Journal of Intellectual Disability - Diagnosis and Treatment

148-161

Authors: Mariana Velykodna, Iryna Frankova

Providers of psychological support and psychotherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding were facing the new unavoidable reality, which required making urgent changes in their practice. The paper aimed to study the "first responses” of psychologists and psychotherapists to the COVID-19 pandemic situation with its uncertainty before the lockdown. An online survey was developed and distributed among psychologists and psychotherapists from Ukraine from 14 to March 16, 2020. Results showed that among survey respondents (n=145), 35.9% had already changed their practice somehow, and 75.2% had been considering how their practice might be modified. The more often the COVID-19 pandemic was discussed by patients, the more often it affected the style and technique of the corresponding specialists, thereby pushing psychotherapists to change the format of their work. Practice restrictions due to quarantine measures affected more affiliated consultants, while difficulties with setting (e.g., canceled sessions, financial issues) were more frequent among private practice consultants, and both proposed online consultations to their patients. In conclusion, the pandemic situation caused relevant modifications in the organization of psychological and psychotherapeutic support even during the first weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ukraine. The first responses of practitioners were related to (a) their experience and type of affiliation, (b) the main approach, (c) the subjective readiness or non-readiness to modify the usual form of work, (d) the way of interpreting the patient’s anxieties, (e) the lethal cases of coronavirus in the area of living

172-181

Authors: Inokentii O. Korniienko, Beata V. Barchi

The current study aims to distinguish objects and events, which teens and adolescents include in their life's spaces, explore differences in attitudes towards life spaces, and determine the level of life's space satisfaction of the youth via narrative psycholinguistic research. Methods: Methodological approaches inhered in interviewing and content analysis of the texts by calculating the frequency and investigating the components of the life's space category references that were defined based on the narrative compositions. The validity of categorisation was proved by propositional analysis. Spearman's rank correlation method was used. Results: The research results showed that stories people tell us holds powerful sway over their memories, behaviours, and identities. The youth's space was analysed within three content blocks: structural, interpretational, and evaluative. The structural block defined categories: people; city; habitable space; educational institution; social environment and information; activity; nature; state and patriotism; the inner world. The interpretational block analysis defined interpretational judgments and attributions of the responsibility for actions and changes in the participants' lives. The evaluative block analysis revealed the significant differences between teenagers and adolescents and between females and males in terms of life's space evaluation. Conclusions: The structure of teens’ and adolescents’ live space is similar, but its interpretation and evaluation are significantly different. Proceeding from teenage to adolescence is followed by such changes as growing dissatisfaction of the existing life's space and the wish to change it; growing internality, i.e., understanding personal responsibility of the life's space formation.

189-194

Authors: Ayman Gamal Khalifa, Mourad Ali Eissa Saad

Touchmath®, also known as Touchpoint, is a multi-sensory method that involves visual, auditory, and tactile learning, and it can be used effectively with children with disabilities. It has successfully solved addition and subtraction problems with a single digit and two digits, specifically for children with disabilities. Six children participated. A multiple baseline design was used. The Test of Early Mathematics Ability was employed. The findings revealed that the touch math training program effectively improved the Early Mathematics Ability of each participant. All six children were found to be successful at the end of the teaching session compared to the baseline. The finding that Touchmath® showed positive effects based on a direct teaching approach in improving the Early Mathematics Ability of kindergarten children with mild to borderline intellectual functioning and their typically developing peers in an inclusion classroom is effective, sustainable, generalizable, and socially valid in teaching basic addition skills to students with mild intellectual disabilities in general education classrooms, conforms to other research conclusions in the literature.

206-212

Authors: O. Adisa, R. Asuelime

The conduct of elections in Nigeria is generally associated with manipulation, which has often undermined the credibility and fairness of the process since the country gained its independence. COVID-19 poses a very serious challenge to the electoral process, considering the nature of the disease, which has led to the promotion of limited physical interaction as an approach to mitigate its transmission and safeguard the health of the people while at the same time impacting negatively on state's electoral justice. While elections remain a key factor to the attainment of political positions in a democratic setting globally, several scholars and media reports have made attempts to assess the political intrigues in the state of Edo as a result of the tense atmosphere created by political gladiators. The use of the pandemic and various forms of propaganda to destabilise the camp of perceived opponents with the aim of winning public support are notable strategies employed by the main contending political parties and their candidates as the election approaches. Therefore, this article evaluates the impediments and political manoeuvrings in the electoral process in the state of Edo, considering the increasing number of corona-virus infections, the country's frail electoral system, and the desire to maintain credible democratic consolidation in the country

222-227

Authors: Vincent Okwudiba Anyika, Ijeoma Genevieve Anikelechi, T. D. Thobejane

At a time when the Nigerian schools are on a temporary closure following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper looked inwards and reflected on the nature of the education system and revealed its myriads of problems. The COVID-19 pandemic indeed had a huge impact on the educational system in Nigeria. It brought about the cessation of all learning activities in Nigeria except for private universities and secondary schools that swiftly switched to virtual learning platforms. It also illuminated the digital divide between the Nigerian student and his counterparts in other climes. COVID-19 pandemic outbreak also offered an opportunity for the nation to realise the poor status of its educational system. Some of the major problems that have confronted the Nigerian education system, as revealed by this paper, include poor funding, inadequate and dilapidating infrastructure, inadequate teaching facilities, poor teachers' welfare, poor research funding, poor quality of teachers, unconducive learning environment, and the like. The study recommends for the exhibition of sufficient political will by the political leadership for the transformation of the education system as well as the sustained commitment of other stakeholders such policymakers and educational administrators for the transformation of the system to give it its rightful place in our national life

236-246

Authors: Kseniia A. Androsovych, Yaroslav M. Rudyk, Maryna Yu. Melnyk, Oksana A. Kovalova, Iryna O. Yakymova

Objective: The purpose of this article is to substantiate the psychological conditions that determine the content, forms, ways of organising, and promoting the process of socialisation of gifted students. Background: The success of modern man largely depends on his socialisation – the ability to see and understand others, analyse the course of events, to capture the prospects for development. Therefore, the key competencies include, among others, information and communication and social as those that ensure the successful acquisition of knowledge throughout life and entry into society. Method: A set of methods was used in the study: analysis, synthesis, generalisation, and systematisation of scientific data, observations, questionnaires, document analysis, methods of mathematical data processing. An online testing platform was developed to conduct a survey of students. Results: The authors proposed and implemented a project aimed at providing psychological and pedagogical support to gifted students; to provide the teaching staff with the necessary knowledge and skills to work with gifted children, to encourage participants in the educational process to use information and communications technology tools in educational activities. A model of psychological support and accompaniment of participants in the educational process has been developed. Conclusion: The experiment showed positive changes in socialisation in the experimental group in relation to the control group at a significant level. The findings of the study give grounds to conclude that the proposed author's comprehensive approach promotes the socialisation of gifted students.