Three training procedures (Rehearsal Plus, Elaborative and Behavioral) were examined to ascertain their effectiveness in the acquisition and maintenance of fire emergency skills, fear reduction of fears associated with being in fires, and knowledge attainment. These three trained groups were compared to an untrained group. The subjects were 52 randomly assigned second- and third-grade children. They were assessed before, immediatedly following, and 3 months after training. Significant behavioral performance gains were evident at posttesting for the experimental groups but not the control. However, at follow-up, the Rehearsal Plus and the elaborative groups performance exceeded that of the Control group. Furthermore, Rehearsal Plus and Elaborative strategies led to different types of knowledge attainment. The results indicate the value of Rehearsal Plus and Elaborative strategies in enhancing acquisition and maintenance of behavioral skills and different types of knowledge attainment. / M.S.

Childhood fears have been considered to be part of normal development. It is when these fears develop into severe fears or phobias that they become of concern to clinicians. Children's fears have varied over the years from school related fears, to political fears, to fears of danger and death in most recent years. Of the latter category, fear of fire-getting burned emerged as the second most commonly reported fear among children. The present study examines two cognitive self-instructional strategies to test their effectiveness in reducing children's fear of fire. Cognitive strategies were the ones of choice in that they remedied many of the problems found in some of the other behavioral techniques. Either of two self-instructional strategies including a fire safety training program using self-instructions and a self-instructional fear reduction strategy were taught to second and third grade children. A major hypothesis of the study was not confirmed which maintained that children who learned self-instructional fear reduction exercises would show greater reductions in fear than children who did not learn the exercises. Although these results were not evident immediately following training, a trend toward this expectation did appear at follow-up. These findings implied that although the cognitive self-control strategy was not effective in reducing children's fear immediately, it did tend to provide for greater maintenance of behavior change over time. The present study has implications for continued investigation in the areas of childhood fear reduction and the maintenance of behavior over time. / M.S.

Fifty-six fourth-grade children served as participants in this study. Three training procedures (behavioral, animated-graphics, and still-graphics) were assessed for relative effectiveness in the acquisition of fire emergency skills and attainment of knowledge, Each of the training groups was compared to a no-treatment control group. Performance on dependent measures was assessed prior to and immediately following training. Hypotheses predicted that the behavioral and animated graphics conditions would produce the greatest level of skill and knowledge acquisition. Results demonstrated a significantly higher level of fire emergency skill acquisition and knowledge attainment for both the behavioral and animated graphics groups relative to the still graphics and no-training groups. The value of using animated versus static images in computerized instruction for fire-safety skills training was demonstrated. / Ed. D.

Autism is a disorder that affects children at an alarming rate. One out of every 88 children is diagnosed with autism in the United States. The disorder is characterized by communication, social, and behavioral deficits. Children with autism often require specialized teaching methods to learn basic skills that most children acquire without specialized instruction. Relatively few studies have examined strategies for teaching safety skills to individuals with autism. The current study utilized a multiple baseline across participants’ design to evaluate whether a modeling and rehearsal strategy is effective for teaching fire safety skills to children with autism between 4 and 5 years of age. Results indicated that modeling and rehearsal were effective in teaching fire safety skills, the skills generalized to novel settings, and maintained 5-weeks following the completion of training. Implications for safety skill instruction and future research are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture