The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy (SEEL) intervention activities that incorporate digital books to teach kindergarteners to read. The study used a single-subject-multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design to compare kindergarten students' reading of comparable CVC words before and after intervention. Four students at-risk for reading difficulties were chosen for the study based on their performance on assessments and their teachers' recommendations. Students were divided into two dyads and received intervention three times a week for 25 minutes for approximately six weeks, or 18 total sessions. Baseline assessment data was collected prior to intervention, and performance on each target was monitored through the same assessment task after every intervention session. Students received SEEL instruction on one set of word targets while a comparable set was kept at baseline phase. After six intervention sessions on the first set of word targets, a second set was introduced while the first set was monitored for maintenance. Finally, a third set of target words was introduced and taught in six sessions, and the first two sets of words were monitored for maintenance. Instruction involved using meaningful and interactive activities that incorporated playful practice, multiple exposures to targets, explicit statement of the goal, and reciprocal teacher-student exchanges where students' contributions were acknowledged and incorporated into the lesson or meaning construction. After being exposed to the target words (orally and in writing), children were provided with additional opportunities to read and write the words within digital books created on the iPad.

A preponderance of research points to the detrimental effects of distraction on driving performance. An interesting question is whether practice can improve distracted driving. The results from the few longitudinal simulator-based research studies conducted on driving distraction have been inconclusive. This may be because practice effects could be confounded with participants adapting to driving in the simulator. Therefore, participants in the current studies were trained until performance reached a steady state prior to introducing the distracters. In this dissertation, two single-subject design studies were used to investigate the effects of training on distracted driving. The first study included two participants who experienced several different types of distracters. In the second study distracters were introduced before and after the training phase. The two distracters selected for Study 2 included conversing on a handheld phone and texting on a touchscreen phone continuously while driving in a city scenario. Previous research has not compared texting to phone, has had relatively little examination of texting and driving alone, and has primarily focused on hands-free phones and on highway settings. Participants drove on a city route which they had previously memorized to add realism to the driving task. Measures collected included speed maintenance, lane deviations/position errors, stop errors, and turn errors in both studies. In Study 2, subjective workload and reaction time were also collected. Findings indicated that training improved performance substantially for all participants in both studies compared to the initial baseline. Participants who experienced six and even nine sessions of the initial baseline did not necessarily improve more than those who only had three sessions. Performance for some participants did not improve in the initial baseline. The lower iii error levels in training remained fairly stable in subsequent baselines showing that actual learning did occur. Texting had higher error levels than phone both pre and post-training. There were no practice effects noticed for the distracters post-training for any of the participants, and in fact errors increased across sessions for phone and especially texting in Study 2. Training helped improve performance during the phone distraction more so than texting overall, although this varied for different dependent measures. Although errors were reduced after training in the distracter phases, the data actually showed that the performance difference between the baselines and the distracters pre-training was smaller than the differences post-training. Based on these findings, it is recommended that researchers conducting driving simulation research systematically train their participants on driving the simulator before they begin data collection.

The ability to read aloud fluently is a reflection of one's ability to automatically decode words and comprehend text at the same time (Samuels, 2006), a task which may be difficult for many intermediate elementary students with learning disabilities (LD) (Ferrara, 2005). Previous research shows that audio-assisted repeated readings and goal-setting with feedback are effective methods of improving oral reading fluency (ORF) (Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Morgan & Sideridis, 2006; Therrien, 2004) but implementing these interventions may be time-consuming for teachers and tedious for students. The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of including repeated reading interventions within a problem-solving framework of services for individual intermediate students with LD. Specifically, this study investigated whether a videotaped delivery method of a repeated reading intervention improved ORF at the same rate as a one-on-one delivery method for four fifth-grade students with LD. Using an ABCBC alternating-phases design, the single-subject study began with a short baseline followed by two treatment phases. Phase B utilized one-on-one repeated reading interventions delivered by an experienced teacher. Phase C utilized a pre-recorded videotaped version of the same teacher following the same procedures. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to determine the preferred learning method for each participant. The results of this research reinforced the use of repeated reading interventions for individual intermediate elementary students with LD. All four participants met or exceeded the goal of 25% improvement in reading rates. Results also suggest value in devoting time to the preparation of prerecorded videotaped ORF interventions in order to meet the needs of some struggling learners. Consideration of individual learner characteristics was discussed, as well as consideration of time constraints faced by both general and special educators.

The Good Behavior Game and Tootling are two intervention techniques rooted in behavioral theory that are widely used for class wide behavior management purposes. Few studies have evaluated the use of these classwide behavior management interventions with the addition of a technological component or when applied to a post-secondary education setting. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the effects of the Good Behavior Game with ClassDojo and Tootling with ClassDojo for increasing academic engagement and decreasing problem behavior in a post-secondary classroom. Participants included emerging adult students (19-24 years-old) with intellectual disabilities in a Comprehensive Transitional Program at a major university. An alternating treatment design was implemented to compare the intervention conditions to both a baseline and an ongoing control conditions. Results, limitations of the study, implication for practice, and future research are discussed.

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Reading fluency is a crucial skill to learn to be successful in school and in life. Research indicates that the most effective and widely used group interventions to increase children’s reading fluency such as repeated reading have been used with minimal to no modifications since their development. Although there are many reading fluency strategies and interventions to select from, few group reading fluency interventions have emerged in the literature with enough evidence to support their use. It is crucial to implement effective and efficient group reading fluency intervention to decrease the time the student spends instructionally behind peers as well as save the resources such as time and money. This study will compare the effects of an empirically supported reading intervention, rapid read, to the evidenced based group reading fluency intervention, group repeated reading. The goal of this study is to compare the interventions efficiency, effectiveness, and social validity.

Although behavior analysts have studied the effects of motivation on preference assessments, consumer behaviorist have not. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the temporary removal of a choice on the order and frequency of purchases after the candy returned. Seventy percent of the time the participant purchased the removed candy first and 60% of the time the participant purchased more than in the baseline.

I många utvecklingsländer finns en begränsad tillgång på utvecklade AKK-system (Alant, 1999) och ofta även en okunskap kring möjligheterna att arbeta med kommunikationsproblem (Marshall, 1997). I föreliggande studie genomförs intervention i alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation (AKK) för två deltagare med cerebral pares på ett dagcenter i Kilimanjaroregionen, Tanzania. Syftet i föreliggande interventionsstudie är att genom intervention studera och utveckla de i mätsituationerna responsiva talakterna att påkalla uppmärksamhet för att inleda interaktion, acceptera och avfärda samt upprätthålla och avsluta interaktion. Detta sker med hjälp av begreppen ja och nej för att acceptera och avfärda, liksom mer och mindre för att upprätthålla och avsluta interaktion. Studien följer en single subjekt design och insatsen utgörs av två interventionsperioder, bestående av direkt intervention med deltagarna samt utbildning och fortlöpande handledning av personal. Resultaten visar att deltagarna i varierande grad lärde sig att påkalla uppmärksamhet för att inleda interaktion, acceptera och avfärda samt upprätthålla och avsluta interaktion. Det observerades även att deltagarna i högre grad utförde performativa talakter utanför den styrda testsituationen. Områden som vidare diskuteras är bland annat deltagarnas kommunikativa handlingar utifrån The Communication Matrix där en utveckling från prelingvistiska uttrycksätt till användandet av abstrakta symboler synliggjordes hos deltagarna. / In several developing countries there are a limited supply of developed AAC systems (Alant, 1999) whereas a lack of knowledge about the possibilities of working with communication problems (Marshall, 1997). The present study is an intervention study about the introduction of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for two participants with cerebral palsy at a day-care centre in the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. The purpose of the intervention study was to develop responsive speech acts to attract attention to initiate interaction, accept and reject interaction, as well as maintain and terminate interaction. This was done using the terms yes and no to accept and reject, and more and less to continue and terminate interaction. The study followed a single subject design consisting of two intervention periods, where direct intervention with the participants and continuing training and guidance for the staff occurred. The results show that the participants in varying degrees, has learned to attract attention to initiate interaction, accept and reject interaction as well as to maintain and terminate interaction. It was also observed that the participants learned to use the performative speech acts outside the controlled test situation. An area further discussed is the participants’ communicative acts as shown in The Communication Matrix, which displayed a development from pre linguistic models of expression to use the abstract symbols.

Det finns mycket forskning som handlar om barns läsinlärning, men inte om barns egen högläsning. Syftet med den här studien var att se om högläsning för ett djur kunde öka motivationen för läsning hos barn med lässvårigheter. Studien hade 2 deltagande barnmed lässvårighetersamt 3 deltagande föräldrar som rekryterades av logoped som är verksam hos Lära med djur, den förening där läsinterventionen genomfördes. Metoden var single subject design (A-B-A) där varje barn utgjorde sin egen kontroll. Studien var indelad i tre olika faser. Under baslinjen (A) läste barnet högt i hemmiljön. Under interventionen (B) läste barnet högt för ett djur vid fem tillfällen. Under uppföljningen (A) läste barnet hemma igen. All högläsning videoinspelades och föräldrarna intervjuades 3 gånger, en gång i respektive fas. Viss förändring hos barnen kundekonstateras på områdena aktiv lästid och antal avbrott under läsningen. Intervjuerna med föräldrarna visade på att interventionen med djur förefaller ha haft en positiv påverkan på åtminstone ett av barnens läsmotivation. Båda föräldraparen valde att låta sina barn fortsätta läsa hos Lära med djur efter studiens avslut. Sammantaget visade resultaten att läsning med djur kan ha en viss effekt på barnets läsning, men vidare studier krävs på området. / There is a lot of studies done about children’s learning to read but not a lot about themselves reading aloud. The purpose of this study was to see if reading aloud to an animal can increase the reading motivation in children with reading difficulties. The study had 2 participating children with reading difficulties and 3 participating parents who were recruited by a speech and language pathologist who works at Lära med djur, the association where the reading intervention took place. The method was a single subject design (A-B-A) where each child constituted as their own control. The study was divided into three different phases. During the baseline (A), the child read aloud in the home environment. During the intervention (B), the child read aloud to an animal on five occasions. During the follow-up (A), the child read at home again. All readings were videotaped. The parents were interviewed three times, one time in each of the phases. The children showed some change in the areas of active reading time, the correct number of words read and the number of interruptions during reading. The interviews with the parents showed that the intervention with animals seemed to have had a positive effect on foremost one of the childrens’ motivation for reading. Both parent couples said that they chose to let their child continue to read at Lära med djur atthe end of the study. Overall, the resultsshowed that reading with animals can have a certain effect on the child's reading, but further studies are required in this area.