The purpose of this pilot study was to test the reliability of a game-based assessment tool to assess the four dimensions of career adaptability (i.e., Curiosity, Control, Confidence, Concern, hereafter called “4C”) among students with special educational needs (SEN). The 4C tool is a board game developed in relation to the short form of the career adaptability scale (CAAS) for SEN adolescents. Unlike self-reported CAAS without specifying career-related scenarios, the board game provides researchers and practitioners with an assessment platform to evaluate SEN students’ 4Cs in multiple employment-related scenarios. Participants in this pilot study were 44 secondary school leavers with SEN. They were studying in a training course organized by Youth Academy for SEN. They were assessed through the board game assessment tool before and after the training in the year. Statistical analyses included spearman’s rho coefficient and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). It was noted that the 4Cs assessed by the board-game are 1) positively correlated with each other (correlation coefficients ranged from .42 to .63, p<.05), 2) with good inter-rater reliability, rs= .688(92), p<.01, 95% CI [.565, .797], and 3) with moderate test-retest reliability, ICC = 0.66, p<.001, 95% CI [.433, .805]. These findings supported the reliability of this game-based assessment tool for assessing the 4Cs of SEN youths. Aside from self-reported data, this game-based assessment tool can provide supplementary information on the 4Cs of school leavers with SEN from other assessors (e.g., teachers and practitioners) across career-related scenarios. The presentation will further discuss limitations and further direction of research. Copyright © 2023 The Education University of Hong Kong.

Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, we explored the impact of 498 primary school teachers in Hong Kong on the competences of students with special educational needs (SEN). We found that their attitudes, control beliefs, and subjective norms about inclusive education (IE) significantly influenced their IE intentions, and subsequently their behaviors. Intentions and behaviors mediated the effect on the social and academic competencies of SEN students. Our findings, consistent across nine different SEN types, have highlighted the role of fostering positive teacher dispositions and reinforcing IE intentions and behaviors through training and peer support networks, facilitating effective IE implementation. Copyright © 2024 The Authors.

Pre-screening children for specific learning disabilities (SLDs), e.g., dyslexia, is essential for effective intervention. With a quick and reliable pre- screening result, special education coordinators (SEN- COs) can provide students with early intervention and relieve their learning pressure. Unfortunately, due to the limited resources, many students in Hong Kong receive dyslexia assessments beyond the golden period, i.e., under the age of six. To this end, information technology could establish automatic pre-screening tools to address this issue. However, dyslexia pre-screening for children learning Chinese is challenging due to the lack of sound-script correlation in Chinese. In this paper, an Automatic Dyslexia Pre-screening System (ADPS) is developed to provide a quick test to identify at-risk children. Through a two-stage approach, we first develop a gamified tool based on linguistic characteristics and then evaluate the result by a comparison study. Results from a pilot test on 30 students with dyslexia and 32 students without dyslexia indicate that ADPS can effectively distinguish two groups of students. Furthermore, the interactive design elements can motivate students to conduct the pre-screening independently. Copyright © 2024 IEEE.

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that affects primary school students, which is difficult to tackle through traditional school learning due to limited resources. To this end, large-scale digital learning presents new opportunities to address the need for inclusive education. A unique challenge for students with dyslexia in Hong Kong is learning Chinese characters. In this article, we investigate whether students with dyslexia can learn the writing of Chinese characters independently in an informal learning environment. For that purpose, we developed a mobile application for learning to write Chinese characters with three different writing conditions. First, students learn new Chinese characters in Condition 1: Grid+Contour+Instruction . Then, students strengthen their memory of the learned Chinese characters in Condition 2: Grid+Contour . Finally, students retrieve the memory of the learned Chinese characters in Condition 3: Grid Only . Students with dyslexia demonstrated a significant improvement after practicing with the three-condition design. For example, they wrote much slower than students without dyslexia before the study but caught up over time. This study contributes an approach to facilitate the self-paced learning of students with dyslexia at scale. © 2023 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

In this study, researchers examined the effectiveness of integrating Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Mindfulness Training into a counseling program for parents of children with special education needs (SEN) in Hong Kong. The goal was to reduce parenting stress and improve parent-child interactions. The study involved 30 parents of children aged 10-15 years who participated in an eight-session online group program that incorporated solution-focused brief therapy and mindfulness techniques. The researchers collected qualitative data through pre and post interviews, as well as video or audio recordings, and analyzed it using content analysis. The results of the study demonstrated positive outcomes of the intervention program. It effectively reduced controlling and aggressive behaviors in parents while promoting empathy and improved interactions with their children. The integrative counseling program provided parents with practical skills and strategies such as positive imagery, focus meditations, and magic words to effectively cope with stress, enhance acceptance, and improve empathy towards their children. The researchers also developed training materials to support professionals, such as counselors, social workers, and teachers, in their work with parents. To expand the program's impact, the study recommended training more helping professionals and adapting the program to different contexts. Furthermore, it called for future research to explore the program's effectiveness among diverse populations and improvements in the quality of life for parents and families, and identify any factors that may contribute to these changes. All rights reserved.

Most students with disabilities who previously attended segregated special schools are now enrolled in regular schools in Hong Kong. The number of students with disabilities attending regular schools has increased. Hence, teachers are critical in implementing inclusive practices that include students with disabilities. It is essential that these teachers feel supported and prepared to teach students with disabilities for inclusive education to be successful. A qualitative study comprising focus group interviews with 16 in-service primary and secondary school teachers was conducted to identify the perceived challenges they face and their support needs for implementing inclusive practices. Despite the comprehensive legislation and policies and sufficient funding, teachers felt they needed more support in the form of human resources, teaching in classrooms, collaboration, and knowledge about including students with disabilities. This paper discusses the necessity for enhancing professional learning and teachers' understanding of inclusion. Copyright ©2023 Springer.

Background: Following the 2019 Hong Kong Para Report Card, the 2022 Hong Kong Para Report Card aimed to provide an updated and evidence-based assessment for nine indicators related to physical activity in children and adolescents with special educational needs and to assess the results using a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. Methods: Using a systematic process, the best available data on nine indicators were searched from the past 10 years and were assessed by a research work group. Letter grades were assigned and considered by stakeholders and auditors. Results: Four indicators were assigned a letter grade (overall physical activity: F [mixed device-measured and self-reported data]; sedentary behaviors: D [device-measured data]; active transportation: D−; government strategies & investment: C+). SWOT analysis highlighted opportunities for facilitating children and adolescents with special educational needs to achieve health recommendations. Conclusion: There were deteriorating trends in physical activity and sedentary behaviors. Effective, multilevel, and cross-sector interventions are recommended to promote active behavior in children and adolescents with special educational needs. Copyright © 2023 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc..

Globally prevalent, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have negative consequences on students’ social, intellectual, emotional, and post-school transition results. While assessment tools exist, the majority of them were developed from the perspective of clinical psychology and/or healthcare. Some are lengthy and commercialized, and some have weak factorial validity. A feasible and practical assessment method, from the perspective of educational psychology and assessment, is required to better accurately and effectively assess the social and academic performance of ASD students in inclusive settings. With an emphasis on teachers’ practice and output in helping students with ASD in inclusive education, this study evaluated the Practice and Product Inventory of Supporting Students with ASD (PPI-SSA) psychometric qualities. PPI-SSA was designed to be practical, concise, and especially suited for quantitative research on ASD. The inventory was administered to 411 teachers in Hong Kong, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the PPI-SSA’s reliability and validity. A follow-up path analysis examined the concurrent validity of the PPI-SSA, revealing significant pathways between teachers’ intentions to implement inclusive education and each of the respective dimensions within the PPI-SSA. Measurement invariance results showed that the PPI-SSA demonstrated configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across primary and secondary teachers. The PPI-SSA, as a non-commercial instrument, has meaningful implications. It can facilitate the efficient collection of more empirical data on the social and academic achievements of students with ASD, informing evidence-based improvement of inclusive practices. It can assist in teachers’ practice to identify the diverse social and academic needs of students with ASD to align with their corresponding adjustments of teaching strategies. Copyright © 2023 by the authors.

The phenomenological qualitative study was conducted to present the in-depth and collective individual experiences in this study. The aim of the study was to uncover the essences of lived experiences of the caregivers with rearing their children in secondary school.Due to the nature of studying a marginalized community, purposeful sampling was adopted to recruit the informants who have the experiences of bringing up a child with diagnosed with dyslexia, and their child had experienced in local secondary schools in Hong Kong. Over the period 2017-19, twelve parents were invited and finally involved in the in-depth interviews. Consent form was conducted before the interview, and the researcher informed all informants the interview processes and the purpose of the study before the interviews through the phone and/or email.Qualitative data analyses through a software package Nvivo. Seven overarching themes were yielded, 1) Feeling frustrated in parent-school collaboration; 2) Feeling discriminated about their children’s experience; 3) Facing emotional difficulties in care-taking; 4) Feeling relieved and be more reflective; 5) Feeling powerless but critical to the education system and Confucian culture; 6) Feeling stressful in financial support; and 7) Feeling resilient in difficult time. The result revealed that parents of children with dyslexia were quite common to have unpleasant experiences in collaboration with schools, encountered misunderstandings and conflicts. They often felt worried, stressful, helpless, powerless, and discriminated in school, even in society, but resilient at the end. In the process of collaboration, although they have not much positive experience in cooperation with schools, most of them finally become stronger to face various difficulties in their lives.The current findings should be a signal to the education bureau to review their policy who promote the inclusive education in Hong Kong. In addition, educators, parents, school counsellor, school

Research reveals that generic skills are essential for supporting students to not only finish school education but also achieve transition to the workplace and adult life. However, a comprehensive literature review found limited studies have been done to develop an assessment tool for examining the generic skills of students with special educational needs (SEN). Based on two sub-studies, the current study aimed to develop a short form of the Generic Skills Teacher-Rating Scale (GSTS) to assess six generic skills (i.e., Collaboration, Communication, Problem-solving, Self-management, Information Technology, Critical thinking) of SEN students. A total of 231 Hong Kong students from six special schools (including primary and secondary levels) participated in the two studies. Both CFA and Rasch analyses support a six-factor solution of the GSTS with reasonably good model fit indices. Researchers and educators may view the GSTS as an assessment tool, adding more information on SEN students’ generic skills beyond classroom settings to understand the daily-life functioning of students in special education and inclusive education settings. Implications of the results and future directions are also discussed. Copyright © 2022 The Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.