Special Education and Teaching Commons^™

Cognitive Assessment Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students:Evidence For Current Practices, Aaron Pomeranz, Hannah Luken

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

Evidence from placement data show that culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students are over-identified for learning and intellectual disabilities (Donovan & Cross, 2002). Cognitive assessments play a central role in correctly identifying CLD students for special education services. This study reviewed the literature to determine support for three methods of cognitive assessment with CLD students. Search results revealed that although there was considerable research supporting the use of the Cultural-Linguistic Interpretive Matrix (C-LIM) and Nonverbal Assessment, there was also much research disputing their use. Much of the support the C-LIM and Dual Language Assessment was not from peer reviewed research. …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Video Instruction On Teaching Daily Living Skills To Adolescents And Young Adults With Intellectual Disability, Annemarie L. Horn

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Independently performing essential daily living skills enables individuals to become more self-sufficient adults. Those with intellectual disability (ID) tend to require direct instruction and repetition to successfully aquire everyday tasks. Many adults with ID continue to show deficits in this domain, affecting independent living abilities (Luftig & Muthert, 2005). Video-based instruction holds promise in increasing autonomous functioning while decreasing reliance on staff. This review of the literature examines the effectiveness of using video instruction (VI) to teach daily living skills to adolescents and young adults with ID. Acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of target skills are examined across the literature. A …

Ua10/1 Cec Newsletter, Wku Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about the WKU Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex.

Effectiveness Of Autism Education In Accredited Dental Hygiene Programs, Stephanie M. Riehn

Dissertations

The increase in the prevalence of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased dramatically over the last few decades, causing an increase in the exposure of dental professionals to patients with the disorder in a clinical setting.

The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of the licensed dental hygienists’ professional attitude towards treating a patient with ASD, and the level of accommodations provided to patients with ASD during a routine dental visit, based on the amount of knowledge provided about the disorder during an accredited dental hygiene program. Survey data were collected from 78 registered …

Parent Implemented Adapted Dialogic Reading With Preschoolers With Autism, Mckenzie Ward

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study examined the role of a novel, adapted dialogic reading curriculum and its impact on preschoolers with autism and their interactions with their parents during shared book reading. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the curriculum on the effects of child social reciprocity and parents’ feelings of competence and confidence when trained on implementation strategies. Pre- and post-test measures were conducted for four parent-child dyads to measure the impact of adapted dialogic reading on child social reciprocity and parents’ feelings of competence and confidence. Although the sample size was small, clear trends were …

The Influence Of Multimedia Podcast-Aided Video-Analysis To Transfer Evidence-Based Practices And Alter Novice Special Education Teachers’ Schema Development, Jason Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

The Federal mandates established under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) requires special education teachers to use evidence-based practices to support diverse student needs. With this legislation came an increase in research to identify practices that are effective with this population. While this work has identified a number of evidence-based practices, there is little evidence showing these practices are transferred to the classroom. Researchers and educators have long sought to understand how to reduce the gap between research findings and teacher practice. For special education, the federal mandate further emphasizes this need and puts closing the gap between research …

Effectiveness Of A Blended Learning Social Skills Intervention On High School Students Identified As At-Risk For Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Lauren Renee Tidmore

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the social, emotional, and behavioral impact of a nine-week blended learning social skills intervention for high school students identified as having, or at-risk for, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Exploring how social skills interventions improve students’ social, emotional, and behavioral deficits can aid in the development of a curriculum that combines social and academic skills in new and innovative ways. This quantitative study utilized a pretest—posttest method. High school students identified as having, or at risk for, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and their special educators were invited to complete the researcher-designed social skills …

A Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interface For Real-Time Speech Synthesis: The Importance Of Multimodal Feedback, Jonathan S. Brumberg, Kevin M. Pitt, Jeremy D. Burnison

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

We conducted a study of a motor imagery brain-computer interface (BCI) using electroencephalography (EEG) to continuously control a formant frequency speech synthesizer with instantaneous auditory and visual feedback. Over a three-session training period, sixteen participants learned to control the BCI for production of three vowel sounds (/ℹ/[heed], /ɐ/[hot], and/u/[who’d]) and were split into three groups: those receiving unimodal auditory feedback of synthesized speech, those receiving unimodal visual feedback of formant frequencies, and those receiving multimodal, audio-visual feedback. Audio feedback was provided by a formant frequency artificial speech synthesizer and visual feedback was given as a two-dimensional cursor on a graphical …

Eds 743 Behavioral Assessment, Management, And Change, Danielle Magaldi

Open Educational Resources

The study of theories and techniques for managing the behavior of students with disabilities and for promoting development of positive social interaction skills. Specific applications of a variety of techniques for behavior management across home, school, and community settings with an emphasis on collaboration.

Application Of Response-To-Intervention In A Pre-Kindergarten Special Education Classroom, Justin J. Daigle

Dissertations

Lovaas (1987) applied behavior analysis to the treatment of autism and demonstrated a 47% “recovery” rate. He also reported that around 10% of the population that received his services made little-to-no improvement. The present study used a response-to-intervention framework to systematically identify and treat students in an early childhood, special-education classroom who were in danger of falling within that 10%. This study set out to identify, classify, and differentiate the treatment based on the student’s response to the standard classroom intervention. Improvements in multiple students’ rates of acquisition based on this system were recorded. This indicated a possibility of improved …

Linguistic Interactions Of Spanish Speaking Mexican American Families, Adelfio J. Garcia

Dissertations

This study explored the bilingual linguistic interactions in Mexican families and their impact on children’s language and literacy development. This qualitative study gathered data using different methods, namely, interviews, direct observations, participant observation, and physical artifacts to examine parents’ perceptions of their own educational path in comparison to their children’s educational path in an American school system, together with their daily linguistic interactions in various social contexts, and the features, themes and roles of linguistic interactions participants. Study results assisted in gaining deeper understanding of daily conversations happening in different social contexts and their impact on the language and literacy …

Effective Reading Strategies For Increasing The Reading Comprehension Level Of Third-Grade Students With Learning Disabilities, Nouf Rashdan Almutairi

Dissertations

This qualitative study identified the common reading problems that negatively impact reading comprehension of third graders with learning disabilities. It also investigated the effective reading strategies that special education teachers have utilized to improve reading comprehension levels of the students in resource room settings. For the purpose of this study, “effective reading comprehension strategies” are defined as any strategies that have been found by the special education teachers as beneficial for improving reading comprehension levels of third graders with learning disabilities in the resource room setting. Importantly, a particular reading comprehension strategy could be beneficial based on these teachers’ experiences …

Parents And Educators Of A Special School: Their Perspectives On Inclusive Education For People With Down Syndrome In Navi Mumbai, India, Jennifer Peterson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The topic of this study is centered on students with intellectual disabilities; in particular, its focus is on those individuals who have Down syndrome. One of the primary debates revolving around the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities is whether or not they should be educated in separate, special schools. According to the current academic consensus, and the government of India’s new policies, inclusion within mainstream schools is the most beneficial practice for students with Down syndrome to grow socially and academically; however, the perspectives of parents and staff is often left out of the equation when determining the impact …

The Relationship Between Perceived Sense Of Community And Self-Efficacy In Special Education Teachers: A Quantitative Correlational Study, Laura Sinkonis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Teacher attrition is a worldwide problem. Teachers leave education for reasons other than retirement, and many retire before the generally accepted retirement age of 65. Further, special education teachers are at an even higher risk of premature exit than their general education counterparts. Self-efficacy is related to teacher burnout and other reasons for leaving the profession. One missing piece in the literature is role of sense of community in special education on teachers’ self-efficacy. The purpose of this correlational study is to investigate possible predictive relationships between sense of community and self-efficacy in special education teachers. Further, relationships between group …

Teacher-Scholars As Classroom Leaders: The Power Of Inquiry, Gail Cahill, Beverley Evans, Barbara Govendo, Linda Lengyel

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

The graduate special education programs affirm the competence of every individual, equal access to quality education, and social justice as the critical tenets of the program’s inclusive philosophy (Beliefs, Special Education Division, 2015). How do we prepare teachers to be leaders of their classrooms, providing a quality education for all? There are many “strategies” available to special education teachers; inquiry provides educators a means to enrich their teaching by collecting practice-based evidence of the efficacy of their instruction.

The design and implementation of an inquiry project based on classroom practices is a requirement in educator licensure graduate programs. The purpose …

Leading From The In-Between: Disability, Leadership, And Identity, Xochitl Mendez

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

The daily lives of individuals challenged with physical disabilities shed light on the intersections, as well as the friction, between the identities we forge as individuals, and the social identities of the public space. In this interdisciplinary presentation, I will explore the fault lines between the social concepts of disability and the personal realities and specifics of biology and adaptation.

Exploring my own experiences with disability, pedagogy, and art, I will further delve on how the social realm (Arendt, 1958) evaluates and judges identity from expected modes of interaction that are often not available to the disabled person. Further, using …

Bringing Dis/Ability Identity Into The Curriculum & Pedagogical Practices For Social Change, Janet Sauer, Simone Dupont, Molly Wolber, Lizzy Bellin, Cassidy Donahue

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

This panel is comprised of a faculty member, students, and alumni from CLAS whose work focuses on bringing about equity that includes dis/ability identity markers. Each of the students were or currently are enrolled in an interdisciplinary Disability Studies course involving a social action project. For their project, two Special Education majors responded to the need for ual education curriculum for youth with disabilities. A counseling major produced a photo essay “to get able bodied people to see things from a different perspective, specifically the perspective of people with disabilities” by creating “normal body” access signage around the Lesley community. …

Metacognition At The Program For The Advancement Of Learning, Philip Hulbig

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

This is a pilot study of metacognition, and how it is defined and utilized by practitioners at Curry College's Program for the Advancement of Learning (PAL) in Milton, Massachusetts. Presently there are several distinct approaches to metacognitive practice in education, pulling from different traditions. Examples are Self Regulated Learning Theory (Bandura, 1997, Zimmerman & Schunk, 2001), which focuses on behavioral problem-solving strategies and their uses, psycho-dynamic developmental approaches (Kegan, 1996), the self-talk approaches of Mindset Theory (Dweck, 2008), dialectic approaches (Montgomery & Baxter 1998) of philosophical traditions (Popper, 1945), and contemplative mindfulness approaches (Gautam, 1999). Educationally these approaches to metacognition …

Effectiveness Of Special Education Teacher Preparation Programs To Teach Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders (Asd) In A Medium Southeastern Maryland School District, Donnie Renee Johnson

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

One strategy for improving teacher preparation programs for teaching Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is to enhance the coursework offered at colleges and universities at the undergraduate level. The goal is to better equip college programs to provide effective and substantial preparation for teacher candidate to effectively instruction ASD students. Programs offered by colleges and universities to prepare new special education teachers with the appropriate skills is multi-faceted. First, a clearly defined curriculum or coursework design is required. Secondly, an extended student teaching schedule is needed for an authentic and practical application experience. Finally, offering a monetary incentive for special educators …

Transitions To Preschool Special Education: The Relationship Of Child, Family, And Early Intervention Characteristics, Tara B. Delach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and certain medical conditions are at risk for a variety of adverse outcomes in childhood as well as into adulthood. Early identification and early intervention are essential for improving the trajectories and outcomes of these children. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that affords protections to children with disabilities and those at risk for developmental delays. IDEA provides guidance and regulations to early intervention programs, schools, and states for identifying and delivering intervention services to children ages birth through 21 years. Although the provision of early intervention services are …