Craig H. Kennedy

Comparing the Effects of Educational Placement on the Social Relationships of Intermediate School Students with Severe Disabilities

Two groups of intermediate school students with severe disabilities were studied across one school year. One group of students participated full time in general education classrooms; the other group was supported via special education classrooms. Using a posttest-only control group design with matched comparisons, each students social interactions, social support behaviors, and friendship networks were measured. The results indicate substantive social benefits for the general education group, relative to students who received support in special education classrooms. In particular, students in the general education group interacted more frequently with peers without disabilities, provided and received higher proportions of social support, and had larger, and more durable, networks of peers without disabilities. The findings are discussed in relation to current efforts to understand the empirical outcomes of inclusive education.

Effects of Peer Support Interventions on Students' Access to the General Curriculum and Social Interactions.

Peer support interventions are emerging as an effective alternative to traditional paraprofessional models for assisting students with moderate to severe disabilities to access the general curriculum. To contribute to the refinement of peer support interventions, we evaluated the impact of altering the number of participating peers on the social and academic outcomes of students with and without disabilities. Our findings indicated that changes in the configuration of peer support arrangements differentially affected student outcomes. Specifically, higher levels of social interaction and contact with the general curriculum were observed when students with disabilities worked with two peers relative to one peer. The additive benefits of a second peer provide guidance to educators concerning the implementation of peer support interventions in inclusive classrooms.

Promoting Access to the General Curriculum Using Peer Support Strategies

Promoting access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities has emerged as a central theme of recent legislative and policy initiatives. Ensuring that students with severe disabilities benefit fully from the myriad learning and social opportunities available through the general curriculum remains an important challenge, particularly at the secondary level. We discuss peer support interventions, a form of peer-mediated intervention, as an effective approach for engaging youth with severe disabilities more meaningfully in the general curriculum, as well as promoting academic success for classmates serving as peer supports. We describe the core elements of these interventions, review research pertaining to the academic and social benefits available to participating students, and discuss factors that may account for the effectiveness and social acceptability of this intervention approach.

Polysomnographic phenotypes in developmental disabilities

People with developmental disabilities express a number of unique behavioral patterns that have both phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins. Researchers have identified distinct behavioral phenotypes among developmental disabilities expressed as language development, cognitive profiles, adaptive behavior, and self‐injury/aggression. In this article, we discuss evidence for the presence of polysomnographic phenotypes in developmental disabilities. Researchers using behavioral and/or electrophysiological measures have identified differences in sleep architecture among people with autism, Down syndrome, and fragile X syndrome. In general, the greater the level of mental retardation, the less time spent in rapid eye movement sleep. The presence of autism or Down syndrome is associated with fewer and briefer bouts of rapid eye movement sleep, and total sleep time. Autism is also associated with greater levels of undifferentiated sleep. These findings for autism and Down syndrome contrast with fragile X syndrome whose sleep architecture anomalies appear to be a function of mental retardation level.

Intermediate School Students with Severe Disabilities Supporting Their Social Participation in General Education Classrooms

Abstract: We compared two approaches for supporting the social participation of students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms. Three students with severe disabilities were studied in four different general education classrooms. Dependent measures included the Kennedy active engagement of students with severe disabilities and their nondisabled peers and the social interactions that peers had with the students. We compared direct assistance from a special education instructional aide with peer support supervised by a special education instructional aide. Our results indicate that the peer support program produced more frequent and longer social interactions for all three students. Also, peers without disabilities demonstrated a more frequent and greater variety of social support behaviors to students with disabilities. Some improvements in the active engagement of students with disabilities and their peers were observed in the peer support condition. Our results suggest that peer support may be preferred to direct support by an instructional aide for students with severe disabilities in general education classrooms.

The maintenance of behavior change as an indicator of social validity.

This article reviews research pertaining to use of social validity and presents a rationale for expanding the conceptualization and use of this construct. It is proposed that the degree to which obtained treatment gains maintain across time within natural contexts be considered as a primary indicator of social validity. Traditional forms of social validation-subjective evaluation and normative comparison are presented as measures that, when used within the framework of maintaining behavior change, form an iterative and heuristic process in which behavior change goals, procedures, and outcomes are altered to increase and/or sustain their social value. Procedural guidelines for research using maintenance as the benchmark of social validity are discussed.

Using videotape modeling to facilitate generalized purchasing skills

Six students with moderate and severe disabilities were taught generalized purchasing skills through the use of videotape modeling in one, two, or three stores and in vivo instruction within one store. Training was conducted within three orders of treatments: (a) in vivo instruction followed by videotape training, (b) videotape training followed by in vivo instruction, and (c) concurrent videotape and in vivo instruction. Generalization probes were conducted in stores that were the same as those modeled on videotape, untrained stores that were infrequently probed (and never modeled on tape or taught directly), and novel stores that were probed only once after training. Results indicated the production of generalized purchasing skills by the students who received concurrent training and by the students who received sequential training. Videotape and in vivo training in isolation did not lead to generalized shopping skills. The results are discussed in terms of investigating the possible role of verbalization during videotape training on generalized responding and the effects of multiple probe interventions on inadvertent learning of critical skills.

What We Know and Need to Know about Accessing the General Curriculum for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities.

The purpose of the special series on accessing the general curriculum is to describe several evidence-based practices that have the most visible support in the literature and discuss some of their strengths and limitations. Over the past decade, accessing the general curriculum has become a major focus of researchers trying to build more effective educational systems for students with significant cognitive disabilities. These efforts stem from federal policy initiatives encompassing topics as broad as statewide accountability for student achievement to effective instructional techniques within the classroom. In support of the continuing evolution of evidencebased practices relating to general curriculum access, the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), initiated a funding priority in June 2002. The announcement published in the Federal Register described a directed research priority providing support for projects advancing and improving the knowledge base and improving the practice of professionals, parents, and others providing early intervention, special education, and related services. Projects funded under this priority focused on access to the general education curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The priority was described in the Federal Register (2002) as follows: The purpose of this target area is to support directed research projects designed to increase our understanding of Access to the General Education Curriculum for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities by investigating what access to the general education curriculum entails and how to provide it in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). Defining Access to the General Education Curriculum for Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities encompasses multiple dimensions involving access, participation, student progress, and location of service. The barriers and challenges concerningAccess to the General Education Curriculum for Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities are multifaceted and involve the following: (a) Professional Development. Institutions of Higher Education (IHE’s) are not adequately preparing or graduating school personnel (e.g., teachers, school administrators, school psychologists, social workers, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, guidance counselors) to work in today’s schools. In addition, recruitment and retention of qualified personnel is a major concern and attrition is a big drain on resources. (b) General Education Curriculum. Some districts have not aligned their curriculum and instruction to the K-12 learning standards. Many special education teachers in the field do not have sufficient content background to be active partners in the curriculum due to the categorical emphasis of their teacher-training program. In addition, there is a pervasive lack of family and community involvement in curriculum development. Address all correspondence and reprint requests to Fred Spooner, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Special Education and Child Development, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223. Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities 2006, Vol. 31, No. 4, 277–283 copyright 2006 by TASH

Trends in the measurement of social validity

Since its inception in the mid-1970s, social validity has provided applied behavior analysts with a critical measure of the social impact and importance of their interventions. Recent discussion, however, has questioned the use of this construct in regard to the frequency and types of social validity measures employed in research. Despite the ensuing discussion, virtually no quantitative information has been made available to frame various perspectives and opinions. The purpose of this report is to present a content analysis of social validity measures used over the previous 20 years. Social validity was assessed along three dimensions: (a) type of assessment, (b) focus of assessment, and (c) time of assessment. Articles published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (1968–1990) and Behavior Modification (1977–1990) were surveyed. The results of the content analysis indicate that current applications of social validation procedures are presented in 20% of the articles surveyed, The majority of articles used subjective evaluation of outcomes following intervention to assess social validity. In addition, the data indicated that normative comparison was a rarely used method of social validation and that its use has been decreasing over time.

Social Contacts of Adults with Severe Disabilities Living in the Community: A Descriptive Analysis of Relationship Patterns.

Social integration and social support are critical elements in determining a persons quality of life. To date, however, very little descriptive information is available on patterns of social contact between persons with severe disabilities and typical members of local communities. This report presents information on the social interaction patterns of 23 adults with severe disabilities across a 2 1/2-year time period. The staff in small, community-based residential programs collected continuous counts of the activities performed by residents and the people (companions) with whom activities were performed. Only those contacts that occurred with people other than people paid to provide support or other residents in the program were counted. The results indicate great variability in the social contact patterns across the 23 people observed, but that on the average they had contact with 63.5 different companions across the 30 months of observation. Social contacts occurred on the average of once every 2 days, and the durability of social contacts indicated that companions seldom continued the relationship beyond a 12-month period, except for family members or someone perceived as a “best friend.” Examination of the final year of observation indicates that the 23 people met about 17 new individuals across the 12-month period. The report offers implications of these results for further research on social contacts and the development of support strategies for building and maintaining social relationships.