Given the behavioral expectations of students by teachers and peers in middle school inclusive classrooms and characteristics inherent to students with ASD, the purpose of this study was to explore the impact of video modeling and peer mentoring of five critical social skills for inclusion on middle school students with ASD. Specifically, the extent to which the combination of video modeling and peer mentoring of five critical social skills would increase the level of demonstration of these skills in the general education inclusion setting was investigated. Because individuals with ASD exhibit limited social communication skills, those skills necessary especially at the middle school level to understand the "hidden curriculum", social skills instruction has been deemed important (APA, 2004; Smith-Myles & Simpson). The current multiple baseline across subjects study was grounded in the research on video modeling (Bellini & Akullian, 2007) and peer mentoring (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005; Maheady, Harper, & Mallette, 2001) as methods of providing social skills instruction for middle school students with ASD (Goldstein & McGinnis, 1997; Smith-Myles & Simpson, 2001). The impact of the video models and peer mentors was measured using the level of demonstration of five critical social skills on three middle school aged students with ASD. All three students with ASD were included in at least one general education classroom. The results of this investigation indicated that the combination of video modeling and peer mentoring of critical social skills positively impacted the levels of demonstration of the skills of students with ASD. While results varied, all three students with ASD increased their levels of demonstration of the targeted critical social skills.

The population of young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is growing as more individuals with ASD age into adulthood. Almost half of the children diagnosed with ASD who were surveyed in 2010 demonstrated average or above average intelligence (CDC, 2014). Despite promising intellectual abilities, only 17.4% of young adults with ASD enroll in a four-year college, and only 38.8% of students with ASD graduate postsecondary education within eight years of leaving high school (Newman et al., 2011). Therefore, there is a growing niche for postsecondary support programs specifically designed for students with ASD. This doctoral project includes two parts: the development of an evidence-based online course for postsecondary students with ASD and the proposed evaluation of the online course. There are five theoretical reasons for poor postsecondary outcomes for young adults with ASD: (1) the increasing prevalence of ASD, (2) the absence of a “golden standard” in postsecondary transition for young adults with ASD, (3) the existing differences between educational and disability rights legislation at the secondary and postsecondary education levels, (4) the diagnostic characteristics of ASD, and (5) the characteristics of collegiate culture. The proposed online course curriculum will utilize evidence-based content and design from 29 pre-existing postsecondary support programs for students with ASD, and successful executive function and social skills curricula for students with ASD (“Unstuck and On Target”, Cannon, Kenworthy, Alexander, Werner, & Anthony, 2011; “PEERS for Young Adults”, Gantman, Kapp, Orenski, & Laugeson, 2011; “PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals”, Laugeson, 2014). The proposed feasibility study will measure the feasibility and acceptability of participation in an online course for college students with ASD. The proposed feasibility study will also measure preliminary outcomes regarding participants’ executive functioning, social skills, self-determination, and life satisfaction.

While schools are focused on academic success, many lack the resources and instruction needed to help students grow in their social emotional learning. However, research has shown that social emotional learning not only helps students build character but also helps them achieve academic goals. Furthermore, studies have shown that bibliotherapy helps children learn social skills and how to apply them into their own lives. The goal of this study was to determine if Book in a Bag, a social skills bibliotherapy program, implemented over the course of an entire school year was perceived by teachers as an acceptable method to help students learn social emotional skills. The study used a single case study design in an elementary school with grades 1-6. The sample consisted of 19 teachers from grades 1-6. This study was completed using existing data from an elementary school that implemented Book in a Bag. The Book in a Bag lessons were taught by the teachers, volunteers, or substitutes in every class. Surveys and focus groups were conducted to assess the social validity and perceptions of the program amongst the teachers regarding whether or not it was an acceptable strategy to teach students social skills. As part of this mixed methods design, an analysis of the means and standard deviations was performed on the survey data as well a one-way ANOVA to assess any differences across grade levels. Furthermore, a thematic analysis was performed on the focus group data to interpret the teachers' responses. Results suggested that teachers found Book in a Bag an acceptable way to teach social skills and they found the social skills important for their students' social emotional learning. There was no significant difference across grade levels. In the focus group data, teachers reported that the lessons were easy to implement and helped their students gain a greater sense of awareness of the social skill steps. However, teachers in every grade level reported that some of the books did not connect very well to the social skill it was intended to teach and oftentimes there were not enough books for each of the classes. Moreover, this study suggests that bibliotherapy may be an effective and easy way to promote social emotional learning in the classroom. Future implementation of this program should aim to make sure the books match with the social skill and that there are enough materials to implement the program on a school-wide level. Future studies of this program should look at how Book in Bag affects changes in student behavior across the school year by performing observational studies, particularly on playgrounds and during free time to see if students are implementing the social skill steps taught in the lessons.

There is a gap in the academic achievement of African American males when compared to their peers, this gap has been maintained for many years. The purpose of this study is to conduct a quantitative non-experimental secondary analysis utilizing a national data set focusing on African American male students from the 4th through the 6th grade. To test the hypothesis that, all things being equal, social skills positively affect academics in African American boys and that social information processing, school commitment, and work habits mediate this effect. In total, 60 African American male students in 4th through 6th grades who participated in the NICHD study were included in the data set. None of the proposed mediators mediated the effects of social skills on academic achievement while controlling for socioeconomic status, classroom climate, school resources, and previous school performance. To better understand the relation between social skills and achievement, it is recommended that future research associated with the variables identified in this research focus on one academic year opposed to a three-year gap.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the efficacy of animated video modeling (VM) in promoting acquisition of joint attention and social engagement skills for children with social skills difficulty. The study also sought to evaluate whether acquired skills generalized outside of the research setting. 6 children, ages ranging from 7 – 11 years, participated in the study, which was conducted at 2 different behavioral health clinics in Midwestern Nebraska. Participants were required to meet pre-requisite skills prior to being included in the study. Overall, results of the study found rapid acquisition of both target skills for the majority of the participants. Acquired skills were also demonstrated beyond the treatment setting and person. Further, caregivers reported animated VM was an acceptable treatment approach that was likely to make improvements for their children, reasonable, and could be willingly carried out with minimal concern for time, cost, or undesirable effects. Findings have several important implications regarding the use of animated VM as another type of VM intervention. Limitations and recommendations for future research are presented.

The research investigates the health services of Pakistan by exploring current Human Resource Development (HRD) practices and social skills training opportunities for the development of nursing staff. The research aims to explore the best practice in social skills and competency development through HRD activities by detailing a project to identify the learning needs of registered nurses leading to improved quality care services. An exploratory research approach has been adopted to achieve research objectives. This mixed method oriented research, is primarily quantitative case study, supplemented by qualitative interviews to validate and enrich data findings from questionnaires to substantiate the research. The data was collected through 600 questionnaires and 10 interviews from five major public hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. The research has identified multiple and diverse challenges of inadequate and improper HRD infrastructure, transformational leadership and participative style of management is resulting into degenerating attitudes and negative behaviours thus causing further slump. These counterproductive elements are failing to imbibe positive social skills and abilities in nursing staff resulting in creating impediments in deliverance of quality care services. This clearly indicates that there is no policy in place therefore, based on empirical evidences, as well as critical review of the literature, it proposes a model for achieving critical social skills development through training and development in order to achieve quality care standards based on the broad and long-term perspective of the strategy of input, process, output and outcome to support nursing sector, social skills development in particular to achieve optimum quality care objectives.

Social skills deficits may hinder learning, terminate relationships, and impede employment. Individuals with autism and intellectual disability are often characterized with difficulties in social judgement, emotions, and interpersonal relationships, all of which can lead to disruptive and aggressive behaviors. Explicit instruction, video modeling, and video feedback are research-based practices that have been used to teach conversation skills to individuals, particularly children with developmental disabilities and social impairments. This study examined the effects of explicit instruction combined with video modeling and video feedback in teaching six adults ages 18-20 with autism and intellectual disability skills for initiating a conversation. A multiple baseline across dyads design was used to teach these skills in a post-high school transition program. The dependent variable was the number of correct conversation initiation responses. The independent variable was an intervention package that included explicit verbal instruction with interspersed video modeling clips, followed by video feedback. All six participants acquired the skills and were able to initiate a conversation, and five participants maintained these skills over time, demonstrating them without the intervention. Implications for practitioners are described as well as suggestions for future research.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.