Theses/Dissertations - Educational Psychology
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2104/4807
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Browsing Theses/Dissertations - Educational Psychology by Author "Akers, Jessica."
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Item Content validity evidence for the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program.(2020-07-14) Padilla, Kristen L., 1981-; Akers, Jessica.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects one in 54 children in the United States and the prevalence has increased by exponentially in the last decade (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]). With the rising prevalence, evidence-based treatment is critical for this population. Interventions based in applied behavior analysis (ABA) are the most effective research-based strategies for individuals with ASD (Axelrod, McElrath, & Wine, 2012; Foxx, 2008; Lovaas, 1987). In order to develop optimal treatment plans with accurately identified goals and intervention strategies, individuals must undergo a comprehensive assessment that includes the use of research-based instruments. The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) is the most widely used instrument for curriculum development and treatment planning in the field of ABA. However, there is currently no validity or reliability studies to support its widespread use. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature by providing content validity evidence for the VB-MAPP. A national panel of 13 subject matter experts (SMEs) provided an evaluation of the domain relevance, age appropriateness, method of measurement appropriateness, and domain representation across the three levels of the Milestones Assessment, Early Echoic Skills Assessment (EESA), and the Barriers Assessment. Overall, the content validity evidence for the VB-MAPP Milestones, EESA, and Barriers Assessment was moderate to strong across the evaluated areas although there were areas with limited or conflicting support. The evidence suggests that the scores of the VB-MAPP provide information relevant to the target behaviors of interest but a few domains may not be fully represented by their specific items. When the VB-MAPP is used by itself, researchers and practitioners can have reasonable confidence in the results for many domains but should exercise caution for some domains across levels. That said, it is recommended that the VB-MAPP be used in conjunction with other sources of assessment information, which is recommended for assessment in general. The results of this study could inform revisions to future editions of the VB-MAPP. With some targeted revisions, the VB-MAPP could serve as a comprehensive assessment with strong validity evidence for this developmental age range.Item Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to engage in reciprocal conversations using text-message prompting.(2019-11-19) Canestaro, Vida Montserrat, 1995-; Akers, Jessica.Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties maintaining conversations. Although there are several established interventions which target initiations and responses to questions made by others, there are fewer interventions which target sustaining conversations with multiple exchanges. A review of the literature revealed that scripting procedures were the most common method to teach individuals to engage in a multi-exchange conversation. However, traditional paper scripts are an intrusive prompting strategy and are inflexible to an everchanging social environment. Text-message prompting via an Apple Watch®️ creates a wearable electronic script that can be prompted from a distance and are malleable to form organic conversations within a social setting.Item Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to mand for answers to questions via telehealth : a caregiver implementation.(2022-05-04) Swensson, Remington M., 1997-; Akers, Jessica.Information is a valuable part of learning and interacting with our environment as it allows us to behave more effectively (i.e., access reinforcement). Information can be gained by engaging in social interactions with others. However, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties engaging in back-and-forth conversation and initiating social interactions with other individuals. There are several interventions that target teaching individuals with ASD to mand (i.e., request) for information that we identified after conducting a review of the literature. Echoic prompting and naturalistic teaching are the most frequently used interventions to teach mands for information. However, no studies found were implemented by a caregiver or via telehealth. In the current study, we systematically replicated and extended the findings of Ingvarsson and Hollobough (2010) by having caregivers implement the intervention, while receiving coaching provided via telehealth, to teach two boys and a girl diagnosed with ASD to mand for information.Item Teaching social leisure skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorder.(August 2022) O'Guinn, Kristin Nicole, 1992-; Akers, Jessica.A key component of the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is difficulties with social engagement, and many individuals with this diagnosis self-report often or always feeling lonely. A promising protective factor against this experience is consistent social engagement with other individuals. One avenue for increasing the social engagement of adolescents with ASD is to teach them skills that will increase opportunities to engage with their peers, such as social leisure skills. In this study, two adolescent boys with ASD increased the number of general comments and appropriate reactions emitted during a popular social leisure activity, video games, following the use of a script-fading intervention. The social validity of this intervention was assessed through brief interviews with each of the participants and their caregivers following their participation in this study.Item Video activity schedules to support academic learning for children with autism spectrum disorder.(2021-07-23) Kirkpatrick, Marie, 1989-; Akers, Jessica.; Davis, Tonya Nichole, 1979-Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in communication and engage in restrictive and repetitive behaviors that may impede their ability to learn, particularly in school environments. Evidence-based practices such as visual supports and video modeling have been used to support individuals with ASD. Activity schedules, a type of visual support and video modeling have both demonstrated effectiveness across a variety of skills and settings. However, less is known about what skills or contexts are appropriate for combining the two interventions, known as a video activity schedule. A systematic review was conducted to understand the current research regarding video activity schedules to support skill acquisition (i.e., learning) for individuals with ASD. The results of the review and areas for future research can be found in Chapter Two. Based on the results, a limited number of studies evaluated use of video activity schedules to support academic tasks in general education classrooms. Furthermore, no studies evaluated its use with peers. Therefore, research in this area seems warranted. Chapter Three describes an experimental study that evaluates use of video activity schedules to complete math center activities with young children with ASD and typically developing peers, including one participant in a general education classroom. Chapter Four contains the results of the experimental study, and Chapter Five provides a discussion of the results noting areas for future research. Overall, video activity schedules improved activity completion and on-task behavior for children with ASD and their peers during academic learning activities, but some concerns may need to be considered before using them. Additional research in this area is warranted.Item Visual schedules in the home for children with developmental disabilities.(August 2022) Avery, Suzannah, 1994-; Akers, Jessica.; Gerow, Stephanie L.Visual supports are often used during interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities to increase independence in the home (Rutherford et al., 2020). Previous reviews of the visual support literature for individuals with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities suggest that visual supports are effective at increasing independence with tasks, such as daily living skills, in the home for children with developmental disabilities; however, caregiver-implemented visual supports may produce different outcomes than non-caregiver implemented visual supports. The purpose of Study One was to synthesize the research on caregiver-implemented visual supports in the home for individuals with developmental disabilities. This search yielded 16 studies which evaluated the use of caregiver-implemented visual support interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities in the home setting. We evaluated the included articles against the What Works Clearinghouse Single-Case Design Standards (WWC, 2017, 2020) and the social validity quality indicators (Horner et al., 2005; Reichow et al., 2008). Across these studies, researchers identified two predominantly used visual supports, visual schedules and social interaction supports. The findings of this literature review support the use of caregiver-implemented visual supports for children with developmental disabilities. Furthermore, the results endorse the use of visual supports for promoting independence in routines and for decreasing the amount of challenging behavior during these routines. In Study Two, researchers evaluated the efficacy of coaching caregivers to teach their child to follow high-tech visual schedules to promote the independent completion of leisure activities via videoconferencing technology. Further, researchers explored the extent to which children continue to complete these leisure activities in the absence of their caregiver. The results from this study indicate that researchers can effectively coach caregivers via videoconferencing technology to teach their child to follow high-tech visual schedules to learn how to complete leisure activities and demonstrates that individuals will continue to complete these leisure activities even when caregiver support is withdrawn. In Study Three, researchers conducted a phenomenological case study to better understand caregiver experiences with teaching their child follow visual schedules to complete leisure activities in the home. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews and collected data through field and personal notes using the theoretical framework guided by the works of Wolf (1978), Horner et al. (2005), and Reichow et al. (2008). Interviews provided the researcher the opportunity to understand the essence of this phenomenon from the caregivers’ point of view and to describe the meaning of their experiences (Fox, 2009).