There are 2 discussion questions. Please respond with correct grammar.Discussion#1Hi classmates, I chose to read and discuss the article Learned helplessness. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.According to the article, learned helplessness can be applied to both animals and humans, but the main focus is on humans, especially those with intellectual or developmental disorders. Learned helplessness is an effect caused by repeatedly exposing humans to situations in which they have no control and to severe aversive stimulation. For example, exposure to shock, punishment, environmental stressors. ( Demchak, M., & Grattan, J. (2018). The authors go on to say that when people are constantly exposed to the the aversive situation they tend to stop trying to escape or cope with the situation and simply give up. When they are later provided with an easy method of escape, they will not escape; this is learned helplessness. The authors use the term organisms to describe humans and animals. You will see this term used in my discussion. A study was conducted in 1967 that provides a simple illustration of the learned helplessness effect. In this study, dogs were repeatedly given intense shock with no way to escape. Later, the dogs were given the opportunity to escape the shock by jumping over a low barrier. The dogs did not attempt to take action to escape the shock; they had learned that the shock was unavoidable and they âgave upâ (i.e., they did not try to find a way to avoid the shocks) Demchak, M., & Grattan, J. (2018). The dogs were already conditioned or learned to give up. Some individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities tend to give up after repeated failures just like the dogs in the study. Even with a way out, they dont figure it out, the animals were doomed for failure from the beginning. They had no reason to believe there was a way out because every time they were shocked they couldnt escape. The same is true for the intellectual disabled student. They quit a task because they feel they cant do it. They have to be taught that they can succeed and we have to teach them. There are many factors that contribute to the learned helplessness effect. Some include: environmental stressors, exposure to unsolvable tasks, and the unpredictability of aversive events. Environmental stressors that can contribute to learned helplessness include overcrowding, chronic noise, traffic, and pollution. In addition, the article states, the more unpredictable the stimuli or events are, the more likely subsequent task performance will be affected. Prior experience with even brief aversive uncontrollable events hinders learning of new skills (e.g., new responses that could enable organisms to escape the aversive situation). The learned helplessness effect is thought to contribute to a number of social problems, including school failure (e.g., failure in specific classes that are stressful), school refusal, staying in an abusive environment/relationship, work burnout, poverty, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), feelings of loss of control, discrimination, drug addiction, and alcoholism. Demchak, M., & Grattan, J. (2018). For example, giving a student with intellectual disability a 1000 piece puzzle and expecting the individual to complete it any given amount of time is setting the person up for failure. We want to alleviant these types of tasks. We want the individual to succeed, so instead of a 1000 piece puzzle, how about a 4 piece puzzle, then 5, and so on and so forth? The tasks will get increasingly difficult as the person shows success. Next, I would like to paraphrase how learned helplessness affects individuals with disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, emotional-behavioral disorders, autism). Students with intellectual and developmental disorders might have experienced academic failure, they then generalize that failure into other classes. This generalization leads to decreased motivation and persistence on academic tasks, which is a characteristic of learned helplessness. In short, the more the individual experience failure, the more they expect to fail and eventually they give up when presented with any work they perceive as difficult. Demchak, M., & Grattan, J. (2018). I totally and whole heartily feel that the above quote is right on the money. Ive seen students simply take a test and make random marks on it because they think they cant do it. I see proof of it when students take the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test. The test lets the teacher know when random guessing occurs and automatically stops the student. The random guessing demonstrate that they dont want to take the test and choose to fail instead of trying. Administration at my school have put incentives in place for students to show progress on the MAP test hoping it will entice students to take the test seriously and show growth.Teaching individuals how to escape or avoid an aversive event may reduce their susceptibility to the learned helplessness effect. The authors suggest One method to change the perceptions of control is to allow individuals to have control over situations and events in the environment. For example, when planning activities, offer choices both within (e.g., choice of addition problems or subtraction problems within a math activity; which item of clothing to put on first) and between (e.g., choose play outside or watch a movie; choose doing dishes or laundry) activities. Exposing individuals to situations in which success is achieved or they experience the direct impact their behavior has on the environment (e.g., people, activities) can prevent or counter learned helplessness. Demchak, M., & Grattan, J. (2018). The authors made sure they included activities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They mapped out skills that care givers can provide to ensure success and lessen the effect of learned helplessness.Another suggestion to avoid learned helplessness is to set realistic goals for the individual to experience success. Setting realistic goals help to c
ounteract the effects of unattainable goals. Unattainable goals cause individuals to experience repeated failures, which contribute to learned helplessness. In addition, the article states that collecting data provides evidence toward meeting a goal and achievement of the goal. Demchak, M., & Grattan, J. (2018). Goal setting is very important for students with intellectual disabilities. We write goals every year for a student to achieve, but does the student achieve the goal? We know if the student achieve the goal when we send home the progress report to the parent and we say something like, we need more time, or we change the goal to a lesser percentage of achievement. For me, after having read this article, I know for a fact, I will write goals that are attainable for my students and ones that they will be able to achieve by their annual IEP date.Lastly, the quote states, In regard to classrooms and teacher-to-student interactions, the following strategies have been suggested to alleviate learned helplessness. Provide individuals with feedback that links to a motivational component. Praise and acknowledge effort to complete the project/assignment rather than providing feedback linked to the solution or to the intellectual quality of the work; these latter types of feedback contribute to learned helplessness. Individuals tend to interpret these latter types of feedback as indicative of lack of intellectual ability. Provide frequent praise for attempts to solve problems and completion of academic work. Build student success by interspersing easier problems with difficult ones to contribute to feelings of success, which may decrease learned helplessness. Instructional prompting strategies that emphasize errorless learning can also counter learned helplessness. These strategies as well as others that allow students with disabilities to experience academic success can lessen the learned helplessness that can result from repeated school failure. Demchak, M., & Grattan, J. (2018). These strategies show various ways to unteach learned helplessness. Personally, I have a growth mindset. This means that as long as the student is trying to do well and shows improvement, Im not teaching them learned helplessness. Instead Im helping them overcome it by modifying tests in order for them to show success like their peers. It is important for everyone to know that they can succeed at something, a little praise can go a long ways.Discussion #2Zagaria, T., Antonucci, G., Buono, S., Recupero, M., & Zoccolotti, P. (2021). Executive functions and attention processes in adolescents and young adults with intellectual disability.Brain Sciences, 11(1), 42.Key DefinitionsExecutive Functions (EF): refers to skills such as planning, inhibitory control, decision making processes that support the selection of functional response and its modification to changing environment, self monitoring, , attentional control and working memory (page 1).Intellectual disability: In this study, ID is defined by the DSM-5 as mild ID page 4: (The majority of people with ID are classified as having mild intellectual disabilities. Individuals with mild ID are slower in all areas of conceptual development and social and daily living skills. These individuals can learn practical life skills, which allows them to function in ordinary life with minimal levels of support.) from DSMattentional processing: the quality of information processing active at any given time (page 1).speed of processing: the rate at which the processor selects relevant information (page 2).Key Findings/Take AwaysAll those with ID in the study were severely impaired in EF (page 12). Problem solving and changing rules or planning had greater deficits than some others but all were impacted. Attention processing was not a deficit across the board for individual with IDResponse times (RT) were not any slower for continuous performance tasks such as indicating when a letter is called, indicating a target symbol, or finding target stimuli in various arrangements (page 7).When attention was divided or interrupted, then attentional processing numbers were lower such as focusing on auditory and visual stimuli simultaneously, or shifting attention with verbal targets or visual targets. Shifting attention showed greater disparity in dataIn some assessment, students with ID are not generally slower, but present specific deficits in some attention conditions (Page 13)Students will ID seem to be able to maintain attention (intensity)Students with ID are impaired in shifting attention or when interference is presentThe attention impairments found in the study could be more like linked to EFWhat do the findings mean for students with ID?According to this study, executive functioning is impaired in everyone with ID. However, attention is not always impacted the same and can be similar to same age peers without deficits. Accommodations have to be made when attention is required for more than one task or target. Assessment will also need to clearly define if the student is impacted by attention or if it is indeed a lack of an executive functioning skill. A student can have attention deficits and not have intellectual disabilities. While attention impacts intellectual development, it is not a sole indicator. Students with ID can persevere and attend to continuous tasks with specific rules. When rules change or attention divided, executive functioning delays become apparent. Potential Implications for practice and educational programmingWhen planning for students with intellectual disabilities, itâs important to use their strengths to overcome weaknesses. It seems prudent to focus on one task at a time rather than trying to split attention. Itâs important to note that some students with ID were in the normal range for some EF skills, so they can be acquired although maybe significantly slower. Differences in cognitive functioning or speed of processing may be task related and not necessarily global in nature. Focus on the student and not the presumption that they lack all EF or attention.hank you for taking the time to respond,Discussion#2