The purpose of this study was to evaluate three different teaching approaches that might improve the social functioning of young children with visual impairment and additional disabilities. These three methods included: (1) the arrangement of ecological variables (child-selected play materials), (2) peer-mediated training procedures, and (3) teacher-directed prompting strategies to promote and reinforce social behaviors. Of the four children studied, two failed to show changes in verbal and physical interactive behaviors across baseline and peer-mediated conditions. However, these same two students demonstrated increases albeit highly variable, during the teacher-prompting phase. For the other two students, physical and verbal interactive behaviors increased during both peer and teacher prompting conditions when contrasted to baseline phases. Overall, these findings suggest that teacher-prompting procedures may be an effective teaching method to improve social skills of young children with vision impairment and additional disabilities.

Thesis advisor: Paul Cichello / Domestic violence affects women of all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds across the world. It violates fundamental human rights and also has significant economic costs including a loss of human capital formation. This study seeks to understand the impact of a mother's experience of domestic violence on her children's early childhood development and educational outcomes in Uganda. It uses data from the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey and employs a two-stage least squares instrumental variables approach. The instrument used is whether or not the woman's mother experienced domestic violence. Results are not precisely estimated but they suggest that experiencing domestic violence increases the incidence of low socioemotional development in women’s 3-to-5-year-old children while it decreases the incidence of low cognitive development. This suggests that living in a household with violence causes children to have worse social and emotional early childhood development while it improves their cognition and/or independence. Results from the educational models suggest that exposure to domestic violence increases a child’s likelihood of being enrolled in school as well as his overall years of educational attainment. Taken together, results suggest that children in homes with domestic violence might cope by becoming more independent. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

Research indicates that serious behavior problems begin during the early childhood years. The study examined the perceived preparedness of teachers related to behavior management as well as preschool teachers' usage of evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies. The data indicates that preschool teachers feel prepared for managing aggression in their classrooms and report utilizing evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies regularly. Additionally, the data shows a weak relationship between teacher variables and the likelihood of feeling prepared for managing aggression or utilizing evidence-based strategies. The results can be used to gain a better understanding of special education preschool teachers' training needs in regard to behavior management and managing behavior problems in the preschool classroom.

The purpose of this study was to first identify and describe the literary response behaviors exhibited by pre-schoolers in a literature rich setting. Next, the study examined these response behaviors as indicative of the characteristics of theorist Michael Benton's 'secondary world' of literary response (1983) and of psychologist D. W. Winnicott's 'third area' of play (1971). Finally, the study considered the possibilities inherent in these secondary worlds for the creation and exploration of meaning on the part of pre-schoolers. This study utilized ethnographic methods of participant observation, in-depth interviewing, informal conversations, field notes and videotaping. Validity was established and checked through trianglization using the adults in the setting and two outside readers. The findings of this study are culture specific. This ethnographic study offers ways of thinking about, considering and discussing how young children use their experiences of interacting with books and responding to books to create meaning for their lives. Response behaviors were identified, described and organized into three general categories: (1) Individual/dyadic response behaviors involving one child/book(s), two children/book(s) and a child/adult/book(s), (2) Communal response behaviors involving several children/book(s) or several children/adult/book(s), and (3) Guided/directed response behaviors which always involved several children, an adult and book(s), and, in addition, had a specific goal or objective. Response behaviors in each of these categories covered a broad range of activities and formed an integral part of the living and learning experiences of the pre-schoolers in this day care setting. Both physically and humanly this setting was an organized and supportive environment which expected and encouraged interactions with and response to books. Within this setting, reliable and trustworthy relationships were formed which both allowed and encouraged the creation of secondary worlds. Such secondary worlds were intermediate between inner psychic reality and outer shared reality, were dependent upon individual contributions and provided place and opportunity for the creation of meaning. The pre-schoolers used these secondary worlds to explore self identity, emotions, competency development and to expand and integrate their ways of being in the world.

The effects of mainstreaming on children with disabilities have been well-documented, yet its effects on typical children are not well known. In this study, multiple measures were used to examine social behavior and possible determinants of social behavior of typical preschoolers in integrated and non-integrated classrooms. Measures were selected to build toward a comprehensive and convergent picture of what typical children in both settings do and think in reference to their peers. Methodological problems in earlier research were circumvented by increasing the number of settings and size of samples used, and by matching subjects on the variables of gender, age and social-economic status. Sixty typical preschool children in integrated and non-integrated classrooms were compared on the variables of social behavior, self-competence, social distance and attitudes and cognitions about disabilities. Results challenge research reports asserting children with disabilities are assigned low social status in integrated classrooms. In comparison to non-integrated children, children in integrated settings demonstrate more accurate understanding of issues involving disability, and higher competence ratings. They also exhibit more prosocial and communicative behaviors. Children in integrated classrooms demonstrate positive attitudes and behavior toward special needs peers. Findings suggest that children in mainstreamed classrooms demonstrate social interactions, beliefs and attitudes that are socially desirable.

The exchange of information between therapist and client has long been understood as an essential part of any therapeutic relationship; however, the perceptions of the client have often been overlooked in favor of the expert position of the therapist. Over the past several years research in family therapy has attempted to address this imbalance with methodologies that are grounded in the epistemological assumption that there are multiple realities and, as a result, considers the views of the client and therapist as equally valid. Spradley's Developmental Research Sequence (DRS), an open ended interview procedure designed for ethnographic studies, was used to study the perceptions of both client and therapist within the context of an Early Intervention Clinic. These perceptions emerged from 19 interviews conducted with three therapeutic systems that involved three families and three therapists. The interviews revealed eight primary topics of discussion that provided feedback to the therapeutic system in the form of identifying gaps of information that may exist between client and therapist. The results of this study suggest that there are differences in expectation and understanding that exist between members of the treatment system. Based on the result of this study, it was concluded that both therapist and client need to understand any differences in understanding and expectations that may exist within the therapeutic system. The results are discussed in terms of gaps of information that, if unaddressed, can inhibit the therapeutic process.

The purpose of this study was to describe the behavior of children engaged in two different Peer Work Group (PWG) tasks and to search for patterns of behavior that relate to learning. The study was exploratory in nature and was designed to investigate the processes children use under different PWG task-structure conditions. Two groups of children in a 1st-2nd grade classroom were studied; each group worked for one week on each task and all interaction was videotaped. Detailed information about requests and responses was recorded onto a checklist. Pretests and posttests were administered for each task to assess gains and to search for relationships among tasks, behaviors, and learning. Results include identification of eleven task-related behaviors with differences across tasks in level of engagement for the following: Independent Seatwork, Group Discussion, Time Off-Task, Waiting for Peers, Cooperative Problem Solving, Approaching the Teacher, and Requesting Help. Patterns in the data for request-response behaviors agree with sociolinguistic theory regarding "effective speakers". Significant differences were not found within or between groups and tasks on achievement measures. Implications are drawn regarding the influence of task structure on group process and children's use of requesting behavior for obtaining elaborated responses from peers.

The major focus of this study is to identify the effect of teacher's verbal expression on children's learning during the free-play period. The verbal expression of teachers was identified as a form of the adult's reinforcement of the child's performance during the free-play period. This reinforcement of the primary learnings which are the children's on-going activities, lead to the elaboration of learning into associate and concomitant learnings. Fifty four-year-old children in ten classrooms were selected and observed. The Child Activity Observation Form designed for 40 minute observations and adapted from Day and Weinthaler (1982) was used to collect the data. A videotape of two classrooms was used for training twelve teachers for inter-observer reliability. The researcher and the twelve teachers observed the tapes and recorded observations. The observation results were correlated with each other to identify the percentage of agreement amongst the thirteen observers. The percentage agreement for all variables was calculated for the activities observed. Findings indicate average percentage agreement amongst variables in two activities ranged between 84% and 94%. SPSS/PC+V.3.1--Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (1988) was used to analyze the data. Contingency table analysis was used, which showed the frequency distribution and crosstabulations. The analysis of the results indicate that there was no significant difference between teacher and child on "who initiated activities." The teacher initiated in 61 activities while the child initiated in 53 activities. In looking at the effect of teacher interaction on the child's achievement of elaborated learnings, results revealed significant differences in the roles of the teacher and the frequencies of both associate and concomitant learnings. Results show that teachers were observing in 43 percent of all the activities, directing in 28.9 percent, participating in 17.5 percent and absent in 10.5 percent. There was no observed associate learnings in 61.4 percent of all activities and no observed concomitant learnings in 57.0 percent of all activities.

There is evidence that maltreated school-aged children have an elevated incidence of expressive language delay, which is often attributed to the cumulative effects of maltreatment. Younger children and toddlers do not consistently demonstrate this delay. There is some ambiguity whether language delays can be observed in toddlers since language is not well developed at this age. However, if gestural communication is also studied as part of language development, a broader sample of behavior becomes available. Intentional communication includes the use of words and gestures to express a child's intent or desire. Examining maltreated toddlers' intentional communication provides an opportunity to study how language develops under less than optimal conditions. This study examines communicative intents in maltreated and nonmaltreated toddlers (ages 22 to 31 months) and the caregiving interactions of their mothers. The sample is composed of thirty-nine mother-toddler dyads from a Mid-Western city. Maternal maltreatment was documented on thirteen lower class toddlers, who were matched on sex, age, race and SES. Ten middle class dyads composed another comparison group. The lower class toddlers were given the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) as part of a larger study. Videotapes of a play session between mother-toddler dyads were coded using The Parent/Caregiver Interaction Scale to rate maternal behaviors plus two child communication inventories to code Intentional Communication and Negotiation of Failed Messages. Competency scores were computed for all toddlers on Intentional Communication and Developmental Competence was compared on the lower class toddlers. Two scores compared maternal appropriateness to toddler reactivity and communication competence. Results showed that maltreatment was not related to child Intentional Communication, except that maltreated toddlers acknowledged their mothers' messages more frequently. Social class accounted for differences on most maternal and some toddler variables. Developmental Competence accounted for significant differences in lower class toddlers' Intentional Communication and Social Competence. Patterns of high maternal verbal interaction and control over child's activities were related to toddler's competence in Intentional Communication, suggesting that mothers who are more verbal and appropriate in their control have more competent toddlers.

An ethnographic approach was used to determine how families of young special needs children and the staff of an early intervention program perceived the process of developing an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP). With the emphasis placed by Public Legislation 99-457 on family involvement when treating these children the study was organized to better understand the environment as a culture where families and professionals interacted. A naturalistic investigation was considered the most appropriate way to gather these data. Five families were followed over a nine-month period where they were observed during all aspects of the Early Intervention (EI) program and were interviewed about the IFSP document and process. Another five families served as a focus group in order to validate the data. The data revealed that perceptions were associated with decision making, whether the IFSP was child or family focused, and how families and staff related based on their assumptions about reach other's roles. The results are discussed in terms of how cultural imperatives construct the way early intervention programs operate and how they must be taken into consideration if families are to be fully incorporated into the education of their disabled child.