Human Development Institute

In typically developing (TD) children, sleep problems have been associated with day-time attentional difficulties. Children with developmental disabilities often suffer with sleep and attention problems, yet their relationship is poorly understood. The present study investigated this association in school-aged children with Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS). Actigraphy and pulse oximetry assessed sleep and sleep-disordered breathing respectively, and attention was tested using a novel visual Continuous Performance Task (CPT).Attentional deficits were evident in both disorder groups. In the TD group, higher scores on the CPT were related to better sleep quality, higher oxyhemoglobin saturation (SpO2), and fewer desaturation events. Sleep quality, duration, and SpO2 variables were not related to CPT performance for children with DS and WS.

This is the Final Report of a study to evaluate the take up and impact of investment by the Department for Education (DfE) in a number of initiatives, addressing both initial teacher training and the continuing professional development of teachers, designed to improve teacher workforce skills in relation to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The evaluation was conducted over the period January 2009 to March 2011. Main findings • Taken together, these initiatives represent a possibly unique comprehensive approach to improving the knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviour, and confidence of the teacher workforce in relation to special educational needs and disability. • The materials to support trainee teachers and those in practice have been welcomed and found to be effective. • The dissemination methods have been effective and have produced a substantial platform for further dissemination. • Taken as a whole, our evidence provides support for the proposed initiatives to develop teacher training and continuing professional development set out in the recent Green Paper.

Experienced locus of control of reinforcement—internal versus external—is theoretically argued to pattern the unique relationship the elderly have to their changing world. Ego functioning, personality, and intellectual correlates of the control dimension are empirically explored. Findings indicate that those who experience an internal (as opposed to an external) locus of control of reinforcement are more coping (flexible, purposive, open), less defensive (compelled, channeled, distorting), cognitively more complex, differentiated, sensitive, and intellectually superior.