Abstract
This study assessed a program involving the use of a voice output communication aid (VOCA), which was aimed at allowing a post-coma person with multiple disabilities to choose among stimuli/activities and ask for the mediation of the caregiver to access them. In response to the participant’s choice (request) of a stimulus/activity verbalized by the VOCA, the caregiver could propose two alternatives of it and eventually provide the one that the participant seemed to prefer. Results showed that the program was effective in increasing the participant’s successful requests and allowing her to access chosen stimuli/activities with a brief mediation of the caregiver. The practicality and implications of the program are discussed.

Abstract
The extent to which variations in the interest-based learning opportunities afforded young children with autism were related to changes in the children’s social-affective behavior was the focus of an exploratory study. The participants were 17 children and their mothers. Mothers first identified their children’s interests and then selected everyday activities that provided opportunities for engagement in interest-based learning. Based on investigator assessments of the children’s participation in the activities, children were divided into high and low interest-based learning opportunity groups. Results showed that after 12 weeks of intervention, the high interest- based group demonstrated more positive and less negative social-affective behavior compared to the low interest-based group. Implications for research and practice are described.

Abstract
Recent guidelines derived from international research literature (Dingfelder & Mandell, 2010) recommend conducting more real-life field studies as a first-step evaluation strategy for bridging the research-to-practice gap in autism intervention. In particular, there is urgent need for more intervention outcome studies for families with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children in European countries. This paper presents the outcome of two TEACCH-based intervention studies for children with ASD and their parents, carried out in Germany. Both studies aim at examining the effectiveness of TEACCH-based interventions within family settings. The first study, a within-group study, addresses the effectiveness of a three full day, centre-based education and skills parent group training with 23 schoolaged children. The second, a descriptive single case study, examines the effectiveness of a medium-intensity TEACCH-based home child-parent program, which additionally included a classroom support component as well as advisory contacts with both health care institutions, and a five-year-old boy over a period of two years. Overall, the outcomes of both studies provide tentative support for the effectiveness and social validity of TEACCHbased interventions in terms of child, parent and teacher outcomes across different settings. For future research into the TEACCH approach, more controlled individual and group research is needed.

Abstract
In the present study, membership salience was tested as a moderator of the effects of contact on emotions and explicit and implicit attitudes toward the disabled. Participants were non-disabled employees of firms and cooperative societies; they worked in contact with colleagues with psychiatric problems. Results indicated that quantity and quality of contact improved outgroup evaluations, both within and outside the contact situation. Consistent with intergroup contact theory (Brown & Hewstone, 2005), the positive effects of contact on anxiety and empathy toward disabled colleagues generalized to the whole category of the disabled when group distinctions were salient within the contact setting. Notably, frequent and cooperative contact also reduced implicit prejudice toward the general disabled category. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Abstract
Several studies have reported how the presence of contextual letter-sound conversion rules influences both reading speed and accuracy and the effect of rule complexity holds for low frequency words only. We aimed to investigate the role of orthography complexity and, in particular, of context sensitive graphemes position and frequency of use on reading speed, analyzing the performance of developmental dyslexics and fluent readers. With regard to speed (reading speed of word lists), context sensitive graphemes position had an effect only for dyslexic children, who showed the worst performance if the context sensitive graphemes were in first position, regardless of word frequency. On the other hand, we found a frequency effect (in particular worst performance in the case of low frequency words) for both groups.

Abstract

Abstract