ASS065-1: Portfolio on Skills for Social Sciences: Disability Research

This portfolio, created for the ASS065-1 Skills for the Social Sciences unit, is a comprehensive exploration of academic writing styles and research methodologies. The first part of the portfolio reflects on key academic writing styles like descriptive, analytical, persuasive, and critical, emphasizing their importance in presenting research effectively. The second part analyzes both quantitative and qualitative research articles related to disability in educational settings. The quantitative section examines studies on participation of children with disabilities and factors affecting physical activity, while the qualitative section focuses on barriers, facilitators, and attitudes towards inclusive education. The portfolio discusses the findings, highlighting challenges faced by disabled children, the impact of different factors on their participation, and the importance of teacher attitudes and school environments. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of special treatment, training programs, and the need for societal awareness to support children with disabilities.

Skills For the Social Sciences

Table of Contents
PART 1 (a).......................................................................................................................................3
Key academic writing style and their importance........................................................................3
Part 1 (b)..........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Part 2 Section 1................................................................................................................................3
Quantitative articles.....................................................................................................................3
Part 2 Section 2................................................................................................................................5
Qualitative articles.......................................................................................................................5
Section 3...........................................................................................................................................6
Discussion and contribution of research to the topic area...........................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

PART 1 (a)
Key academic writing style and their importance
Academic writing style can be defined as a style which express and shows skills of a
writer. It may be descriptive, analytical, critical and persuasive. Written language is called
critical and complexer than spoken language as it requires longer words and varied vocabulary.
The simplest form of writing is known as descriptive whose main aim is to give detailed
informations and facts. Descriptive type includes: identify, define, report and summarize.
Analytical includes descriptive as it requires rephrasing and reorganize informations that are
described in categories. This type of writing style includes: comparison, analysing and examine
(Norris, 2016).
Part 1 (b)
Introduction
Disability can be defined as a physical and mental condition that limits an individual's
senses, movement and activities. Children with having some type of disabilities are less likely to
continue school and if they do then they are unlikely to transition to secondary school. They have
to face several problems in learning, reading (Underwood, 2019). They cannot live the life as
like normal children. It defines problem which faces by disabled children such as deafness,
blindness etc. The selected topic for this study is disability children in schools. The main aim of
selecting this topic is to aware people about disabilities in children and problems which they
face. Providing effective solutions to remove differences between normal and disabled students
in the context of education and learning. With the help of relevant articles of the topic, it
identifies ways of promoting accessible learning spaces and also monitors the effectiveness of
the project. Persuasive writing styles is the academic style of the writing. Persuasive writing ahas
all the features of the analytical writing style but it includes the one plus point. In persuasive
writing style it has the one point of view. The writing style is mostly used in the essay and the
conclusions. Critical writing styles are commonly used by the researchers and the students. The
writing styles is used in the research and the post graduate studies. It is including the features of
the persuasive writing styles but it also has the one plus point which is different from the

persuasive writing styles. It can consider up to the two point of views while the persuasive style
would include the one point of view.
Importance of the academic writing styles
Academic writing styles are used by the researcher and the students which are pursuing
the research. Through the help of these styles the students are able to present the research work
in the presentable manner. In some case the students are not able to present their research and
these would affect their research work. So the students must use the academic styles while
performing the research. Through the research the students would clearly mention their thoughts
in the effective way. As per the psychology the students are not able to use the thoughts in the
effective manner. So the students would use these academic writing styles for improving the
performance. Through these academic writing styles students would compare, contrast and
summarize the information collected while the research.
Part 2 Section 1
Quantitative articles
Article 1. Participation’: a systematic review of language, definitions, and constructs used in
intervention research with children with disabilities
Type of research: The type of research is positivist.
Introduction: Systematic review is being done with the main aim of improving active
participation of disabled children. It will show the language which is being used by researcher
and numerical data gained in this research.
Methods: According to this article, 9 health and education databases searched. Quantitative and
numerical data extracted by using a customized form. For this thematic approach is being used in
order to know the outcomes.
Results: 5 participation themes and 9 sub themes were developed. 2 themes in which attendance
have taken active involvement were related to the participation construct. Other 3 themes
described concepts such as: activity competency, self senses and preferences.
Conclusion: The language analysis has undertaken in this study.

Article 2. Factors associated with physical activity in children and adolescents with a physical
disability: a systematic review.
Type of research: It is quantitative and systematic research type.
Introduction: This research will show all those factors that affect critically to participations in
physical activity in children with having some disability.
Methods: A systematic and mixed review was conducted using some databases academic search
such as PubMed, EMBASE etc.
Results: 12 quantitative themes were made which shows both positive and negative factors that
associated with participation of disabled children in physical activity like increasing age,
physical fitness etc.
Conclusion: It has stated that participation of disabled children in physical activity is complex.
Lack of awareness and other factors has hindered and foster this participation.
Article 3. Differentiating a child perspective from a child’s perspective.
Type of research: Conceptual and quantitative research type.
Introduction: The main aim of this research is to identify the difference between perspectives in
child and taking that perspectives based on the problem.
Methods: Conceptual paper based on narrative review.
Results: Differences between 2 perceptive seem self-evident. Children's; opinion was identified.
Conclusion: From the above it has been summarized that children's opinion differ and regarded
to different degrees.
Part 2 Section 2
Qualitative articles
Article 1: Perceived barriers and facilitators to participation in physical activity for children with
disability: a qualitative study
Type of research: Descriptive study is being used in qualitative research.

Introduction: It is stated that disabled children engage less in physical activity as compared to
other. So, the main aim of this research is to identify problems to participation in physical
activity.
Methods: 63 participants are selected as a sample in which (12 disabled children, 20 parents of
disabled children and 20 recreation staff). With the help of focus group, thematic al data
analysed by researcher.
Results: For outcomes 4 themes were made which shows similarities & differences.
Conclusion: The perspectives collected in this study are relevant to the many stakeholders which
are involved in the implementation of effective interventions.
Article 2: School success and participation for students with cerebral palsy: a qualitative study
exploring multiple perspectives.
Type of research: It is qualitative and positivist article
Introduction: The main aim of selecting this research is to identify successful school
experiences which they feel with disabled students.
Methods: Interviews were held in which 7 students with disability, 11 parents, 10 teachers, 9
school principals and 10 health practitioners were selected. Specific research questions,
interview guides and demographic questionnaires were configured for each group.
Results: Three themes made for getting answer as successful experience of schools with
disabled children. The main key was found is school culture, attitude and health practitioner.
Conclusion: It is summarized that success was impacted sustainability as there was high
collaboration.
Article 3: Attitudes towards Inclusive Education in Slovenia: A Qualitative Exploration
Type of research: It is a qualitative and positivist type of research.
Introduction: This research will show the attitudes of schools towards disabled children. The
main aim of this research is to increase awareness among teachers and encourage them to reflect
on their personal experience.

Methods: Focus group and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data was also analysed
with the use of qualitative content analysis.
Results: Five themes has been made which explores the division of teachers into a group which
shows their attitude towards disabled students according to their needs.
Conclusion: It has summarized that quality and attitudes of teachers differ and their attitudes
towards students were not homogeneous.
Section 3
Discussion and contribution of research to the topic area
From the above research (qualitative and quantitative) it can be discussed that people and
teachers find difficulties in teaching disabled people. There is no particular language who allow
teachers to communicate with children with disability. Due to lack of having proper knowledge
of languages, disabled children also face several problems in taking participate in physical
activities. It can also be said that different children with different disability needs to use different
languages. By training and development program, this problem can be solved out (Morgan and
et.al., 2017).
In addition, it can also be said that from other quantitative article that there are several
factors that affect participation of children with disability such as age and self efficiency. There
are several children with disability who are under weight, and they need to take proper training
and diet. Due to underweight and increasing age they affected by several diseases and it makes
their immune system weak. It directly impacts on their willingness to participate in physical
activities.
From other article, it is identified that children with disability requires special treatment
and care. For providing them special care, it is important to know different perceptive of
different children in an effective manner. The main aim is to increase children capacity to
express and share their needs on which basis, teachers can provide them effective services and
care. It is also important for teachers to increase awareness and make the society able to adapt
this special children and treat them as like a normal child or with special care. This perception
can help to the great extent as it makes children able to participate in different physical activities
for improving their health and for making them healthy (Jin, Yun and Agiovlasitis, 2018).

Other qualitative articles and different themes also shows several things regarding
disabled children in schools. There are several internal and external factors that impacts to their
engagement ability to take participate in physical activity. The main purpose of choosing
qualitative article was identifying the main barrier that occur in the path of providing qualitative
services for teachers. For solving this problem, it is important to identify the nature and the type
of disability among children. Positive attitude, social support and self engagement ability of
children makes them able to take active participate in physical activity. It is beneficial for both if
all disabled children show their involvement in all activities run by schools.
In addition, and in the next qualitative article some factors has shown which makes
several school successful and also make them able to provide special and qualitative services to
children with disability. It is identified that schools who are successful they make their working
environment more positive and friendly. Their culture, personal behaviour and attitude towards
disabled children is so effective and positive. They adopt and follow all those strategies and
policies which make them able to provide special care to this type of children. The main key of
success of school is interaction and communication skills. For communicating with different
disabled children they use different language as oral, facial expression, body movement like
nodding head etc. With these styles and languages, children adapt and try to understand that what
teachers want to say. It also increases their learning and adaptive skills (Geda and et.al., 2016).
Last qualitative article shows attitude of people and teachers towards Inclusive Education
which makes several differences. The success and the failure depend upon the behaviour which
teachers and people of the society do with special and disabled children. Both organizational and
personal factors are also identified which limits the process of inclusion and also affect full
participation of children with special needs in schools. Lack of education as well as experience
also contributed to the feeling of being overwhelmed.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that special treatment and training
programmes played a vital role in solving all those problems that demotivate children with
disability. It has also shown several factors that are associated with participation of disabled
children in school. Obesity, lack of access to resources, and increasing age are some factors
which has been discussed in this study. Further. Several articles has discussed some reasons
which make schools successful of children with disability. It promoted children and decreases

differences between normal and disabled children. Effective culture, policies and behaviours of
teachers are some main factors and reasons which made them able to become successful and
providing effective services to children with disability. Disabled children in schools have
different perspectives and taking that perspective become difficult for teachers and it made them
frustrated.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Geda, B. and et.al., 2016. School Enrollment among Children with Disability in Rural Eastern
Ethiopia: A Community-Based Survey. Commun Disord Deaf Stud Hearing Aids.
4(167). p.2.
Hyland, K., 2015. Teaching and researching writing. Routledge.
Jin, J., Yun, J. and Agiovlasitis, S., 2018. Impact of enjoyment on physical activity and health
among children with disabilities in schools. Disability and health journal. 11(1). pp.14-
19.
Morgan, P.L. and et.al., 2017. Replicated evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in disability
identification in US schools. Educational Researcher. 46(6). pp.305-322.
Norris, C.B., 2016. Academic writing in English. University of Helsinki.
Underwood, K., 2019. The construction of disability in our schools: Teacher and parent
perspectives on the experience of labelled students. Brill Sense.
Online
A systematic review of language. 2015. [Online]. Available
through :<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dmcn.12932>.
Factors associated with physical activity in disabled children. 2014. [Online]. Available
through :<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dmcn.12624>.
Differentiating a child perspective. 2013. [Online]. Available
through :<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/17518423.2013.801529>.
Barriers to participation in physical activity. 2016. [Online]. Available
through :<(https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-016-0544-7>.

School success for students with disability. 2017. [Online]. Available
through :<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09638288.2017.1327988?
src=recsys&journalCode=idre20>.
Attitudes towards Inclusive Education. 2016. [Online]. Available through :<https://www.fos-
unm.si/media/pdf/ruo/2016-5-1/ruo_039_clanek_teacher_attitudes_koncni_prejeto_201
6_02_25.pdf>.