TITLE: Developing Communication Skills in Children with Autism Using Verbal Behavior - Applied Behavior Analysis AUTHOR: Bc. Kateřina Chrapková DEPARTMENT: The Department of Special Education SUPERVISOR: doc. PaedDr. Jiřina Klenková, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: This thesis deals with the development of communication skills in children with autism using Verbal Behavior - Applied Behavioral Analysis (VB-ABA). The aim of this work is to introduce VB-ABA approach as an effective intervention for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It is a monographic work with emphasis on a theory. The empirical part consist evaluative single-case study. The thesis is devided into six theoretical and one empirical chapter. The first theoretical chapter presents the issue of communication in a view of behaviorism and compares this approach with classical linguistics. The second chapter describes theories of language acquisition and language development from behavioral and linguistic perspective. The third chapter discusses the development of children's speech in the context of ontogeny and its functions. The fourth chapter deals with the issue of communication skills in the context of ASD. The fifth chapter introduces evidence based practice and provides information on current international research of interventions for persons...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:57:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PED - Liliane A Delage.pdf: 524619 bytes, checksum: a08eff9d8e9a98bb81b660eedc002197 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-19 / Servico Nacional de Aprendizagem Comercial / This research has its support on radical behaviorism and also the principles of behavior analysis based on Skinner in order to reflect on the education role as well as the teaching-learning process. One defends that teaching is to provide conditions that make the student s learning easy, so at this point, it is essential the teacher s performance. So as to develop this research, the objective was to get to know the practice of the teachers who perform in Hospitality College (higher course that works on professional formation in Hospitality). For this research, there were four participants involved and responsible for some disciplines whose names are nominated practices . To obtain the data, it was used the observation in natural situation, this means that, the teacher s performance was observed in day-by-day classroom, with no interference of the researcher. The collected data were analyzed having as a model the Functional Analysis which focused on the pedagogical interactions between teacher and student. From the characterization of the teachers practices, that were obtained by the observation, was possible to identify some practices considered productive on the teaching process because they provided adequate academic behavior for the students. The pieces of information related to the teachers action in their day-by-day classroom allowed reflection on some aspects that must be approached on the teachers formation. Having as a focus the teaching-learning process in higher level, this research intends to contribute in teachers formation area taking as referential the radical behaviorism and behavior analysis / A presente pesquisa apóia-se no behaviorismo radical e nos princípios da análise do comportamento, formulados por Skinner, para proceder à reflexão sobre o papel da educação e sobre o processo ensino-aprendizagem. Defendendo-se que ensinar é prover condições que facilitem a aprendizagem do aluno e que, para tanto, é primordial a atuação do professor, teve-se como objetivo conhecer a prática docente de professores que atuam em um curso superior de formação de profissionais em hotelaria. Participaram como sujeitos desta pesquisa quatro professores responsáveis por disciplinas denominadas práticas . Para a obtenção dos dados, utilizamos a observação em situação natural, ou seja, observamos a atuação docente tal como ocorre no cotidiano de sala de aula, sem a interferência da pesquisadora. Os dados obtidos foram analisados, tendo por modelo a Análise Funcional, colocando-se em foco as interações pedagógicas entre professor e aluno. A partir da categorização das práticas docentes observadas, foi possível identificar práticas que são produtivas no processo de ensino, pois promovem comportamentos acadêmicos adequados dos alunos. As informações da ação docente, no cotidiano escolar, que foram obtidas, permitiram refletir sobre aspectos que devem ser contemplados na formação a ser propiciada a professores. Ao colocar em foco o processo de ensino-aprendizagem em nível superior, esta pesquisa pretende contribuir com a área de formação de professores a partir do referencial behaviorismo radical/ análise do comportamento

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Angelo Augusto Silva Sampaio.pdf: 715245 bytes, checksum: 61b8725f4ee371bc064c778263e1e6df (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-04-04 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Behavior Analysis has yet to establish a productive research program about culture, cultural practices and their evolution. Although conceptual problems (about the appropriate units of analysis and the complexity of cultures) and methodological issues (there aren t well tested procedures to explore cultural phenomena within a behavior analytic perspective) are at the root of this absence, the conceptual issues have been tackled by some (S. Glenn and M. Harris, for instance). These efforts have not been followed, until now, by validating empirically based studies. We suggest that quasiexperimental studies may be a productive alternative to this problem. Quasiexperimental studies should allow the description of functional relations among events: The experimental manipulation, and therefore, control, is limited in such cases, but there are empirically based measurements of dependent variables when independent variables are present and absent. J. Diamond s scientific position seems to be compatible with philosophical and methodological tenets of Behavior Analysis and Diamond has repeatedly argued for quasi-experimentation as a method to study culture and cultural evolution. The present work focuses were: to explore the possibilities opened by quasi experimental procedures on the study of culture and to further explore Glenn s and Harris interpretations of culture. In order to do it Diamond s book Colapse was analyzed. Diamond s interpretation of the Viking colonies fate was taken as the exemplar. Exerts interpreted as elements of Diamond s construction of quasiexperiments about the Viking colonies were selected and their procedural elements and main results were evaluated. The present results suggest that quasi-experimentation may be a valuable methodological alternative to the empirically based study of culture. Possible relationships between Diamond s results and Glenn s proposition of metacontingencies and macrocontingencies as units of analysis at the cultural level of selection and Harris principle of infra-structural determinism of cultures are discussed. Diamond s distinction between proximate and ultimate causes indicates a relevant separation between variables for the analysis of present and past cultures. The present work also points out methodological aspects pertinent to the implementation of quasiexperimental studies on culture / A dificuldade em se estabelecer um programa de pesquisa sobre práticas culturais, cultura e evolução cultural na Análise do Comportamento deve-se em parte a questões conceituais (sobre as unidades de análise pertinentes e a complexidade inerente às culturas) e metodológicas (ausência de procedimentos experimentais adequados e timidez na exploração de alternativas metodológicas pertinentes). As propostas de S. Glenn e M. Harris têm contribuído para a elucidação das questões conceituais, mas ainda não dispomos de estudos empíricos que validem suas proposições. Um modo de lidar com as questões metodológicas pode ser o uso criterioso da quase-experimentação, uma busca sistemática pelo estabelecimento empírico de relações funcionais entre eventos com limites ao controle de variáveis, mas com dados sobre condições nas quais a variável independente está presente e condições em que ela está ausente. Com os objetivos de explorar as possibilidades da quase-experimentação no estudo específico da cultura e de discutir as propostas de Glenn e Harris a partir de dados empíricos, nos voltamos para a obra do geógrafo Jared Diamond, que tem advogado o uso de quaseexperimentos no estudo da cultura e compartilha pressupostos metodológicos e filosóficos com a Análise do Comportamento. O foco da análise foi a interpretação de Diamond sobre os destinos das colônias vikings, para o que foram tomados como centrais os capítulos do livro Colapso que tratam das colônias vikings medievais no Atlântico Norte. Trechos dos capítulos foram categorizados e fontes de informação adicionais (textos citados em Colapso) foram consultadas. Buscou-se (1) identificar aspectos do texto que caracterizariam metodologicamente o trabalho de Diamond como a construção de quase-experimentos sobre os vikings e (2) indicar o que tais quaseexperimentos sugerem a respeito (2.1) da unidade de análise de práticas culturais, (2.2) da pertinência dos conceitos de metacontingência e macrocontingência e (2.3) da posição de Diamond sobre a complexidade das culturas e sua relação com o princípio do determinismo infra-estrutural de Harris. Os resultados da análise de Colapso indicam que quase-experimentos sobre a cultura são possíveis e podem gerar resultados produtivos já que permitiriam inclusive afirmar relações funcionais entre eventos que seriam relevantes para a compreensão do fenômeno cultural como indica a sugestão de Diamond de que cinco conjuntos de fatores (dano ambiental, mudança climática, sociedades vizinhas hostis, diminuição do apoio de parceiros comerciais e a resposta da sociedade aos seus problemas ) são relevantes para o destino das sociedades. A distinção entre causas mediatas e imediatas também indica uma separação entre variáveis relevante para o estudo de culturas passadas ou presentes. Nossa análise ainda aponta aspectos metodológicos pertinentes à condução de estudos quase-experimentais sobre a cultura

ABSTRACT Background: Previous criminal justice policies have been non-effective leading to overpopulated prisons and unsuccessful reintegration. There is a lack of effective supportive and/or rehabilitative services resulting in high rates of recidivism and mental health implications. Objective: This study investigated the perceived impact that incarceration and reintegration with little to no supportive and/or rehabilitative services has on the mental health status of an individual. The emphasis was on participant perception and not on professional reports because of underreporting and lack of attention to mental health in the criminal justice system. Methods: Focus groups in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley were held to gather preliminary data used to develop the survey for this study. The survey was distributed to 88 male and female ex-offenders over the age of 18 who were no longer on probation or parole. Secondary data from United Way 211 and California State Reentry Initiative was collected to report current trends of supportive and/or rehabilitative services. Results: Incarceration was found to negatively impact perceived mental health status, but reintegration was not. Supportive and/or rehabilitative services continue to be rarely offered and accessed, but when accessed, perceived mental health status is better. Supportive and/or rehabilitative services are more readily available. People who are using these services are improving their quality of life, becoming productive members of society, and preventing recidivism. Conclusions: A paradigm shift is currently under way to reduce recidivism by improving supportive and/or rehabilitative services during incarceration and reintegration. Many offenders are receiving services as an alternative to incarceration, recidivism rates are being reduced, and ex-offenders are becoming productive members of society. The field of social work is an integral part of reentry services and should continue advocating for policies and services that support reintegration efforts at the micro and macro level.

The study examined minority persons’ views and experiences with Child Protective Services (CPS) in the community. This study used a qualitative design with face‑to‑face interviews with 12 participants in the community. This study used the “Post‑Positivist” data analysis, which is qualitative in evaluation and explained each participant’s subjective reality. The study found that most participants were satisfied with the results and were dissatisfied with the process in and of itself. Overall the study found that most participants felt that there was some sort of a disconnect with social workers in reference to cultural competency. Miscommunication between the social workers at agencies and parents could have played a significant role in why participants had these experiences. However, most participants felt that the agency helped with services that ultimately left the participants feeling a sense of awareness about the purpose of the agency. The study suggests that implementing a program that would allow the community to be informed of all the programs that Child Protective Services can provide be critical in aiding and empowering the members of the community and in helping reduce CPS caseloads significantly.

Through the evolution of the field of social work, a divide in its ideologies has emerged and certain political and ideological groups such as the religious and conservatives have become underrepresented. As a result, over the years the liberal philosophies have emerged as the dominant group. This has led to a decrease in diversity within the field. Recognition of biases in the field of social work is difficult. Through a qualitative analysis method, this study was meant to explore if social work students feel they are free to share openly in the classroom, and if they are accepting of all ideologies or are there biases towards any ideologies or beliefs by the students. This study used a qualitative method data collection approach, which consisted of a six-member focus group with a demographics questionnaire. The findings of this research has brought to the surface that there are more liberal ideologies and less moderate or conservative viewpoints being shared in the classrooms because of self-censorship. The potential impact of this study is to increase awareness that there are underrepresented groups within the MSW population, which decreases the diversity in the field of social work.

科学研究費補助金 研究種目:基盤研究(B)(2) 課題番号:11450193 研究代表者:森川 高行 研究期間:1999-2001年度

A wide range of research fields have studied how emotions and behavior are affected by the physical environment. This gestalt theorist approach of experimental research as well seeks to measure emotion (using the valence-arousal scale) and micro-scale community development interactions when weighted physical environment factors are adjusted. Community development (CD) interactions at the micro-scale have received but slight attention from scholars in the CD research field and this study aims partially to investigate developing objective measures from social observations. CD interactions from recordings along with self-reported emotion through surveys in four quasi-experimental groups (where the environments were constructed based on peer-reviewed literature to cause emotional reactions) and one control group made up the data collected for this experiment. While the results of this experiment displayed apparent convincing quantitative differences in both CD interactions and emotion when the physical environment was manipulated, the results of a one-way ANOVA indicated no statistical significance to either dependent variable. The conclusions suggest limiting the physical factors of the environment to produce more precise changes as a result of the manipulated quasi environments.

The development of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and autonomous driving is one of the main research fields in the area of vehicle development today. Initially the research in this area focused on analyzing and predicting driving maneuvers on highways. Nowadays, a vast amount of research focuses on urban areas as well. Driving maneuvers in urban areas are more complex and therefore more difficult to predict than driving maneuvers on highways. The goals of predicting and understanding driving maneuvers are to reduce accidents, to improve traffic density, and to develop reliable algorithms for autonomous driving. Driving behavior during different driving maneuvers such as turning at intersections, emergency braking or lane changes are analyzed. This thesis focuses on the driving behavior around lane changes and thus the prediction of lane changes in the urban area is applied with an Echo State Network. First, existing methods with a special focus on input variables and results were evaluated to derive input variables with regard to lane change and no lane change sequences. The data for this first analyses were obtained from a naturalistic driving study. Based on theses results the final set of variables (steering angle, turn signal and gazes to the left and right) was chosen for further computations. The parameters of the Echo State Network were then optimized using the data of the naturalistic driving study and the final set of variables. Finally, left and right lane changes were predicted. Furthermore, the Echo State Network was compared to a feedforward neural network. The Echo State Network could predict left and right lane changes more successful than the feedforward neural network. / Fahrerassistenzsysteme und Algorithmen zum autonomen Fahren stellen ein aktuelles Forschungsfeld im Bereich der Fahrzeugentwicklung dar. Am Anfang wurden vor allem Fahrmanöver auf der Autobahn analysiert und vorhergesagt, mittlerweile hat sich das Forschungsfeld auch auf den urbanen Verkehr ausgeweitet. Fahrmanöver im urbanen Raum sind komplexer als Fahrmanöver auf Autobahnen und daher schwieriger vorherzusagen. Ziele für die Vorhersage von Fahrmanövern sind die Reduzierung von Verkehrsunfällen, die Verbesserung des Verkehrsflusses und die Entwicklung von zuverlässigen Algorithmen für das autonome Fahren. Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, wird das Fahrverhalten bei unterschiedlichen Fahrmanövern analysiert, wie z.B. beim Abbiegevorgang an Kreuzungen, bei der Notbremsung oder beim Spurwechsel. In dieser Arbeit wird der Spurwechsel im urbanen Straßenverkehr mit einem Echo State Network vorhergesagt. Zuerst wurden existierende Methoden zur Spurwechselvorhersage bezogen auf die Eingaben und die Ergebnisse bewertet, um danach die spurwechselbezogenen Variableneigenschaften bezüglich Spurwechsel- und Nicht-Spurwechselsequenzen zu analysieren. Die Daten, die Basis für diese ersten Untersuchungen waren, stammen aus einer Realfahrstudie. Basierend auf diesen Resultaten wurden die finalen Variablen (Lenkwinkel, Blinker und Blickrichtung) für weitere Berechnungen ausgewählt. Mit den Daten aus der Realfahrstudie und den finalen Variablen wurden die Parameter des Echo State Networks optimiert und letztendlich wurden linke und rechte Spurwechsel vorhergesagt. Zusätzlich wurde das Echo State Network mit einem vorwärtsgerichteten neuronalen Netz verglichen. Das Echo State Network konnte linke und rechte Spurwechsel erfolgreicher vorhersagen als das vorwärtsgerichtete neuronale Netz.

The development of driver assistance and automated vehicle control is in process and finds its way more and more into urban traffic environments. Here, the complexity of traffic situations is highly challenging and requires system approaches to comprehend such situations. The key element is the process of situation assessment to identify critical situations in advance and derive adequate warning and intervention strategies. This thesis introduces a system approach to establish a situation assessment process with the focus on the prediction of the driver intention. The system design is based on the Situation Awareness model by Endsley. Further, a prediction algorithm is created using Hidden Markov Models. To define the parameters of the models, an existing database is used and previously analyzed to identify reasonable variables that indicate an intended driving direction while approaching the intersection. Here, vehicle dynamics are used instead of driver inputs to enable a further extension of the prediction, i.e.\\ to predict the driving intention of other vehicles detected by sensors. High prediction rates at temporal distances of several seconds before entering the intersection are accomplished. The prediction is integrated in a system for situation assessment including an intersection model. A Matlab tool is created with an interface to the vehicle CAN bus and the intersection modeling which uses digital map data to establish a representation of the intersection. To identify differences and similarities in the process of approaching an intersection dependent on the intersection shape and regulation, a naturalistic driving study is conducted. Here, the distance to the intersection and velocity is observed on driver inputs related to the upcoming intersection (leaving the gas pedal, pushing the brake, using the turn signal). The findings are used to determine separate prediction models dependent on shape and regulation of the upcoming intersection. The system runs in real-time and is tested in a real traffic environment.:Contents List of Figures Acronyms 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Outline 2 Fundamentals 2.1 Traffic Intersections 2.2 Situation Assessment 2.3 Prediction of Driver Intention 2.3.1 Methods Overview 2.3.2 Hidden Markov Models 2.4 Localization 3 Driving Behavior 3.1 Data Analysis 3.1.1 Data selection and processing 3.1.2 Results 3.1.3 Conclusion 3.2 Naturalistic Driving Study 3.2.1 Background 3.2.2 Methods 3.2.3 Results 3.2.4 Discussion and Conclusion 4 Prediction Algorithm 4.1 Framework 4.2 Input data 4.3 Evaluation 4.4 Validation 4.5 Conclusion 5 System Approach 5.1 Sensing 5.2 Situation analysis 5.3 Prediction 5.3.1 Implementation 5.3.2 Graphical User Interface (GUI) 5.3.3 Testing and Outlook 6 Conclusion and Outlook Bibliography / Die Entwicklung von Fahrerassistenz und automatisiertem Fahren ist in vollem Gange und entwickelt sich zunehmend in Richtung urbanen Verkehrsraum. Hier stellen besonders komplexe Verkehrssituationen sowohl für den Fahrer als auch für Assistenzsysteme eine Herausforderung dar. Zur Bewältigung dieser Situationen sind neue Systemansätze notwendig, die eine Situationsanalyse und -bewertung beinhalten. Dieser Prozess der Situationseinschätzung ist der Schlüssel zum Erkennen von kritischen Situationen und daraus abgeleiteten Warnungs- und Eingriffsstrategien. Diese Arbeit stellt einen Systemansatz vor, welcher den Prozess der Situationseinschätzung abbildet mit einem Fokus auf die Prädiktion der Fahrerintention. Das Systemdesign basiert dabei auf dem Situation Awareness Model von Endsley. Der Prädiktionsalgorithmus ist mit Hilfe von Hidden Markov Modellen umgesetzt. Zur Bestimmung der Modellparameter wurde eine existierende Datenbasis genutzt und zur Bestimmung von relevanten Variablen für die Prädiktion der Fahrtrichtung während der Kreuzungsannäherung analysiert. Dabei wurden Daten zur Fahrdynamik ausgewählt anstelle von Fahrereingaben um die Prädiktion später auf externe Fahrzeuge mittels Sensorinformationen zu erweitern. Es wurden hohe Prädiktionsraten bei zeitlichen Abständen von mehreren Sekunden bis zum Kreuzungseintritt erzielt. Die Prädiktion wurde in das System zur Situationseinschätzung integriert. Weiterhin beinhaltet das System eine statische Kreuzungsmodellierung. Dabei werden digitale Kartendaten genutzt um eine Repräsentation der Kreuzung und ihrer statischen Attribute zu erzeugen und die der Kreuzungsform entsprechenden Prädiktionsmodelle auszuwählen. Das Gesamtsystem ist als Matlab Tool mit einer Schnittstelle zum CAN Bus implementiert. Weiterhin wurde eine Fahrstudie zum natürlichen Fahrverhalten durchgeführt um mögliche Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten bei der Annäherung an Kreuzungen in Abhängigkeit der Form und Regulierung zu identifizieren. Hierbei wurde die Distanz zur Kreuzung und die Geschwindigkeit bei Fahrereingaben im Bezug zur folgenden Kreuzung gemessen (Gaspedalverlassen, Bremspedalbetätigung, Blinkeraktivierung). Die Ergebnisse der Studie wurden genutzt um die Notwendigkeit verschiedener Prädiktionsmodelle in Abhängigkeit von Form der Kreuzung zu bestimmen. Das System läuft in Echtzeit und wurde im realen Straßenverkehr getestet.:Contents List of Figures Acronyms 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Outline 2 Fundamentals 2.1 Traffic Intersections 2.2 Situation Assessment 2.3 Prediction of Driver Intention 2.3.1 Methods Overview 2.3.2 Hidden Markov Models 2.4 Localization 3 Driving Behavior 3.1 Data Analysis 3.1.1 Data selection and processing 3.1.2 Results 3.1.3 Conclusion 3.2 Naturalistic Driving Study 3.2.1 Background 3.2.2 Methods 3.2.3 Results 3.2.4 Discussion and Conclusion 4 Prediction Algorithm 4.1 Framework 4.2 Input data 4.3 Evaluation 4.4 Validation 4.5 Conclusion 5 System Approach 5.1 Sensing 5.2 Situation analysis 5.3 Prediction 5.3.1 Implementation 5.3.2 Graphical User Interface (GUI) 5.3.3 Testing and Outlook 6 Conclusion and Outlook Bibliography