Dr Erica Ranzato

Background:

Educational technology (EdTech) has been instrumental in the last few decades in promoting inclusive education by overcoming various learning barriers and offering tools and opportunities to all students, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). However, there is limited understanding of current classroom practices and policies and of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on EdTech use in the inclusive classroom.

Objective:

This systematic review aims to outline the current knowledge on the use of EdTech to support the learning of students with SEND in inclusive primary schools in high-income countries.

Methods:

We followed the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols) and the Generalized Systematic Review Registration Form in reporting the details of this protocol. The inclusion criteria for the systematic review require that studies focus on students with SEND who are attending the primary stage of school in high-income countries. The studies can be qualitative or quantitative and should explore the design and use of EdTech with these students. Eligible studies must be published between 2016 and 2024, be peer-reviewed with the exception of relevant reports from Non-Governmental Organizations, and be available in English. We systematically searched the ACM, Directory of Open Access Journals, British Educational Index, ERIC, Google Scholar (first 100 records), IEEE, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. The titles and abstracts of all records will be screened for relevance according to the inclusion criteria. Following this, the full text of the articles will be screened. To ensure the reliability of the screening process, an independent reviewer will screen a percentage of the records for the first screening round. The data extraction process for this systematic review will start with a pilot stage to validate and eventually update the list of entities to be extracted. Following the pilot stage, the final data extraction will be undertaken. An independent reviewer will extract data from a subsample of the records to ensure the reliability of the data extraction process.

Results:

The database search was conducted in July 2024. The database search identified a total of 549 records. It is anticipated that the study findings will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal by the end of September 2024.

Conclusions:

This study will provide up-to-date evidence of the use of EdTech in inclusive primary school settings in high-income countries and will describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of Ed-Tech with students with SEND. Clinical Trial: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YS7AZ

Background and aims: Research on typically developing (TD) populations has shown that the home learning environment plays a significant role in cognitive development and learning, but very little is known about the home learning environment of children with Down syndrome (DS) or children with Williams syndrome (WS). The present study examined and compared, for the first time, the home learning environment of children diagnosed with DS and children diagnosed with WS to investigate whether different cognitive profiles were reflected in their home literacy and number experiences. 

Methods and procedures: Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a web-based survey from 58 parents and one foster parent of primary school children with DS (n = 35) and WS (n = 24) mostly based in the UK. The survey targeted the children’s general level of functioning and academic skills; type, format, and frequency of home learning activities; parents’ expectations for their child’s academic outcomes; parents’ attitudes towards literacy and mathematics; children’s interest towards mathematics; and the use of technology to support home learning activities. 

Outcomes and results: Our results showed that, overall, the home learning environment of children with DS and children with WS were similar but changed based on the child’s cognitive profile. Comparative analyses showed that parents of children with DS engaged more often in activities supporting counting than parents of children with WS, despite both groups reporting difficulties with this skill. Moreover, our results indicated that literacy-based activities occurred more often than mathematics-based activities and that the home numeracy environment was characterized by activities supporting different mathematical skills such as counting, arithmetic, and numeracy. Parents in both groups engaged with their child in both formal and informal literacy and mathematics-based activities, but informal activities occurred more often when supporting counting and number recognition skills. 

Conclusions and implications: The current study provides evidence that the home learning environment of children with DS and children with WS include different literacy- and mathematics-based activities and that the home learning environment changes on the basis of the child’s strengths and weaknesses. The findings are discussed in relation to previous studies and the impact on parental interventions.

The needs of foster carers are complex as children in their care often present with complex emotional and behavioural difficulties. Previous studies have examined foster carers’ perceptions of the unmet needs of the children in their care but there is a lack of knowledge regarding carers’ own goals when seeking professional help. The present study seeks to fill this gap by examining the goals that carers who are looking after children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties set at the start of an intervention, the Reflective Fostering Programme, designed to support them. Twenty-six foster carers were asked to complete a Goal-Based Outcome Measure (GBOM) before starting the programme. Qualitative content analysis revealed five main categories of goals. Three were child focused (child’s relationships, challenging behaviours and emotions) and two were foster carer focused (personal goals and goals related to participating in the programme). By understanding the types of goals meaningful to foster carers, interventions can be developed to better target their specific needs and allow outcome measures to be more closely aligned to their goals. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the development and evaluation of interventions to support foster carers and the children they look after.

Background: Studies in Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS) have suggested that mathematical abilities are impaired. However, it is unclear which domain-general or domain-specific abilities impact on mathematical development in these developmental disorders.

Method: The current study examined the foundations of mathematical development across participants with WS (n = 24) and DS (n = 26) compared to typically developing (TD) children (n = 26) in relation to domain-general (i.e., general intelligence and visuospatial abilities) and domain-specific abilities (non-symbolic and symbolic number abilities).

Results: Developmental trajectories showed that mathematical abilities were delayed in line with overall mental age in DS and WS. Whilst visuospatial abilities predicted performance for DS and TD participants, this was not the case for the WS group, instead Approximate Number Sense abilities predicted mathematical development.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that those with DS and WS may benefit from different mathematical intervention programmes.

Previous studies suggest that tasks dependent on the mental number line may be difficult for Williams Syndrome (WS) and Down Syndrome (DS) groups. However, few have directly assessed number line estimation in these groups. The current study assessed 28 WS, 25 DS and 25 typically developing (TD) participants in non-verbal intelligence, number familiarity, visuo-spatial skills and number line estimation. Group comparisons indicated no differences in number line estimation. However, the WS group displayed difficulties with visuo-spatial skills and the DS group displayed difficulties with number familiarity. Differential relationships between number line estimation and visuo-spatial/number familiarity skills were observed across groups. Data is discussed in the context of assessment of skills in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Background and aims: Mathematical difficulties in individuals with Williams Syndrome (WS) and in individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) are well-established. Perceptual subitizing and conceptual subitizing are domain-specific precursors of mathematical achievement in typically developing (TD) population. This study employed, for the first time, eye-tracking methodology to investigate subitizing abilities in WS and DS.

Methods and procedures: Twenty-five participants with WS and 24 participants with DS were compared to a younger group of TD children (n = 25) matched for mental age. Participants were asked to enumerate one to six dots arranged either in a dice or a random pattern.

Outcomes and results: Accuracy rates and analyses of reaction time showed no significant differences between the clinical groups (WS and DS) and the control group, suggesting that all participants used the same processes to perform the enumeration task in the different experimental conditions. Analyses of the eye movements showed that both individuals with WS and individuals with DS were using inefficient scanning strategies when counting. Moreover, analyses of the eye movements showed significantly shorter fixation duration in participants with DS compared to the control group in all the experimental conditions.

Conclusions and implications: The current study provides evidence that individuals with WS and individuals with DS perform both perceptual subitizing and conceptual subitizing. Moreover, our results suggest a fixation instability in DS group that does not affect their performance when subitizing but might explain their low accuracy rates when counting. Findings are discussed in relation to previous studies and the impact for intervention programmes to improve counting and symbolic mathematical abilities in these populations.

It has been reported that approximate number sense (ANS) task performance is impaired in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS). Research with infants has suggested this impairment is caused by sticky fixation in WS and sustained attention deficits for those with DS. This study examined looking patterns of older children and adults with WS (n = 24) and DS (n = 23) during an ANS task compared to typically developing controls matched for chronological age and those matched for mental age. Results showed that, although there were no group differences, looking patterns changed with chronological age for both the WS and DS groups. Looking behaviour related to ANS performance only in the WS group. Implications for interventions are discussed.

This study presents the feasibility and pilot evaluation of the Reflective Fostering Programme (RFP), a recently developed, group-based program to support foster carers, based on the concept of “reflective parenting.” This innovative development follows calls by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and other organizations to help improve outcomes for children in care by providing better support to their carers. This study aimed to establish whether it is possible to implement the RFP and to gather preliminary data on the acceptability and effectiveness of the program. Twenty-eight foster carers took part in the study. Results indicate that training and delivery of the RFP were feasible; the program was felt to be relevant and meaningful to both foster carers and social care professionals delivering it. Preliminary pre-post evaluation showed a statistically significant improvement in foster carers’ stress, their achievement of self-defined goals and child’s emotion lability and overall strengths and difficulties. There were no statistically significant changes in carers’ reflective functioning, although some foster carers reported on changes in reflective capacity during focus groups. Preliminary findings about the feasibility of training and delivery of the RFP, as well as the acceptability and effectiveness of the program, are encouraging, but further impact evaluation is needed.