Education Commons^™

Comparing Self-Delivered To Instructor-Delivered Reinforcement During Vocational Instruction For Students With Intellectual Disability Using Video Activity Schedules, Katherine Elise White

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

In this study, an adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of teaching vocational task when using self-delivered reinforcement versus instructor-delivered reinforcement while using video prompting. Participants consisted of four high school students who had been diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. Results indicated that instructor delivered reinforcement was slightly more effective at teaching a vocational task for 2 of the 4 participants. The results of the other 2 participants indicated that both forms of reinforcement delivery were similarly effective.

Comparison Of In-Person And Virtual Coaching Of Preservice Special Education Teachers, Sydney Green

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Traditionally, university supervisors have provided coaching to special education preservice teachers after direct observations of sessions within the classroom. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many public school districts in the United States enforced visitor restriction policies that made face-to-face observations difficult or impossible. When faced with this challenge, university supervisors were forced to consider alternative ways to provide feedback. Many questioned whether virtual coaching was as effective as in-person coaching in increasing teacher behaviors. Presently, there are limited studies that suggest one delivery method is more effective or efficient than the other. This study used a Repeated Acquisition …

Peer Supports Across Inclusive Environments, Lyndsay Mccullers

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Peer-mediated interventions provide opportunities for students with disabilities to learn a variety of different skills and meet individualized goals. Peers can provide targeted social, behavioral, and academic supports to students with moderate and severe disabilities. One specific peer-mediated intervention is peer support arrangements. These interventions involve providing supports to students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms or other instructional contexts. These supports contain four key components: selection of students, training of peers, peer delivery of supports, and adult monitoring. When implemented with fidelity, peer support arrangements provide numerous benefits to both students with and without disabilities.

The Effectiveness Of Peer Training To Increase Communicative Responses By Peers With Disabilities, Amanda Landherr Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Individuals with disabilities often have social and communication deficits which impact their development of social relationships. Therefore, individuals with disabilities need additional supports and interventions to gain appropriate social and communication skills. Research demonstrates that peer-mediated interventions are an effective way to help increase social interactions between students with disabilities and students without disabilities. There has been research to support that peers can successfully be taught how to use AAC devices and how to initiate and respond to peers with disabilities. Some of the positive effects of peer-mediated intervention include an increase in social communication skills, inclusion, and increased use …

A Retrospective Within-Session Analysis Of Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analyses For The Purposes Of Quality Improvement Within A University-Based Clinic, Amy Wolfe

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Functional analysis (FA) is a tool practitioners can utilize to identify the function of challenging behavior. An interview informed contingency analysis (IISCA) is a variation of a FA. In an effort to improve patient care within a university-based clinic, a within-session analysis of the first test condition of an IISCA was conducted to determine if a shorter assessment yield results similar to the full IISCA. An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate differentiated rates of challenging behavior across conditions for eleven client cases at the university-based clinic. A single test session was enough to determine the function of challenging …

Increasing Initiations Of Communication For Students With Moderate And Severe Disabilities Using A Prompt Hierarchy, Ryan Elizabeth Queenan

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to increase initiations of communication for high school students with moderate and severe disabilities using a prompt hierarchy in the context of environmental arrangements. A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing a prompt hierarchy with an environmental arrangement. The results showed that when using a prompt hierarchy in the context of an environmental arrangement were effective in increasing initiations of communication for high school students with moderate and severe disabilities.

The Effects Of Mand-Model Within Shared Reading Activity On Naming Emotions, Paige Nicole Owens

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

There is a need for social communication skills to be explicitly taught to people with intellectual disabilities and complex communication needs. The use of naturalistic language interventions is an evidenced based practice shown to increase social communication skills in learners with disabilities. In addition, these interventions have proven successful when embedded into a storybook reading format. There is limited evidence when using both strategies to teach the skill of naming emotions. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a mand-modeling procedure, during storybook reading, to teach middle schoolers with moderate and severe disabilities to name emotions …

Inclusive Practices In Teacher Education Programs, Melike Yozgatli

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Inclusive education is a global trend and an educational right that refers to the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education settings (GECs). Applying to the most effective practices is particularly essential for students with disabilities in GECs. Most of the responsibility to implement inclusive practices and create a positive inclusive classroom environment falls on special and general education teachers in GECs. Thus, pre-service teacher education is crucial for teachers’ future achievements in inclusionary settings to address the diverse needs of students with disabilities. The purpose of this survey study was to investigate teacher education programs in the United …

The Effects Of Peer Training And Coaching On The Implementation Of Aided Language Modeling With An Aac User With Extensive Support And Complex Communication Needs, Sara Elizabeth Henderson

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of training peers at a middle school in aided language modeling. The peers were trained and then coached as they implemented the strategy during a social break time in the resource classroom when communicating with an AAC user with extensive support and complex communication needs (ESCCN). A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate the effects of the peer training and coaching program. The results showed that the implementation of a peer training and coaching program were effective in increasing the frequency of aided language modeling and the …

Teaching Social Communicative Intents To Elementary Aged Students Through The Use Of Aided Language Modeling, Kaitlyn Yvette Kousins

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to extend the research of using aided language modeling as an intervention with elementary aged students with extensive support and complex communication needs. A multiple probe design across participants was used to determine if there is a functional between an aided language modeling intervention and improvements in contextually relevant initiations (i.e., requests and comments) between children with extensive support and complex communication needs. The results showed that using aided language modeling within play-based sessions was effective in teaching social communicative intents to students with extensive support and complete communication needs.

Coaching And Training Paraprofessionals To Implement Communication Strategies In The Classroom With Students With Disabilities, Andrea Grace Antoniewicz

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effects of a training and coaching intervention on increasing paraprofessionals use of communication strategies to increase the participation between students with disabilities and paraprofessionals. Students with CCN struggle to interact with peers and communicate appropriately, and therefore need guided instruction by adults. To encourage interactions across contexts, paraprofessionals must first learn how to use communication strategies. This skill also was chosen to extend our knowledge on coaching paraprofessionals to use different communication strategies to promote communication with students with ESN and CCN.

Learner Outcomes From An Echo In Augmentative And Alternative Communication, Lillie Reinhart

Theses and Dissertations--Communication Sciences and Disorders

Background: Students with complex communication needs (CCN) rely on the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to support their communication; however, many students are leaving high school without an effective form of communication. To build capacity and increase school professionals’ knowledge and self-efficacy in AAC, this thesis used an adaptation of Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) for use with AAC.

Methods: Using a post then pre-retrospective survey, participants self-reported changes in knowledge, confidence, and overall satisfaction with ECHO sessions. Paired sample t-tests assessed participant-reported change in knowledge. Frequency counts were used to analyze responses about confidence and …