Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Face Recognition in Autism: Investigating the Own-Race Effect and Social Status Cues(University of Stirling, 2024-08) Alaaiwi, Atheer; Bjornsdottir, ThoraFace Recognition in Autism: Investigating the Own-Race Effect and Social Status Cues16 0Item Restricted Exploring Some Perspectives Of Saudi ESL Teachers On Teaching Students With ASD.(King's College London, 2024-09) Alsunaid, Rahma; Puig-Mayenco, EloiThere is currently limited research on autistic children growing up in multilingual environments, even though nearly half of the world's population speaks multiple languages. Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) involve significant challenges in communication and language skills, and for this, expert advice is sought by many parents of ASD children over whether or not their child should learn both languages in a bilingual setting. This study explored Saudi teachers' perspectives on teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to young students with ASD, and the effective strategies and difficulties they encounter. The participants in the study were eight ESL teachers from two private schools with international curriculum in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. They were interviewed following a qualitative approach. The results indicated that using teaching strategies like visual aids, modelling, and repetition in ESL instruction can effectively enhance the language and social skills of children with autism. Teachers did observe that, despite the difficulties in developing effective teaching strategies, children with ASD are highly capable of learning new languages. Furthermore, the study highlights different methods that teachers can employ to help children acquire and expand their English learning. The study also indicates the importance of parents working together with the teachers for successful language acquisition. Lastly, to gain a deeper understanding of the whole teaching experience that meet ESL teachers when teaching Saudi ASD students, the study also recommends suggestions for further future research.14 0Item Restricted Implementation of School-based Oral Health Activities in Special Schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(University of Sheffield, 2024-04) Alotaibi, Ashwag Saleh; Marshman, Zoe; Glichrist, FionaBackground: Oral diseases are prominent among socially marginalised populations, including children with disabilities. Such children often experience high levels of oral diseases and unmet dental needs and are at a greater risk of poorer oral health. The WHO recognises schools as a key platform for promoting oral health. Understanding the barriers and facilitators for school-based oral health activities (OHAs) is crucial for their successful implementation, however, no existing studies have explored the implementation of OHAs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) special schools. This research aims to fill this gap by exploring the current provision of OHAs in the KSA’s special schools and identifying the barriers and facilitators to their implementation using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Methods: Two studies were conducted to address the research aims. Study One: To map the literature on OHAs in special schools, identify research gaps, and provide guidance for Study Two, a scoping review employing the Levac et al. (2010) framework was performed. This review outlined the OHAs used, examined their outcomes, and identified the factors affecting their application. Eleven studies were included in the review. The results indicate that very few studies have examined school-based OHAs for children with disabilities, and that school-based OHAs help to improve oral hygiene and oral health-related knowledge in the short term. It highlights a lack of understanding of the contextual factors impacting OHAs in special schools. Study Two: Qualitative semi-structured interviews with a sample of staff and children’s parents/carers at the KSA’s special schools were conducted (n=30). Subsequently, framework analysis was conducted using the CFIR to analyse the facilitators and barriers to school-based OHAs at these schools. Although some oral health education (OHE) activities were implemented, adequate planning, adaptation to children’s needs, evaluation, and reinforcement were lacking. Furthermore, staff members in the KSA special schools need to improve their knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy towards OHAs. As an inner setting, the KSA special schools experience barriers to implementing OHAs, including low relative priority, inadequate financial and human resources, and lack of tailored educational resources and toolkits. Moreover, the lack of external policies and incentives could hinder the implementation. Accordingly, this study recommends key concepts underpinning an oral health promotion (OHP) implementation toolkit. Conclusion: Research examining the implementation of OHAs in special schools is lacking. Overall, research indicates that providing school-based OHAs benefits children with disabilities, with a short-term positive impact on children’s oral hygiene level and oral health-related knowledge and behaviours. It also suggests involving parents and teachers in the activities and follow-up for longer periods. Furthermore, it reveals that, although OHE had been implemented in some of the KSA special schools, none of the activities fulfilled the definition of OHP. This study has found that several factors hinder the implementation of OHAs, including poor adaptability, lack of financial and human resources, and poor stakeholder engagement. Moreover, a need to develop an OHP implementation toolkit to guide the implementation of OHAs in the KSA special schools has been highlighted. Based on the identified barriers, research recommends four concepts to underpin the toolkit development: embracing OHP principles, developing adaptable oral health resources, using a collaborative approach and evaluation. These findings can significantly impact the work of researchers, policymakers, educators, and healthcare professionals aiming to promote oral health in the KSA’s special schools.29 0Item Restricted A Qualitative Secondary Research on Accessibility and Continuity of Physical Activities for Fundamental Motor Skill Development in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder(Trinity College Dublin, 2024-07-01) Almadan, Hussain; Shevlin, MichaelThe purpose of this study is to find evidence-based strategies for parents to pursue in supporting Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) development for their young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Specifically, this project sought strategies that focus on motor skills development and maintenance so that young (preschool aged) children with ASD will not lose motor skills or muscle tone over time. My hypothesis is that to be optimally effective, motor skills development interventions for children with ASD must include these two crucial pillars: first, parents must be able to readily access the materials or facilities used and second, parents must commit to continuity of the plan. Parents are the first and foremost advocates for their children, and the partnership between parents and teachers/caregivers in promoting Fundamental Motor Skills development for young ASD children is a crucial one. There is compelling evidence indicating that children with ASD are susceptible to the risk of losing acquired skills. This underscores the necessity for a long-term approach in teaching and intervention. The principle guiding educators and caregivers is that children with ASD should be part of a sustained, comprehensive plan. Without such continuity, there is a heightened risk of these children regressing and losing the valuable skills they have previously acquired. Long-term maintenance of motor skills is an extremely important goal for fundamental motor skills interventions (Busti Ceccarelli et al., 2020; Kaplanova et al.,2023). Therefore, fostering a continuous and structured approach is paramount for the ongoing development and retention of skills in children with autism.20 0Item Restricted Understanding Challenging Behaviours in Children with Autism: an exploration of families' and teachers' perceptions and attributions in Saudi Arabia(Univeristy of Leeds, 2024-01-16) Alfadhel, Lamya; Hebron, Judith; Homer, MatthewThe experience of challenging behaviours (CBs) is commonly reported in autism research and often noted by teachers as among the greatest difficulties encountered in the classroom. This study explores family and teacher perceptions and attribution of CBs in primary age autistic children in Saudi Arabia. A number of studies have investigated the impacts of these behaviours on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including their quality of life and that of the people surrounding them. However, little research has highlighted how CBs, in relation to ASD, are understood and perceived by families and teachers. In this study, a mixed methods approach was employed, consisting of an online questionnaire with 99 families and 88 teachers across Saudi Arabia, and interviews with seven parents and seven teachers who have the experience of working with autistic children. The overall findings suggest that CBs are understood as part of the ASD by families and teachers. The findings from the questionnaire identify complex relationships between the attribution of the cause of CBs and type of schools, teachers' experience, families' and teachers' level of knowledge and their emotional reactions toward CBs. The interview findings illustrate many barriers to understanding CBs and their causes and provide information to generate suggestions for improving policy in this area. Amongst these are educational service provision for students and collaboration between the home and the school. The study supports the implementation of attribution theory to better understand perceptions towards CBs. This includes several recommendations to support families and teachers with their perceptions of CBs in children with ASD.16 0Item Restricted Assessing the link between touch perception, sensory reactivity, and social difficulties(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-11-01) Alabdali, Mashael; Puts, NicolaasTouch forms the basis of developing social and communication functions. difficulties in touch perception are associated with social difficulties, and anxiety; both of which are common in neurodevelopmental conditions such as Autism. We aimed to understand the link between touch perception, sensory reactivity, social difficulties, and how they associate with autistic traits, gender differences, and variation in levels of anxiety. We examined that link in a general population with a sample of 16 participants (15 female, 1 male) that went through a series of psychophysical and cognitive tasks to examine subjective experience to tactile input touch, as well as social touch preferences. The results showed a significant effect of force and material on sensory reactivity, but no effect was found for duration of touch. Furthermore, we found a significant effect of gender and role on social touch preferences, as well as a negative correlation between autistic traits and average social touch ratings. Our findings suggest that individuals with lower autistic traits will generally find touch more pleasant and implies that autistic individuals are more reactive towards the same stimulus than neurotypical individuals. Additionally, those with greater autistic traits are least likely to find social touch pleasant, and individuals are more likely to rate social touch as more pleasant when the touch giver is of the same gender.13 0Item Restricted The Use of Proxies in Designing for and with Autistic Children: Supporting Friendship as a Case Study(2022-09-11) Alabdullatif, Aljawharah; Pain, HelenParticipatory Design (PD) is an approach for designing new technologies which involves end users in the design process. It is generally accepted that involving users in the design process gives them a sense of ownership over the final product which enhances its usability and acceptance by the target population. Employing a PD approach can introduce multiple challenges especially when working with autistic children. Many approaches for involving autistic children and children with special needs were developed to address these challenges. However, these frameworks introduce their own limitations as well. There is an ethical dilemma to consider in the involvement of autistic children in the design process. Although we established the ethical benefit of involving children, we did not address the ethical issues that will result from involving them in these research projects. Among other issues, the nature of design workshops we as a community currently run require working with unfamiliar researchers and communicating with them while social and communication differences are one of the main diagnostic criteria for autism. When designing for autistic children and other vulnerable populations an alternative (or most often an additional) approach is designing with proxies. Proxies for the child can be one of several groups of other stakeholders, such as: teachers, parents and siblings. Each of these groups may inform the design process, from their particular perspective, and as proxies for the target group of autistic children. Decisions need to be made about what stages in the design process are suited to their participation, and the role they play in each case. For this reason, we explore the role of teachers, parents, autistic adults and neurotypical children as proxies in the design process.15 0