To further understand how young males with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience anxiety, two specific forms of anxiety were examined in samples of boys with ASD and their non-ASD (NASD) peers. Self-reports on the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory (4th rev.) were collected from 117 ASD boys and 50 NASD boys, aged from 6 yr to 17 yr who…

From the standpoint of a MOOC practitioner (i.e., a MOOC provider) instead of a rigorous comparative law researcher, this article attempts to analyze the potential legal issues and risks underlying instruction via MOOCs and compare these legal issues and risks between the small jurisdiction Macao and such major jurisdictions as the United States,…

This study investigated levels of communicative anxiety (CA) among three generations of Korean immigrants (i.e., first, 1.5, and second generation) in Australia. A survey asking about their levels of CA in Korean (i.e., heritage language) and in English (i.e., majority language) was completed by 137 Korean immigrants. Some of the survey…

Naturalistic studies show that children can create language-like communication systems in the absence of conventional language. However, experimental evidence is mixed. We address this discrepancy using an experimental paradigm that simulates naturalistic sign creation. Specifically, we tested if a sample of 6- to 12-year-old children (52 girls…

We investigated how educators, mothers and children used temporal language in reminiscing and future talk conversations. Participants initially included 40 educator-younger child dyads (27-36 months) and 45 educator-older child dyads (48-60 months) from early childhood centres in Sydney, Australia. Educators were asked to nominate and discuss four…

Aim: To investigate developmental trajectories in early childhood and predictors of class assignment. Methods: Data were available for Gen2 infants at 12 (n = 2275), 24 (n = 1845) and 36 (n = 2110) months of age in the Raine Study. Latent growth class analysis was used to identify developmental trajectories based on the Ages and Stages…

Recently, there has been debate surrounding the potential implementation of the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) in Australian primary schools. The present study sought to investigate the child- and task-related factors influencing the PSC performances of Year 1 Australian students, who had received almost two years of systematic synthetic phonics…

People frequently continue to use inaccurate information in their reasoning even after a credible retraction has been presented. This phenomenon is often referred to as the continued influence effect of misinformation. The repetition of the original misconception within a retraction could contribute to this phenomenon, as it could inadvertently…

Australian students' perception of a trial Religious Education (RE) programme is the focus of this paper. Students (N = 1478) from 37 schools, primary and secondary, completed an online survey that included six Likert style items that aligned with six RE development principles that guided the development of the trial. Curriculum development was…

Background: Supported living is perceived as more flexible than group homes for people with intellectual disability. This study identified costs and factors associated with quality of life (QOL) in supported living and compared this with group homes. Method: Thirty-one residents in supported living participated in a survey incorporating measures…

Research findings: No research to date has compared mental state language (MSL) in conversations between children and different adult talk partners, such as mothers and educators. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of MSL (verbalization of mental states such as remembering, knowing and thinking) by children, educators, and mothers…

Using the Short Form 12 Health Survey this cross-sectional study examined parental well-being in caregivers of children with one of three genetic disorders associated with intellectual disability; Down syndrome, Rett syndrome and the CDKL5 disorder. Data were sourced from the Western Australian Down Syndrome (n = 291), Australian Rett Syndrome (n…

Background: Social perception is an important skill. One assessment that is commonly used to assess social perception abilities is The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT). The only normative data available for this test are for Australian younger adults. Despite no normative data being available for British adults, the test is widely used…

Background: Developmental language disorder (DLD) is common in children, but little is known about its association with quality of life (QoL) in middle childhood. QoL is a complex construct, aligning with an individual's sense of well-being and is related to functional limitations associated with DLD. Biopsychosocial models of disability account…

In recent years, simulation has increasingly underpinned the acquisition of pre-clinical skills by undergraduate medical imaging (diagnostic radiography) students. This project aimed to evaluate the impact of an innovative virtual reality (VR) learning environment on the development of technical proficiency by students. The study assessed the…