Christina Lappa

This article provides an analysis of the difficulties and barriers deaf and hard of hearing individuals face during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a pandemic situation, apart from the economy, education is also largely affected. In the past few months, many disabled and non-disabled pupils and university students were taken by complete surprise by the immense changes in the education sector and mainly by the innovations introduced, especially in the lower education grades, which resulted in considerable implications, despite the positive response they received. In these trying times humanity is experiencing, the difficulties that deaf and hard of hearing individuals have to face were exacerbated, perpetuating their marginalisation. Article visualizations:

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM) and reading abilities among students with visual impairment (VI). Seventy-five students with VI (visually impairment and blindness), aged 10-15 years old participated in the study, of whom 44 were visually impaired and 31 were blind. The participants' reading ability was assessed with the standardized reading ability battery Test-A (Padeliadu & Antoniou, 2008) and their verbal working memory ability was assessed with the listening recall task from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (Pickering et al., 2001). Data analysis indicated a strong correlation between verbal WM and decoding, reading comprehension and overall reading ability among the participants with VI, while no correlation was found between reading fluency and verbal WM. The present study points out the important role of verbal WM in reading among students who are VI and carries implications for the education of those individuals.

This investigation, conducted in Greece, inquired 80 special education teachers—via a structured questionnaire—their opinions on whether they feel ready to teach environmental education (EE) to pupils with disabilities, whether instruction of EE is possible in special or in regular education classes, and whether EE is beneficial to people with disabilities. The questionnaire had a unit with closed-type questions on demographic data (sex, age, educational background, further training in special education, years of service, location of school) and the three units corresponding to the above thematic with a total of 15 questions on EE and pupils with disabilities. The results showed that educators in general do not feel particularly prepared and ready to teach EE to pupils with disabilities, since they do not have the appropriate training nor sufficient knowledge on how to teach EE to children with disabilities, and in order for them to acquire this knowledge it is necessary to receive further training on activities that provide ideas for planning such a course and on the various disabilities. The majority of them rejected the premise that EE is unfeasible in special education, but they were divided on the feasibility of teaching EE to all pupils in the disabilities spectrum and on the need of individualized instruction for successful participation in EE activities. Finally, there was a high positive agreement on the benefits of EE instruction on knowledge, socialization, and improvement of self-esteem, but there was uncertainty on its possible positive influence on future vocational rehabilitation of students.

Threegroups of children with moderate or severe mental retardation and other handicaps at a special school and three groups of adults with moderate or severe mental retardation and Down syndrome at a residential facility were selected for introduction to common anima ls and their habits, of which they had little or no prior knowledge. All participants were assigned in six small groups of two or three pupils matched for their mental capacity. Two different puzzle games were used to introduce the names, eating habits and habitats of 14 common animals. All participants acquired the names, preferred foods and dwellings of the taught animals through engaging in structured exchanges on those animals within 2 to 6 training sessions. They all generalized this conversation skill to new situations: a) in front of the computer with photographs of these animals, b) in the presence of these living animals, c) with peers other than their training group, and maintained their newly acquired skills during follow-up probes conducted 3 to 7 months after teaching.

Eight children of ages from 9 to 16 years and eight adults from 22 to 36 years with moderate to severe mental retardation and other disabilities were selected because they had some speech but never engaged in conversational exchanges with their peers. They were evaluated for their mental capacity and assigned to six groups according to their ability. The intervention combined a table game about animals (puzzle pairs), individual and small-group teaching of questions on animals, their food and habitat, modelling, error correction, social praise and tangible reinforcers. A within-subject withdrawal design was used to show the acquisition of the ability to converse through conditions of baseline, teaching, probes and generalization measures. All participants learned to engage in structured conversations. This skill generalized and was maintained after 3 and 7 months. Two social validity measures affirmed these improvements in the ability to converse.

Few studies have been conducted in Greece, which focus on the education of children
with multiple disabilities (motor and intellectual disabilities, ID). Four children between
the ages 9 and 15 with multiple disabilities (motor and ID) were selected to be taught
social skills. The aim of this qualitative study was to provide training with regard to
cognitive and communication skills and more specifically conversational skills to the
four children in order to allow them to engage in conversational exchanges with their
peers. Participants were evaluated for their mental capacity and assigned to two groups according to their ability. The intervention combined a table game (puzzle pairs), smallgroup teaching of structured questions with their answers, modeling, error correction, social praise and tangible reinforcement. A within-subject withdrawal design was used to show the acquisition of knowledge and of the ability to converse through conditions of baseline, teaching, probes and generalization measures. All participants learned to engage in structured conversations. This knowledge generalized and maintained to different settings after 3 and 7 months. A social validity measure affirmed these improvements in their ability to converse.