Behavioral Language Assessment Part 1 (ABLLS-R) - 800 Words

Summary The topic for todays reading was Behavioral Language Assessment: Part 1 (ABLLS-R). One of the assigned readings, Language Assessment and Development in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders, presented several key findings emerged from a study of early language abilities in a large sample of toddlers with ASD. They found out that although the measures employed in this study to assess emerging language skills in toddlers with ASD involved direct assessment, parent questionnaire and parent interview, there was a very close agreement among these different measures. Also, they found that both receptive and expressive language were much correlated with a range of general and social cognitive variables and motor skills, and that the†¦show more content†¦Childs language skills are tested by presenting them with an increasingly complex set of receptive and expressive tasks. The primary goal of these language assessments is to identify a childs age-equivalent linguistic level, w hich are obtained by a comparison of the childs score on the test to the average language abilities of a large group of typically developing children. Language assessments that focus on age-equivalent scores, and the traditional receptive and expressive distinction, are less useful to parent and teachers who simply need direction for working with a particular child. Standardized language assessment do not give teachers or parents a specific starting point for developing a language intervention program. It is assumed that if a childs language age can be identified then the teacher can develop a language intervention program, and provide material that would be right for that language age. But, finding an age equivalent score does not help find specific linguistic problems, or help suggest strategies for where and how to begin language intervention. Finally, the standardized assessments do not separate the several different types of expressive language, and important distinctions and verbal deficits are often not identified which critical for the daily use of language in the childs natural

World’s Dumbest Animal Free Essays

Earth Stupidest Organism There are many species of animal on Earth, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Some of these animals are smart, some are dumb, but which animal is the dumbest of them all? In my opinion, I believe the dumbest of them all is the panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca is their scientific name. I have read a few articles, watched a few videos, done some researches about pandas, and my conclusion is: Panda is the stupidest organism I have ever encountered up to this point in my life, they are the failure of natural selection and evolution. We will write a custom essay sample on World’s Dumbest Animal or any similar topic only for you Order Now They are slothful to the point of being circumspect, pandas loll around, knowing full well that most of the humans in their midst will fall for their deceptive, charming spell. They are carnivore, but decided to go vegan, they don’t use their time to mate even if they are on the edge of extinction, they are literally stupid, they eat the food that don’t give them much energies to live, so they just sit there and eat all they long. I bet you don’t believe me, since pandas are so adorable, cute, and look like clumsy fur ball that bring joy and laugh to peoples. You might be right about their cuteness, but that is just what we, normal humans, think about the pandas. What about the scientific, and biological perspective of them? Well, as a 101 Biology student myself, I think they have failed as an animal in the way they live.To begin with, I will how a little sympathy, and talk about the good side of these miserable creatures, just to not burry them too low underground. Firstly, these creatures are cute, adorable, chubby, fluffy, friendly, and bumbling. You cannot think about the word â€Å"panda† and not thinking about an adorable, yin-yang-like creature, and you will blurt out: â€Å"Aaaaaawww!!!† when you see them doing something stupid. Also, these animals are pink when there were young, climbing trees, and swim very good. Every human loves them. Secondly, there is an old legend about pandas, it is nice, well written, but has a dark twist in the middle. A long time ago, when all the pandas were completely white (like polar bear white), one panda was attacked by a leopard. A young girl shown up and saved the dummy, but she was horribly killed by the leopard instead. So, after all what happened, the pandas came to her funeral wearing black ashes armbands (I don’t understand why did the people not slaughter them since the young girl was killed because of those idiotic creatures). When they wiped their tears, hugged, covered their ears, †¦ those black ashes armbands left ashes marks on their faces, and bodies. That is how we have a yin-yang-like animal today (still, I don’t know why did I put this story in the part about panda goodies). Finally, this is my favorite one, pandas are interesting, they are white, they are black, but also, they are Asian. Such variety in just one species, except for humans, right? Those are all the â€Å"good† things I found out about pandas. Let move on to the next part, the bad sides of pandas, this is going to be fun.These creatures, pandas, are very bad at survive in nature, at mating, and at to decide what is good for them. On the biological aspect, pandas are carnivore, cat-like pupils, sharp teeth (they also have flat teeth), pointy nails, they are designed by nature, went through evolution, survived natural selection to consume, and to digest meat. But no, one day, these creatures decided to go vegan, they decided to eat what they were not designed for, they started to eat plants, especially bamboo, instead of meat. Normally, bears’ diet includes fishes, meats, insects, and plants, a lot of plants (some says that plants can sometimes can reach up to 90% of bear’s diet), but they eat lots of lots of meat to obtain energies for their daily basic. Pandas, in the other hand, only consume fruits, rodents, but mostly bamboo. But pandas are carnivore, their digest system were designed to consume meat, not cellulose, they don’t have functional caecum, which is needed to consume cellulose. Scientist discovered that pandas were in facts omnivore, they eat both plants and meat just like other bears, but 7 million years ago, they started to eat bamboo, then they completely switched to bamboo 2 million years ago until today, but they still have a digest system of a carnivore, bacteria in their gut are still better at break down proteins than cellulose, so they cannot absorb much nutrition from bamboos. As mentioned above, pandas consume bamboo as their main source of nutrition, and they cannot squeeze out much nutrition from them. Pandas are bears, bears do eat plants but are not rely on plants as their main source, they have others source of nutrition like fishes, and meat. But since pandas only consume bamboos (they also eat meat, but the amount of meat is very small), they waste a ridiculous amount of time (about 10 to 16 hours per day) just for eating, they have to sit and eat a large amount of bamboo to gain enough energy. There are facts that pandas need to consume an average of 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day, whereas the Toronto’s zoo claims that they need to consume about 93 to 141 pounds per day. I don’t really know which of them is more reliable but I know one thing, that is a huge amount of bamboo. Since pandas cannot digest bamboo completely, the bamboos just go straight down, so pandas have to â€Å"let it go† more than one time a day, which will cause them to lose some energy and then, they start over. Pandas don’t do much, they just eat, poop, eat again, and sleep, and eat again, they don’t have much energy to do other things essential for them, like mating, rising their kids properly. Fun facts: pandas are all bamboo heads, hollow. When mama pandas born baby pandas, they often forget that they are their kids, and don’t even bother take care of them; some pandas are trying to quell their little ones by rolling on them, probably kill the babies too, glad that I am human baby. Moreover, panda is an endangered species, due to just have enough energy to eat, sleep, and poop, pandas do not seem to care about mating at all. For animals, not be able to reproduce is quite critical since they cannot pass down their genetic information to their offspring and might become extinct. According to WWF’s information in 2014, there are only 1864 pandas alive in the wild, a few hundred more in captivities, lucky enough, the number of pandas is said to be risen by 16,8 percent since 1970s. and keep on rising until the IUCN reclassified the species from â€Å"endangered† to â€Å"vulnerable† in 2015. It is really hard for a panda baby to be born and survived, even with the help from us human because of several reasons. First, female pandas only ovulate once a year in spring, and the amount of time to inseminate is only about 36 to 40 hours, if miss, we have to wait until next spring to do it again. Pandas are not even trying to be helpful during the process, they are very solitary creatures, they might try to kill each other if not caged separately, they are not good fathers either. In the zoo, at some point, human have to inseminate the panda artificially, so that they don’t miss the opportunity of having a panda baby. Also, it is hard to find pandas’ fetus by ultrasound, pandas are fat, even the experts might mistake between pandas’ fetus and their poo. Pandas don’t have a fix gestate term, it is some where between 3 to 6 months after insemination. After the baby is born, they hardly survive till maturity since pandas are not very good at taking care of their babies, they are blind, hairless, and don’t crawl until three months old. They are hard to fertilize, rarely mate, weak, unprotected from the environment, and experience bad parenting when still a cub†¦ those are the reasons why baby pandas are hard to be born and survive till maturity.Pandas are so lucky that they don’t even have nature predators in their habitat, they are safe in their bamboo forest, all by their own. But still, pandas’ cubs, which are helpless and unprotected, have to face many predators like leopards, and birds of prey until they are older. Believe me or not, humans are the most dangerous threat pandas ever encounter. We chopped their bamboos, destroyed their habitat for materials, for agriculture purpose, we hunt them down for their unique fur, we almost wipe them out from the Earth surface. Lucky for the pandas, laws had been created to protect them, anyone who try to hurt a panda will face harsh punishments. In conclusion, pandas are the most idiotic organism I have encountered. They are the failure of evolution, they try to become vegan while being a carnivore, their digest system doesn’t even change after centuries of eating plants, they hardly try to survive in nature, does not try reproduce even on the edge of extinction, they are hard to have babies, they are suck at parenting, and their babies are unprotected from the environment. They don’t behave like others animals, finding food, try to survive, try to reproduce. Pandas do none of them, they are just sitting around and eat and eat and eat, they do nothing for their life, or for their kids. Pandas are the stupidest of all organism on Earth. How to cite World’s Dumbest Animal, Papers

Pluto free essay sample

In the following essay the problems of Pluto Telecommunications will be outlined and analysed with recommendations offered as to how the issues can be addressed. Identification of the Problems: Communication has eroded between the three departments so that â€Å"they are actually working against one another†. This break down has resulted in lost orders and an increase in the number of complaints from customers. Many of the problems experienced probably stem from the rapid growth experienced by the company over the last 12 months. Ms Tsang is faced by the following issues: (a) Each department has its own aims and motivations which are all different from each other department. Hence there are three department subcultures that are not all integrated and are working almost as three separate businesses. It is no surprise that inter-department communication is poor. (b) Ms Tsang has a group of directors that are not prepared to voice their honest opinions. (c) Ms Tsang’s leadership is questionable given that she has been unable to coordinate the work of her three directors and hence their departments. Analysis of the problems: In the following analysis Pluto Telecommunications and her issues will be considered with regard to the individuals, the groups and the organisation. The environment in which Pluto operates will not be considered. Organisational Level of Analysis: 1. The culture: The divergence of the three departments and their separate subcultures has made it very difficult for the unitary organisational culture that Ms Tsang promotes, to become established. In truth the rapid growth that has occurred in the last year has meant that this unitary vision has not been integrated enough. It can be assumed that in an industry where customers’ needs are rapidly evolving that Pluto’s culture has a strong focus on adaptability. This has meant that individual departments have developed their own subcultures unchecked and therefore there is no one single view of what is, and what is not, acceptable. 2. The structure: The business is built on departmental silos. Each department reports to each department head who then reports to Ms Tsang. Mathew Craven reports that â€Å"(such) differentiation may indeed be appropriate for the turbulent and uncertain telecommunications environment and this accords with theories of structure-environment fit with the separate groups in the company being able to respond to changes in technology reasonably efficiently. The issues arise from the lack of integration of the departments with management theorists advocating departmental interdependence and the need for higher levels of integration in more turbulent, complex and uncertain environments. Fig 1 shows that Pluto’s structure more closely resembles that of a mechanistic organisation that would suit operating in an environment that has far less uncertainty. ‘Mechanistic’ Form Pluto Telecommunications ‘Organic’ Form Specialized Tasks Specialized Tasks Flexible Tasks Standard, formal procedures Standard, formal procedures Highly Informal Centralised power and control Centralised power and control Decentralised power and control Vertical Communications Vertical Communications Lateral Communications Command and Control Command and Control Advice and Information Fig 1: Comparison of Pluto Telecommunications to the Burns Stalker model. Group Level of Analysis: 1. The culture: The different cultures that exist in each department have evolved because of the variable level of uncertainty that is encountered by that department. Hence there is a high level of internal differentiation created by differences in departmental structure, goals, orientation to time and interpersonal relationships. i. Sales: The sales team operate in a performance based culture. They are rewarded individually and competitively and bear symbols such as company cars, mobile phones and laptops. These symbols reinforce the top-dog sales culture. ii. Customer Service: Charles Handy (Handy, 1986) provides an accurate description of this group as fitting into a Role Culture with resources being tightly controlled; the structure is highly formalised where position power and rules are the main basis of influence. Authority is defined clearly and the formal work style although perhaps suitable for engineering work, will hinder the department in communicating with other departments where the style is less formal. iii. Marketing: There is clearly a reluctance of staff to get involved with the other departments. This culture is reinforced by their geographical location (London based and remote from other functions) as well as a cosy, we-all-went-to-university clickiness. 2. The structure: The high level of environmental uncertainty has impacted upon the structure (Lawrence and Lorsh, 1969). Fig 2 shows the differences in goals and orientations of the three departments. This has created a high level of internal differentiation created by differences in departmental structure, education, goals, and orientations to time and interpersonal relationships. Sales Department Customer Service Department Marketing Department Goals Sell product Quality Marketing campaigns and pricing Time Horizon Short Short Long Interpersonal Orientation Social Mostly task Task Formality of Structure Less formal Formal Less formal Targets Well defined and highly rewarded Well defined and poorly rewarded Poorly defined and no reward. Fig 2: The differences in department orientations and goals within the organisation. Individual Level of Analysis: 1. Leadership of the senior team: Leadership has been defined as the creation of a vision about a desired future state which seeks to enmesh all members of an organisation in its net (Bryman, 1986 cited by Buchanan and Huczynski, 1997). In this respect Ms Tsang has failed. Her directors are culpable of Groupthink possibly as a result of being involved in a highly fluid and competitive operating environment and as such have made flawed decisions so as to maintain harmony in the senior team. 2. Motivation: Fig 3 shows the difference in department motivations with a clear bias towards extrinsic motivations and a preference for driving individual performance. In addition there is clearly only one team that has a vested interest in innovation while marketing appear content to keep the status quo while customer service appear focused on ‘just not being the worst performer!’. Sales Department Customer Service Department Marketing Department Motivation Extrinsic financial reward based on sales Extrinsic fear of failure and company recriminations Extrinsic and related to working conditions etc. Pros Drives short term behaviour and temporary inflation of sales None None Cons Drives individual behaviour Drives a culture of just doing enough Drives individual behaviour that may not be aligned to the organisations goals Impacts on relationships with other departments Drives individual behaviour Fig 3: Motivation of departments. Alternatives: Fig 4 shows the various alternatives that are open to the organisation. An assessment of the value of these alternatives has been made so as to aid a final recommendation to management: Alternative Narrative Pro Con Change the organisation structure Restructure so as to focus on a divisional (market focused) structure rather than the incumbent functional structure Greater task-goals integration Expensive Decentralisation Duplication of resources Increased autonomy Control problems with managing such issues as project investment decisions Modify the reward structure Job re-design using job enrichment principles to focus on intrinsic factors as well as extrinsic factors Greater task-goal integration Will take time Decrease employee churn and absenteeism Chance of loss of control Expensive Root branch senior team replacement Use the opportunity to remove the department directors and create the impetus to change with new leadership Provides a compelling and clear message that unity is an imperative Expensive New ideas and renewed energy Loss of experience Will take time for new directors to make a difference Relocation Bring the whole company under one roof Provides a compelling and clear message that unity is an imperative Expensive although overhead savings in the long term Should improve communication and departmental understanding Disruptive Develop a new department Invest in the formation of a department offering integration services e.g. project managers Provides a compelling and clear message that unity is an imperative Expensive Provides expertise in integration Invest in strategies to combat Groupthink After the Cuban Missile Crisis JFK focused on inviting external experts to share their viewpoints, dividing groups so as to reduce cohesion and absenting himself from the meeting to avoid pressing his own viewpoint. Ms Tsang could do the same. Increase debate Too much conflict could be unconstructive and hamper change efforts Improve the quality of decisions and make them more rational Dampen bias Fig 4: Table to show viable alternatives and a balanced view of pros and cons. Managerial Recommendations: Fig 5 shows the recommendations within the short, medium and long term timescales. It is anticipated that following the recommendations of Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) that a strategy would be adopted that involved education communication. It is to be expected that if the imperative is to drive inter-departmental communication then the process should begin with communicating widely with the business. Timescale Activity Narrative Short Combat Groupthink This will involve developing a cross departmental working party that can consider the issues that have been presented and offering solutions Develop a cross-functional project focused working party Medium Modify the reward structure and re-design jobs to focus on intrinsic factors The recommendations of the working party will inform this decision. Long Relocate core business functions to be under one roof Fig 5: A tempo for managerial recommendations for change.