Comparison of Most-to-Least Prompting to Flexible Prompt Fading for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study compared most-to-least prompting to flexible prompt fading for teaching four children with an autism spectrum disorder various expressive tasks. Using a parallel treatment design nested into a multiple probe design, researchers taught each participant how to expressively label six pictures with most-to-least prompting and six pictures with flexible prompt fading. The researchers evaluated effectiveness, maintenance, efficiency, and performance across both prompting conditions and across all participants. Results indicated that both prompting procedures were effective across all four participants. Results also indicated that flexible prompt fading led to a higher percentage of independent correct responding during teaching trials. For three of the participants, flexible prompt fading was also a more efficient procedure. Results were mixed in terms of maintenance across the four participants.     

Outcomes of Home-Support Consultation on the Maintenance of Bicycle-Riding Skills for Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Bicycle riding is a functional motor skill that increases physical activity opportunities, social interaction, and independence. However, bicycle riding is difficult for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to learn. This study examined the effectiveness of home-support consultation (HSC) on increasing the maintenance of independent bicycle riding following initial skill acquisition. Fifty-one youth with a confirmed ASD diagnosis learned to ride a two-wheeled bicycle during a training camp. Twenty-nine riders enrolled in a HSC intervention to promote distributed practice of the learned skill. The control cohort (N = 22) was exempt from the HSC intervention. One year following initial skill acquisition, 62.07% of the HSC cohort compared to 36.36% of the control cohort still reportedly displayed the skill. Within the HSC cohort, riders who reported at least 8 weeks of practice following acquisition on average maintained the skill. Implications of home consultation are discussed.     

Socio-Cultural Analysis of Two Cases of Distance Learning in Secondary Education

Virtual Schooling for primary and secondary students is becoming increasingly common across the United States. Although distance education has typically been used to address the needs of adult U.S. learners, its use with schoolchildren has been limited. The rapid development and diffusion of ICT has prompted advances in the use of distance education to serve these students educational needs—particularly those in remote rural settings. In this paper we analyse and contrast two case-studies that were gathered to inform researchers and practitioners of online schooling—a case in which two rural schools ‘coordinated’ the use of two-way interactive video to provide live synchronous learning, and a school ‘replacement’ model that provided an interactive online course for dispersed students with periodic live interactive synchronous learning sessions. Analysis drew on Cobb and his colleagues’ (2003) techniques to delineate communities of practice and Wenger’s (1998) work on boundary encounters, brokers, and boundary objects.     

A model of intervention in child-abusing families: A wider systems view

This paper describes the application of some principles, taken from the modern psychotherapies by a therapeutic team, to the assessment and treatment of serious child abuse. Factors and dilemmas identified from the assessment and decision-making process are outlined, with particular reference to the roles of the various statutory and community agencies involved with such families. The paper demonstrates the ways in which the range of community and professional agencies may play a pathological role, unintentionally contributing to and maintaining child-abusing dynamics in families. The significance of dangerous unintended consequences of well-meaning agency interventions and of covert interagency activities are stressed.     

Following student ratings over time with a catalog-based system

First, the longitudinal nature of student ratings of instructors has not received deserved emphasis from researchers. Second, the use of item banks for designing student rating questionnaires, especially for instructor feedback, has needed attention. These two factors are investigated in this study, which tracks 304 instructors over a four semester period. It was found that the type of questionnaire generated from the item bank led to statistically significant differences among designated groups. The longitudinal analysis, however, indicated only minor improvement over time, regardless of whether or not an instructor chose to use items yielding specific feedback on the instructional components of a course. Additionally, although main effect differences were noted between teaching assistants and regular faculty, other results were very similar.     

Predictive value of attitude,cognitive ability,and personality to science achievement in the middle school

This article examines the factors of attitude toward science, spatial ability, mathematical ability, and the scientific personality, as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, in a sample of middle school students. Males and females with science grades of A and B were found to have several characteristics of the scientific personality, good grades in mathematics, but negative attitudes toward science. Males and females with science grades of C and D had a more positive attitude toward science, but poor mathematical and spatial abilities and few characteristics of the scientific personality. There were no sex differences except on the Thinking/Feeling (TF) scale of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. As expected females portrayed themselves as preferring the (F) scale, the use of personal values when making decisions and males portrayed themselves as preferring the (T) scale, the use of logical analysis when making decisions.     

Modulation of trained and extinguished stimuli by facilitators and inhibitors

Pigeon subjects received training of a diffuse stimulus as either a conditioned inhibitor or a conditioned facilitator of a keylight signal for food. The ability of these diffuse stimuli to modulate responding was then assessed with two other keylights that were undergoing discrimination reversal. At a point where responding was equivalent for the two targets, the modulators had a greater impact on the target undergoing extinction than on the target undergoing acquisition. These results have implications for the nature of modulation and extinction.     

The effect of matching and mismatching cognitive style and science instruction

This study examined the effect of matching learners' cognitive styles with science learning activities on science knowledge and attitudes. Fifty-six elementary education majors who were identified as Sensing Feeling types on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator participated in this study. The Sensing Feeling type is predominant among elementary school educators. The subjects participated in either nine science activities matched to the learning preferences of Sensing Feelers or nine science activities mismatched to their learning preferences. These mismatched activities were geared toward the learning preferences of Intuitive Thinkers, the dominant type among scientists. Results revealed no significant differences between matched and mismatched groups in knowledge of the material presented or overall attitude toward science and toward science teaching. Comparisons made subsequent to the hypothesized analyses did suggest that cognitive style may affect reactions to certain specific learning activities. The immediate reactions of forty non-Sensing Feeling types who also experienced the treatments were compared to those of the 56 Sensing Feeling subjects. Certain activities which were rated by judges prior to the onset of treatment as being particularly well-matched to the Sensing Feeling style did receive significantly more favorable ratings by the Sensing Feeling subjects than by other types. Conversely, the Sensing Feelers gave significantly lower ratings than other types to certain activities which, according to independent judges, were strongly mismatched to the Sensing Feeling style.     

Conflict and Its Resolution in Small Groups of One- and Two-Year-Olds

48 1- and 48 2-year-olds were observed in groups of 3 for 25 min on 2 consecutive days, once with ample resources and once with scarce resources. The triads were composed of either 2 girls and a boy or 2 boys and a girl, and duplicate copies of toys were available for half the groups. Their conflicts contained interpersonal features and were more affected by social influences than by the availability of resources. Contrary to expectations, scarcity of resources did not result in increased conflict. In fact, 2-year-olds were more likely to resolve conflict by sharing when toys were scarce. The provision of duplicates decreased the probability of conflict, but many conflicts occurred even when a duplicate was easily accessible. The form of conflict depended on the children's age and the gender composition of the group. Older children and groups dominated by boys, relative to younger children and groups dominated by girls, were less likely to use force and more likely to resolve disputes in prosocial ways. Taken together, these findings provide further evidence for the social nature of conflict in the first few years of life.