Therapists’ Expressions of Agreement in Therapeutic Conversations With Chinese Children With ASD: Strategies, Sequential Positions and Functions

Based on conversations between 10 Chinese children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and five therapists in the context of Naturalistic Intervention, this study investigated the therapists’ agreement expressions in this typical setting. The study found that (1) the therapists mainly used four agreement strategies: acknowledgment, positive evaluation, repetition and blending. These four strategies could be used individually or in combination. The first three strategies and their combinations were used frequently during the therapeutic conversation. (2) With the major occurrences in the post-expansion position, the agreement expressions in the therapeutic conversation mainly performed three functions, namely, creating a supportive therapeutic relationship, serving as positive reinforcers and implementing interventions pertinent to communication skills. (3) This study proposed that the therapists’ preferred use of agreement expressions in the intervention process could be explained by the features of Naturalistic Intervention.

Research on labor consumption and rescuers’ physiological parameters progress in the case of practical training in a mobile training facility

An important factor in ensuring success in an intervention operation in dangerous environments lays in the training process, in conditions as close as possible to real intervention situations, as well as the manner of setting up rescue teams. In order to organize the intervention process as efficiently as possible, when setting up rescue teams we must take into account work consumption and physiological parameters achieved by members of the rescue teams during practical training carried out within the mobile training facility. In case of special incidents, the rescue intervention can take place in areas with small (limited) sections, spaces with high temperature, in low visibility conditions, which would make rescuers’ intervention even more difficult. Conditions mentioned above can be easily created within the rescuers’ mobile training facility, endowment of INSEMEX Petroșani, facility that through its equipment and facilities, allows monitoring of labour consumption and physiological parameters of rescuers throughout and in all training situations. The current paper presents training methods of intervention and rescue personnel within the mobile training facility and progress of work consumption / physiological parameters of rescuers throughout these practical exercises, with the aim of preparing intervention and rescue teams for situations close to real ones.

Individual Risk Assessment (ERIN)

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) prevention has become a global phenomenon and nowadays is one of the main challenges that ergonomics and work safety professionals face. The evaluation of risk factors exposition related to the WMSDs is one of the main activities that are performed for prevention. In order to accomplish it, many ergonomic assessment methods have been developed. In this chapter, an ergonomic observational individual risk assessment (ERIN) method is presented, which is distinguished for being easy to learn, apply, and it needs short training time. Results on the reliability, validity, and usability studies of ERIN are included too, as well as an example of how it can be used in the workplace intervention process.

Occupational Therapy Interventions for People With Parkinson’s Disease

Evidence Connection articles provide a clinical application of the evidence from the systematic reviews developed in conjunction with the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA’s) Evidence-Based Practice Project. In this Evidence Connection article, we describe a case report of an older adult recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The occupational therapy assessment and intervention process in the outpatient clinic is described. This Evidence Connection article is based on findings from an AOTA systematic review on interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice to improve and maintain participation in education, work, volunteering, and leisure and social activities among adults with Parkinson’s disease. Each article in this series summarizes the evidence from the systematic reviews on a given topic and presents an application of the evidence as it relates to a clinical case. Evidence Connection articles illustrate how the research evidence from the reviews can inform and guide professional reasoning.

The Content Analysis of Rorschach in Attesting the Sex Offenders

The Rorschach test is one of the psychological tests widely used in various assessment settings, including in studies related to sexual offenses. However, such research is scarce, although the level of sexual violence in Indonesia increases yearly. Sexual violence is often associated with the sexual drives that humans have in themselves. In this case, Rorschach can provide an overview of the individual's drives, ideas, and social relationships. The current study aims to find the personality profiles of sex offenders. Therefore, this study collected Rorschach data from 46 male sex offenders over 11 years in Depok City, Indonesia. Based on content analysis, this study found several prominent characteristics of sex offenders, such as exhibited difficulties in adaptation due to low intellectual capacity, poor emotional regulation, and empathy that other causes difficulty to build strong relationships with others. They also suppress sexual urges, but they were more likely to express it impulsively with low intellectual capacity and emotional regulation. These various personality characteristics possessed by sex offenders will undoubtedly impact the intervention process they go through to gain insight from their experience. The results are expected to be an input for developing interventions for sex offenders not to repeat their actions in the future.

National Profile of Caregivers’ Perspectives on Autism Spectrum Disorder Screening and Care in Primary Health Care: The Need for Autism Medical Home

Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common developmental disorder, primary healthcare providers show a deficit in providing early diagnosis. To understand parents’ experience and perspective in the diagnosis and intervention process of their children, a survey was deployed through social media to parents’ with at least one child diagnosed with ASD. The survey included parents experience, satisfaction and perception in the diagnosis process and services provided for their children, stigma and type of support received. A total of 223 participants were enrolled. Although 62% of ASD patients were diagnosed by three years old, most diagnoses (66%) were non-physician initiated. Additionally, 40.8% of the parents reported that the services required for their child are available in their area of residence, but only 7.9% were satisfied with these services. Parents who received psychological support (9.9%) started early intervention, and their children have a better prognosis (p ≤ 0.005). Stigmatized parents were more likely to delay intervention (p ≤ 0.005). Parents’ perception is to have qualified healthcare and educational professionals experienced in ASD. Our findings suggest that a specialized family-centred medical home for ASD patients would significantly benefit ASD patients, increase parents’ satisfaction, reduce parents’ stress, and ease their children’s transition to adolescents.

Group Membership and Social Identities in a Formative Intervention in a Mexican Hospital

Formative intervention is a participatory methodology that supports organizational change by means of an interactive and systematic dialogue carried out by researchers and participants. In this process, the researchers contribute to expanding the conversational space in the organization by supporting participants in examining and reflecting on their own work practices, as well as in modeling, shaping, and experimenting with innovations. Drawing on transcripts of videotaped sessions, this study analyzes how change is discursively sustained by the researchers who conduct the meetings within a formative intervention in a Mexican hospital. The quantitative and qualitative analysis focuses on the collective pronoun “we” as a membership categorization device deployed by the researchers for rhetorical and pragmatical aims, such as questioning about the state of necessity for the intervention, engaging the participants, or introducing a proposal of innovation with the participants. Results show how group membership and social identity markers are used by researchers to support emerging forms of collaboration, involvement of participants and the creation of common ground during the intervention process. In terms of the practical implications of the study, an informed and strategic use of membership categorization devices used by the researcher can increase the effectiveness of their formative and expansive role.

Identifying pedagogical intervention in MOOCs learning processes: a conversational agent proposal

Monitoring students in virtual learning environments can be a time-consuming task. Professors and tutors must accompany students in an agile manner. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of discussion forums posed new challenges. This work proposes a conversational agent to automatically detect which pedagogical intervention is necessary to guide students in MOOCs environments. Through the attributes of the students' post messages, it is possible to classify which action will be carried out by the agent, applying specific dialogue patterns. In some more specific cases, the tutor's attention is immediately requested. The proposal was evaluated through a feasibility study to verify if semantic detection can contribute to guide the intervention process. According to the results, it is possible to support the tutor, as only 35.2% of interactions required the tutor's action.

Modeling E-Behaviour, Personality and Academic Performance with Machine Learning

The analysis of student performance involves data modelling that enables the formulation of hypotheses and insights about student behaviour and personality. We extract online behaviours as proxies to Extraversion and Conscientiousness, which have been proven to correlate with academic performance. The proxies of personalities we obtain yield significant (p<0.05) population correlation coefficients for traits against grade—0.846 for Extraversion and 0.319 for Conscientiousness. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a student’s e-behaviour and personality can be used with deep learning (LSTM) to predict and forecast whether a student is at risk of failing the year. Machine learning procedures followed in this report provide a methodology to timeously identify students who are likely to become at risk of poor academic performance. Using engineered online behaviour and personality features, we obtain a classification accuracy (κ) of students at risk of 0.51. Lastly, we show that we can design an intervention process using machine learning that supplements the existing performance analysis and intervention methods. The methodology presented in this article provides metrics that measure the factors that affect student performance and complement the existing performance evaluation and intervention systems in education.