Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

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TABLE 1 (Continued) Subject Age Gender Diagnosis Primary communication form used by participant 24 4 Male Pervasive developmental disabilities 25 10 Female Pervasive developmental disabilities 26 7 Male Pervasive developmental disabilities M 6.23 special education teachers, speech and language pathologists). Therefore, the students’ current diagnoses may not be accurate. For the same reason, we limited information regarding their cognitive and language abilities. The students in this study were selected by interviewing speech and language pathologists and special education teachers. The following criteria were used in the selection process: (a) use of non-symbolic forms of communication (e.g., gestures, pointing, etc), and/or vocabulary limited with five words (e.g., mommy, want, go, etc.) and (b) a developmental disability (e.g., Down syndrome, Autism, etc.). In addition, none of the students demonstrated a history of hearing loss, neurological impairments, visual problems, or a physical disability. All students were able to complete daily living skills such as toileting, dressing, or taking a shower with verbal or physical assistance. They were able to follow one or two steps instructions (e.g., “look”, “write”, “open your bag, and get your book”). When their names were called by others, they were able to recognize and acknowledge the communication partner. Finally, they were able to identify basic concepts such as primary colors, and shapes. They could turn their head toward the sound when their name was called. Data Collection Data were collected in participants’ classrooms. Classrooms were similar in size (e.g., 5 to 8 students). The classrooms typically contained six tables and ten chairs, a variety of toys (e.g., balls, dolls, etc.) and educational materials (e.g., drawing books, pens, story Gestures pointing, vocalizing, reaching, giving/ offering, showing an object, etc.) and vocalizations Gestures, four words (e.g. mommy, daddy, go, come) and word approximations. Gestures, three (e.g., mummy, go, want) words and word approximations. books). Number of student present during the free play varied and it ranged from one child to six students. Each student was video-taped for a 60minute-period during free play activities that were held in the classrooms. The first ten minutes of the observation were excluded from analysis to minimize the effect of observer and camera in the classroom. From remaining 50 minutes, 30-minute segments were randomly selected. The samples were obtained in the presence of background noise; so, the sample would be more typical of those occurring during everyday communication breakdowns and repair strategy use. Moreover, neither students nor teachers were informed about which recording would be analyzed; and since they were not informed, the video samples were as natural as they could be. The context of the interaction was determined by the teacher in a way that would lead to optimal communicative interaction among student. Data Coding Video tapes were analyzed, and interactions between students and teachers were coded for communication breakdowns used by their teachers and type of repair behaviors used by the students. The first and second author discussed potential categories and their definitions based on prior research. Definition of initial communication behavior was adapted from Golinkoff (1986) and Keen (2005). An initial communication behavior is defined as the child’s behavior that (a) was a gesture or vocalization; (b) was directed toward a teacher to interact; and (c) Communication Breakdown / 403
served a communicative function. In this study, communication breakdowns were classified in the following ways. They were adapted from Brady & Halle (2002), and Halle et al., 2004). Requesting clarification. Requesting clarification means that the teacher indicates that the message uttered by the student is not understandable and asks for clarification. For example, the student points the toy car, and the teacher says “What do you mean?”, “What do you want?”, or “I don’t understand”; or following the communicative behavior of the student, the teacher raises his/her eyebrows, narrows his/her eyes, and shakes his/her head once laterally, or projects his/her arms with his/her palms facing up and jerks his/ her shoulders. Non-acknowledgements. The teacher gives no verbal or nonverbal acknowledgement to the participant’s attempts to communicate. For instance, during an activity which focuses on animal sounds, one of the students’ points to the kitchen set nearby, but the teacher does not response and continues the activity as if the student did not do anything. Topic shift. Following the communicative behaviors of the student, the teacher directs the student’s attention from what s/he is engaged to a different topic or thing. For example, while the teacher and the student are painting a picture, the student points to a toy, and the teacher says “Now, we are painting our picture, and we should paint these parts as well”. Another example is that; during a matching activity which requires finding identical pairs of some shapes, the student begins playing with one of the pieces as if it was a car, and the teacher says “Now, let’s collect the pairs that are the same”. Coding definitions of repair categories were adapted from Brady and Halle (2002), Halle et al. (2004). Repair behaviors were classified in following four ways. No response. No response is defined as discontinuance of communication initiated by the student. In other words, the student gives up his communication goal and or ignores the teacher’s communication signals. For example, the student points the ball, teacher does not response, and the student discontinues communication. Repetition. When a student exactly repeats what s/he did or said in the previous communicative behaviors, repetition is recorded. For example, the student asks for the ball from the teacher by only pointing to it; then, s/he repeats the exact behavior without any additions or reductions. Recast. Recast is changing the form of the previous communicative behaviors while keeping the content of the message exactly the same. For instance, the teacher asks “Where did daddy go?” by showing a picture to the student, and the student replies “/E:/” (trying to say “/EVE/”). But, the teacher repeats the same question, and the student, this time, only points to the ‘house’ figure in the picture that the teacher is holding, and says nothing. Addition. Addition means that the student adds either vocal or gestural elements to his/ her previous message, and in the meantime, also exactly repeats whatever s/he did or said in the preceding message. For instance, the student asks for the ball by only pointing to it (with his/her index finger); and after the response by the teacher, s/he both yells and points the ball. Interobserver Reliability Videotapes of seven students (25% of the students) were randomly selected to be coded by an independent observer to assess scoring reliability. Interobserver reliability was evaluated for each of the student’s communication repair behaviors (no response, repetition, recast, and addition or reduction), and teachers’ communication breakdowns (requesting clarification non-acknowledgements, topic shift). Interobserver reliability was calculated on a point by point basis by dividing number of agreements by the total number of agreements and disagreements, which was subsequently multiplied by 100. An agreement occurred when both observers assigned the same code to the repair strategy. A disagreement occurred when different codes were assigned by the two observers. In other words, if one observer recorded a repair strategy as occurring, and the other did not, a disagreement was scored. The percentages of interobserver reliability for repetition, recast, addition, and no response, requesting clarification, non-acknowledge- 404 / Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-September 2010
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Education and Training in Autism an
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Education and Training in Autism an
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Manuscripts Accepted for Future Pub
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dents in classes that included stud
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TABLE 1 Summary Descriptors of Meli
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tions were conducted at their work
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her function more independently wit
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eluctant to engage in interactions.
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ehaviors were consistent with Phill
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disabilities. Second, it has promot
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youth with severe disabilities. Min
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parents of students with intellectu
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tributed to such PSE program compon
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TABLE 2 Mean Scores of the 7 PSE Pr
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that educators’ and parents’ po
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gan, 1997). Despite the challenges
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ing the total score of the Family A
Page 35 and 36: with the identified factors being r
Page 37 and 38: of a positive outlook has been docu
Page 39 and 40: Education and Training in Autism an
Page 41 and 42: TABLE 1 Demographic Characteristics
Page 43 and 44: ways in the same interviews where s
Page 45 and 46: In a number of comments, respondent
Page 47 and 48: practitioners assigned both issues
Page 51 and 52: eliability (r .92) and good inter-
Page 53 and 54: TABLE 2 EQCA Adaptive Behaviors: Me
Page 55 and 56: TABLE 5 ERDCP: Means, SDs, and t Te
Page 57 and 58: teen of these studies (90%) reveale
Page 59 and 60: practice may have had an influence
Page 63 and 64: ing to questions, (c) the learner f
Page 65 and 66: around a small instructional table
Page 67 and 68: TABLE 2 (Continued) 9. Guide studen
Page 69 and 70: TABLE 3 (Continued) Student Steps B
Page 71 and 72: TABLE 3 (Continued) Student Steps D
Page 73 and 74: esponding to errors by interrupting
Page 75 and 76: Figure 1. Teacher’s number of ste
Page 77 and 78: Figure 2. Number of inquiry skills
Page 79 and 80: TABLE 4 Results of Parent Survey It
Page 81 and 82: data was not simply an artifact of
Page 85: TABLE 1 Students’ Description Sub
Page 89 and 90: Descriptive Analysis The first rese
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Page 95 and 96: stood attribution when two consecut
Page 97 and 98: within easy reach. The instructiona
Page 99 and 100: and provided Takao a pen with thin
Page 101 and 102: Figure 3. Percentages of correct re
Page 103 and 104: teacher whether we should fully hon
Page 107 and 108: components to be effective promptin
Page 109 and 110: ability (IQ 44, Stanford-Binet Inte
Page 111 and 112: TABLE 1 Task Analysis for Cooking R
Page 113 and 114: pographic); and (c) no response, ch
Page 115 and 116: Figure 2. Percentage of steps perfo
Page 117 and 118: Figure 4. Percentage of steps perfo
Page 119 and 120: ture audio feature of the PDA, but
Page 121 and 122: M. (1992). The effects of self oper
Page 125 and 126: TABLE 1 Stages of The Halliwick’s
Page 127 and 128: plete other steps (Tekin & Kɹrcaal
Page 129 and 130: Figure 1. Percentage of correct res
Page 131 and 132: Martin, J. (1981). The Halliwick Me
Page 133 and 134: systematic instruction to teach fou
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Procedural reliability probes measu
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Discussion The purpose of this stud
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(1986). Stanford-Binet Intelligence
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focus on the important adults in th
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cording to the current environment
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that “she felt very inadequate in
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tive research. (2 nd Ed.). New Jers
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