Digital Commons Network^™

An Evaluation Of The Break Up With Salt Community-Based Hypertension Education Program, Helena L. Salgado

LSU Master's Theses

Introduction: Hypertension is a primary risk factor for heart disease and stroke, and contributes to renal disease, premature death, and disability. More recently, hypertension has also been identified as a risk factor for serious symptoms or as an underlying cause of death from Covid-19. Break up with salt (BUWS) is a 4-session, community-based nutrition education program of the LSU AgCenter, developed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, to help Louisiana’s adults prevent or mange hypertension. The BUWS curriculum focuses on the DASH diet, healthy food selection and preparation skills, and physical activity and stress management. BUWS was piloted in a …

The Predictive Influence Of Challenging Behavior On Parent Stress In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paige Weir

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interest, and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also exhibit challenging behaviors that affect parent and caregiver stress directly. However, researchers have not yet examined the predictive influence of specific challenging behaviors on parent stress, particularly in young children (i.e., infants and toddlers) with ASD. Therefore, the current study expands existing literature by a) investigating the influence that challenging behaviors of young children with ASD have on parent stress and b) examining the unique contribution that each behavior (i.e., aggressive/disruptive behavior, stereotypy, and self-injurious …

Incorporating Student Reading Interests Into The Curriculum, Tia Denise Walker

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to examine the reading habits and interests of secondary school students in an urban community in order to discover ways to increase student reading interests. The researcher wanted to understand why adolescents choose to read or not to read certain texts and understand the reading behaviors of these students. The study focused on students’ intent to read certain texts such as traditional books and non-traditional texts. To gain knowledge on a larger population of students, a questionnaire based on student reading habits was distributed to all students enrolled in English 1 at the research …

Efficiency Of Teaching Sight Words In Similar Vs Dissimilar Sets, Jensen Chotto

LSU Master's Theses

Early reading intervention can decrease the likelihood that children who struggle with reading develop long-term reading problems. Due to the prevalence of words that cannot be read phonetically in the English language, sight word instruction is required to supplement phonics instruction. In this study, we compared the effects of creating sets of sight words with the same starting letter (3 words per set, 3 total sets) versus distributing words with the same starting letter across sets when assessing acquisition of the combined set (9 words) in five 4-to-6-year-old children using a combined adapted alternating treatments design and pre-posttest design. All …

Improving Inhibitory Control In A Kindergarten Classroom, Kaitlyn Theresa Lambert

LSU Master's Theses

BACKGROUND: Executive function skills are critical in early development, as they “form the foundation for children’s ability to self-regulate” (McLelland et al., 2016, p. 242). Inhibitory control, one component of executive function, is the ability to suppress or inhibit responses to distractions when completing a task (Nguyen & Duncan, 2019). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to improve children’s inhibitory control in the classroom through age-appropriate games, which promote controlling emotions and remaining on task. METHODS: Three target children were observed in the classroom they attend with their regular teacher. Baseline data revealed that the target children needed improvement …

A Geospatial And Statistical Analysis Of Dropout In Louisiana Public High Schools, Michael D. Stein

LSU Master's Theses

Students dropping out of high school is a nationwide problem, plaguing communities and often greatly reducing the prospects of a quality life for those students who do not complete their high school educations. Louisiana consistently has among the highest public high school dropout rates in the United States, and often the highest. This geospatial and statistical study aims to identify the factors that correlate with high school dropout in Louisiana public high schools, specifically, and to produce detailed maps of the dropout rates across the state to identify the schools most afflicted.

Extensive school-level data from five academic years (2014-15 …

Impact Of An Emergent Reading Skills Intervention On Letter Recognition And Phoneme Identification In Pre-Kindergarten Children, Laura K. Simmons

LSU Master's Theses

Research in the field of early literacy has demonstrated that letter recognition and phoneme identification are two necessary components of emergent reading skills (Casbergue & Strickland, 2016). Emergent literacy refers to the reading and writing skills that young children develop prior to learning traditional literacy skills and has been linked to increased literacy achievement (Justice & Pullen, 2003). This study focused solely on emergent reading skills. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of a targeted multi-sensory intervention on the emergent reading skills of letter recognition and phoneme identification using a multiple baseline design (Kazdin, 2011). …

The One – Way (Agri)Cultural Mirror: A Case Study Of How Young Agriculturalists Understand And Experience Culture, Janiece M. Pigg

LSU Master's Theses

As the global economy continues to transform how society operates, cultural competence has become a buzzword in education, professional development, research, government, and healthcare (Gay, 1994; Gallus et al., 2014). Cross et al. (1989) developed the most accepted definition of cultural competence: “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (p. 13).

Despite this, little to no research has been devoted to understanding cultural competence in agriculture. Thus, a need emerged to describe the cultural competence …

How Teachers Identify Characteristics Of The Reggio Emilia Philosophy In Practice: A Case Study, Autumn E. Smith

LSU Master's Theses

The Reggio Emilia philosophy has been guiding early childhood practices since its development by Loris Malaguzzi in 1963. Originating in Reggio Emilia, Italy, this approach to early childhood education emphasizes building and nurturing relationships between the adult and child. This philosophy is guided by eight core tenets – The Environment as the Third Teacher, 100 Languages of Children, Long-Term Projects, Teacher-Researcher, Image of the Child, Negotiated Learning, Documentation, and Social Relations. Research shows that young children’s engagement with the Reggio Emilia approach benefits their academic, cognitive, and social-emotional development. However, there is currently no school accreditation or teacher certification …

Second Language Spanish Refusals: The Effectiveness Of Explicit And Implicit Teaching Methods, Hannah R. Mcintire

LSU Master's Theses

This study investigates the effects of pragmatic instruction on two experimental groups in order to analyze participants’ pragmatic ability of producing culturally and situationally appropriate refusals in Spanish. The three groups include an in-class group, a tandem group, and a control group. Using pre and post written discourse completion tasks (DCTs), this study analyzes participants’ first turn in making a refusal of a friend’s invitation (-P, -D) and a professor or advisor’s suggestion (+P, +D). Based on tokens elicited for each group, it will be demonstrated that 1) both experimental groups increased in their ability of producing appropriate refusal strategies, …

Brown's Stages Of Morphosyntactic Development Applied To The Typical Development Of Italian, Marie Laiche

LSU Master's Theses

Background: In A First Language (1973), Roger Brown called for an increase in crosslinguistic data and analysis of morphosyntax across languages as more research in this field is crucial for working out the overarching determinants of language acquisition order and for the ability to accurately compare child language acquisition across different languages. An increase in this research would benefit linguistic researchers and speech-language-pathologists offering services to or evaluating children speaking a different language or more than one language. The current study seeks to add to the field of crosslinguistic research by adapting Brown’s guidelines of English language acquisition to the …

Identity Construction In The Yoruba Group Project Abroad: Discourse Analysis Of Language Use, Tawakalitu Odunayo Lasisi

LSU Master's Theses

This research examines the experiences of five Nigerian Americans who participated in the Yoruba Group Project Abroad in the year 2018. After taking classes on Yoruba language at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels in their various universities here in the US, the students traveled to Nigeria in the summer of 2018 to immerse themselves in the native speakers’ environment in Ibadan, Nigeria. While in Ibadan, they were paired with Nigerian host families (Yoruba speakers) in order to have an overarching immersive experience. These students constitute the population of this research. Using a qualitative research method and an in-depth online …

The Perceived Importance And Ability Of Secondary Agricultural Education Teachers Regarding Accommodating Students With Exceptionalities: A Mixed Methods Study, Raegan Ramage

LSU Master's Theses

Each year, the number of students who have a documented disability in public schools in the U.S. has increased. However, SBAE instructors continue to identify a lack of confidence when teaching students with exceptionalities. This lack of confidence is exacerbated by a lack of professional development opportunities and preservice training offered by teacher preparation programs regarding teaching students with special needs. To better understand this complex issue, this mixed methods investigation sought to describe Louisiana SBAE instructors’ previous educational experiences focused on accommodating students with special needs and describe their desired professional development opportunities regarding accommodating students with special needs. …

Using Mindfulness Practices To Increase Self-Regulation In Pre-Kindergarten And Kindergarten-Aged Children, Ellyn E. Culotta

LSU Master's Theses

BACKGROUND: Self-regulation is identified in the literature as an early predictor of later life success and an important skill that develops over the course of a lifetime beginning in early childhood (Flook et al., 2015; Montroy et al., 2016; Murray et al., 2017). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this research study was to assess whether direct instruction of Mindfulness Practices, such as guided meditation and yoga poses (Lee et al., 2020; Poehlmann-Tynan et al., 2016; Zelazo et al., 2012) would increase self-regulatory behaviors, such as impulse control, emotion regulation, and problem-solving in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten aged children. METHOD: Target children were …