While walking within room-sized spaces, blindfolded sighted people tend, spontaneously, to construct two-dimensional spatial representations of that space. As they walk, they couple kinesthetic input acquired when walking with the space as represented thereby enabling them to keep track of their positions. Individuals who are congenitally totally blind appear to construct sequential rather than spatial representations of the space through which they move. The specific roles of the coupling effect hypothesized by Rieser (1999) and of translations and rotations in maintaining orientation have not been adequately investigated. To investigate this, individuals who were congenitally totally blind and individuals with normal, but occluded vision, walked routes and then pointed to their places of origin. They did so under four conditions: In an imagined surround, they imagined the placement of objects from a familiar setting and in a virtual ganzfeld; they were given no instructions for completing the task. While walking the routes they either translated only, or translated and rotated. The individuals who were congenitally totally blind also participated in a second study wherein they imagined they walked within a Braille cell under the same four conditions. Individuals who are congenitally totally blind were significantly slower at pointing at a target suggesting they did not construct spatial representations of the space through which they moved while in transit. Rather they appeared to construct them in retrospect. Both groups of participants performed significantly better in the translation only condition. Rotations introduced an element of error in the performance of both groups of participants. Possible reasons are discussed.

Practitioners are increasingly expected to provide reading instruction to students with cognitive disabilities to help them become literate. Whereas a phonics-based approach to reading instruction is regarded as a best practice for most young children, its effectiveness for children with cognitive disabilities is unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore this issue for a sample of 24 children with Down syndrome (DS) between the ages of 7 and 16 years. More specifically, the studys purpose was to explore the effectiveness of phonics-based instruction for children with DS and to model individual childrens reading growth to identify specific child characteristics predictive of this growth. Results indicate that a majority of children demonstrated statistically significant growth in letter sounds, and reading of taught sight words and decodable words. Children with DS who entered the study with more advanced word identification skills made greater gains in decodable word reading; those with more advanced phoneme segmentation skills made greater gains in nonsense word reading. Overall, findings support inclusion of phonics-based reading instruction into academic programs for children with DS.

The first objective of the current study was to determine if early childhood teachers receive feedback about their classroom practices, and the second objective was to determine if feedback predicts teachers use of recommended practices. Teachers of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, employed by Head Start and centers accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, were solicited. Standard and hierarchical regression was used to analyze questionnaire data from 238 respondents. Teachers reports of the quantity and quality of feedback they received were compared to their education, degree, and experience, in addition to being compared to other strategies used to train teachers. The influence of program type and presence of children with disabilities in the classroom was also analyzed. In general, teachers reported receiving little information about their performance in the classroom. When feedback was received, however, teachers reported that it was quite useful. Educational level was the single most predictive variable. Unexpected results related to the receipt of feedback compared to other strategies used to train teachers are discussed.

From the psychoanalytic literature, families of children who have died are likely to have replacement children. This study examines, in comparison to families of children without disabilities, whether families of children with disabilities are more likely to have additional children. Using Tennessee State Birth Records, this study examines subsequent children and family size across families of children without disabilities, families of children with spina bifida, and families of children with Down syndrome. Furthermore, this study examines the influence of parent-family variables across the groups. Results indicate that, in comparison to families of children without disabilities, families of children with disabilities are more likely to have subsequent children and larger family size. Implications are discussed.

Students at risk for developing externalizing behavior disorders (EBD) are among the most challenging students to teach. The combination of instructional and behavioral demands that students at risk for EBD place on their teachers increases the likelihood of coercive interactions (Patterson, 1982). This pilot study compared the responsiveness of classroom teachers with students at high and low risk for developing behavior problems. Responsiveness was measured using a unique coding system designed to utilize sequential analytic technology to determine the reciprocity between teacher and student behaviors. Results indicated that the interactions between teachers and students at high risk for EBD did, in fact, differ with those of low risk students. Specifically, teachers were more likely to respond to compliant responses by low risk students with academic instruction and disruptive behaviors of low risk students with reprimands. In addition, high risk students were shown to be more disruptive and less compliant following teacher instruction. Results are discussed in terms of coercion theory.

ABSTRACT Improving student outcomes requires effective evidence-based instructional and behavioral practices, but successful adoption and sustainability of these practices by classroom teachers requires support. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of performance feedback as a strategy to generate high levels of treatment fidelity of the Good Behavior Game (Barrish, Saunders & Wolf, 1969) an evidence-based classwide behavior management practice. Secondly the purpose was to extend the literature by examining if this support can be maintained with the use of teacher self-monitoring of treatment fidelity. A multiple baseline design across four teachers was used to examine the purpose of the study. Results indicate a functional relation exists between initial training and performance feedback on treatment fidelity of the Good Behavior Game. Baseline levels of treatment fidelity shifted from zero to above 90% once the independent variable was applied with mean levels at 97% or above across teachers. In addition, results indicate a functional relation exists between use self-monitoring to maintain previous levels of treatment fidelity established with training and performance feedback. Social validity indicates favorable teacher ratings of the Good Behavior Game and self-monitoring. Limitations of the study with conclusions and future research are discussed.

We conducted two studies to explore a newly constructed dynamic assessment (DA) intended to tap inference making skills which we hypothesize will be predictive of future comprehension performance, and more specifically, comprehension failure. In the first study, we administered a traditional static test to 68 second grade children to determine the reliability and difficulty of the items. Children listened to short passages and answered 3 inferential questions (i.e., 1 setting and 2 causal). In the second study, we administered the test to 100 second-grade children using a dynamic format to consider the concurrent validity of the measure. In contrast to the static condition in which no instruction or feedback was provided to the children, in the dynamic condition, children were taught to be reading detectives by using textual clues to solve what was happening in the story. After listening to a story, if children were unable to answer a question, they were reminded what a reading detective would do and given a set of increasingly concrete prompts and clues until they could answer the question correctly. Results from the first study indicated that setting inferences were easier than causal inferences and that the reliability of the test was adequate, alpha = .76. Results from the second study showed that the DA correlated with a standardized measure of reading comprehension, r = .70 and explained 4% unique variance in the reading comprehension measure above and beyond verbal IQ and word identification skills.

The author presented an examination of teachers use of praise and reprimands in relation to student behaviors for students identified as exhibiting problem behaviors. Data were examined from student-centered observations of student and teacher behaviors occurring during instructional interactions for elementary-age students across two educational settings (i.e., general education classrooms or self-contained special education classrooms for students with problem behaviors). Results indicated higher mean rates of teacher praise than mean rates of teacher reprimands across both settings, with evidence of high variability in rates of praise and reprimands received by students in the sample. Results also indicated that variability in rates of praise and reprimands was associated with variability in students appropriate engagement in classroom activities, with a positive association between overall rates of praise and student engagement (significant correlation for students in special education classrooms only) and a negative association between overall rates of reprimands and student engagement (with evidence of a curvilinear relation for students in special education classrooms). The author discussed the importance of considering the effectiveness of teacher praise and reprimands to reduce inappropriate student behaviors and to increase appropriate behaviors. The importance of considering factors that influence variability in the relations between teacher praise and reprimands and student engagement is also discussed. Limitations are discussed and implications for research and practice are presented.

A large majority of students continue to fall below basic writing levels in spite of the existence of effective supplemental writing treatments (e.g., Self-Regulated Strategy Development model; SRSD; Harris, Graham, and Mason, 2003). In this dissertation, three trained school volunteers, all with high school diplomas, but without writing tutoring experience or teacher preparation backgrounds, effectively delivered structured story-writing instruction using the SRSD model to six third-grade struggling writers. The tutees were eight (n =2), nine (n = 2) and ten (n = 2) year old Caucasian (4/6; 67%), Latino (1/6; 17%) and African American (1/6; 17%) students. Two students had been referred for or were receiving special education services. A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to determine overall effect. All students writing improved in number of essential story elements included in stories. Writing quality and production also improved. All sessions were audio recorded. Treatment fidelity was high (above 90% for the majority of lessons) as was inter-rater reliability on all outcome measures (range .73 to 1.00). Conclusions are drawn and implications for future research discussed.

As young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are particularly vulnerable to being taken advantage of, safety training is needed to teach appropriate responding to lures from strangers. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a 2-phase training to teach 5 young adults with IDD to respond appropriately to lures from strangers. In Phase 1, behavior skills training (BST) was used to teach participants to say no, walk away, and tell an adult in response to a lure from a stranger. Participants rehearsed the safety responses through 5 role-plays during daily classroom sessions. Once criterion was met, Phase 2 training was conducted in situ; participants completed 5 role-plays in community settings every 1-2 days. The safety skill of walking away from the stranger was measured during baseline, generalization, and maintenance through in situ assessments. For each in situ assessment, the participant was left alone in a community setting; a confederate stranger approached the participant, presented a lure, and waited for a response. Participants were unaware they were being tested. Results indicate that prior to training, participants did not walk away from confederate strangers. Skills were quickly acquired during Phase 1 role-play, with participants meeting criterion within 3-4 sessions. In situ assessments conducted during Phase 1 and prior to the start of Phase 2 indicated that participants still did not always walk away from the confederate stranger. During Phase 2, participants again quickly met criterion and independently walked away during 80% of role-play scenarios within 3 in situ training sessions. Generalization increased throughout Phase 2. All participants learned to walk away after completing Phase 2 and skills maintained up to 3 months after training. This study extends the literature to teaching young adults with IDD to responds appropriately to lures from strangers, decreasing the risk of being taken advantage of.