The performance of children in writing is a cause for concern: national testing at age 11 indicates that too many pupils underachieve in writing. The purpose of the project outlined in this thesis was to design a computer tool which would assist children aged between 7 and 11 years achieve a higher standard in narrative writing. The project involved four phases of research. First, a review of the research literature and government documents relating to literacy was undertaken, to establish differences between good and poor narrative writing, differences in the approach of mature and beginner writers, the natural course of children's writing development, effective methods of teaching, ways of assessing writing quality and approaches adopted by other computer applications. Secondly, a computer tool which scaffolds the narrative writing process was designed. HARRY delivers conversational prompts, stored in Microsoft Access databases, in a conference like-sitaation. The tool acts as a bridge between the writing approach adopted by beginner writers and the mature approach whilst demonstrating features of successful narrative writing. Thirdly, a method for automating the assessment of children's written grammar was devised. CHECK TEXT, a computer utility program, provides quantitative analyses of specific grammar features, facilitating comparisons between examples of stories written at Key Stage 2. Both applications use ASP and HTML files, for implementation on a web server. Finally, two small scale studies were conducted in a primary school - the first to investigate the effects of HARRY's assistance upon children's writing performance and behaviour, and the second to investigate the effects of using the system upon children's subsequent writing performance. The first study showed that when supported by HARRY, the children adopted a more reflective writing approach and they produced more successful narratives, provided they followed the advice. The second study showed that HARRY can accelerate children's writing development - most of the children wrote subsequently better stories and they all felt that they had improved. All the children liked using the tool and thought that HARRY made writing stories easier. HARRY's limitations are indicated, and potential developments and further investigations are proposed.

The following research was conducted to contribute to the greater understanding of the impact that most often utilized methods of public awareness and education have on behaviors relative to sickness and disease for the general public in terms of action toward prevention behaviors within a healthcare setting. The psycho educational approach is often considered an effective means to promote behavior change as it relates to preventative behavior, and in the clinical therapeutic setting has shown some relevance as an effective procedure. Unfortunately, no research as of yet speaks to the comparative effectiveness this approach may have over other approaches often thought to enhance preventative behavior, such as the more empirically based behavior analytic methods. This study provides such an analysis of the effectiveness each methodology has on changing the behavior of the public at large. Based on a study conducted in the academic setting to increase hand-sanitizing behavior of facility patrons (Loukus & Dixon, in review), this study utilizes the most effective form of prompting found to increase sanitizer use in a public facility. Because healthcare facilities often rely on psycho educational methodologies to influence sanitizer use amongst visitors and employees by placing "sanitizing stations" at the main entrance to the facility, this setting provides an appropriate venue for scientific manipulation of prompting variables to determine effectiveness on public preventative behavior towards sickness and disease, while a simple reversal design enhances the comparative value of effects obtained on behavior through observation and implementation of the two approaches within the setting.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo pautar as possibilidades de leitura da obra do artista alemão Hans Haacke apresentando 6 obras bases de análise. A pesquisa cerca as relações entre arte e sociedade em uma esfera tanto micro quanto macropolítica contando com conceitos sociológicos que pautam a dimensão simbólica da arte frente às relações econômicas e políticas com as quais a obra de Haacke dialoga. A partir da construção de aspectos sociais simbólicos a dissertação visa também explorar o direcionamento afetivo tanto na leitura do trabalho de Haacke quanto no redirecionamento da posição crítica social e artística com que o artista joga enquanto aspecto conceitual de sua própria obra, focando pontos que lidam com a construção coletiva de subjetividades. A dissertação assim aponta para uma investigação de novos lugares de diálogo da própria arte submerssa em uma constante construção e negociação de seu espaço em meio a outras áreas de conhecimento / The present dissertation has as objective to measure different possibilities of reading the work of the German artist Hans Haacke, introducing 6 pieces of art as basis of his thinking. This research surrounds the relations between art and society in a micro and macropolitic sphere, thinking in terms of sociological concepts that works with the symbolic dimension of art facing the economics and politics relations in which Hans Haackes work dialogs with. Assuming the construction of symbolic social aspects the dissertation is either intended to explore the affective diretionement in the moment of the reading Hans Haackes work as well as the redirectionement of a social and artistic critic position, on which is one of the tools used by the artist as conceptual discurce into his own work, the focus points to deal with the subjetiv colletive constructions. In this way the dissertation point to an investigation of new dialog places whereon art is submerged, a place in constant construction and negociation of its boundaries among anothers knowledge areas

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo pautar as possibilidades de leitura da obra do artista alemão Hans Haacke apresentando 6 obras bases de análise. A pesquisa cerca as relações entre arte e sociedade em uma esfera tanto micro quanto macropolítica contando com conceitos sociológicos que pautam a dimensão simbólica da arte frente às relações econômicas e políticas com as quais a obra de Haacke dialoga. A partir da construção de aspectos sociais simbólicos a dissertação visa também explorar o direcionamento afetivo tanto na leitura do trabalho de Haacke quanto no redirecionamento da posição crítica social e artística com que o artista joga enquanto aspecto conceitual de sua própria obra, focando pontos que lidam com a construção coletiva de subjetividades. A dissertação assim aponta para uma investigação de novos lugares de diálogo da própria arte submerssa em uma constante construção e negociação de seu espaço em meio a outras áreas de conhecimento / The present dissertation has as objective to measure different possibilities of reading the work of the German artist Hans Haacke, introducing 6 pieces of art as basis of his thinking. This research surrounds the relations between art and society in a micro and macropolitic sphere, thinking in terms of sociological concepts that works with the symbolic dimension of art facing the economics and politics relations in which Hans Haackes work dialogs with. Assuming the construction of symbolic social aspects the dissertation is either intended to explore the affective diretionement in the moment of the reading Hans Haackes work as well as the redirectionement of a social and artistic critic position, on which is one of the tools used by the artist as conceptual discurce into his own work, the focus points to deal with the subjetiv colletive constructions. In this way the dissertation point to an investigation of new dialog places whereon art is submerged, a place in constant construction and negociation of its boundaries among anothers knowledge areas

Children with autism show deficits in communication skills, including joint attention, a component of which is following the line of regard. Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment examined how prompting and fading procedures effected following the line of regard in a child with autism. The second experiment examined this effect on the child's learning the names of novel objects. One 10-year-old boy, with a primary diagnosis of autism, participated. A changing criterion design was used in Experiment I. Experiment II used a succession of interventions to assess incidental learning of novel object names. Results indicate that prompting and fading with reinforcement was an effective training procedure for teaching this child to follow the line of regard. However, this skill did not automatically lead to the child's learning the names of novel objects.

Organization Behavior Management (OBM) is a subfield within the discipline of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) involving the application of ABA principles and practices to organizational settings. One successful intervention used in OBM is the implementation of a performance improvement package. This approach has proven to be an effective problem solving strategy in a variety of settings, based on effective components such as goal-setting, prompting, and feedback. In this endeavor a performance improvement package was applied within an educational setting. In this school district, school psychologists are required to complete documentation for Medicaid reimbursement to the district, but were inconsistent in doing so. The purpose of this study was to improve the consistency of billing for Medicaid reimbursement by 74 school psychologists serving 102 schools. A multiple baseline across three areas was used to assess the effectiveness of the intervention introduced in a sequential manner.

Although household product, such as pharmaceuticals and cleaning chemicals, are part of a child’s everyday life, accidental poisonings can occur as a result of ingestion. Children diagnosed with developmental disabilities are even more susceptible to being injured when they come into contact with these poisonous agents. Behavioral approaches have been used extensively to teach safety skills to children with disabilities. However, those that targeted poison prevention skills required additional methods that were more intrusive for the child to acquire the skills. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a modified behavioral skills training package that incorporates a system of least prompts. Results showed that BST and system of least prompts increased poison prevention skills for all three participants and the skills maintained at follow-up.

Video modeling is an evidence-based practice for teaching a wide range of skills to individuals with disabilities. Recent advances in technology have also made video modeling and video prompting more accessible and feasible for teachers and practitioners. This study aims to see if a functional difference exists between two filming perspectives: point-of-view and spectator. Using a single-subject alternating treatments design with least-to-most prompting, the researcher investigated differences between the two perspectives. Four individuals participated in this study—two males and two females between the ages of 19 and 21 with varying disabilities. Data were analyzed visually. Tasks that were taught are: cutting paper using a paper slicer, gluing paper onto a painted wood block, and opening a combination lock. At the conclusion of the study, it was determined that there is not a substantial difference between the two perspectives. However, participants successfully learned the new skills in both perspectives, indicating that positive outcomes may be observed when using a video prompting intervention to teach new skills to young adults with disabilities.

This study investigated effects of video prompting using an iPod Touch to teach recipe-following to four 16-19 year-old youth with intellectual disability and autism in a transition classroom. Target behaviors involved correctly following three multi-step recipes: microwave dinner, brownies, and gelatin. A multiple-probe design across recipes was replicated across participants. After low levels of responding in baseline probes, researchers presented participants with an iPod Touch showing each step of the task using video and with audio narration. Following the video prompting phase, maintenance and home-based generalization probes were conducted. The intervention increased recipe-following performance for all participants. Performance maintained and generalized to youths’ home kitchens. Results are discussed in regards to using video demonstrations in a sequence of prompts.

Recognizing the importance of food waste as an environmental and social problem, this thesis aims to test nudging as a successful tool to promote a pro-environmental behaviour towards food waste reduction. The present research uses an experiment in a university canteen in Gotland, Sweden, with two interventions - posters with informational prompts and practical tips. Through quantitative analysis, we were able to conclude that nudging reduced overall food waste but with no statistical significance for the informational treatment. Furthermore, the informational prompts and the suggestions of shortcut solutions had similar positive impacts on food waste, with no significant difference. However, the study highlights some aspects that limit these results to a short-term perspective due to the experimental period of two months. On the other hand, the complementary qualitative data from interviews with customers revealed that nudges, especially practical suggestions, can be more useful as an awareness tool rather than a technique to actually change behaviours. Overall, the findings show that the two interventions reduced food waste with a continuous decreasing trend. Therefore, nudging can be a useful technique for canteens and restaurants to influence consumers’ behaviour towards food waste reduction.