ABSTRACTS for Feuerstein Research

http://www.icelp.info/research/ongoing-research.aspx

Effects of Inclusion for Children with Autism

Effects of Inclusion for Children with Autism
The Autism spectrum encompasses a large number of children with certain
behavioral and emotional communication disorders. The number of children
diagnosed withing this spectrum has increased exponentially in recent years. We feel
this is due to the readiness of psychologists in applying the Autism label when
confronted with difficulties within the child. We have seen hundreds of children who
have been mistakenly labeled to the spectrum. We advocate against placing these
children in special environments, and instead allowing them to go through a
mainstream educational career.
We are currently conducting a follow-up study proving many of these children have
been misdiagnosed. We hope that our study will impact the psychological world and
encourage psychologists to be more cautious in their diagnosis.
Abstract
The present study investigated the effectiveness of a cognitive enrichment
programme as a tool for enhancing the chances of immigrant and minority students
to be admitted to a technological college. Students received two weekly sessions
(four hours) of Instrumental Enrichment (IE) during the second semester of the
college preparatory programme. The cognitive principles of IE were bridged to
mathematics and science curricular material. The mathematics and science tasks
were analysed to show the students the underlying cognitive principles essential for
their solution. Graduates of the programme were much more successful in being
admitted to technological college than students in previous years who received no
cognitive enrichment.

Published in: Research in Developmental Disabilities, 31:551-559, 2010. By: A.

Kozulin, J. Lebeer, A. Madella-Noja, F. Gonzalez, I. Jeffrey, N. Rosenthal and M.
Koslowsky
Abstract
The study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of cognitive intervention with the
new Instrumental Enrichment Basic program (IE-basic), based on Feuersteins
theory of structural cognitive modifiability that contends that a childs cognitive
functioning can be significantly modified through mediated learning intervention. The
IE-basic program is aimed at enhancing domain-general cognitive functioning in a
number of areas (systematic perception, self-regulation abilities, conceptual
vocabulary, planning, decoding emotions and social relations) as well as transferring
learnt principles to daily life domains. Participants were children with Developmental

Coordination Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, and intellectual impairment of genetic origin,

autistic spectrum disorder, ADHD or other learning disorders, with a mental age of
57 years, from Canada, Chile, Belgium, Italy and Israel. Children in the
experimental groups (N = 104) received 2790 h of the program during 3045
weeks; the comparison groups (N = 72) received general occupational and sensory
motor therapy. Analysis of the pre- to post-test gain scores demonstrated significant
(p < 0.05) advantage of experimental over comparison groups in three WISC-R
subtests (Similarities, Picture Completion, Picture Arrangement) and Raven
Coloured Matrices. Effect sizes ranged from 0.3 to 0.52. Results suggest that it is
possible to improve cognitive functioning of children with developmental disability.
No advantage was found for children with specific etiology. Greater cognitive gains
were demonstrated by children who received the program in an educational context
where all teachers were committed to the principles of mediated learning.

Dynamic assessment of receptive language in children with

Down syndrome.
Published in: Advances in Speech-Language Pathology, 9:323-331, 2007 By: S.
Alony and A. Kozulin
Abstract
The goal of the present study was to explore the dynamic aspects of receptive
language development of young children with Down syndrome (DS). By its very
nature typical dynamic assessment (DA) of cognitive functions focuses on fluid
intelligence that is more amenable to change, than verbal knowledge that is
crystallized. We believe, however, that any situation of assessment, even aimed at
crystallized knowledge includes many cognitive strategies obscured under conditions
of static testing that can be revealed via DA. Thirty children with DS (3 to 7-yearsold) participated in the study. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R) was
used in static and dynamic assessment modality. The results indicate that even a
minimal mediation in the form of focusing improves the receptive language
performance of children with DS. Cross-sectional analysis of the developmental
trends indicated that the developmental trend of children with DS generated by the
DA procedure is closer to the normative trend than the trend generated by the static
test data. The effect size of the DA procedure is discussed as well as the relationship
between the modifiability in the language area as compared to other cognitive areas.

Integration of culturally different students in mainstream

classes.
Published in: Transylvania Journal of Psychology: Special Issue on Inclusive and
Cognitive Education, 2: 99-105, 2006. By: Alex Kozulin

Abstract
Today culturally different students constitute the largest group in need of special
attention to their integration in mainstream classes. The lack of congruence between
their previous learning experience and the demands of the new educational system
places many immigrant children at risk of school failure. A new CoReL (Concentrated
Reinforcement Lessons) model aimed at solving the learning problems of new
immigrant children at risk has been developed at the ICELP. The CoReL is a limitedtime intervention model based on integration of the Instrumental Enrichment
program with intensive language arts and math lessons infused with the principles of
mediated learning. An evaluation study conducted with four groups of new
immigrant students from Ethiopia demonstrated a statistically significant change in
cognitive performance as well as reading comprehension and problem solving in
mathematics.

Re-assessing the current assessment practice of children

with special education needs in Europe.
Published in: School Psychology International, 33(1) 69-92, 2011. By: Jo Lebeer,
Noemi Birta-Szekely, Karmen Demeter, Krisztina Bohacs, Adelina Araujo Candeias,
Gunvor Sonnesyn, Petri Partanen and Lorna Dawson
Abstract
This article reports the results of the European DAFFODIL (Dynamic Assessment of
Functioning and Oriented at Development and Inclusive Learning) Project on the
question of how functional and learning assessment systems facilitate or inhibit
participation of children with developmental difficulties in inclusive education.
Questionnaires were sent to medical, psychological, educational professionals, and
parents in Sweden, Portugal, Hungary, Belgium, Romania, Norway, and the Virgin
Islands. Interviews and focus groups were organized. Results (95%) showed that
static standardized psychometric tests of intellectual, behavioural, and language
functioning were mainly used, with the WISC-III being the most frequent test
applied. Less than 5% of the 166 professionals in our sample used formative
assessment and contextual observation to reveal learning or developmental potential
in a process-oriented way. Experts were generally not satisfied with current
assessment practices. Reported weaknesses included lack of time, human resources,
materials, cooperation, and follow-up. Assessment practice was mainly used to
determine whether a child should be placed in a special needs programme, a special
school, or an institutional setting, depending on whether a country has inclusive
education practice or not. Parents were satisfied with static functional assessment
when its purpose was to obtain disability benefits (financial, special education
resources, recognition), but were unhappy with the negative outlook of reports. The
main complaint of teachers and parents was about the poverty of recommendations
on how to work with the child. Our conclusion is that the current practice of
standardized psychometric testing seems to contribute to barriers to learning if it is
used in a deterministic or predictive way. In this regard, dynamic and functional
assessment methods that are qualitatively oriented seem promising in addressing
the issues of learning and development in a different way. The methods also
contribute to an understanding of the childs needs in learning and development.

However, interpretation and communication of assessment results in a way that

emphasizes a more adequate and challenging educational intervention for the child
seems to be central.

Learning Potential in high IQ children: The contribution of

dynamic assessment to the identification of gifted children.
Published in: Learning and Individual Differences, 21, 176-181, 2011. By: M.
Dolores Calero, M. Garcia-Martin, M. Belen and Auxiliadora Robles
In recent years, models of giftedness have incorporated personal and social
variables which influence IQ, rather than taking IQ into account exclusively. Among
the various options presented in this context, authors have proposed dynamic
assessment techniques as a method for revealing the potential capacity in different
groups, independently of the IQ they present. The aim of the present study was to
investigate, in two samples of Spanish children from the urban middle class
previously identified as gifted and of normal intelligence, three basic assumptions
common to studies in this line of research: (1) that there are significant differences
in Learning Potential between gifted children and children with average IQ; (2) that
the differences are apparent in diverse tasks, and (3) that Learning Potential
significantly predicts the high/average status of the subjects. 127 children from 6 to
11 years old (64 high-IQs and 63 average-IQs) were evaluated using different
dynamic tests. Significant intergroup differences were obtained and the tests were
shown to have high predictive power.

Application of IE-Basic Program to Promote Cognitive and

Affective Development in Preschoolers: A Chilean Study
Published in: Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 9 (3), 2010. By:
Natalia Salas, Cecilia Assael, David Huepe, Teresa Prez, Fernando Gonzlez,
Alejandra Morales, Rita Arvalo, Chetty Espinoza and Grimaldina Araya
Abstract
This study explores the effectiveness of the Instrumental Enrichment Basic program
(IE-B) in enhancing cognitive and affective functions of young children. The IE-B is a
cognitive intervention program based on Feuersteins theories of structural cognitive
modifiability (SCM) and mediated learning experience (MLE). Thirty 3- to 4-year-old
children were assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental
group received the IE-B program for seven months (for a total of 48 hours) and was
compared to the control group before and after intervention on tests of knowledge
acquisition and vocabulary. Cognitive change was evaluated using a Chilean
assessment battery that measured childrens language, cognition, and knowledge.
The fi ndings indicate that children in the experimental group improved their
performance more than children in the control group. Results indicate that IE-B can

be used with socially disadvantaged children as young as 34 and that it leads to

improvement in their performance.

Exploring the impact of Feuersteins Instrumental

Enrichment Programme on the cognitive development of
prospective mathematics educators.
Published in: The Journal of Trans-disciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 6(2), pp.
359-378, 2010. By: M. Kloppers and M. M. Grosser
Abstract
In this article the researchers report on the findings obtained from a sequential
explanatory mixed method study through testing and narratives in order to
determine the extent to which 24 prospective Mathematics educators at a South
African university enrolled for a BEd-degree possess cognitive skills, and to establish
the potential of the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment programme (FIE) to develop
and improve the cognitive skills of the said prospective educators. Results indicated
that there is a need for improving the cognitive skills of the prospective Mathematics
educators and that the FIE programme possesses the latent potential to improve
and develop cognitive skills.The significance of this research lies in the contribution it
makes in particular to equip lecturers involved in educator training with knowledge
regarding the merits of the Feuerstein FIE programme for improving cognitive
performance.

Clinical Applications of the Modifiability Model: Feuersteins

Mediated Learning Experience and the Instrumental
Enrichment Program
Dissertation by Krisztina Bohcs. Ph.D. Thesis. 2014. Graduate School of Educational
Sciences, University of Szeged, Hungary.
Abstract
Participants: Participants of our study (N=15) were randomly chosen individuals
from all parts of Hungary from all socio-economic backgrounds. They had very
different age (from 2;8 to 14;8). They had mild (n=5) to moderate (n=10)
intellectual developmental disorder with very different etiology (genetic syndromes,
cerebral paresis, perinatal brain injury and/or metabolic diseases) and presented
heterogenious comorbid phenomena (e.g. obsessive behaviour, severe ADHD and/or
motoric dysfunctioning /dyspraxia, ataxia and hemiphlegia/. Two children were
diagnosed with ASD. All of them had problems with speech comprehension and
expressive language. Four of them were non-verbal children upon arrival.

Intervention: FIE-Basic and MST (Mediated Self-talk) within the framework of

Mediated Learning Experience as for way of interaction. The time of acceleration was
24 months in each cases. The intervention sessions were one-to-one with large
intensity (7-15 sessions per week).
Methodology: The first part of the empirical research describes the development of
the individual cases (qualitative method of multiple embedded case studies), and the
second part presents aggregated data and test-probes (descriptive statistics and
test-statistics).
Main results: Raven Colored Matrices showed an increase in general intelligence of
our atypical population by 29,37%p within the two year long intervention period
(mean improvement). PPVT has indicated a 3 year 10 month growth in mental years
within the two year long intervention time as a mean improvement for 14 cases.
Analysis by test-statistics (Paired Samples T-test) has indicated that there were
significant changes in the cognitive development of the participants between pretest and post-test measures on Ravens Colored Matrices (mean 10,57, SD=6,12,
t=6,460, p<0,001;). Results gained by a school screening criterion-oriented test
system (DIFER-test) have shown a mean growth of improvement by 39,46%p in
domains necessary for school readiness. The very intensive human figure
development of the participants as a generalized byproduct of the intervention
prove to be surprising.
Conclusions: The boundaries of human intellect can be enlarged in case of
intellectual disability as well. It is possible to improve fluid intelligence of children
with cognitive impairments, using a comprehensive program such as MLE, FIE-Basic
and MST. If applied systematically with children with intellectual disabilities for a
longer period of time (maybe even for 3-4 years) the applied systems are expected
to lead to increased learning effectiveness, more effective basic cognitive processes
and thinking skills, and to prepare children for school learning and a better
adaptation to the challenges of everyday life.

Effects of mediated intervention on cognitive functions: A

pilot study with Grade 5 learners at a remedial school.
Published in: Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, 14(2), pp. 185-198, 2009.
By: Joseph Seabi and Zaytoon Amod
Abstract
The present study explored the effects of a mediated intervention programme on a
sample of Grade 5 learners, in a remedial school. The participants (n = 20) were
systematically sampled and they constituted two groups; namely, Individual
Mediation (n = 10) and Group Mediation (n = 10). It was hypothesised that
participants exposed to this programme would yield a significant improvement in
cognitive functioning as measured by the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices. It
was further proposed that participants within the Individual Mediation group would
perform significantly better than those within Group Mediation. Set Variations B-8 to
B-12 from Feuerstein's Learning Potential Assessment Device served as a vehicle for
mediating cognitive deficiencies. Results revealed a significant improvement in

scores only within the Individual Mediation group. Despite the statistically significant
improvement yielded within the Individual Mediation group, no statistically
significant difference was found between the Individual Mediation and the Group
Mediation sample. These findings are discussed in light of existing literature and
future recommendations are suggested.