur as a result of maturat...

Experiencing rights within positive, person-centred support networks of people with intellectual disability in Australia.

BACKGROUND This research describes issues related to human rights as they arose within the everyday lives of people in nine personal support networks that included adult Australians with an intellectual disability (ID). METHOD The research was part of a wider 3-year ethnographic study of nine personal support networks. A major criterion for recruitment was that people in these networks were committed to actively developing the positive, meaningful future of an adult family member with an ID. Data were collected from November 2007 to March 2011 via interviews, participant observations and analysed within the framework of situational analysis. Findings were checked with network members. RESULTS The issue of rights was challenging to network members. Subtle rights violations could have a major impact on an individual with a disability. Network members worked to protect the rights of people with ID by building and maintaining an empathic and respectful support network, developing the persons self-confidence and autonomy and ensuring that the person with an ID was an active member of the personal support network. CONCLUSION The maintenance of rights within a supportive environment remains a difficult task. It can be facilitated by a deep knowledge and respect for the person being supported, the promotion of his or her active participation in the planning and provision of support, and an experimental and reflective approach.

The dynamics of support over time in the intentional support networks of nine people with intellectual disability

This paper describes the dynamics of support observed in the networks of nine adults with intellectual disability, developed by families who had committed to achieving a ‘good life’ for this person. Network members, including the person with a disability, participated in this longitudinal ethnographic study. Three principles that underpinned their work were positive and respectful relationships, mentorship and providing opportunities and expectations. Participants worked actively with other network members to develop higher levels of autonomy and social participation.

Implementing Conductive Education in Australia: A Question of Programme Transplantation.

Abstract This paper is concerned with issues arising from the transfer of educational programmes developed in one educational context to another, in some cases markedly different, educational situation. The introduction to Australia of conductive education, an integrated education and therapy programme developed in Hungary in the 1950s for children with physical disabilities, is an example of such a transfer. Results derived from two evaluation studies of conductive education projects in New South Wales suggest that, when implemented in Australia in the 1990s, students did not achieve the expected positive outcomes, though some improvement in at least one motor task was achieved by most students. Problems identified in the two studies included lack of programming to generalise new skills to daily living tasks, neglect of academic and communication skills, the unchanging and the unchallenging nature of the motor programme leading to poor motivation for more competent students, and the segregated nature of ...

Australian Indigenous People with Disability: Ethics and Standpoint Theory

Research on impairment and disability among Indigenous people in Australia has reflected and served the colonial enterprise. National ethical guidelines on research have not been effective in addressing the manner in which Australian Indigenous people with a disability are framed and disempowered in disability research methodology and epistemology. A comprehensive community-grounded, structural enquiry framework is proposed to address these concerns