Education Commons^™

Priming As A Means Of Increasing Spontaneous Verbal Language In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Michelle Louise Ivey

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

ABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF PRIMING ON SPONTANEOUS VERBAL LANGUAGE IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS by Michelle L. Ivey A multi-element design was used to investigate the effect of priming on spontaneous verbal communication in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Three children with ASD engaged in 20-minute thematic activity sessions (ACT) with the investigator. Prior to the ACTs, they met with another trained researcher for 10-minute presessions. Half of the presessions incorporated the conventions of priming with materials to be used in the upcoming ACT (i.e., related presessions; RP). During the other half of the presessions, participants were not …

Evaluating Child-Based Reading Constructs And Assessments With Struggling Adult Readers, Alice Owens Nanda

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

Due to the paucity of research on struggling adult readers, researchers rely on child-based reading constructs and measures when investigating the reading skills of adults struggling with reading. The purpose of the two studies in this investigation was to evaluate the appropriateness of using child-based reading constructs and assessments with adults reading between the third- and fifth-grade levels. The first study examined whether measurement constructs behind reading-related tests for struggling adult readers are similar to what is known about measurement constructs for children. The sample included 371 adults, including 218 native English speakers and 153 English speakers of other languages. …

Adult Learning In Nonformal Settings: Cultural Festivals As Spaces For Socially Situated Cognition, Audrey M. Ambrosino

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in the role of museums and cultural festivals in adult learning. Once considered the keepers of physical and cultural history, there was only limited concern for if and how adults learned from these settings. The conventional view held that museums provided knowledge, and it was an individual’s prerogative whether or not to seek it out. The past few decades, however, have seen both a resurgence of interest in visiting museums and festivals and a more concerted effort to understand their value in a rapidly evolving society. This study considers visitor experiences at the …

Development Of The Test Item Pool For A Screening Instrument Of Emotional And Behavioral Disorder Of Elementary School Students., Laura Eileen Conley

Theses and Dissertations

The functioning of children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is a concern for parents and educators. Screening focuses efforts to identify and prevent/remediate EBD for students most at risk. Current screening instruments fail to meet three factors that may be related to successful early identification. The three factors are universality (rates all students), brevity, and identification of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. This thesis began the construction of a screener with all three factors. The thesis determined a conceptual basis for the instrument and created an item pool. The conceptualization was based on a literature review. The item pool was …

The Relation Among Sleep, Routines, And Behavior In Children With An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jill Angelique Henderson

Dissertations

Children with an ASD have a propensity for routines and reportedly have a greater incidence of sleep disturbance and externalizing behaviors than typical children. In addition, significant relations have been identified among routines, sleep behavior, and externalizing behavior in a community sample of children, suggesting that a lack of routines maybe related to sleep disturbance and externalizing behaviors. However, to date, no known studies have thoroughly examined the relation between these variables in children with an ASD. The primary purpose of the present investigation was to examine relations among routines, sleep, and behavior in children with an ASD. Primary caregivers …

Advanced Community Empowerment Partnership In The 21st Century Technologies, James P. Lawler

Cornerstone 2 Reports : Community Outreach and Empowerment Through Service Learning and Volunteerism

No abstract provided.

Does Change In Timbre Alter Stereotypy Movements Exhibited By Three Persons With Diagnoses Of Mental Retardation And Autism Spectrum Disorder: Three Case Studies, Kathy Wade Webb

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to observe and collect data while monitoring the responses of three individuals to recorded presentations of four folk songs. The individuals, or participants, were all residents of a state-run facility in the southern region of the United States. The participants were females diagnosed with mental retardation and autism spectrum disorder, and they all exhibited one or more stereotypy behaviors in some form or another. The primary purpose of the study was to see if change in timbre of the songs would alter the stereotypy movements exhibited by these participants as the songs were presented …

Factors Of Effective Teaming Of Special Education Paraprofessionals And Special Education Teachers., Heidi Zisla

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that lead to effective teaming of special education teachers and special education paraprofessionals. These teams face many challenges in teaming effectively. Teachers and paraprofessionals were surveyed and interviewed to gather their perspectives. Communication, clear roles and expectations, demonstrating appreciation and respect emerged as some of the main factors leading to effective special education teaming.

Effects Of After School Programs On Elementary School Students' Language Arts And Mathematics Achievement, Jennifer Lynn Presnell

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated after school program participation on student academic achievement as a way of helping schools meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act. After school programs were divided into academic after school programs and traditional after school programs. Student achievement was measured through Criterion Referenced Tests in Language Arts and Mathematics. This study took place in a small urban school district located in the Intermountain West. Students in after school programs were matched with students not participating in the programs on several background characteristics including socioeconomic status, English language proficiency status, school …

Familial Predictors Of Long-Term Outcome Following Inpatient Treatment For Eating Disorders, Anna Mae Ridley

Theses and Dissertations

The present investigation examined characteristic, symptomatic, and familial predictors of long-term symptom severity of eating disorders. The purpose of the study was to determine if, after accounting for a number of known predictors of outcome, familial variables explained a significant amount of additional variance in disordered eating and general well-being scores measured at post-treatment follow-up. The sample included 398 women, ages 13 to 56, who had completed eating disorder treatment at an inpatient facility. Hierarchal multiple regression analysis demonstrated that familial predictors at admission to treatment did significantly predict long-term outcomes, while changes from admission to treatment in symptoms and …

Students' Perceptions And Experiences Of Secondary Public School Safety, Suzanne E. Jacobson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to generate in-depth understanding and descriptions of secondary students' experiences of safety in the public schools. Quantitative research has demonstrated that students self-report feeling unsafe in school (Utah State University: Center for the School of the Future, 2006). School violence is decreasing, yet many school districts have sponsored and implemented heightened security measures. It seems a contradiction, but amidst heightened security secondary public school students self-report feeling unsafe in school. This study investigated this phenomenon to provide rich and detailed data, utilizing a grounded theory approach to qualitative research and design. The perceptions and …

Understanding Acculturation Patterns Of Burmese Refugee Children In Utah Public Schools, Stacie Jai Fraire

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the experience of 21 Burmese refugee adolescents as they acculturated into public schools in Salt Lake City, Utah. Unstructured, open-ended interviews were conducted to elicit information on the students' perception of the U.S. educational system, as well as their feelings about acculturation. The interviews were conducted with the aid of a Burmese/Karen translator and were transcribed and analyzed utilizing a grounded theory approach. The findings detail the acculturation process of the Burmese refugee students, the positive effect motivation has on the pace of acculturation, the impact of unfamiliar technology and language-based misunderstandings on the students' educational …

Teacher Perspectives On Behaviors Exhibited By Students At Risk For Ebd And The Implications Of These Behaviors For The Development Of An Ebd Screener In Middle And Junior High Schools, Brittany Linn Schilling

Theses and Dissertations

Universal screening is an emerging practice in the field of education to provide at-risk students with early intervention services. Currently there is not a universal screener specifically designed for the middle school population. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to obtain junior high and middle school teachers' perspectives on behaviors exhibited by students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders in order to develop preliminary test items. Several themes were identified from the teachers' perspectives. Teacher perspectives noted that at-risk students displayed a variety of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. These issues included difficulty maintaining peer and teacher relationships, difficulty …

Creating An Expected Profile For Affinity 2.5 From A Sample Of Non-Pedophilic, Exclusively Heterosexual, College Age Males, R. D. C. Boardman

Theses and Dissertations

The Affinity 2.0 has been recently upgraded to the Affinity 2.5. Both instruments purport to measure sexual interest using viewing time as a form of measurement using non-pornographic images of people of varying ages and genders. The Affinity 2.5 increased the number of slides by 42.9%. This increase may have impacted the expected Chi square weights established for the Affinity 2.0 for non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual males. The purpose of this study was to create new expected Chi square weights for the Affinity 2.5 for non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual males. Additionally, this study re-examined the temporal stability of the Affinity 2.0 using …

Receiver Operating Characteristic (Roc) Curve Analysis Of Affinity Profiles, Benjamin C. Caswell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tests the relative efficiency of Fischer's approach of Chi-square on Affinity viewing time profiles to the more commonly used deviance differential approach. Through his use of a Chi-square approach, Fischer has attempted to make a norm-referenced, comparison of ipsative scores generated using Affinity. His goal has been to create an ethically acceptable approach to identifying sexual interest without losing the efficiency generated through the use of the commonly used deviance differential. A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve is used to generate the efficiency of each approach and provide results for comparison. These results lead to a discussion of …

Spanish-Speaking Parents' Perceptions Of School-Based Crisis Response., Brenda Dean

Theses and Dissertations

American schools are becoming increasingly diverse. With the increasing diversity in school enrollment, professionals are faced with the challenge of providing culturally sensitive services in all areas, including crisis intervention planning. Additionally, language differences also affect help-seeking behaviors and may serve as a strong barrier to effective service delivery. Taking into account individual school and district demographics, schools must consider strategies to best meet the needs of students and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. As a starting point, this thesis provides an overview of the literature on school crisis response. Current demographics in U.S. public schools, the perceptions …

Confronting Bullying: Searching For Strategies In Children's Literature, Emily Ellen Moulton

Theses and Dissertations

Literature is a great resource for teaching valuable principles to children, including how to cope with bullying. However, no analyses exist regarding the appropriateness of these books. Children's books were identified as potential stories for bibliotherapy with elementary school children who face bullying. Information presented in selected books was compared to the current research literature on bullying. Each book's content was analyzed according to important variables, including the type of bullying behavior, gender of the perpetrator and target, presence of bystanders, adult involvement, and resolution of the problem. Verbal bullying was most commonly observed, followed closely by physical bullying. The …

Mentors Increasing Special Education Retention, Michael J. Humphrey, Evelyn S. Johnson, Keith W. Allred, Jack J. Hourcade

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lack of effective professional mentoring and minimal ongoing support programs have been suggested as two primary contributors to the chronic shortages of special education teachers. Few programs have been designed to address these specific causes. In this article we describe TATERS, a partnership between a university special educator preparation program, a state Department of Education, and district level administrations designed to (a) develop effective mentoring systems, and (b) strengthen training and recruitment of preservice and new special education teachers, especially in rural areas.

Preface To The 18th Annual Asha-Nih Research Symposium: Neurobiological Determinants Of Communication Development, Steven M. Barlow, Jordan R. Green

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Neurobiological studies of the mammalian brain in health and disease have contributed greatly towards an improved understanding of the maturation-dependent vulnerability of the late preterm brain, the plasticity of the immature nervous system, and the evolution of specialized mechanisms for a communication or ‘language-ready’ neural substrate. Advances in developmental neurobiology have important implications for speech-language pathologists and audiologists working with neonates who, by virtue of their prematurity, are at risk for developmental disabilities. The extra-uterine environment during this critical period (24–40 weeks gestation) in brain development has a profound and long lasting impact on the premature infant. Prior barriers to …

Cultural Responsiveness In The Special Education/Esl Department: Faculty Perceptions At Brigham Young University, Temma Jo Devereaux

Theses and Dissertations

Faculty members from Brigham Young University's special education/ESL program participated in professional development centered on increasing multicultural competence. The primary investigator interviewed faculty members regarding their perceptions of professional development. After conducting the interviews, faculty members' feedback was coded to determine whether or not the professional development aided them in infusing more culturally sensitive practices into the curriculum and created a more sensitive learning environment for students from diverse backgrounds. Researchers also coded the faculty members' feedback to determine if faculty members felt they have changed at an individual/personal level in terms of how they view their own cultural background …

Videostories: Using Technology To Give Voice To Adolescents With Disabilities: Mid-Project Status Report, Leslie Soodak, Ph.D.

Cornerstone 2 Reports : Community Outreach and Empowerment Through Service Learning and Volunteerism

No abstract provided.

Defining Spoken Language Benchmarks And Selecting Measures Of Expressive Language Development For Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Helen Tager-Flusberg, Sally Rogers, Judith Cooper, Rebecca Landa, Catherine Lord, Rhea Paul, Mabel Rice, Carol Stoel-Gammon, Amy Wetherby, Paul Yoder

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Purpose: The aims of this article are twofold: (a) to offer a set of recommended measures that can be used for evaluating the efficacy of interventions that target spoken language acquisition as part of treatment research studies or for use in applied settings and (b) to propose and define a common terminology for describing levels of spoken language ability in the expressive modality and to set benchmarks for determining a child's language level in order to establish a framework for comparing outcomes across intervention studies.
Method: The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders assembled a group of researchers …

Technical Adequacy Of Curriculum-Based Measures Of Vocabulary Growth For Preschool English Language Learners, Kathleen M. Vantol

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to design and establish the technical adequacy of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) of vocabulary acquisition for use with preschool children. This study sought to establish the technical adequacy of two tools that can be used for measuring benchmarks of vocabulary acquisition for both native English speakers and for English language learners (ELLs) who are native Spanish speakers. In order to address the instructional needs for students who are Spanish speakers, a Spanish version of the CBM expressive language measure was created.

In this study, CBMs of expressive and receptive vocabulary were developed based upon the …

Statistical Frequency In Perception Affects Children’S Lexical Production, Peter T. Richtsmeier, Louann Gerken, Lisa Goffman, Tiffany Hogan

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Children’s early word production is influenced by the statistical frequency of speech sounds and combinations. Three experiments asked whether this production effect can be explained by a perceptual learning mechanism that is sensitive to word-token frequency and/or variability. Four-year-olds were exposed to nonwords that were either frequent (presented 10 times) or in¬frequent (presented once). When the frequent nonwords were spoken by the same talker, children showed no significant effect of perceptual frequency on production. When the frequent nonwords were spoken by different talkers, children produced them with fewer errors and shorter latencies. The results implicate token variability in perceptual learning.

A Case Study Of Jemicy School To Determine Practices Conducive To Developing Creative Potential Of Dyslexic Children., Brenda Sue Graves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 15% to 20% of Americans struggle with learning disabilities. The National Institutes of Health reported that 60% to 80% of those with learning disabilities have problems with reading and language skills (as cited in International Dyslexia Association, 2000). Dyslexia is a specific learning disability and according to Moats (2008), it is more common than any other kind of learning disability. Dyslexia varies in degrees of severity. About 4% of those diagnosed with dyslexia are severely dyslexic. This includes some 375,000 school children (Dyslexia Action, 2006). Although dyslexia certainly causes difficulties for children, many of them are bright and capable. …

A Study Of Selected Teachers' Methods To Improve Parental Involvement In Education, Michael Sandberg

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to explore teaching methods of selected teachers that help to improve parental involvement in education at a middle school in South Jersey. The study also investigated demographic factors such as gender, subject taught, subject or discipline taught, and years of teaching experience. Data on the attitudes were collected by means of a survey using 14 Likert-type items using a 4 point scale and 4 open-ended questions. Research and this study show that a variety of teacher's methods could improve the communication and involvement of parents in the educational process.

The Use Of Item Response Theory In Developing A Phonics Diagnostic Inventory, Cynthia A. Pirani-Mcgurl

Open Access Dissertations

This study was conducted to investigate the reliability of the Phonics Diagnostic Inventory (PDI), a curriculum-based, specific skill mastery measurement tool for diagnosing and informing the treatment of decoding weaknesses. First, a modified one-parameter item response theory model was employed to identify the properties of potential items for inclusion in each subtest to then inform the construction of subtests using the most reliable items. Second, the properties of each subtest were estimated and examined. The test information and test characteristic curves (TCC) for the newly developed forms are reported. Finally, the accuracy and sensitivity of PDI cut scores for each …

Teaching Emergent Literacy Skills To Students With Autism, Linda Laz

Early and Special Education Graduate Projects and Theses

The acquisition of functional reading skills is a critical educational outcome for all students, as these skills enhance the likelihood of both subsequent academic achievement as well as post-school success and maximal independence in adulthood. While some students with more severe manifestations of autism and intellectual impairment may not be able to attain the highest levels of academic literacy (the ability to understand and use sophisticated written academic material), functional literacy is an appropriate goal for all, as it facilitates student ability to independently and productively live, work, and engage in their community. It is important that teachers teach the …

The Effects Of Quality And Magnitude Of Reinforcement On Choice Responding, Jessica Erin Frieder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study investigated the effects of a concurrent schedules arrangement, in which three dimensions of reinforcement (duration, attention, and stimuli) were manipulated, on choice responding, appropriate behavior, and problem behavior for three participants with disabilities who had escape-maintained problem behavior. Three experiments were conducted in which participants could choose between work, break, or problem behavior. In the first experiment, the choice analysis, three reinforcement dimensions were varied simultaneously for choice responses. In the second experiment, the component choice analysis, reinforcement dimensions were evaluated in isolation. In the third experiment, the effort analysis, increasing task demand requirements and how they …

The Effects Of Fluency Training On Implementation Fidelity Of A Reading Intervention Conducted By Paraprofessionals, Breda Victoria O'Keeffe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Improving educational outcomes involves many variables, including identifying effective interventions and ensuring that they are effectively implemented in schools. Within a "response to intervention" model, treatment integrity of academic interventions has become increasingly important. However, recent research has suggested that ensuring treatment integrity by instructional staff may require intensive coaching, including daily or weekly performance feedback. This system may be unsustainable in typical schools because of limited resources for supervision. Some studies have found that treatment integrity can be achieved with intense prior training that includes extensive practice followed by feedback in the training setting. Fluency-based instruction has the advantage …