Modeling the Successes and Failures of Interventions for Disabled Readers

A connectionist model of reading development previously used to simulate detailed aspects of developmental dyslexia (Harm & Seidenberg, 1999) was used to explore why certain classes of interventions designed to overcome reading impairments are more effective than others. Previous research has shown that interventions targeting the development of spelling-sound correspondences are more effective at promoting generalization skills than ones designed solely to increase phonological awareness. The simulations broadly replicate the patterns of success and failure found in the developmental literature and provide explicit computational insights into exactly why the interventions that include training on spelling-sound regularities are more effective than those targeting phonological development alone.     

A synthesis of research on effective interventions for building reading fluency with elementary students with learning disabilities

Fluent reading, often defined as speed and accuracy, is an important skill for all readers to develop. Students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle to read fluently, leading to difficulties in reading comprehension. Despite recent attention to reading fluency and ways to improve fluency, it is not clear which features of interventions that are designed to enhance fluency are beneficial for the most struggling readers. The purpose of this study is to synthesize research on interventions that are designed primarily to build reading fluency for students with LD. The search yielded 24 published and unpublished studies that reported findings on intervention features, including repeated reading with and without a model, sustained reading, number of repetitions, text difficulty, and specific improvement criteria. Our findings suggest that effective interventions for building fluency include an explicit model of fluent reading, multiple opportunities to repeatedly read familiar text independently and with corrective feedback, and established performance criteria for increasing text difficulty.     

A learning model for science education: Deriving teaching strategies

A learning model for science education was proposed by Appleton (1989), based on Osborne and Wittrock’s generative learning theory (1983) and the Piagetian notions of disequilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation. The model incorporated many aspects of difficulties in learning science experienced by students, as revealed in the LISP projects and similar research. This paper examines how the model may be used to derive teaching strategies: components of the model are analysed in terms of specific types of teacher interventions which could facilitate students’ progress to accommodation. Some established teaching strategies are analysed in terms of these interventions. Specializations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science.     

A synthesis of fluency interventions for secondary struggling readers

Previous research studies examining the effects of fluency interventions on the fluency and comprehension outcomes for secondary struggling readers are synthesized. An extensive search of the professional literature between 1980 and 2005 yielded a total of 19 intervention studies that provided fluency interventions to secondary struggling readers and measured comprehension and/or fluency outcomes. Findings revealed fluency outcomes were consistently improved following interventions that included listening passage previewing such as listening to an audiotape or adult model of good reading before attempting to read a passage. In addition, there is preliminary evidence that there may be no differential effects between repeated reading interventions and the same amount of non-repetitive reading with older struggling readers for increasing reading speed, word recognition, and comprehension.     

Designing effective interventions for children at‐risk for antisocial behavior: An integrated model of components necessary for making valid inferences

Children demonstrating antisocial behavior patterns are at‐risk for a host of negative outcomes including school failure, peer and teacher rejection, academic difficulties, and future delinquency. These children are undoubtedly in need of effective and appropriate interventions to address problem areas in both behavioral and academic domains. To ensure that academic and sociobehavioral interventions will be more successful, three main components: (a) social validity, (b) treatment integrity, and (c) generalization and maintenance must be addressed when designing the interventions. The purpose of this article is to (a) describe the pertinent characteristics (e.g., definition, application, and assessment issues) of each of these components as they relate to school‐based interventions, and (b) introduce an integrated model that illustrates the interrelatedness of these essential intervention components. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Social‐Emotional Competence: An Essential Factor for Promoting Positive Adjustment and Reducing Risk in School Children

Social‐emotional competence is a critical factor to target with universal preventive interventions that are conducted in schools because the construct (a) associates with social, behavioral, and academic outcomes that are important for healthy development; (b) predicts important life outcomes in adulthood; (c) can be improved with feasible and cost‐effective interventions; and (d) plays a critical role in the behavior change process. This article reviews this research and what is known about effective intervention approaches. Based on that, an intervention model is proposed for how schools should enhance the social and emotional learning of students in order to promote resilience. Suggestions are also offered for how to support implementation of this intervention model at scale.     

Do instructional interventions influence college students’ critical thinking skills? A meta-analysis

Promoting students’ critical thinking skills is an important task of higher education. Colleges and universities have designed various instructional interventions to enhance students’ critical thinking skills. Empirical studies have yielded inconsistent results in terms of the effects of such interventions. This meta-analysis presents a synthesis of empirical studies designed to promote measurable changes in students’ critical thinking skills using instructional interventions. Findings demonstrated statistically significant but small average effect size and evidence of heterogeneity among studies. Hierarchical linear model was adopted to explore potential predictors of the variance across effect sizes. Results showed that student discipline and treatment length explained part of the variability among treatment effects. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

An Analytic Strategy to Assist Institutional Recruitment and Marketing Efforts

This article demonstrates how to fit a statistical model to historical data, test whether the model can accurately predict enrollment out-of-sample, and use the results to segment admitted students into groups so that different recruitment and marketing interventions can be applied. Conceptual and practical issues are discussed, as well as policy considerations.     

Using applied behaviour analysis as standard practice in a UK special needs school

This article describes how applied behaviour analysis can be implemented effectively and affordably in a maintained special needs school in the UK. Behaviour analysts collaborate with classroom teachers to provide early intensive behaviour education for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and function based behavioural interventions for children between the ages of three and 18 years. Data are presented that show how the model is effective. Children with ASD under the age of seven made significant gains on intelligence quotient and on a range of skills including language, social and play, and academic skills following three academic terms of intervention. Case study data for two children reveal a marked decrease in challenging behaviour following a function based behavioural intervention. These interventions have led to greater independence, integration and access to curricular activities. These data show that children are making significant gains within this cost‐effective model.     

Conceptualizing a Theoretical Model for School-Centered Adolescent Physical Activity Intervention Research

Adolescent physical inactivity has risen to an alarming rate. Several theoretical frameworks (models) have been proposed and tested in school-based interventions. The results are mixed, indicating a similar weakness as that observed in community-based physical activity interventions (Baranowski, Lin, Wetter, Resnicow, & Hearn, 1997). The theoretical models were decontextualized, thus are unable to address issues central to adolescents' physical activity behavior. In this article, we propose using a theoretical model derived from school-based research on learning behavior change. We review related research on adolescents' physical activity to demonstrate the relevance of using the model to study the dynamic impact of personal, school curriculum, and community variables on adolescent physical activity. We also translate the conceptual model into empirically testable cross-sectional and longitudinal latent growth models and propose concrete steps researchers can take to design empirical studies to examine them. We believe that research studies guided by the proposed conceptual and empirical models will provide useful data for us to better understand the mechanisms of adolescent physical activity motivation and behavior change.     

Development of Implicit Links Between Effort,Pain, and Recovery

This article describes three studies that examined Japanese children’s and adults’ intuitive perceptions regarding the links between pain, effort, and healing. A total of 79 six-year-olds, 81 nine-year-olds, 74 twelve-year-olds, and 66 adults were presented with scenarios involving modern and traditional medical interventions and were examined with regard to how the level of pain and effort presented in the scenarios influenced their views of healing. It was consequently found that the 6-year-olds tended to judge painful interventions as aversive, while adults considered them to be effective. Furthermore, overall, effortful interventions were believed to be more efficacious than painful ones. The children and adults appeared to assume that people who have tried hard and expended considerable effort deserve to be healed quickly. These results are in accord with the coexistence model, which posits that an individual can have coexisting scientific and folk beliefs across his/her life course.     

Considering Identification and Service Provision for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders within the Context of Response to Intervention

The Response to Intervention (RTI) framework, a preventive model of universal screening, tiered interventions, and ongoing progress monitoring, poses an interesting consideration for identification and service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Upon examination of the existing literature, paucity exists regarding how RTI might guide identification and service delivery for students with ASD; however, the authors consider core tenets of RTI and how they are relevant for students with ASD given what is known about this unique population. Due to the importance of early identification and interventions for individuals with ASD, the RTI framework could be problematic if used to delay education eligibility. Thus, two routes of identification are outlined by the authors, one of which expedites evaluation based on pervasive symptomatology, while the other route uses a form of universal screening to assist in moving toward evaluation for those suspected of ASD. The use of tiered interventions for prevention or service delivery could cause potential complications given the need for early identification and individualized intensive programming. However, there is a clear match for several instructional RTI components and ASD, specifically for evidence-based interventions that are implemented with fidelity and monitored frequently, and other aspects such as family involvement, which could improve programming for students with ASD.     

Standing out and fitting in: a report on a support group for individuals with Asperger syndrome using a personal account

In this article, Andrea MacLeod, lecturer in autism studies at the University of Birmingham, and Paula Johnston, a woman with Asperger syndrome who now focuses on writing and speaking about her condition, consider the function of specialist group interventions for individuals with Asperger syndrome. These authors report on one model - a discussion and support group aimed primarily at young adults. The self-report of a former participant, a woman with Asperger syndrome, is used as a case study to illustrate issues and processes. Her report suggests that peer support and peer learning should be recognised as significant goals of such interventions and that interventions should be planned to respond to the needs that follow diagnosis. The authors suggest that clinical and educational services need to work together to ensure that children and young people have immediate access to such support models, which should be viewed as preventative therapies. This article provides evidence that first-hand accounts can offer new insights into how such interventions are experienced by those involved. Andrea MacLeod and Paula Johnston argue that future research in this area should seek to employ participatory methodologies.     

Teaching Single-Case Evaluation to Graduate Social Work Students: A Replication

A course teaching graduate social work students to use an evidence-based model and to evaluate their own practice was replicated and evaluated. Students conducted a project in which they reviewed published research to achieve a clinical goal, applied quantitative measures for ongoing assessment, implemented evidence-based interventions, and evaluated effects of their interventions with single-case designs. More than half of the students conducted self-improvement projects monitored with self-report measures, with widely varied goals and interventions. Approximately 48% of the projects showed statistically significant improvements, and an additional 10% showed statistically nonsignificant gains, suggesting the benefits of this instructional format.     

Implementation Planning to Promote Parents' Treatment Integrity of Behavioral Interventions for Children with Autism

Behavioral interventions delivered across home and school settings can promote positive outcomes for youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Yet, stakeholders who deliver these interventions may struggle to implement interventions as intended. Low levels of treatment integrity can undermine potentially positive intervention outcomes. One way to promote implementers' treatment integrity is Implementation Planning, a logistical planning and barrier reduction strategy that is supported by emerging school-based research. The current study extended the research on Implementation Planning and evaluated the effectiveness of the strategy with parents implementing a behavioral intervention at home within a Conjoint Behavioral Consultation model. The behavioral intervention aimed to increase compliance and decrease aggression for two children with ASD at home. Initially, parents struggled to deliver the intervention consistently; however, after Implementation Planning, parents' treatment integrity increased and, subsequently, child outcomes improved. Implications for future research and consultation are presented.     

Integrated perspective of evolving intrapsychic and person-environment functions: implications for deaf and hard of hearing individuals

The authors review and integrate certain diverse theories to explain and suggest appropriate interventions for difficulties in socioemotional functioning experienced by many deaf persons. These diverse perspectives include a hierarchical circular systems approach, psychosocial stage theory, social learning theory, and representational models, or evolving expectancies of others. These perspectives, which can facilitate understanding of social behaviors and development and lead to improved interventions, provide background for a 3-level model proposed in the article. The model focuses on the relationship between the deaf person and the proximal social environment. The model's first level takes into account intrapsychic processes such as self-concept; the second highlights reciprocal interactions between the person and the social environment. The third describes the resulting memories and expectancies that develop and evolve and that influence the person's previous intrapsychic thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. These, in turn, affect social interactions, in a recurrent, spiraling fashion. This hierarchical model can be used as a framework for concurrent or sequential interventions with Deaf people.