Jeff Sigafoos

Deinstitutionalisation of persons with intellectual disabilities: A review of Australian studies

This paper provides a quantitative review of Australian studies on deinstitution-alisation and community living for persons with intellectual disabilities. Thirteen studies from eight separate projects were identified from a comprehensive literature search. Studies were included if they were conducted in Australia and focused on the effects of relocating persons from institutions to community-based residences, involved a comparison of institutional versus community-based services, or investigated the community adjustment of people who had once lived in an institution. Each study was examined to ascertain details on the settings, participants, methodology, and results. Community-based placements were associated with increased adaptive behaviour, greater community participation, and improved contact with family and friends. There was little or no change in problem behaviour, health, or mortality. The results are consistent with similar reviews from studies conducted in the USA and UK and support the develop...

Interrater reliability of the motivation assessment scale: Failure to replicate with aggressive behavior

The Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) was used to identify the variables maintaining aggressive behaviors exhibited by 18 adolescents and adults with severe to profound intellectual disability. Each client was rated by two staff members. A variety of measures were calculated to assess interrater reliability. Pearson coefficients across the 18 pairs of raters ranged from -.667 to .722 with an overall correlation of .034. Five of the 12 positive correlations were significant at the .05 level. Correlations across each of the 16 questions of the MAS ranged from -.337 to .425. None of these correlations were significant. Similarly low reliability was obtained when percentage of agreement measures were calculated, although 8 of the 18 pairs of raters (44.44%) did agree on the source of reinforcement maintaining the clients aggressive behavior. These results suggest that for some individuals the MAS may not represent a viable alternative to more formal functional analysis procedures.

The Motivation Assessment Scale: reliability and construct validity across three topographies of behavior.

The psychometric properties of the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) were examined. Specifically, reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity were estimated using 90 ratings of different problem behaviors among 86 individuals with mental retardation. Data were analyzed under conditions of (a) three topographies of problem behavior and (b) two methods of calculation. Although reliability and internal consistency were generally poor, the results depended upon the above conditions. Factor analysis revealed that the four factors of the MAS differed from the subscale structure obtained in this study, proposed by the authors of the MAS. Thus, the construct validity of this scale was ambiguous. It is concluded that the MAS should be employed in conjunction with other instruments to assess the functional characteristics of problem behavior with individuals who have mental retardation.

Opportunities for communication in classrooms serving children with developmental disabilities.

Documented the number and types of opportunities for communication provided by teachers in seven classrooms for children with developmental disabilities and by teachers of nonhandicapped preschoolers in a day care center. In the special education settings, less than 14% of the more than 6,000 observation intervals contained an opportunity for communication. Most opportunities involved naming an object or event followed in frequency by opportunities to request, answer, and imitate. Similar results were obtained in the day care center. In the special education classrooms, a strong positive correlation was found between a childs existing communication skills and the number of opportunities received. Results suggest that these teachers did incorporate opportunities for communication into classroom activities.

Assessing Conditional Use of Graphic Mode Requesting in a Young Boy with Autism

The present study focused on conditional use of generalized requesting in a 6-year-old boy with autism and severe communication impairment. Conditional use was defined as pointing to a generalized request symbol “WANT” when preferred items were placed out of reach, but reaching directly for items that were within reach. Baseline observations indicated that the child reached for, but did not request each of three preferred objects. Generalized requesting was acquired during the subsequent intervention phase. Conditional use was then assessed when preferred items were presented within reach and then out of reach. The child frequently pointed to the “WANT” symbol even when the preferred item was within reach, suggesting overgeneralization of requesting. Conditional use was then established by alternating placement of items on a trial-by-trial basis and with differential reinforcement for reaching and requesting. Results highlight the need to assess conditional use of augmentative communication.

Increasing opportunities for requesting in classrooms serving children with developmental disabilities

Evaluated an intervention package for increasing requesting opportunities in special education classrooms. Five teachers, serving 26 children with moderate to severe disabilities, received in-service training, consultation, and feedback on the use of three strategies designed to create opportunities for requesting (i.e., missing item, interrupted chain, delayed assistance). Observations were conducted in a multiple-baseline across classrooms design to record the number and types of opportunities provided by each teacher. During baseline, few opportunities for requesting were observed. The number of opportunities for requesting and the number of correct student responses increased during intervention. Opportunities continued to be provided during generalization and follow-up sessions. The study demonstrated an effective strategy for helping teachers incorporate opportunities for functional communication into the natural environment.

Selecting augmentative communication devices for persons with severe disabilities: Some factors for educational teams to consider

Because a variety of augmentative communication devices exist, ranging from high technology speech synthesizers to low technology communication boards, members of educational teams are faced with a number of important decisions when attempting to meet the communication needs of persons with severe disabilities. This paper discusses some of the factors that educational teams may need to consider when selecting communication devices for learners with severe disabilities. Consideration of the various components and features of both high and low technology devices may assist parents and professionals in selecting appropriate augmentative communication options for students with severe disabilities.

Preliminary Assessment of Choice Making among Children with Rett Syndrome.

Two studies were conducted to assess choice making among seven children with Rett syndrome. Study 1 entailed 20 opportunities to choose between a pair of food, beverage, and leisure items. All children made choices by either looking at or touching one of the items. However, half the opportunities elapsed without a choice having been made. Study 2 was designed to analyze the function of these no responses. Each item was offered individually on 10 separate occasions and the child received the item even if a prior choice had not occurred. Items were generally accepted whether or not a prior choice had been made. This suggests that the lack of a choice may not necessarily indicate lack of preference and that the relationship between selecting and accepting items may vary as a function of task configuration. Nonetheless, both configurations provided useful assessment information.

Providing Opportunities for Choice-Making and Turn-Taking to Adults with Multiple Disabilities

Training direct-care staff to provide opportunities for choice-making and turn-taking may represent one way to increase participation by persons with multiple disabilities. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of an inservice and intervention package for teaching direct-care staff to incorporate opportunities for choice-making and turn-taking into snack and leisure activities for five young adults with multiple disabilities. A multiple baseline design demonstrated that after the training package was implemented, the number of opportunities provided by staff increased. Generalization probes suggested staff could apply these choice-making and turn-taking strategies with unfamiliar clients and across a range of community activities. Choice-makin and turn-taking responses among the young adults also tended to improve as the number of staff provided opportunities increased. Results suggest direct-care staff can be taught to provide opportunities for choice-making and turn-taking with minimal training. However, some individuals with multiple disabilities may require more intensive intervention to benefit fully from such opportunities.

Comparing explicit to generalized requesting in an augmentative communication mode

The present study compared explicit to more generalized requesting strategies. Four adults with multiple disabilities were taught to request preferred objects by pointing to line drawings. Explicit requests were followed by access to a single specific item. Generalized requests were followed by access to any one of three related items. Percent of correct explicit and generalized requests were compared across sets of objects in a multiple-probe, single-subject design. Correct requests increased as a function of intervention, with little consistent advantage for one type of requesting strategy over the other. Analysis of error patterns suggested that while learners acquired reliable discriminations among the graphic symbols across object sets, establishing the conditional discriminations within each set proved difficult. Ecological factors for the selection of a requesting strategy and the sequencing of intervention are discussed.