Teaching Mathematical Modeling of Cellular Systems with the VCell MathModel

ABSTRACT Mathematical biology has emerged as a powerful approach to describe and understand biological systems. Here, we introduce an interactive teaching tool with a practical hands-on skill session plan to introduce students to the various components of a mathematical model with 4 different mathematical approaches (i.e., ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, stochastic differential equations, and spatial stochastic differential equations) and their advantages and disadvantages. As such, we provide a didactic summary for instructors and students interested in using VCell MathModels for mathematical modeling; this work is also valuable for mathematics-savvy users who would like to exploit fully the capabilities of the VCell software.

The experience of use of the sand art-therapy with children with autism spectrum disorders

The article presents the results of effective work to use sand art-therapy for treatment of behavior problems in children with autism spectrum disorder. The article describes the session plan, children's behavior in dynamics and intermediate results of work with children with autism spectrum disorders in the framework of this program. The influence of the sand art-therapy on the children's behavior was analyzed. The clinical case of sessions with the boy K. was described. The overwhelmingly positive influence of such sessions was determined.

What Works in Therapy: Further Thoughts on Improving Clinical Practice for Children With Language Disorders

Purpose In this response to Kamhi (2014), the author reviewed research about what does and does not help children with language impairment (LI) to learn grammatical features and considered how that research might inform clinical practice. Method The author reviewed studies about therapy dose (the number of learning episodes per session) and dose frequency (how learning episodes are spaced over time) and also reviewed studies about dose form, including input characteristics and therapy strategies. Conclusion Although the research is limited, it offers implications for how clinicians do therapy. Children with LI need many learning episodes clustered together within sessions but spread out over time across sessions. Input must be grammatical and consistent while providing varied exemplars of the target features. Learning episodes should actively engage children in producing utterances with the target form, but only after they have had the chance to hear some utterances with that feature. The author suggests a session plan that starts with a structured activity and then incorporates the target form into an embedded activity such as storytelling.