Loretta A. Serna

A Randomized Controlled Trial of the First Step to Success Early Intervention: Demonstration of Program Efficacy Outcomes in a Diverse, Urban School District.

This article reports on a randomized controlled trial of the First Step to Success early intervention that was conducted over a 4-year period in Albuquerque Public Schools. First Step is a selected intervention for students in Grades 1 through 3 with externalizing behavior problems, and it addresses secondary prevention goals and objectives. It consists of three modular components (screening, school intervention, parent training); lasts approximately 3 months; and is initially set up, delivered, and coordinated by a behavioral coach (e.g., school counselor, behavior specialist, social worker). Project Year 1 of this efficacy trial was devoted to gearing-up activities (e.g., hiring, training, planning, logistical arrangements); Years 2 and 3 each involved implementing First Step with approximately 100 behaviorally at-risk students. Students, teachers, and classrooms were randomly assigned to either intervention or usual care comparison conditions. Year 4 activities focused on conducting long-term, follow-up assessments and implementing sustainability procedures to preserve achieved gains. Pre-post teacher and parent ratings of student behavior and social skills showed moderately robust effect sizes, ranging from .54 to .87, that favored the intervention group. Direct measures of academic performance (oral reading fluency, letter—word identification) were not sensitive to the intervention. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

Primary Prevention with Children at Risk for Emotional or Behavioral Disorders: Data on a Universal Intervention for Head Start Classrooms

A classroom-wide universal intervention on direction following, sharing, and problem solving was embedded in a story and song format for Head Start children. The intervention covered a 12-week period with two 3-hour sessions in each experimental classroom weekly. Pretest and posttest data were collected on 53 children in three experimental classrooms and 31 children in two control classrooms. Results suggest significant improvements for the experimental group on adaptive behavior, social interaction, and attentional measures. Overall, children in the experimental group who were at risk for development of emotional or behavioral disorders prior to intervention either significantly improved or maintained their preintervention functioning. Implications of early detection and primary prevention efforts within a Head Start context are discussed.

Intervention Versus Affirmation Proposed Solutions to the Problem of Disproportionate Minority Representation in Special Education

In 1968, Exceptional Children published Lloyd Dunns historic article concerning the disproportionate number of minority students receiving special education services in the area of mental retardation. Thirty years later this discussion continues, with few of the authors recommendations having been implemented. In our response to the articles, in this special section, we question why these recommendations have not been implemented. We propose that experimentally validated interventions that have been found to be effective across cultures can begin to address the issue of disproportionate representation. These interventions include (a) early detection, primary interventions, and prereferral procedures and (b) academic as well as social competence, resiliency, and self-determination strategy teaching. We suggest a pragmatic approach to addressing the disproportionate number of minority students receiving special education services. We then focus on the need for well-trained quantitative researchers from diverse cultural backgrounds who can develop, implement, and experimentally evaluate interventions that can produce systemic change addressing this issue.

Learning with Purpose: Self-Determination Skills for Students Who Are at Risk for School and Community Failure.

Introduces a self-determination curriculum containing seven skill-domain areas

Acquiring Social Skills Through Cooperative Learning and Teacher-Directed Instruction:

We compared three procedures for teaching social skills with intermediate-age students with disabilities who also participated in cooperative learning groups. The first group received teacher-directed instruction of three socially validated skills: listening, problem solving, and negotiating. The second group received instruction of the same three skills but using a structured natural approach suggested in the cooperative learning literature (Kagan, 1992). The third group generated, defined, and discussed cooperative group rules, including the three skills taught in the other groups. Students in the teacher-directed instruction group Improved their skill performance during role-play situations on all three skills. Students In the structured natural approach achieved minimal gains during role-play situations. Students In the third group did not Improve their performance during role-play situations on any of the three skills.

Promoting Generalized Social Interactions Using Puppets and Script Training in an Integrated Preschool A Single-Case Study Using Multiple Baseline Design

Puppet script trainingwas used to teach the social skills of greeting, responding to conversations, and initiating conversations to a preschool child with visual impairments. Susie and four peers without disabilities were taught social skills utilizing puppets enacting sociodramatic scripts within group training sessions.Training sessions were immediately followed by free-play activities among peers without disabilities to assess skill generalization. A single-case study using a multiple-baseline design demonstrated that the intervention increased performance of social skills during recess with peers. Results demonstrated that Susie learned the target behaviors and generalized their use to free-play activities with her peers.

Primary Prevention in Mental Health for Head Start Classrooms: Partial Replication with Teachers as Intervenors.

In a previous study, Serna, Nielsen, Lambros, and Forness (2000) demonstrated that a 12-week universal intervention in three Head Start classrooms significantly improved outcomes on 5 of 10 measures of symptoms or impairment in mental health, compared to outcomes for children in two control classrooms. Children meeting clinical cutoffs for mental health risk also maintained or improved their performance as a result of such primary prevention compared to control children at risk (Serna, Lambros, Nielsen, & Forness, 2002). The present study replicated the original, except the universal intervention was not conducted by a university preschool teacher but by regular Head Start teachers. Outcomes were significant on only two of eight outcome measures. The authors discuss them in terms of efficacy versus effectiveness.

Head Start Children at Risk for Emotional or Behavioral Disorders: Behavior Profiles and Clinical Implications of a Primary Prevention Program

This article examines the utility of the Early Screening Project (ESP; Walker, Severson, & Feil, 1995) for early detection and outcome of Head Start children at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) in a classroom-wide universal mental health intervention over a 12-week period. Eight children identified as being at high risk for E/BD in the experimental classroom prior to intervention either significantly improved or maintained their preintervention functioning on ESP measures. In this group, 2 children were no longer considered in the at-risk category and the remaining 6 did not reach clinical standards on any new measures. Only 1 child was identified from control classrooms, and that child remained at high risk for the development of E/BD at posttesting, while an additional 3 students from control classrooms evidenced behavioral criteria that placed them at high risk for E/BD at posttest assessment.

HIV Disease Implications for Special Educators

The Number of children and adolescents who have contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has increased to alarming levels. this increase impacts current and future school personnel who work with students with disabilities. We address the implications of the HIV disease in the classroom from two perspectives. First, we discuss some of the issues that surround working with students who have HIV disease, such as creating a supportive school climate, ensuring confidentiality, and implementing hygienic safeguards in the school setting. second, we address curricular considerations related to teaching students with special needs about HIV prevention, including who should provide the instruction, implications for teacher preparation programs, and suggested format and content of HIV education.