Special Education and Teaching Commons^™

Provide Visual Structure For Students With Asd, Tina Taylor

Faculty Publications

World renowned animal scientist and autism self-advocate Temple Grandin said, "People on the autism/Asperger spectrum have uneven skills. They are often good at one type of learning and bad at another. Educators need to work on building up the area of strength." She explains that three cognitive areas of strength are those who are visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, and word thinkers. Visual thinkers are more inclined to think in pictures rather than words. They may excel in graphic design, industrial design, animation, geometry, or trigonometry. Pattern thinkers have abstract visual thoughts where they can see patterns and relationships between numbers. …

Online Reading Comprehension Among Seventh Grade Students With High Incidence Disabilities In Inclusive Settings: A Mixed Methods Study, Katherine Robbins

All Dissertations

Because research exploring how students with disabilities read and comprehend on the Internet is scarce, a mixed methods study was implemented to determine if Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT) is an effective intervention for improving online reading comprehension among seventh grade students with high-incidence disabilities in inclusive settings. Differences between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers were also explored.
The intervention included a twenty week (40 lessons) instructional program delivered in three phases in seventh grade English/Language Arts classes from three middle schools in eastern region of the United States. Pre and post intervention data was collected on the Online …

Evaluating And Improving The Quality Of Teacher’S Language Modeling In Early Childhood Classrooms, Lillian White Englund

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The relationship between pre-school teachers and the children in their classrooms directly influences the degree of success the children experience in school and in life. The emphasis on quality pre-K education in the U.S. has resulted in an increased need for highly qualified teachers who are capable of engaging in meaningful interactions with young children. An important component of high-level teacher-child interactions is the teacher's ability to model language for children as they acquire vocabulary and language context.

This mixed-methods study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a professional development intervention designed to improve the quality of language modeling …

Orientation And Mobility, Reading, And Math: Analysis Of Data For Children With Visual Impairments From The Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study, Dawn L. Anderson

Dissertations

This dissertation research comprised three studies focused on vision-specific skills, and their association with functional and academic outcomes for school-age students with visual impairment. The studies involved analysis of secondary data for 850 students with visual impairment who participated in the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS). Data in the SEELS were gathered using direct assessment and parent and teacher responses for a nationally representative sample of elementary and middle school students.

The first study used Chi Square analysis to determine if participation in Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training, or if the time when O&M instruction was received, was associated …

The Effects Of Teaching Prefix Meaning And A Strategy To Derive Word Meaning On A Prefix Vocabulary Test And Sentence Comprehension Test For Middle School Students With Learning Disabilities, Shannon K. Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Previous researchers have concluded that there is a need for determining how vocabulary instruction effects vocabulary comprehension and reading comprehension for young learners. Researchers have implemented morphemic strategies in various studies to identify effective methods for vocabulary instruction. In the present study, four prefixes were taught to students with disabilities to extend vocabulary research by using a morphological approach with a focus on prefix instruction. In addition students were taught how to combine the meaning of a prefix to the meaning of a root word. Data patterns indicate an increase in students' ability to provide definitions for prefixed words while …

Mother-Child Attachment And Preschool Behavior Problems In Children With Developmental Delays, Mary S. Lamont

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Secure mother-child attachment has been found to be an important factor in the healthy emotional development of children and has been shown to have effects on child, adolescent, and adult behavior. Previous research has primarily focused on attachment in children who are typically developing. However, little research has been conducted in populations of children with developmental delays. The research thus far has suggested that medical situations, child disabilities and maternal emotions may affect interaction patterns between the mother and the child which may in turn influence the security of the mother-child attachment in children with developmental delays. This study contributes …

A Qualitative Study Of Coping In Mothers Of Children With An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Heather Miller Kuhaneck, Tajhma Burroughs, Jamie Wright, Theresa Lemanczyk, Amy Rowntree Darragh

Occupational Therapy Faculty Publications

A significant body of research exists that explores the stressors of raising a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There are fewer studies, however, that examine specific effective coping strategies of mothers of children with an ASD. This qualitative study explored mothers’ perceptions of effective coping strategies for their parenting stressors. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 mothers to inquire about their personal coping methods. Interviews were coded and emergent themes identified which included coping strategies such as “me time,” “planning,” “knowledge is power,” “sharing the load,” “lifting the restraints of labels,” and “recognizing the joys.” The information from …

The Effects That A Cognitive Behavior Modification Intervention Can Have On A Child With Behavioral Disabilities, Kelly Courtney

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a focus on the effects that a cognitive behavior modification intervention can have on a child with behavior disabilities. Children with conduct disorder(s) frequently engage in aggressive and disruptive behaviors and often show and express their emotions in many different ways. Often these behaviors are controlled or managed through behavioral interventions. CBM aims to teach individuals to monitor their own behavior, pace or performance and to appropriately dispense self-reinforcement. A cognitive behavior modification program was implemented with one student. Through modeling, observation and then imitation, the child developed new behaviors. This intervention represents a viable alternative for …

Ua10/1 Cec: Clinical Exchange Corner, Wku Suzanne Vitale Clinical Education Complex, Laura Reynolds

CEC Publications

No abstract provided.

Teacher Perceptions Of Disproportionality Of Minorities In Special Education, Kristy Henry Park

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The intent of this study was to determine if special education teachers had certain perceptions regarding the disproportionate amount of minorities in special education classes. I examined special education teachers' awareness of the disproportionality, their causal theories, and the effectiveness of Response to Intervention (RTI) to regulate disproportionality. I implemented three different data collection methods to measure the teachers' perceptions: an initial face-to-face interview session, a written survey, and additional interview questioning. Participants in the study included 11 special education teachers from three middle schools in Northern Georgia. Ten of the 11 teachers admitted awareness of the problem of disproportionality, …

Diverse Learners And Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Approach, Genevieve Harris

2010 Projects

This project examines the PK-12 school system in the United States to see how and why the achievement gap between white, middle-class students and students of diverse background occurs. Based on other compiled research, it is generally understood that the cultural background of students and teachers is growing farther and farther apart. It is commonly observed in communities of color/poverty that there is usually a higher dropout rate and level of disengagement between the student and their education. This examination, in part, looks into whether or not teacher education programs are meeting the standards of modern college students and addresses …

The Predictive Relationship Between Temperament, School Adjustment, And Academic Achievement: A 2-Year Longitudinal Study Of Children At-Risk, Maha Al-Hendawi

Theses and Dissertations

Individual differences in temperament can be a risk or a protective factor for a child, especially for children at-risk who possess single or multiple risk factors that may interfere with their educational success and affect their healthy development and their life-long outcomes. This research study examined the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between temperament, school adjustment, and academic achievement in children at-risk. Seventy-seven children, ages five to 11 years, were reassessed two years after an initial study. Their teachers completed the Temperament Assessment Battery for Children (TABC), the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC), and reported on the children's academic achievement. …

The Group Selection Questionnaire: Discriminant Outcomes And Effectiveness, Jeffrey Lee Elder

Theses and Dissertations

The Group Selection Questionnaire (GSQ; Cox et al., 2004) is a measure that has been developed to facilitate clinical decisions about a client's readiness for group psychotherapy. The GSQ has demonstrated an ability to predict which clients will experience a reduction in distress through the use of group psychotherapy. This dissertation examines the Group Selection Questionnaire's ability to measure client characteristics that predict the client's ability to benefit from receiving group psychotherapy compared to the ability to benefit from receiving another form of treatment, such as individual or a combination of individual and group psychotherapy, as measured by improved scores …

Effects Of Teaching Emotions To Students With High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders Through Picture Books, Jennifer M. Fletcher

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with identifying others' emotions, which impacts their ability to successfully interact in social situations. Because of the increasing number of children identified with ASD, effective techniques are needed to help children identify emotions in others. The use of technology is being researched as a way to help children with emotion identification. However, technology is not always available for teachers to use in classrooms, whereas picture books are much easier to access and have been successfully used to improve students' social skills. Picture books are naturally used in classroom, home, and therapy settings. This …

Difference In Scores Between Teacher Certification Program Students With And Without Paraprofessional Experience, Sarah Caroline Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

Demand for highly effective, qualified teachers grew as legislation such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) raised the requirements for teachers and paraprofessionals. One suggestion for meeting this demand for teachers who can bring about the required classroom outcomes is to encourage paraprofessionals to become certified teachers—with the expectation that paraprofessionals' prior experience in the school environment will make them likely to excel as teachers. This study examined whether Brigham Young University Special Education teacher candidates with paraprofessional experience differed from candidates without paraprofessional experience in terms of performance scores during a …

Functional Communication Training To Increase Communication Skills For Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Terri Collins

All Dissertations

The prevalence rates of children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continue to rise at alarming rates. Recent figures suggest that approximately 1 in 90 children have an ASD. Children with ASD have significant deficits that affect communication skills and social interaction. Children with ASD may also engage in high levels of aberrant behavior toward others or themselves such as screaming, hitting, or biting that interfere with learning. The current study examined the effects of functional communication training on young children with ASD when implemented by a paraprofessional in a special education classroom. Data were collected on the rates …

Vowel Recognition From Continuous Articulatory Movements For Speaker-Dependent Applications, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, Tom D. Carrell

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

A novel approach was developed to recognize vowels from continuous tongue and lip movements. Vowels were classified based on movement patterns (rather than on derived articulatory features, e.g., lip opening) using a machine learning approach. Recognition accuracy on a single-speaker dataset was 94.02% with a very short latency. Recognition accuracy was better for high vowels than for low vowels. This finding parallels previous empirical findings on tongue movements during vowels. The recognition algorithm was then used to drive an articulation-to-acoustics synthesizer. The synthesizer recognizes vowels from continuous input stream of tongue and lip movements and plays the corresponding sound samples …

The Perception Of Natural, Cell Phone, And Computer-Synthesized Speech During The Performance Of Simultaneous Visual-Motor Tasks, Nirmal Kumar Srinivasan

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigated the influence of top-down and bottom-up information on speech perception in complex listening environments. Specifically, the effects of listening to different types of processed speech were examined on intelligibility and on simultaneous visual-motor performance. The goal was to extend the generalizability of results in speech perception to environments outside of the laboratory. The effect of bottom-up information was evaluated with natural, cell phone and synthetic speech. The effect of simultaneous tasks was evaluated with concurrent visual-motor and memory tasks. Earlier works on the perception of speech during simultaneous visual-motor tasks have shown inconsistent results (Choi, 2004; Strayer …

Social Relationships And Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analytic Review, Timothy B. Smith, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, J. Bradley Layton

Faculty Publications

Background: The quality and quantity of individuals' social relationships has been linked not only to mental health but also to both morbidity and mortality. Objectives: This meta-analytic review was conducted to determine the extent to which social relationships influence risk for mortality, which aspects of social relationships are most highly predictive, and which factors may moderate the risk. Data Extraction: Data were extracted on several participant characteristics, including cause of mortality, initial health status, and pre-existing health conditions, as well as on study characteristics, including length of follow-up and type of assessment of social relationships. Results: Across 148 studies (308,849 …

Using Self-Regulation To Improve Academic Outcomes Of Middle School Students With Behavioral Disabilities, Sandra Niblic

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to identify and analyze the use of self-regulation techniques to improve the academic skills of language arts and mathematics for students with behavioral disabilities attending middle school. Self-regulation techniques were presented in a self-contained class during presentation of reading, writing and mathematics objectives. Students monitored their participation in class activities after signing a contract of agreement. Behaviors were monitored and assessed for preparedness for class, listening to directions, staying in assigned area and completing work assignments. Selfmanagement, self-monitoring and self-evaluation techniques were used by two subjects. Rewards were used to increase academic skills by …