Language Development In Children With Language Disorders: An Introduction To Skinner�s Verbal Behavior And The Techniques For Initial Language Acquisition
I-manager's Journal of Educational Psychology, Jan 15, 2009
Using computer-assisted instruction to increase the eye gaze of children with autism
Behavioral Interventions, Nov 6, 2017
Many children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty making appropriate eye con... more Many children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty making appropriate eye contact and engaging in joint attention. The current study evaluated a computer‐assisted instruction package (pairing visual stimuli with vocal stimuli) as a novel treatment to improve the eye gaze accuracy in 3 elementary school children with autism. The researchers measured the latency from a recorded verbal stimulus to the students making eye contact with pictures of familiar individuals displayed on a computer screen, and the duration for which eye gaze on the stimulus was maintained. An automated infrared camera system for measuring eye gaze was utilized that eliminated the need for an instructor to make subjective judgments regarding participants' eye gaze. For all three participants, duration of eye contact increased, and latency to responding decreased following exposure to the computer‐assisted instruction. The implications of these findings for the treatment of individuals with autism are discussed, along with suggestions for future research on the topic.
In this manuscript we attempt to provide a narrative history of the relationship between applied ... more In this manuscript we attempt to provide a narrative history of the relationship between applied behavior analysis and early childhood education by examining the policies and research that have collaboratively shaped both fields. In addition, given the rapid pace at which early childhood education has changed in the last 25 years, we provide an overview of a recommended model for delivering early childhood education services, to illustrate its congruence with the practices and principles of applied behavior analysis. Lastly, we hope that this manuscript may be used as a bridge between the fields of early childhood education and applied behavior analysis given their similarities and shared purpose, to improve the lives of all recipients of their services.
A Parent’s Guide to Support Technologies for Preschool Students with Disabilities
IGI Global eBooks, Aug 20, 2013
Parents encounter many challenges when facing the need to raise and support a child with a disabi... more Parents encounter many challenges when facing the need to raise and support a child with a disability. Many find technology to be of assistance, first turning to the Internet as a source of information and later turning to assistive technologies to directly support the needs of their child. This chapter outlines the multiple uses of technology related to the raising and support of young children with disabilities. The information provided serves to give an overview perspective while simultaneously providing actual specifics related to technology that can be useful to parents throughout the journey of raising a child with special needs.
The journal of international special needs education, Dec 1, 2017
Researchers have found that English teachers in the United States of America (USA) perceive provi... more Researchers have found that English teachers in the United States of America (USA) perceive providing writing instruction to students with emotional behavioral disorders (EBD) as a difficult task. This could be associated with the fact that students with EBD often work below skill level in the content area of writing compared to same age peers. Researchers continue to investigate interventions to increase academic outcomes for students with EBD. Utilizing a single case design, three middle school students with EBD were observed in a self-contained classroom to determine the effects of a traditional and technology based self-monitoring intervention focused on decreasing student off-task behaviors while increasing scores on writing assignments. The study took place in an urban school district within the Southeastern region of the USA. Results indicated that the first two intervention phases were equally as effective at reducing off-task behaviors. Additionally, the third intervention phase led to decreased off-task behaviors and increased writing scores for all students compared to the previous two phases. Social validity assessments indicated that the self-monitoring interventions were useful and relevant for teachers and students with EBD in the self-contained setting. Implications for teachers and educational researchers are discussed within this article.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a diagnosis that often leaves families faced with more question... more Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a diagnosis that often leaves families faced with more questions than answers. With a multitude of choices for possible treatments for a child with ASD, it is important to understand parental perceptions of what they report as reasons for choosing treatments for their child. The following research used a mixed methods approach and a questionnaire developed by the authors to identify possible reasons for parental treatment selection. The quantitative data analysis indicated that there were significant associations between length of time with an ASD diagnosis, family size, education level of the parent and parents selecting nonevidence-based treatments (NEBT). Qualitative data analysis identified five themes which included the amount of information available for treating autism, consistency across sources, specific goals regarding the treatment itself, concerns about treatment safety and evidentiary support, as well as factors outside of parental control.
Attitudes of Teachers Regarding Their Preparedness to Teach Students with Special Needs
Educating students with disabilities within the least restrictive or most integrated setting has ... more Educating students with disabilities within the least restrictive or most integrated setting has been mandated since the mid 70’s. However, many educational institutions feel ill prepared and are hesitant to fully implement inclusion measures due to several factors. Some factors included time to collaborate, support from peers and administration, and most importantly, adequate training to provide appropriate instruction for students with special needs within the regular classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of PreK-12 regular and special education teachers regarding their preparedness to teach special needs students in an inclusive setting in a rural school district in southwestern United States. The study utilized a survey to examine the following: attitudes held by teachers, their foundations of knowledge, attitudes and experiences that shape their attitudes. The study showed an overall positive attitude towards inclusive education (M=92.42) with strong implications of training needed in order to provide sufficient instruction to students with special needs. The study ends by providing possible implementation strategies that are predicted to be successful as forecasted by reported teacher attitude.
Training Teachers to Implement Components of a Functional Behavior Assessment in a Rural School District: Taking Steps toward a Proactive Classroom
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (1997) mandates the use of proactive, posi... more The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (1997) mandates the use of proactive, positive measures of discipline in schools, thereby challenging how educators approach behavior problems exhibited by students. The use of Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA) is proposed as an alternative to an overreliance on reactive and punitive measures. Thus the aim of the study was to train rural educators on three primary components of the FBA. Rural educators were targeted due to the data regarding high teacher attrition rates in rural education (Henry, 1986; Lemke, 2010) and the two primary concerns rural educators share are (a) problems with behavior management in the classroom and (b) student discipline (Lemke, 2010). In an effort to address the needs of these educators , this investigation set out to improve positive behavioral interventions by providing training on the basic principles of FBA. Results demonstrated 95% of participants reported FBA trainings were useful in dea...
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) has been identified as an effective evidence-based class-wide manage... more The Good Behavior Game (GBG) has been identified as an effective evidence-based class-wide management intervention to decrease maladaptive classroom behaviors. This study was a systematic replication and extension of previous research on GBG. This study looks at the continued effectiveness of the GBG on increasing appropriate student classroom behaviors and on increasing teacher behaviors specific praise statements to students. This research is also attempting to investigate teacher perception of the use of evidence-based interventions and data collection in the classroom, and the differences in accuracy in data collection and the GBG intervention while monitoring teacher's usage of both hand calculated and computer-based data collection modalities.
Female athletes are at a greater risk for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries than males. C... more Female athletes are at a greater risk for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries than males. Current training programs for ACL injury reduction focus on muscle strengthening, appropriate movement patterns, and balance training. However, there is limited research on effective strategies to teach youth female soccer athletes how to properly perform desired movements associated with a decreased risk of ACL injuries. Behavioral skills training (BST) programs have been shown to be effective in teaching a wide variety of skills, but research on applications to sports is limited. This study evaluated a BST package for teaching a stepwise agility program to 3 youth female soccer athletes that consisted of verbal instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback, which included video replay. Results showed a significant improvement in the number of steps the participants performed correctly relative to baseline, as well as maintenance of skills at follow-up. Implications for coaches and athletes, as well as limitations and directions for future research, are discussed.
The current study examined the collateral effects of an antecedent intervention for decreasing sp... more The current study examined the collateral effects of an antecedent intervention for decreasing speech volume on vocal stereotypy. After teaching the participant to use a conversational voice level by providing visual feedback from a decibel meter app, conversational voice levels were differentially reinforced in the presence of a green card. Differential effects in voice magnitude during a green-card condition and a no-card condition were demonstrated using an alternating-treatments design. Results showed a decrease in volume of speech during the green-card condition, an overall decrease in vocal stereotypy, and a decrease to zero levels in loud stereotypical vocalizations. The implications of these findings on the treatment of vocal stereotypy are discussed. Keywords Vocal stereotypy. Stimulus control. Reducing stereotypy. Collateral effects. Volume of vocalizations From a behavior-analytic standpoint, vocal stereotypy has been defined as noncontextual or nonfunctional speech, including singing, babbling, and repetitive noises and phrases unrelated to the situation (Ahearn et al., 2007; Matson et al., 2006). Vocal stereotypy may be particularly concerning when its frequency or magnitude interferes with the child's opportunities to learn, disrupts classroom activities, impedes or decreases the chances of social interaction (Matson et al., 2006), prohibits the successful acquisition of functional skills (Matson et al., 1997), leads to social stigmatization (Conroy et al., 2005), and constitutes a source of caregivers' stress and anxiety (Harrop, McBee, & Boyd, 2016). Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of a variety of behavioral interventions to treat the occurrence of vocal stereotypy, including Functional CommunicationTraining, Non-Contingent Reinforcement, Response Interruption and Redirection, DRO and DRL, and response blocking and punishment (see Lanovaz & Sladeczek, 2012, for a review). Some of these interventions, however, are part of treatment packages with an added punishment contingency to either enhance treatment effects or produce significant behavior change (e.g., Ahearn et al., 2007; Falcomata et al., 2004; Kostinas et al., 2001; Laprime & Dittrich, 2014). In school environments, however, it is important that interventions are primarily reinforcement based, cost-effective, adaptable to daily routines, practical, and easy to implement for teachers and staff (Lanovaz & Sladeczek, 2012; Meindl et al., 2020). One alternative is to teach children to discriminate between settings where it is appropriate to engage in stereotypical behavior. These interventions typically consist of decreasing vocal stereotypy in one context while allowing it to occur in another (e.g.,
The Therapy Box is a behavioral intervention being researched to determine its effectiveness as a... more The Therapy Box is a behavioral intervention being researched to determine its effectiveness as a Response to Intervention (RtI) Tier 2 and Tier 3 behavioral intervention for identified students. The Therapy Box assists students with developing self-regulatory skills and increasing their social-emotional literacy while providing a supportive, caring, and safe classroom environment. The Therapy Box is a treatment package that encompasses the theories of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the use of functional behavior assessments, B.F. Skinner's theory of manding, Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (DRA), and Directive Play Therapy. The hypothesis is that the student will be able to mand for "calm down time" with the box in lieu of an anger outburst/ episode within the classroom. The Therapy Box must be explained, and the student is part of the box creation during directive play therapy sessions. The intervention includes both student and teacher support to ensure skill generalization and successful outcomes. This research indicates that The Therapy Box proves to be an effective behavioral intervention for at-risk students.
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