Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Paraprofessionals In A Special Education Setting: A Qualitative Exploration Of Their Perceptions, Chana S. Max, Keisha Mccoy-Dailey

The Qualitative Report

Paraprofessionals support teachers and students in the classroom. Their roles and responsibilities vary; however, their goal is always to improve student achievement. The purpose of the study was to fill a gap in the literature related to special education paraprofessionals’ perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs on the support and trainings they receive prior to and during their job as a paraprofessional for students in a special education setting. Generic qualitative methodology was used to capture the thoughts, experience, and perceptions of 42 paraprofessionals across the United States. Data collection included an eight-question online questionnaire. Results of the study revealed five patterns …

Parent Perceptions Of Post-Secondary Programming Completed By Their Adult Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Christopher Ramos, Katherine Wheeler, Jennifer Hamrick, Alexis Favela, Katelyn Pennington, Anthonia Prince

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Texas Tech University's Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research works with communities & families in the greater West Texas area to provide supports and services to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder with a primary focus on building independent living and vocational skills in a post-secondary environment. In this study, parents of individuals with ASD who had completed the Burkhart Center’s Transition Academy completed an online survey. Parents identified areas in which they were satisfied with their child’s post-secondary experience as well as dissatisfaction, and of additional need. The findings of this current study may provide critical information to post-secondary …

Autism, Sexuality, And Bdsm, Ariel E. Pliskin

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This paper will explore the following areas in which idiosyncratic, sensitive and intense autistic ways of being result in patterns of sexual behavior and reasons autistic people may be particularly drawn to BDSM: 1) autistic sensorimotor intensity promotes non-normative movement, including sadomasochistic, patterns of movement 2) the autistic preference for literal and concrete language matches the BDSM culture’s norms of explicit verbal consent 3) idiosyncratic autistic attention fits will with opportunities within BDSM for developing a long-term career of learning and deep engagement. 4) the double empathy problem results in marginalization of autistic people from mainstream society while BDSM communities …

Autism Assessment In The Schools: A Review Of Rating Scales And Observation Systems., Jaime Flowers, Dallin Marr, Nina Ellis-Hervey, Trudy Georgio, Jessica Cuitareo

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

School psychologists are tasked with assessing students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). While not used alone, ASD measures can help practitioners make informed decisions regarding special education eligibility. The purpose of this paper is to review the psychometric strengths and weaknesses of the following measures: Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised (ADI-R); Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2); Autism Spectrum Rating Scale (ASRS); Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Second Edition (CARS-2); and Gilliam Autism Rating Scale, Third Edition (GARS-3).

Educational Pandemic Impacts In Applied Behavior Analysis (Aba) Classrooms: Qualitative Outcomes From Board Certified Behavior Analyst (Bcba) And Registered Behavior Technicians (Rbt) Perspectives, Chana S. Josilowski-Max, Nicole Lambright

The Qualitative Report

The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented changes in how Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services are provided to students/clients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and scant literature is available from which to determine the best course of action for providing safe services during a pandemic. The research question for this study is: What is the essence of experiences of parents, teachers, and Board-Certified Behavior Analysts of students with ASD who are now receiving ABA services remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic school closures? Generic qualitative design was used to analyze the responses of nine participants who are either Board …

I, Too, Sing Neurodiversity, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

The neurodiversity community was envisioned as an inclusive and welcoming space for individuals with neurological conditions such as ADHD, autism, Tourette’s Syndrome, giftedness, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, intellectual disability, NVLD and related diagnoses. The underlying premise of neurodiversity is that people present with various neurological differences and there is value in acknowledging and accepting these differences. Despite efforts made over the past few decades, a growing number of individuals within the neurodiversity community, including people of color, have called for intersectional concepts to be more intentionally and more effectively interwoven into neurodiversity as a whole. Referencing “I, Too,” a decades-old poem …

Teaching While Autistic: Constructions Of Disability, Performativity, And Identity, Alexa Baird

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

The structure of organizational contexts and practices tends to be based on the normative assumption of the non-disabled individual as the prototypical state of being human. Therefore, schools, like many institutional sites, act to replicate the normative expectation of ableism and the atypical mind. These parameters impact not only the disabled students that operate both within these educational spaces but also the disabled adults embedded within these arenas professionally. Thus, disabled teachers act as a marginalized group that has historically been largely absent from the discourse on education and critical disability studies. This paper seeks to develop an understanding of …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Home-School Collaboration: Enhancing Learning For Children With Autism, Chana S. Josilowski

The Qualitative Report

This study aimed to explore the relationship between teachers and students’ families and address the deficiencies in the body of research regarding the performance gap between children with autism and their age-equivalent peers. The research question was: How do teachers of children with autism perceive the home-school collaboration and its impact on learning? Ten state-certified special educators with at least 3 years’ experience teaching children with autism, and experience collaborating with their students’ families participated in face-to-face interviews, answering 8 open-ended questions in this generic qualitative study. Inductive thematic analysis yielded 6 themes: (a) collaboration improves learning, (b) communication is …

Critical Approach To Reflexivity In Grounded Theory, Stephen J. Gentles, Susan M. Jack, David B. Nicholas, K. Ann Mckibbon

The Qualitative Report

A problem with the popular desire to legitimate one’s research through the inclusion of reflexivity is its increasingly uncritical adoption and practice, with most researchers failing to define their understandings, specific positions, and approaches. Considering the relative recentness with which reflexivity has been explicitly described in the context of grounded theory, guidance for incorporating it within this research approach is currently in the early stages. In this article, we illustrate a three-stage approach used in a grounded theory study of how parents of children with autism navigate intervention. Within this approach, different understandings of reflexivity are first explored and mapped, …

Refining Best Practices For The Diagnosis Of Autism: A Comparison Between Individual Healthcare Practitioner Diagnosis And Transdisciplinary Assessment., Jessica Rae Stewart, Debra C. Vigil, Erika Ryst, Wei Yang

Nevada Journal of Public Health

The purpose of this study is to compare the diagnostic decision-making of individual healthcare practitioners against that of a transdisciplinary team. Despite national recognition of transdisciplinary assessment as the gold standard diagnostic approach, autism is most frequently diagnosed by individuals working independently in a variety of disciplines. The current study examined how closely these individual practitioners make diagnoses matching that of a transdisciplinary team. Twenty professionals from five different disciplines viewed videotape clips of fifteen children previously assessed by a transdisciplinary team. Results confirmed that individual healthcare practitioners matched the transdisciplinary team diagnosis on average only 65.6% of the time. …

The Administrative Prevalence Of Autism Spectrum Disorders In Nevada School Districts: A Pooled Time Series Analysis, 1996-2004, John P. Tuman, Sheniz Moonie, Danielle Roth-Johnson

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Objective: To examine the administrative prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in all seventeen school districts in Nevada during the period of 1996 to 2004.

Methods: Normalized administrative prevalence rates (per 1,000 children ages 6-17) for ASD, Mental Retardation (MR), Learning Disability (LD), and Speech and Language Impairment (SLI) were calculated. Covariates for board certified pediatricians per 1,000 students, Federal special education funding per student, and other measures of school resources were employed. Models were estimated with pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with panel corrected standard errors. A separate analysis compared pooled OLS results to results from Latent Growth …

A Qualitative Examination Of Mothers' Resolution Or Non-Resolution Of Their Childrens' Disability Of Down Syndrome Or Autism Using A Cognitive Intervention, Denise M. Orme

The Qualitative Report

Research has shown that the inability of some mothers to resolve their emotions when confronted with the birth of a child with a disability of cerebral palsy or epilepsy can put the child at greater risk for disruptions of attachment. This qualitative study examined mothers' emotional state of resolution or non-resolution of their children's disability of Down syndrome or autism, and mothers' perceptions of the use of a cognitive intervention. Grounded theory was used to analyze the interviews and the cognitive intervention. The results showed that in addition to the two major categories of resolution and non-resolution, a third major …