Parents are key stakeholders in education and their support is pivotal to policy implementation. Through a large-scale survey, the present study investigated the validity of a structural model describing the relationship between attitude, knowledge, and perceived social norm among parents of children with special needs. Results revealed that knowledge and perceived social norm were powerful predictors of parents' attitudes towards inclusion and the two predictors were intercorrelated. Exploratory analyses on the effect of demographic variables on parents' attitudes demonstrated that male parents exhibited more positive attitudes towards inclusion than female parents; and parents of children at a higher grade level indicated less positive attitudes. Cultural issues of parents' concerns about inclusive practice are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Inclusive Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1037866]

After the introduction of the nine-year compulsory education in 1978, educators are not satisfied with just a quantitative growth in education but request for a better guarantee in the quality of education. The demands for improving the mixed-ability teaching and meeting the diversified needs of students are well known. Services provided for children with special educational needs (SEN) have been reviewed in the Education Commission Report (ECR) No.2 while additional learning support for students in mainstream secondary school with a large intake of the bottom 10% students has been also will discussed in the ECR No.4. Suggestions on providing extra learning support have been highlighted in the ECR No.4. For example, the introduction of a school-based remedial support programme in secondary schools with a large intake of Band 5 students, the design of the core curriculum for academically low achievers and the establishment of more Practical Schools and Skills Opportunities Schools for students of low learning motivating arc well noted. In the report, it spotlights that approximately 14% of school population in Hong Kong experience difficulties in learning or adjusting to their school life. However, only 2% of them are provided with special educational service and support in special education classes or special schools. Considering the limited special education provisions and the policy of integration, Winter (1993), a local educator, predicted that it is likely that the above ratio of SEN children in mainstream schools and in special schools (6:10 will persist or even increase rather than decrease in future years). As most SEN children in mainstream schools find difficulties in school learning and adjustment, a great proportion of them are described as the academically low achievers or children with learning and behavioral problems. The notion of the behavioral problem and developmental issue in mainstream schools has attracted the public attention in both the ECR No

Nowadays, the application of computer technology in assisting the classroom teaching and learning is common and popular, particularly in special education. Many researches have indicated the inherent value and significance of using CAL in teaching children with special educational needs (SEN). It has been stated that the computer may serve the communicative, instructional, training, recreational, learning or adaptive purposes. School success in applying the technology depends on many factors but familiarity and proficiency of teachers to the increasing demand of such technology are essential elements. However, there is not much available literature illustrating the use of computers in mentally handicapped schools in Hong Kong. The purposes of this paper are to investigate the instructional use of the computers and the difficulties encountered in different types of mentally handicapped schools. The research has been carried out in different types of mentally handicapped schools in Hong Kong. By questionnaire, the resources, facilities and frequencies of use in computers have been identified. Variables such as school types, school policy, budget, teacher attitude and commitment and instructional practices were identified and their contribution to the effectiveness of the program have been examined. By the follow-up case studies in the three different categories of mentally handicapped schools, an in-depth study on the organizational factors, teachers' attitude and commitment, pupils needs and instructional practices have been investigated. Such quantitative and qualitative analysis aimed at illustrating a clear picture about the use of resources in the classrooms. The results indicated that nearly all the mentally handicapped schools used the computers in teaching their SEN students. However, the students encountered different sorts of difficulties in using the computers, owing to their physical and intellectual disabilities. It was found that some of the teaching activities

This research article is intended to arouse teachers' interest in the possibility of using creative drama as a supplementary instructional tool for enhancing their teaching as well as their students' learning. The article investigated: (1) the difficulties a teacher encountered in using creative drama as a supplementary instructional tool in a Hong Kong mentally retarded school; and (2) how creative drama can be a powerful medium for enhancing the language development of moderate mentally retarded children. The result found that creative drama has a positive effect upon the mild mentally handicapped students. The discussion will be of great significance as it provides substantial implications on curriculum development of creative drama in the teacher education programme for special education teachers.

Dyslexia has received increasing professional and public awareness in Hong Kong over the past decade. The goal of understanding dyslexia is to provide effective prevention and remediation programs possible in order to ameliorate the disabling effects of the conditions. Students with dyslexia are often characterized by significant difficulties in reading and spelling despite access to conventional teaching and adequate formal education. Systematic evidence-based approaches to identify, assess and support have been developing and researching. First the core concepts of dyslexia: its definition, prevalence and developmental course are reviewed. Next the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia and its manifestations in Chinese students are discussed. To date the preponderance of reading interventions that might be used within a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework are also addressed.

Although a substantial body of studies has been focusing on exploring approaches to enhance the learning of children with special educational needs (SEN) in kindergartens, considerably fewer studies have been conducted to test early childhood educators’ confidence levels in early identifying and facilitating the learning and social development of children with SEN. This study took the initiative to conduct a large scale survey in the Chinese context, seeking to develop a good understanding of teacher preparation for identifying and supporting children with SEN. Over 5000 early childhood educators from 519 kindergartens and kindergarten-cumchild care centres (KGs) in Hong Kong participated in this survey study. Specifically, we examined these teachers’ confidence levels in terms of early identification and intervention through a wide range of instructional activities. We also investigated external needs these teachers perceived to be critically important for supporting SEN children. The role of integrated programme (IP) in these surveyed KGs on teachers’ confidence levels in supporting children with SEN was also examined. Implications of findings of the current study to early childhood education, improvements of existing facilities and resources to support teachers’ professional development are discussed.

Although children’s adaptive social and emotional development and academic performance/achievement are important indicators of school effectiveness, considerably less studies have been taken with a special focus on these social, emotional and academic gains among children with disabilities, particularly those integrated in regular classroom. From both perspectives of children with disabilities and parents of these children, this study tested and compared the patterns of the predictive effects of perceived social and emotional competences on academic performance between their perceptions. In total 307 children with disabilities and parents of these children (parents N = 180; children N =127) participated in this study. These children are integrated in mainstreaming primary schools (p1 to p3) in Hong Kong. An interesting finding was emotional competence was the stronger predictor of children’s academic performance compare to social competence. The predictive patterns were consistent based on the results from parents’ and children’s self-reported data (i.e., path coefficients from social and emotional competences to academic performance: β =.37 and β =.28 based on children’s data; β =.37 and β =.25 based on parents’ data, all path coefficients are significant at the .01 level). Similarly, in the results from both parents and children, we found that around 30% variance of academic performance could be explained by social and emotional competences as two predictors. These findings indicated not only a pivotal role of social and emotional competences, but also a more salient role of emotional competence in academic performance of children with disabilities. Both theoretical implications to emotion research in early childhood education and empirical implications to call for school support and practices to foster emotional competence of children with disabilities are discussed.