Child Psychology Commons^™

Measuring Changes In Spontaneous Play Behavior In Preschoolers With Autism Associated With A Receptive Language Intervention, Jori Reijonen

Dissertations

Children diagnosed with Autistic Disorder have well documented deficits in the development of pretend play. When it occurs, spontaneous pretend play differs from play seen in other children in frequency, duration, and quality. The present study examined the effects of teaching preschoolers with Autism to follow one-part directions to play during discrete trial receptive language training sessions on spontaneous play skills.

Receptive language tasks were designed to teach simple pretend play skills (e.g., "Feed the doll with a spoon"). Spontaneous play was continuously sampled during free play sessions in the clinic and in the child's home before these receptive tasks …

Future Directions In Education And Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities: A Delphi Investigation, Joanne W. Putman, Amy N. Spiegel, Robert H. Bruininks

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

This article reports on a survey of 37 educators regarding future directions in the education of students with disabilities. The survey used the Delphi technique. For the decade of the 1990s and after the year 2000, respondents’ predictions included the following: The movement toward increasing inclusion will occur; the belief will prevail that people with disabilities have a right to participate in inclusive environments; students with mild disabilities will be educated in general classrooms; teachers will increase their use of instructional approaches such as cooperative learning and instructional technology; and researchers will focus on matching instructional needs with learner characteristics.

The Identification Of Individuals With Disabilities In National Databases: Creating A Failure To Communicate, Kevin S. Mcgrew, Bob Algozzine, James E. Ysseldyke, Martha L. Thurlow, Amy N. Spiegel

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to analyze similarities and differences in how students with disabilities are identified in national databases. National data collection programs in the United States Departments of Education, Commerce, Labor, Justice, and Health and Human Services, as well as databases from the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Education, and the College Board, were examined. Nineteen national data collection programs were selected as being potentially useful in the extraction of policy-relevant information on the educational status and performance of students with disabilities. Among these 19 programs there was significant variability in the disability categories used. …

Community Adjustment Of Young Adults With Mental Retardation: Overcoming Barriers To Inclusion, Richard F. Ittenbach, Brian H. Abery, Sheryl A. Larson, Amy N. Spiegel, Robert W. Prouty

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Movement of persons with mental retardation out of institutions and into community settings is occurring at an ever-increasing pace (Amado, Lakin, & Menke, 1990). State and federal laws have legitimized the basic rights of persons with mental retardation to live, work, and participate in typical community settings. Yet, physical integration is not synonymous with full community inclusion. Numerous barriers remain that serve as obstacles to successful assimilation into community life. For instance, successful social integration depends on attitudinal changes of persons without mental retardation—families, friends, service-delivery professionals, and the general public—toward persons with mental retardation. The way young adults with …

An Investigation Of The Exclusion Of Students With Disabilities In National Data Collection Programs, Kevin S. Mcgrew, Martha L. Thurlow, Amy N. Spiegel

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

This investigation examined the extent to which students with disabilities are involved in a select sample of national data collection programs that are playing a pivotal role in the measurement-driven educational reform movement. Nine data collection programs that are receiving significant attention in current educational reform initiatives were reviewed. The results suggest that approxi-mately 40% to 50% of school-age students with disabilities are excluded from some of the most prom-inent national educational data collection programs. In contrast, students with disabilities are included to a greater degree in noneducational data collection programs that do not require partici-pation in direct assessment activities. …

Community Adjustment Of Young Adults With Mental Retardation: A Developmental Perspective, Richard F. Ittenbach, Sheryl A. Larson, Amy N. Spiegel, Brian H. Abery, Robert W. Prouty

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

The community adjustment of young adults with mental retardation remains a crucial issue for all human service providers. No longer does adjustment imply simply the physical integration of persons with disabilities into community settings. Rather, it refers to the adjustment and integration of the whole person into community life. Whether one describes community adjustment as a process, an outcome, a philosophy, or a multidimensional concept (Bachrach, 1981), community adjustment has become synonymous with the term quality-of-life, a quality that depends in large part on one’s happiness and success in socially sanctioned, age-appropriate tasks.

The Relationship Between Cognitive Maturity And Information About Health Problems Among School Age Children, Lisa D. Lieberman, Noreeen Clark, Karen V. Krone, Mario Orlandi, Ernst L. Wynder

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

This study of urban, multi-ethnic children was undertaken to explore the relationships between age, cognitive developmental capability (termed ‘cognitive maturity’) and accuracy of information about health problems. A total of 299 children in the first, second and third grades from six public and one private school hi New York City were individually interviewed using an open-ended set of questions. Findings indicated that having accurate health information is not the same as comprehending the abstract internal nature of the ‘facts’. Results supported Piaget's levels of cognitive development applied to the area of health. Findings also showed that age is a better …

Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of Early Childhood Ability Measures Within A Model Of Personal Competence, Richard F. Ittenbach, Amy N. Spiegel, Kevin S. Mcgrew, Robert H. Bruininks

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study tested Greenspan’s model of personal competence with data obtained from the Early Screening Profiles, a nationally standardized preschool screening battery designed to measure the general functioning level of children 2–7 years of age. Of the five models tested (three a priori and two a posteriori), three models produced results indicative of a good fit. These findings support the use of Greenspan’s model of personal competence as a framework for understanding the nature of developing abilities in young children as well as for the improvement of classification and diag-nosis of children with special needs.

The Early Motor Profile: Correlation With The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test Of Motor Efficiency1, Amy N. Spiegel, Kathleen M. Steffens, John E. Ryders, Robert H. Bruininks

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

A correlational study of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency and the Early Motor Pro-file with 109 kindergarten children showed a significant relation between these two measures of mo-tor abilities. These results support use of the latter profile as a measure of motor development in preschool age children.

Cultural Characteristics Of Learning And Perceptual Skills Of Southeast Alaskan Native 5-Year-Olds, Thomas J. Turkon

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the use of cognitive skills by 5-year-old Alaskan Native children on a standardized testing instrument. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence (WPPSI) were administered to 23 boys and 17 girls of predominantly Tlingit, Tsimshean, and Haida ancestry. A standardized parent interview was used to collect bio-demographic data. Mean scores for the sample displayed significant differences between the Performance and Verbal scales, with the strongest performance in the Spatial subtests, and lowest in the Sequential subtests. Scores were significantly associated with variables representing culture-specific self identity and behavior, but were most strongly associated with family size. …

Normative Data On The Auditory Memory Performance Of Three- And Four-Year Old Children As Measured By The Auditory Memory Test Package (Amtp), Patricia R. Davis

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to collect normative data on the auditory memory performance of three- and four-year old children as measured by the Auditory Memory Test Package (AMTP). Specifically, this investigation sought to answer one question: is the AMTP sensitive to age differences when administered to young children ages 3.0-4.11?

Affective Perspective-Taking And Sympathy In Young Children, Mary Driver Leinbach

Dissertations and Theses

The present study focused upon both behavioral and cognitive aspects of sympathetic responses in preschool children. Subjects, 36 boys and girls aged 33-75 months, were seen at their regular day care center. An attempt was made to promote comforting behavior through the use of a peer model both alone and accompanied by an adult's inductive statement regarding the consequences of a sympathetic response; a six year-old girl served as the sympathetic model and as an apparently injured victim in need of comforting. In addition, age- and sex-related relationships for the measures of social cognition, affective perspective-taking and knowledge of strategies …

Discrimination Of Bidimensional Stimuli By Autistic Children, Kathryn A. Brock

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Four autistic and four normal children were trained to respond on a series of four bidimensional complex-component discrimination tasks where the complex stimuli were comprised of auditory and visual components. The results indicated a transfer of learning effect for the autistic group. The increment in performance was such that the autistic group’s performance did not significantly differ from the normal group on the last task. These results were seen as encouraging evidence that the apparent phenomenon of stimulus overselectivity, as described in previous research, is not an enduring characteristic of autistic children. It was suggested that further research is needed …

An Investigation Of Three Aspects Of Cognitive Style In Young Children, Briar D. Gaudun

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the developmental concept of the process of differentiation as reflected in cognitive style with three and seven year old male and female Ss. The ideas underlying this study stemmed from the Witkin concept of an analytical versus a global cognitive style. The design, however, differed considerably from the studies of Witkin, Dyk, Faterson, Goodenough, and Karp (1962) by incorporating three aspects of psychological functioning which theoretically should be highly related, although they have never been investigated simultaneously. The three aspects of psychological functioning were perceptual articulation as measured by the Preschool …