Fox College

Autistic and other neurodivergent youth face social, sensory, and environmental challenges at school that negatively impact learning and well-being. Yet, most educators are not trained in neurodevelopmental disabilities, leaving them with outdated knowledge and limited confidence about how to support neurodivergent youth at school. In a two-phase project, we sought to (1) co-design a comprehensive professional development training for school educators and (2) pilot test this training in one US public school district. First, we used community-based participatory research methods to form an interdisciplinary team of neurodivergent educators and autistic community members. We then used human-centered design methods to iteratively design the Schools Unified in Neurodiversity professional development training for US K-12 educators. In Phase 2, we demonstrated feasibility and acceptability of the resulting training in a sample of 192 educators, grades K-12. Significant improvements were noted in educator knowledge and self-efficacy in pre- to post-assessments. Together, community-based participatory research and human-centered design provided a promising community-driven approach to development, resulting in a training that was well received and conducive to implementation. Future work will test the effects of the Schools Unified in Neurodiversity training on youth outcomes and explore the role of professional learning communities to support implementation and sustain change.Lay AbstractNeurodivergent children are children who have neurodevelopmental or cognitive disabilities (e.g. autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, brain injury, dyslexia, Tourette's, and other neurological disorders). Neurodivergent children have heightened risk for mental health problems and poor learning outcomes compared to their peers. Sadly, school experiences contribute to these poor outcomes. Every day, neurodivergent children face a multitude of barriers and negative events at school that exacerbate their neurocognitive, sensory, and social communication differences, and even make them feel unsafe. Educators do not have the knowledge of how to support neurodivergent children and cannot practically provide individualized supports to each neurodivergent child in their classroom. A new approach is needed to ensure that school is a positive, enriching experience instead of the stressful, negative experience that it is for most neurodivergent students. This project aimed to transform schools for neurodivergent children by giving public school educators the knowledge they need to create a safe and inclusive school climate for all children. We developed the Schools Unified in Neurodiversity training with a group of researchers, teachers, counselors, principals, administrators, and advocates all with personal connections to neurodiversity. The Schools Unified in Neurodiversity training program teaches a series of practical tools to design classrooms and instruction in ways that eliminate unnecessary barriers and set neurodivergent children up for success at school. We tested the Schools Unified in Neurodiversity training program in one school district with 192 educators. Results suggest that this program is agreeable to teachers and improves their knowledge and confidence in supporting their neurodivergent children. Future work will test how the Schools Unified in Neurodiversity training program helps neurodivergent youth directly and if teachers can sustain these positive changes in knowledge and confidence.

With the increasing uncertainty of the external environment, the capabilities of companies become the driving force behind their operations and development, making the management of these capabilities an important task for management. The aim of the research is to develop a toolkit for measuring a company’s capabilities, assessing their condition, and evaluating their impact on productivity. The author’s concept is presented, according to which the final results of the company’s activity are formed through the mechanism of interaction of the company’s organizational capability with acquired resources, the formation of resource capabilities (production, financial, labor, and market) and their transformation into tangible and intangible products. Based on this model, methodological guidelines have been developed for measuring the capabilities of organizations and assessing their impact on the final results, a value-functional approach to selecting appropriate indicators, and analytical tools. The following methods have been substantiated: modeling, the indicator method, data convolution, scaling, and statistical methods. To measure capabilities, it is proposed to use indicators aggregated into composite indices through a developed algorithm. The use of sales growth rate, market capitalization, profit before taxes, and net cash flow as the final results of the company (productivity indicators) has been justified. To solve analytical tasks at different levels of management, combinations of methods, tools and indicators called “research formats” (detailed, diagnostic, express diagnostic analysis) were developed. The results of the empirical testing of the author’s research are presented: through detailed analysis, the validity of the proposed approach and tools has been established, and through diagnostic analysis, the stability of the selected indicators and constructed mathematical models beyond the observation period was identified. The result is a toolkit for researching crucial company’s capabilities, enabling management to analyze and monitor these capabilities, assess their productivity, make forecasts of productivity indicators, and develop a system for managing the organization’s capabilities.

As we celebrate Nursing Professional Development Week, September 10-16, 2023, individually, as a team, and collectively as a specialty, let us reflect on the road traversed, the present path, and the future course of nursing professional development. Celebrate your personal history, evolvement, and commitment to a future where nursing professional development practitioners continue to collaborate, innovate, and drive quality health care.

This study explored the role of consonants and vowels in auditory word perception in Hebrew, using an auditory-auditory priming procedure. A common finding is the greater importance for consonants than vowels in spoken word processing, henceforth the C-bias. What underlies the C-bias is a controversial issue between the "acquired functional hypothesis" and the "initial-bias hypothesis." The former predicts a different pattern of asymmetry among languages, while the latter claims that the C-bias exists in all languages. Hebrew is interesting because it allows the exploration of whether language-specific morphological properties can modulate consonant/vowel asymmetry. This opportunity stems from its unique complex Semitic morphological structure that was found to have a central role in lexical access. To evaluate the consonant/vowel asymmetry in Hebrew in relation to previously studied languages, recognition of morphologically complex Hebrew words was compared with recognition of foreign Hebrew words that do not have the typical Hebrew morphological complex structure, hereafter simple words. The results showed a significantly stronger C-bias for morphologically complex words than for simple words. We suggest that this within-variation supports the acquired functional hypothesis, so that even within one language different patterns of consonant/vowel asymmetry are revealed depending on the internal morphological structure of the word. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices has led to numerous companies investing significant resources in developing mobile applications, in every imaginable domain. As apps proliferate, understanding the impact of app adoption on key outcomes of interest and linking this understanding to the underlying mechanisms that drive these results is imperative. In this paper, we explore the changes in user behavior induced by adoption of a mobile application, in terms of engagement and matching outcomes in the online dating context. We also identify three mechanisms that are somewhat unique to the mobile environment, but are hitherto unestablished in the literature, that drive this shift in behavior: ubiquity, impulsivity, and disinhibition. Our main identification strategy uses propensity score matching combined with difference-indifferences, coupled with a rigorous falsification test to confirm the validity of our identification strategy. Our results demonstrate that mobile app adoption induces users to become more socially engaged as measured by key engagement metrics such as visiting significantly more profiles, sending significantly more messages, and importantly, achieving more matches. We also discover various mechanisms facilitating this increased engagement: ubiquity of mobile use—users log in more, and login across a wider range of hours in the day. We find that men act more impulsively, in that they are less likely to check the profile of a user who messaged them before replying to them. This effect is not visible for women who continue to be deliberate in their checking before replying even after adoption of the mobile app. Finally, we find that both men and women exhibit disinhibition, in that users initiate actions to a more diverse set of potential partners than they did before on dimensions of race, education, and height.