Transition period from preschool years to school years is a time of rapid changes in children’s development. Children with intellectual disability lag behind their peers without disabilities in their school readiness skills, especially in math skills. Thus, there is a great importance of school preparation programs for children with intellectual disability in improving their math abilities. The aim of the present research was to compare the effectiveness of two preschool programs in improving math abilities of children prior to their enrollment in elementary schools. The sample for this research comprised 90 children aged 60-72 months. Of those, there were 60 children with intellectual disability and 30 typically developing children. Math abilities were assessed with a subscale from Peabody Individual Achievement Test. The results of this research indicated that children with intellectual disability attending special education preschool program achieved significantly better math results than children with intellectual disability attending inclusive preschool program. Some suggestions to preschool teachers on how to improve the effectiveness of their work with children with intellectual disability were given. Keywords: children with intellectual disability, inclusive education preschool programs, math abilities, quasi-experimental design, school readiness, special education preschool programs.

Learning to read is one of the most important academic accomplishments in the early grades of elementary school. Knowing what factors contribute to reading ability would improve instructional practices. The goal of the present study was to examine the effects of semantic fluency, phonological fluency, rapid naming, inhibitory control, selective attention, and visual motor integration on reading fluency in 140 second and third grade students. The results of this study indicated that significant predictors of reading fluency were: selective attention, semantic fluency, inhibitory control, and rapid naming. However, the association between predictor variables and reading fluency was moderated by the students’ grade. The article concludes with some suggestions on how to improve reading fluency in elementary school children, given that all predictors are susceptible to instruction.

Inclusive education is increasingly becoming a dominating paradigm of the educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, although supported by positive legislature, there are still numerous obstacles to inclusion. The goal of the present study was to examine the attitudes of regular education teachers towards inclusive education, more specifically towards obstacles to successful inclusion. The sample consisted of 200 elementary school teachers from two cantons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The greatest obstacle for inclusion as perceived by the teachers was the lack of professionals trained to work with children with special educational needs in regular schools. It is of utmost importance to support regular education teachers in their efforts to support all students in their classes. This calls for a more meaningful and thorough reformation of regular schools. Inkliuzinis ugdymas tampa vis labiau dominuojancia Bosnijos ir Hercegovinos ugdymo sistemos paradigma. Nepaisant to, kad sią paradigmą remia įstatymai, vis dar yra nemažai kliūcių, trukdancių įgyvendinti inkliuzinį ugdymą. Sio tyrimo tikslas – isanalizuoti bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų mokytojų požiūrį į inkliuzinį ugdymą, ypac atkreipiant dėmesį į tai, kas trukdo sėkmingai įgyvendinti sį ugdymo metodą. Tyrimo imtį sudarė 200 bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų mokytojų is dviejų Bosnijos ir Hercegovinos kantonų. Mokytojų nuomone, didžiausia inkliuzinio ugdymo įgyvendinimo kliūtis yra parengtų specialistų, kurie dirbtų su specialiųjų ugdymosi poreikių turinciais vaikais bendrojo lavinimo mokykloje, trūkumas. Labai svarbu teikti paramą tiems bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų mokytojams, kurie per pamokas stengiasi padėti visiems mokiniams. Si situacija suaktualina poreikį įgyvendinti prasmingesne ir nuodugnesne bendrojo lavinimo mokyklų reformą.

Abstract Semantic fluency is a measure of verbal functioning and cognitive flexibility. Its development is particularly rapid in preschool years. The goal of this study was to examine semantic fluency in preschool children in relation to child’s age and gender. The sample for this study comprised 133 children aged 3–6 years (mean age = 56.7 months; SD = 11.1 months) from Canton Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In relation to child’s gender, there were 62 girls (46.6%) and 71 boys (53.8%). We used three different semantic fluency categories: animals, food and music instruments. The results of this study confirmed the effect of age on semantic fluency improvement. However, there were slightly different developmental trends for boys and girls in semantic fluency tasks. Girls achieved higher mean scores in all three semantic fluency tasks, but statistically significant differences were only for the category of music instruments. Given the rapid growth in semantic fluency in preschool children, it is very important to actively promote its development in early years.

Introduction: Quantifying science and scientific contribution has become one of the main tasks in evaluating researchers and their impact. How do we value research and science in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH)? Scientific community has mostly agreed upon that one of the best ways to value researchers is through their h-index value. However, there are many databases and services from which h-index can be retrieved. Aim: To describe different databases and services such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus and Researchgate in evaluating the researcher. An additional aim of this paper is to present “the shape” of science at the University of Sarajevo and to examine what are the best predictors of h-index. Materials and methods: We analyzed the data from 100 Google Scholar Profiles of researchers from University of Sarajevo. Results: The study showed some benefits and shortcomings of mentioned databases and services. Most researchers in the sample were from natural sciences, in particular from the field of medicine. The mean value of h-index in relation to the researcher’s gender was not statistically significant. We conclude the article with some ideas on how to improve the visibility of researchers from BIH.

Purpose: Quality of life (QOL) is an important area of research in many scientific disciplines, and the findings could help in designing strategies to improve QOL for various clinical conditions. Chronic low back pain is a frequent medical condition that has a detrimental effect on QOL. The goal of this study was to examine the QOL of people with chronic low back pain in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), and to assess the impact of demographic variables such as age and gender on the QOL. Methods: The study sample consisted of 50 people with low back pain, between 19-79 years of age (mean age 51.2, SD- 13.1 years). There were 35 females (70%) and 15 males (30%) in the sample. The instrument used for measuring the QOL was World Health Organisation Quality of Life scale BREF (WHOQOL BREF). Results: The study demonstrated that low back pain has a detrimental effect on QOL. There was a significant effect of age and gender on certain domains of QOL. Conclusions: Older age is a risk factor for lower QOL of people with chronic low back pain. Females are more likely to have lower scores on the psychological domain of QOL,and therefore need effective psychological interventions aimed at improving their QOL.