Journal of Special Treatment, 2024.Vol.10.(1) - full text

The Special Treatment Journal was launched in 2014 to provide a platform for national and international publications on children/students/persons with special educational needs, learning, and behavioral difficulties and talents. Today, the 'Special Treatment' is one of the respected journals on the national and international academic lists (as evidenced by the publication of nearly 400 papers in recent years by 313 major national and international authors). In this paper, we would like to express thanks and gratitude to all those who have contributed to the publication and survival of the journal over such a long period.

Hungary ranks in the bottom third of the European Union regarding early school leaving, falling further and further away from the EU average year on year. The lower educational attainment and higher drop-out rates of Roma/Gypsy youth have been confirmed by several studies. Still, the descriptions are often two-dimensional, as in international approaches. The Hungarian Youth 2020 database allowed for a wider range of explanatory variables in the analysis. In our study, we examine the educational attainment of Roma youth aged 20-29 and then compare subsamples of Roma and non-Roma dropouts. Finally, we run a binary regression model on the database with early school leaving as the dependent variable and explanatory variables as background variables that may shape the odds of early school leaving. The social and economic backgrounds of Roma and non-Roma ESL learners differed, while parental education and subjective financial situation showed a less favourable pattern for Roma. The effect of Roma identity was significant in the regression model, but the explanatory power did not reach the effect of lower parental education. In other words, ethnic background is a crucial factor in dropout, while some segments of the family background are more significant.

Background and aims: It is well established that the impacts of prematurity are often long-lasting in the various domains of development, however, the published findings concerning the prevalence, severity, and background of disorders are inconsistent. As yet research into the development of abilities contributing to the academic progress in Hungarian preterm children has been scarce. Our study aimed to find out to what extent prematurity impeded the reading and spelling abilities in school age and to contribute some information on the cognitive background of the performances. Methods: Three groups of 7 – 12 year-old children participated in the study. The target group consisted of moderate-risk preterms. For comparison two groups of full-term children were tested: typically developing good readers and dyslexics. To assess the reading and spelling abilities the Hungarian version of the 3DM (Dyslexia Differential Diagnosis) was used. Cognitive abilities were assessed using the Hungarian adaptation of the WISC-IV and the Rey Complex Figure Test. Results: The reading and spelling performances of the full-term good readers and the preterms did not differ and the preterms scored higher than the dyslexics. The cognitive tests did not offer any direct explanation to this, since the preterms lagged behind the full-term good readers in the WISC-IV full-scale IQ as well as in several specific cognitive measures. The CART Decision Tree served to analyse the relationships, allowing to reveal the interactions and the moderation effects. Discussion: The CHC model as a theoretical framework and the CART Decision Tree statistical analysis proved to be fruitful to disentangle the complex interplay of the cognitive background factors. There are various cognitive paths of acquiring the reading and spelling skills, e.g., in case of relatively lower IQs the sufficient levels of memory and processing speed may ensure success.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, numerous researchers have investigated the societal impacts of the pandemic, the resulting changes of which continue to be integral parts of people's lives. Generally, it can be stated that individuals' health behaviors have significantly transformed due to the restrictions. In our study, we examined Hungarian adults (n=336), focusing on assessing their experiences related to harmful addictions, mental health, and maintaining social relationships. The respondents reported that over half of them communicated and/or met with acquaintances and friends less during the pandemic. 72% of the respondents reported smoking the same amount, while 36% consumed the same amount of alcohol as before the pandemic. Regarding harmful addictions (alcohol consumption and smoking), a proportional relationship was found between the frequencies of the two variables. Those who smoked more than before the pandemic also consumed alcohol more frequently, and this trend was also observed in the decrease in frequencies. Respondents who did not experience changes in their smoking habits also held similar views on alcohol consumption. Women respondents exhibited greater emotional fluctuation than male respondents when asked about the frequency of experiencing depression and feelings of hopelessness. Overall, the majority of participants (54.8%) experienced worsened mental health due to the pandemic, and it was found that the adverse effects of the pandemic period were more pronounced on women's (60.3%) mental health compared to men’s (46.2%).

Aim: In this study, we set out to describe the motor development deficits of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on existing research and to provide a methodologically based recommendation for the use of obstacle courses as a motor development tool and opportunity for children with ASD. Methods: a primary research study was conducted to present the results of semi-structured in-depth interviews with parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (N=25). The aim of the study was to provide a comprehensive summary of the experiences of a group of 25 interview participants whose children with autism spectrum disorder participated in an obstacle course movement development programme. The interviews explored the impact of obstacle course movement development on the children's various skills (motor, social, communication and emotional/behavioural). Results: the parents' experiences confirmed that the obstacle course physical activity programme, which was provided for at least six months, was not only effective in developing children's gross motor and fine motor skills, but also led to positive changes in social relationships, social skills, communication skills and emotional behaviour.  

Practicum is a platform designed for counsellors-in-training to assist them to become full professional counsellors. Practicum exercise is one of the major processes for gaining mastery of key concepts in counselling. The detached between theory and practice is a major challenge. This research, therefore focused on the challenges of guidance and counselling students in University of Ilorin during practicum. The descriptive study was adopted in this study. The researcher employed the use of simple random technique to select 220 undergraduate students in the Department of Counsellor Education University of Ilorin. The developed questionnaire was titled “Challenges of Practicum Exercise Questionnaire (CPEQ)”. This was adopted to gather information from the respondents. The instrument had a reliability coefficient of 0.70.  The demographic data were analyzed using percentages. Hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The obtained result showed that lack of adequate facilities for practicum exercise, inadequate mastery of counselling skills and inability to synthesize concepts during presentation are the major challenges. All the hypotheses were accepted. Based on these findings, it was recommended that students in training should constantly engage in micro counselling in the laboratory, this will assist them to gain mastery of counselling procedures and thereby overcome challenges on the field.   

 Widowhood is embedded with a lot of challenges for women which requires strategies to cope with it. This study investigated the challenges and coping strategies of widows in the Ilorin metropolis. The population for this study consisted of selected widows in Ilorin, Kwara state. The sample consisted of fifty widows randomly selected. The instrument that was used for this study is a researcher-designed questionnaire tagged “Widow Practices Questionnaire (WPQ). In testing the hypotheses, t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics were used to test the hypotheses generated for the study at a 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that the widows experience challenges such as endures psychosocial problems after their partner’s demise, endures problems of poor governmental support, experience negative pressure from the family of the demise among others. The coping strategies employed by widows are; widows never depend on the family’s provision to survive since their partner’s demise, embrace grants from religious bodies and government for survival, and cope with gifts and luxuries provided by non-governmental groups for survival among others. Also, there were significant differences in the challenges experienced and coping strategies employed by widows in the Ilorin metropolis based on age and job type; while there were no significant differences in the challenges experienced and coping strategies employed by widows based level of education. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that widows should be encouraged and supported by the government and religious bodies. Government and relevant stakeholders should endeavor to create measures and legislation that help protect the widows and preserve their rights as well as access to several benefits and the widows should be encouraged to meet counselors to disclose their problems, so that their challenges can be expertly addressed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nexus between personal factors and the practice of self-medication among primary school teachers in Oyo State. Five hundred participants constituted the study’s sample out of which only 476 were used after data administration. Both the independent and dependent variables were measured with validated instruments with 0.85 reliability co-efficient and the data obtained was analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) Statistical method. Two research hypotheses were formulated and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between poverty and the practice of self-medication among primary school teachers (r= .823; p<0.05) as well as between illiteracy and the practice of self-medication among primary school teachers (r= .643; p<0.05). The implication of this showed that poverty and illiteracy level had significant impacts on the practice of self-medication among primary school teachers. In view of these findings, it was recommended that educational stakeholders should frequently organize seminars and workshops for primary school teachers, especially in rural areas on the dangers of self-medication.

Among the public education efforts at the end of the 19th century, the compulsory school attendance. There were a significant number of compulsory school children whose physical and mental condition did not allow them to attend public schools. For them, they also looked for opportunities at the international level that would help them become useful members of society. This was provided by the auxiliary school for disabled children. At the turn of the century, the need for this became clear not only to professionals, but also to the government. The pedagogical press of the turn of the century also dealt with the admission possibilities of these students, the training of their teachers, their teaching methodology, and their future employment opportunities.

On behalf of the Faculty of Education for Children and Special Educational Needs of the University of Debrecen (Hungary), and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Special Treatment [Különleges Bánásmód] we kindly invite you to our International Scientific Conference.

Date of the conference:  12 April 2023

Conference venue:

University of Debrecen
Faculty of Education for Children and Special Educational Needs, 
4032, Hajdúböszörmény (Hungary),Désány str, 1-9.

The conference program can be read in the study.