Laura Bassette

Fix It With TAPE: Repurposing Technology to Be Assistive Technology for Students With High-Incidence Disabilities

This article discusses how practitioners can repurpose technology—common and socially desirable technology in particular—to be assistive technology for students with high-incidence disabilities. The authors provide a framework for practitioners to consider technology for repurposing: TAPE (Transportable, Available, Practical, Engaging) and offers practitioners 6 examples of such technology that can serve as assistive technology for students with high-incidence disabilities who struggle with various academic (e.g., literacy, note-taking) and socioemotional development.

Spelling on the Fly: Investigating a Pentop Computer to Improve the Spelling Skills of Three Elementary Students with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a pentop computer and accompanying spelling software on the spelling accuracy and academic engagement behavior in three elementary students with disabilities who were served in a resource room setting. Using a multiple baseline across students single subject research design, researchers determined student use of the pentop computer—the FLYPen™—and its spelling software may serve as an equivalent intervention to traditional spelling instruction. While academic engagement performance increased considerably for students when using the FLYPen™, results indicated little to no improvement over traditional instruction in spelling accuracy. Implications and suggestions for future research are presented.

Teaching Equivalent Fractions to Secondary Students with Disabilities via the Virtual-Representational-Abstract Instructional Sequence.

Fractions are an important mathematical concept; however, fractions are also a struggle for many students with disabilities. This study explored a new framework adapted from the evidence-based concrete–representational–abstract framework: the virtual–representational–abstract (VRA) framework. The VRA framework involves teaching students to solve mathematical problems with virtual manipulative, then representations or drawings, and finally abstractly. A multiple probe across-students single-case design was used to investigate the effectiveness of the VRA framework for finding equivalent fractions for three middle-school students with disabilities. A functional relation was found between the VRA framework and students’ ability to solve equivalent fractions. Implications related to the use of the VRA framework as a mathematics intervention for secondary students with disabilities as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Adding It Up: Comparing Concrete and App-Based Manipulatives to Support Students With Disabilities With Adding Fractions

Manipulatives are a common tool in mathematics teaching and learning, including for students with disabilities. The most common manipulatives are concrete manipulatives, yet app-based manipulatives are a viable age-appropriate option for secondary students with disabilities. Through an adapted alternating treatment design with three middle school students—two with mild intellectual disability and one with a learning disability, researchers explored the impact of virtual and concrete manipulatives on students’ accuracy, independence, and task completion time for solving addition of fractions with unlike denominators. Students were equally successful in terms of accuracy and differences with independence were minimal. When comparing the two manipulative types, the results were idiosyncratic; two students were more independent with the concrete manipulative and one with the app-based manipulative. Implications for research regarding mathematics instruction and use of concrete and app-based manipulatives are discussed.

Using the Virtual–Representational–Abstract Approach to Support Students With Intellectual Disability in Mathematics:

Mathematics education is an important but underexplored area of research for secondary students with mild intellectual disability. In this multiple probe across behaviors replicated across two participants study, the researchers explored the effectiveness of the virtual–representational–abstract (VRA) instructional sequence to support two students’ acquisition of three mathematical behaviors. Each student was able to acquire his or her three mathematical behaviors (i.e., place value, single-digit addition with regrouping, subtraction with regrouping, and single-digit multiplication) following instruction with the VRA sequence. However, each student struggled with maintenance with at least one behavior. Implications for practice relative to the VRA instructional sequence are discussed.

The Use of Cell Phones to Address Safety Skills for Students With a Moderate ID in Community-Based Settings

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a video modeling (VM) intervention in conjunction with a system of least prompts (SLP) to teach safety skills using cell phones to students with a moderate intellectual disability. A multiple-probe design across three participants was used to assess student acquisition in taking and sending a picture of a key identifier (i.e., a sign) during a role-play scenario in which students pretended to be lost in the community. Intervention sessions were conducted at the students’ middle school, at their community-based instruction site, and at an unfamiliar community location. All students successfully learned to take and send the picture in the community locations at the mastery criterion and generalized the skills at an unfamiliar community site. Implications of the use of VM to address the integration of technology with safety skill instruction and other areas of future research are discussed.

Analysis of an Animal-Assisted Reading Intervention for Young Adolescents with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities.

Abstract Teaching students to enjoy reading is important in middle level education; however, middle school students with emotional behavioral disabilities (EBD) frequently struggle with reading skills and frequently display motivational deficits during reading instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine if the presence/absence of a classroom pet dog impacted reading skills in four fifth-grade students with EBD. An alternating treatment design was used to assess the fluency, comprehension, and level of motivation in four students when using a reading intervention package during a dog present (dog and researcher) and a dog absent condition (researcher only). All participants improved reading performance during intervention conditions compared to baseline. Improvements in reading measures were observed across participants in both treatment conditions compared to baseline. Differences in motivation levels were reported in three participants who indicated they enjoyed the dog present condition while the fourth enjoyed both treatment conditions equally. Implications of the potential role of middle level educators pairing themselves with animals during academic interventions for middle school students and other areas for future research in the area of animal-assisted learning are discussed.

The Use of a Multicomponent Behavioral Intervention to Promote Physical Activity in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders across Inclusive Community Settings

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are generally less physically active than individuals without disability due to factors such as lack of motor coordination and inadequate transportation resources that can result in various barriers to participation. This affects their independence and may interfere with expectations (e.g., employment) during adulthood. It is essential to explore ways to teach physical activity so people with ASD can generalize skills in community settings. This study examined the effect of a multicomponent behavioral intervention that included (a) the Exercise Buddy application, (b) a system of least prompts, (c) an incremental increase of criteria, and (d) reinforcement to teach three adolescents with ASD functional movement exercises (e.g., squat). All participants increased their mastery of performing these exercises compared to baseline and generalized these skills across two community settings.