Encouraging Emotional Conversations in Children With Complex Communication Needs: An Observational Case Study.

Children with complex communication needs (CCN) regularly have barriers to express and discuss emotions, and have fewer opportunities to participate in emotional conversations. The study explores and analyzes the changes after a training program focused on offering an interactive home learning environment that encouraged and modeled emotion-related conversations between a parent and a child with CCN within storybook-reading contexts. An observational design (nomothetic/follow-up/multidimensional) was used to explore and analyze the changes in the communicative interaction around emotions between mother-child. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies were used to provide the child access to emotion-related vocabulary. The training program resulted in the mother providing more opportunities to engage her child in emotional conversations, suggesting that when opportunities and resources to talk about emotions were promoted, the child showed more engagement in emotion-related conversations using his AAC system. The mother-child communicative patterns and behavioral relationships observed during the phases are also presented. This case study illustrates the importance of a primary communication partners' role in facilitating emotional conversations, and the promising efficacy of a training program implemented in a storybook interactive learning environment to promote conversations about emotion-related events while encouraging children with CCN to learn, explore, express, and discuss emotions.

Three-dimensional translabial ultrasound assessment of urethral supports and the urethral sphincter complex in stress urinary incontinence.

AIMS: The pathophysiological mechanism of incontinence is multifactorial. We evaluated the role of 3D-4D ultrasound in the assessment of the fascial supports of the urethra and the urethral sphincter complex (USC) for diagnosing stress urinary incontinence. METHODS: Observational case-control study in women with and without stress urinary incontinence attending a urogynecology service and a general gynecology service. All women were interviewed, examined, and classified according to the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) and underwent a 3D-4D translabial ultrasound. Fascial supports of the urethra were assessed by tomographic ultrasound and were considered to be intact or absent if it was possible to identify them at eight levels on each side, urethral mobility was assessed on maximal Valsalva in sagittal section and the length and volume of the USC at rest and on maximal Valsalva were determined using the Virtual Organ Computer-aided Analysis (VOCAL) program. Variables were compared between continent and incontinent women. RESULTS: A total of 173 women were examined, 78 continent and 95 incontinent. There was a significant difference in urethral mobility between continent and incontinent women (12.82 mm vs. 21.85 mm, P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference in the percentage of supports affected (43.27% vs. 35.94%, P < 0.070). The length of the USC at rest was significantly shorter (P < 0.001) ​​in incontinent patients. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound evaluation of urethral supports does not discriminate between continent and incontinent women. However, the length of the USC at rest was shorter and urethral mobility was higher in incontinent women. Neurourol. Urodynam. 9999:XX-XX, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Academic cheating and gender differences in Barcelona (Spain) / Conducta deshonesta en el aula y diferencias de género en Barcelona (España)

El presente estudio expone las características de la conducta deshonesta en el aula, describe sus causas y examina las nefastas consecuencias que tiene para el aprendizaje. Con el fin de analizar el estado de la cuestión en nuestro país, se ha hecho una entrevista psicoeducativa y se ha aplicado un cuestionario a un total de 306 alumnos de último curso de bachillerato, último curso de universidad y último curso de Psicología en Barcelona (España). Se ha comprobado que, igual cómo ocurre en otros países, más de la mitad de los estudiantes reconocen tener el hábito de copiar, y también que los chicos copian más que las chicas. Para finalizar, el trabajo expone estrategias operativas para controlar la conducta deshonesta en el aula, que incluyen: incorporar contenidos relacionados con la ética en el currículum, enseñar técnicas de análisis y resumen para evitar que los alumnos se vean obligados a copiar, y ser muy estrictos con las fechas límite y la aplicación de las normas en las instituciones educativas.

The aim of this paper is to present the issue of academic cheating, describe its causes, and examine the obstacles this behaviour creates for learning. The research was carried out with 306 students from Barcelona (Spain) which were administered both with a psycho educational interview and a questionnaire. Results are similar to those from other countries and show that more than half of the students are in the habit of frequently cheating, and that boys cheat significantly more often than girls. To finish, the text suggests teaching strategies to control academic cheating in educational institutions, such as: Being aware of the problem and taking the decision to tackle it, including ethics tuition in the curricular content, teaching summarising and rephrasing techniques, frequently revising students’ writings, and last but not least, being very strict with deadlines and not accepting unwarranted excuses repeatedly made by students for not observing them.

Percepciones de profesores y alumnos de E.S.O. sobre la disciplina en el aula / Secondary education teachers' and students' perceptions about classroom discipline

La manera cómo perciben y representan los problemas de disciplina profesores y alumnos es una de las claves que explica lo que es en realidad y cómo se vive la disciplina en el aula. Nuestro estudio se propone analizar las discordancias entre las percepciones declaradas por profesores y alumnos sobre cuáles son y cómo se tratan los conflictos de disciplina en el aula. Con este propósito se han recogido datos de una muestra de 1.389 estudiantes y sus 170 docentes de E.S.O. sobre sus respectivas percepciones acerca del tema. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto diferencias significativas, aunque moderadas, en la percepción de comportamientos castigados. Pero dichas diferencias se acentúan al considerar el tipo de intervención realizada por los profesores (AU)

The way discipline problems are perceived and represented by teachers and students is, probably, one of the main cues to explain what classroom discipline is and how it is felt by them. This study focuses on the discrepancies in the perceptions of both teachers and students about which are the main behavioural problems in the classroom and how teachers cope with them. With that aim, data has been collected from a sample of 1,389 students and 170 teachers, from E.S.O. level (secondary obligatory education: ages 12 to 16). A questionnaire has been administrated to asses their perceptions about the topic. Results show significant differences, although of moderate intensity, in the behaviours that are perceived to be punished. But these differences become quite intense when considering the kind of response provided by teachers (AU)