Ian M. Evans

Peer Interactions and Social Acceptance of Elementary-Age Children with Severe Disabilities in an Inclusive School

Although there has been much attention paid to the social relationships of students with severe disabilities in integrated environments, few studies depict the kinds of interactions that can be expected in mainstreamed classrooms. Such information is important for designing classroom ecologies and interventions that will maximize developmental opportunities for all students. Eight children with severe disabilities and eight nonhandicapped peers were observed in their regular elementary school classrooms. Students with severe disabilities received more social approaches than they made. These interactions tended to be receiving assistance, although talk, play, and physical affection were also prevalent. Over the school year the number of interactions declined; however, the pattern (proportions of different types of interaction) became more typical (like those of nonhandicapped peers). Acceptance was measured by sociometric nomination, revealing that some of the students with severe disabilities were very popular, and some were not. Acceptance seemed unrelated to social competence, which did correlate with frequency of interactions initiated by the students with disabilities; acceptance was not related to number of social approaches made or received. The results indicate that childrens social acceptance and opportunity for interaction are not uniquely associated with their status as individuals with severe disabilities, and suggest that the implicit standards and values of the students may play a significant role.

Matching treatments to client problems not diagnostic labels: A case for paradigmatic behavior therapy

The present article critically analyzes the current approach to treatment outcome research and the uncritical use of treatment packages. Comparing various combinations of treatments with groups of clients randomly assigned to these conditions has led to the neglect of individual differences between persons falling into broad diagnostic categories. The inconclusive results of such studies say little about the efficacy of a particular treatment for an individual client and are also not very useful in helping clinicians to decide which specific treatment to use for a given client. Although treatment packages may be attractive and at times helpful to clinicians, their simplistic use is antithetical to the original and unique approach of behavior therapy and no substitute for treatment individualization. Using the example of agoraphobic problems we show how a conceptual understanding of the processes involved in a given clinical problem and the development of an integrative paradigmatic behavioral model may guide the researcher/clinician toward more effective treatment planning. Conceptually derived treatments can be individualized more easily and therefore take better account of individual differences between clients suffering from a seemingly similar problem. Treatment outcome studies should specifically compare the efficacy of matching particular types and constellations of dysfunctional processes with different procedures which specifically target those dysfunctions.

The effects of training in nonaversive behavior management on the attitudes and understanding of direct care staff

Recent developments in behavior therapy for persons with developmental disabilities and behavior disorders emphasize positive treatment designs that focus on understanding the causes of behavior, teaching functional alternatives, and enhancing the quality of daily experiences, rather than simple contingency management. There is little information on how well direct care staff can support these nonaversive strategies. This study examined the effects of training in traditional (positive) behavior management versus nonaversive principles on the understanding and attitudes of direct care staff. Overall, nonprofessional level staff receiving the nonaversive training showed increased sophistication in understanding the range of possible causes of behavior and were able to generate treatment suggestions based on skill development and environmental change. The effectiveness of staff in implementing state-of-the-art behavior therapy procedures is likely to be an important component of the continued success of behavior therapy, especially in residential settings, both institutional and community-based.

Science and Practice in Behavioral Intervention: Meaningful Outcomes, Research Validity, and Usable Knowledge

Many professional journals publish research reports of interventions for persons with developmental disabilities which traditionally have been expected to fulfill two quite different functions. First, this research literature is the scientific data base to support the validity of recommended most promising practices. Second, these same reports are expected to be a source of information to guide the efforts of practitioners to implement those most promising practices. In a parallel fashion, the experimental method has been used both to test intervention hypotheses in research studies and as an evaluation model for practitioners in evaluating applications in typical settings. This paper explores the extent to which it is reasonable or practical to expect conventional experimental methodologies and research reports to perform this dual purpose. Recommendations are made for research and practice that require multiple perspectives and approaches better suited to a human science.

Collaborative Problem-Solving to Promote the Inclusion of Young Children with Significant Disabilities in Primary Grades:

The installation of a collaboratively-based problem-solving process was undertaken over a 2-year period in an elementary school in which students with mild to profound disabilities were physically integrated. Teachers and students participated in collaborative problem-solving (CPS) process training sessions and then used CPS to identify and solve issues related to the physical, social, and instructional inclusion of students in the classroom. Data were collected to evaluate the process over a 24-month period in 12 different classrooms. Findings revealed that the CPS process was implemented as designed; teachers judged CPS to be easily incorporated into existing practices; and CPS promoted outcomes valued by administrators, teachers, and parents.

Educational Validity: Procedures to Evaluate Outcomes in Programs for Severely Handicapped Learners.

Documentation of positive outcomes for severely handicapped learners as a function of their educational programs is receiving increased attention as the major focus of program development, monitoring, and evaluation efforts. At the same time, those strategies that have been used predominantly to determine program effectiveness—particularly single-subject experimental designs and developmentally-based assessments—are being challenged as inadequate methods for accomplishing this task. This paper outlines existing concerns and argues for the general evaluative concept of educational validity. Suggestions are provided for measuring the three criteria that are essential components of educational validity. Also emphasized is the professionals obligation to advocate on behalf of program needs based upon knowledge and professional judgment.

Constructional perspectives in clinical assessment.

The constructional approach to assessment and treatment refers to broad metatheoretical assumptions regarding the value of constructing rather than eliminating behavioral repertoires. The attempt to move from a deficit-oriented model to one that emphasizes a clients assets and strengths is discernible in a variety of orientations. In this article, a general paradigmatic framework is advocated that represents positive and negative behaviors in the context of interactions between characteristics of the social environment and the organization of individual behavioral repertoires. By emphasizing the interrelationships within repertoires, a rationale is provided for conceptualizing and assessing positive behaviors

Children's Perception of Fairness in Classroom and Interpersonal Situations Involving Peers with Severe Disabilities.

Elementary-aged children (kindergarten, first grade, and second grade), attending classrooms that fully included peers with severe disabilities, judged a series of scenarios comprising common teacher-related and social situations. The scenarios contained different degrees of ambiguity regarding equitable treatment of the protagonists; some stories involved only typical children, and some involved children with disabilities. Participants were asked to judge the fairness of the outcome, why it was fair or unfair, how the characters might feel, and what could have been done to make the situation more fair. In general the children were very sophisticated in their judgments, using consistent principles of social justice, regardless of disability. Few age-related differences emerged, although there was a slight tendency for older children to make excuses for children with disabilities. Even young students demonstrated appropriate empathy for the feelings arising from being left out or being wrongly blamed. Suggested solutions tended to be short-term but based largely on equality of opportunity, and at least some of the children were able to recommend equitable policy changes in classroom and social practices.

An Evaluation of Behavioral Interrelationships in Child Behavior Therapy

Although William James’s evocative metaphor for describing consciousness as a stream is still often quoted, the continuities of behavior that characterize everyday life seem equally noteworthy. In the early development of behavior therapy, or behavior modification, it was convenient to de-emphasize the descriptive complexity of the intermingling flow of individual repertoires, and concentrate instead on the identification of discrete behavioral events. This selective focus clearly served the field well, judging from the scientific and professional success of behavior modification. However, it imposed three conceptual restrictions on the field, all of which have become recognized in recent years.

Delineating Functional Competencies: A Component Model

This article describes a model for representing functional competencies in students with disabilities. Although strategies exist to identify skills and activities that are functional for students with severe handicaps, these strategies provide relatively little information on how to separate the functional skills into meaningful component parts that represent the range of behaviors needed in the natural environment. Data are presented to illustrate the narrow range of behaviors included in task analyses in current literature on skill acquisition. The Component Model of Functional Life Routines provides a systematic alternate approach to delineating the behaviors required in natural environments.