Leasha M. Barry

Using Social Stories to Teach Choice and Play Skills to Children With Autism

Social stories have become increasingly popular for teaching appropriate behavioral skills to children With autism, yet current literature Warns that little empirical evidence is available that documents the effects of this intervention. Research that does exist targets participants With mild to moderate disabilities. In this study, a special education teacher used social stories in her classroom to teach 2 children With severe autism hoW to make activity choices, play appropriately With materials chosen, and play appropriately With peers in an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) classroom. The classroom teacher and a teachers aide measured student abilities in choice-making and time spent playing appropriately during a free-play setting. The researchers found support for the use of social stories to teach choice-making and play skills to children With autism.

A Practical Application of Self-Management for Students Diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Five sixth-grade students diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), taking psychostimulants for treatment of ADHD symptoms, and enrolled in a general education classroom participated in the study. Participants were taught self-management techniques to monitor academic performance, on-task behaviors, and disruptive behaviors. A multiple baseline design across students with intervention withdrawal embedded within each baseline was used to empirically assess the effectiveness of self-management. Self-management associated with increases of on-task behaviors and academic performance and with a decrease of disruptive behaviors when compared to other phases. Implications for practical application of the strategy in general education classrooms are discussed.

Roles of Gender, Race, and SES in the College Choice Process Among First-Generation and Nonfirst-Generation Students

The authors examined students’ reports of their college choice process to understand the influence of a set of psychological, personal, and institutional factors. The authors also examined potential moderating influences of generational status, gender, race, and SES on our variables of interest. A diverse sample of college freshmen (N 1,339), including 42% who were the first in their families to attend college, responded to a self-reporting, Web-based survey. Findings indicate that psychosocial factors and academic quality of the college were most influential for first-generation students as compared to their nonfirst-generation peers in the college choice process. However, gender, race, and SES moderated these influences in complex ways. For example, females rated the psychological variables higher than males; Asian American and African American first-generation students rated higher than their parents’ preferences for which college to attend as compared to nonfirst-generation peers. First-generation females, African American in particular, considered academic quality more important than other groups. Our findings should be of value to counselors and other personnel who facilitate students’ college choice process as well as college recruitment, retention, and diversity enhancement programs.

Reducing Maternal Psychological Distress after the NICU Experience through Journal Writing.

Parents of infants served in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) often experience extreme levels of stress that might be associated with elevated symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress. We examined the effect of a brief journal writing exercise on the depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms of mothers of NICU graduates using an experimental group-comparison design. Participants were 38 women who had an infant hospitalized in an NICU in the previous 2 to 14 months. Dependent measures were a measure of depression, the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1977) and a measure of posttraumatic stress, the Impact of Events Scale Revised (IES-R; Weiss, 1996). We found statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups at posttest.

A Family in Crisis Replacing the Aggressive Behavior of a Child with Autism Toward an Infant Sibling

As a means of managing a 10-year-old child with autisms aggressive behavior toward his infant sibling in a home setting, the use of clinician-implemented skill training of replacement behavior and clinician fading with self-management of replacement behaviors was examined. This study exemplifies a specific circumstance when a clinician-implemented treatment is useful in ameliorating emotionally charged family circumstances in which parent training is not possible. A single-case design (nonconcurrent multiple baseline across behavior) was used to evaluate performance. The longitudinal nature of the study reflects the moving target of problem behaviors that emerged as the infant developed an increasingly complex repertoire of skills over time. After employing skill training, the researchers found a decrease in the occurrence of aggressive behavior, an increase in the percentage of intervals in which replacement behaviors occurred, and an increase in the duration of sibling interactions. As a result, the family decided to keep their child with autism at home.

College Freshmen's Perceptions of Their High School Experiences.

Among academically talented students, SES and racial group membership predict both college expectations and matriculation, and youth less often attend and complete postsecondary education if their parents did not go to college. For successful adjustment to college, significant adults during high school matter more than they might imagine. Talking to teachers and counselors had strong relationships with social and academic adjustment as well as with positive attitudes for all students. Interestingly, the more participants talked to teachers in high school, the more academically competent they felt in college, and this relationship was especially strong for first-generation students. Such findings suggest that “getting ready” experiences may prepare students to more effectively balance the multiple developmental tasks they face as college students on the threshold of adulthood. This preparation may be especially important for persistence among vulnerable populations, including first-generation students, who spend the least time of any group talking to teachers outside class. Students in low-income, urban communities may be in reasonable proximity to a community, vocational, or 4-year college; students in rural schools may more often see relatively few opportunities for higher education. An academically oriented high school peer group also may prepare students to become socially engaged on the college campus. These preliminary findings are a strong argument for policies and practices that bring all new college students together in personalized social interactions as quickly as possible rather than focusing on groups perceived to be “at risk.”

Students with Specific Learning Disabilities Can Pass State Competency Exams: Systematic Strategy Instruction Makes a Difference.

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) are required to pass the same competency exams as students enrolled in general education in order to graduate to new grade levels and to earn a high school diploma. In this study, the authors taught students with SLD a self-directed organizational strategy designed to assist them in passing the expository and persuasive essay writing portions of a state competency exam. The authors used the established state writing rubric to measure student performance. The authors found that the class average for students with SLD who received strategy instruction and practice was equal to the average achieved in the general education population of the state in the same year and was not significantly different from the general education peers in the same school for that year.

A Comparison of Prompting Strategies to Teach Intraverbals to an Adolescent with Down Syndrome.

Ingvarsson and Hollobaugh (2011) investigated tact- or echoic-to-intraverbal transfer of stimulus control to “wh” questions for three preschool-aged boys with autism. The current study was a systematic replication of this study with an adolescent girl with Down syndrome. A multielement design was used to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of picture or echoic prompts presented on an iPad or in vivo to teach “wh” questions. All prompt conditions were effective. Conclusions and recommendations for practice are presented.