PRIORITIZING FALL RISK MANAGEMENT: IRRESPECTIVE OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE PROGRESSION DURING REHABILITATION

Background and Aims: It has been established that the hazard of falling in Parkinson's patients is a primary cause of loss of independence, and hence it is a significant component to the disease's burden. As a result, the goal of this study is to evaluate the relationship between level of disease progression and the risk of falling in order to understand the critical need for rehab intervention in Parkinson's disease. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 24 participants participated in study through convenience sampling technique from primary and tertiary care institutes/ hospitals. Tinetti balance and gait test was used to evaluate the risk of fall among patients while The Hoehn and Yahr Scale was used to track the progression of Parkinson's symptoms and disability. Results: Total 24 (n=24) participants with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease were enrolled in the study in which the majority of the participants belong to age group 59-69 years. The balance and gait of Parkinson’s patient is strongly negative correlated i.e. -8.33 with the severity of Parkinson’s disease with .000 level of significance which is strongly negative correlated with the severity of Parkinson’s disease (p<0.05). Conclusion: This demonstrates that the balance and gait of a Parkinson’s person is not related to the severity level Parkinson’s disease thus fall management in PD patients must be kept in priority during the rehab intervention for ADL independence and social participation.

Enhancing the Writing Skills of Grade Seven Students in a Private School in Karachi

This action research, in the qualitative research paradigm, is an effort to help the students of grade VII to develop English writing skills in a private school in Karachi. Six students with their English language teacher participated in the study. Through purposive sampling the participants were selected from different levels of learners. The study was conducted in six weeks, working five days every week. Activities and materials for teaching writing skills were prepared according to the emerging needs of the students. Data were collected through two different diagnostic tests comprising: multiple choice questions and a short essay question. In addition, interviews, classroom observations, documents’ analysis and field notes were also employed as data collection tools. The analysis of the learners’ work revealed that learners had difficulty in vocabulary knowledge to support their writing, getting frequent feedback on their work, approaching different strategies to learn writing skills, verb tense agreement for sentence construction, and reading for writing. It was found that teaching strategies such as differentiated instruction strategies, scaffolding instructions, collaboration with competitors, reading-integrated writing, and use of written, oral and peer feedback provided better opportunities for the learners to enhance their writing skills. These approaches also helped me and the teacher to improve our teaching styles. The study offers valuable methodological contributions for future researchers in the field. The findings of this research will also be helpful for teachers who are involved in teaching English writing skills.