Children who exhibit language deficits and behavior problems often underachieve. However, interventions that target children with behavior problems primarily focus on changing behavior, and interventions that aim to improve achievement outcomes for school-age children with language deficits are scarce. The purposes of this dissertation were to (1) improve equal-sign understanding and problem solving in second-grade classrooms via class-wide symbolic equal-sign instruction, (2) contrast symbolic and nonsymbolic representation, and (3) test for interactions between treatment and individual differences in language, behavior, and attention. Second-grade students (n = 195) in 21 classrooms were randomly assigned to symbolic intervention, nonsymbolic intervention, or business-as-usual control. Both intervention conditions significantly outperformed control on all outcome measures, but there were no differences between conditions. Language moderated the symbolic intervention condition, but not the nonsymbolic condition. This suggests that language skill predicts response to symbolic, numerical instruction, while nonsymbolic instruction may compensate for language deficits. Neither problem behavior nor inattention moderated treatment effects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07112016-152921 |
| Date | 18 July 2016 |
| Creators | Chow, Jason C. |
| Contributors | C. Melanie Schuele, Emily E. Tanner-Smith, Blair P. Lloyd, Lynn S. Fuchs, Joseph H. Wehby |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07112016-152921/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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