Toni Van Laarhoven

A Model for Preparing Special and General Education Preservice Teachers for Inclusive Education.

Project ACCEPT (Achieving Creative & Collaborative Educational Preservice Teams) represents an initiative at Northern Illinois University, where special and general education preservice teachers are joined in a voluntary project featuring an enhanced curriculum and field experiences in inclusive classrooms. Participants receive intensive preparation in use of assistive technologies, functional behavioral assessment, and instructional accommodations as well as experience designing lesson plans that include features of universal design. This article describes the specific features of the Project ACCEPT curriculum and outcomes for the first year of implementation.

A Comparison of Picture and Video Prompts to Teach Daily Living Skills to Individuals With Autism

This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of video prompting and picture prompting when used as antecedents for teaching daily living skills to two adolescents with autism. Participants were taught two different skills, and the effects of the instructional conditions were compared and evaluated using an adapted alternating-treatments design. The results can be interpreted to conclude that video prompting was slightly more effective in terms of independent correct responding, fewer external prompts for task completion, and fewer prompts to use instructional materials. In addition, when efficiency scores were calculated by considering the ratio of each participant’s growth (from pretest to posttest) to the measured “cost” of minutes required to create instructional materials, video prompting was considerably more efficient than picture prompting.

Project ACCEPT: Preparing Pre-Service Special and General Educators for Inclusive Education.

Preparing educators to teach in inclusive classrooms is a critical first step in ensuring that all students in P-12 programs receive exemplary educational services. The need to restructure personnel preparation in response to the increasing diversity and inclusiveness of public school classrooms has evolved from discussion and debate more than a decade ago to an array of initiatives in teacher education programs across the country today. These initiatives have been influenced by standards-based reform proposals, changes in certification policies, feedback from graduates, or interests of particular faculty. In the Department of Teaching and Learning at Northern Illinois University, Project ACCEPT (Achieving Creative & Collaborative Educational Preservice Teams) was developed in response to implementation of standards-based certification requirements for special and general education teachers in Illinois as well as recognition within the college and department that new teachers would benefit from program enhancements focusing on education of all learners. The primary goals of Project ACCEPT was to prepare educators for inclusive schools and to encourage collaboration across different disciplines. The major features of Project ACCEPT are a shared course and clinical experience for pre-service special and general educators, instructional modules on critical competency areas for teachers in inclusive classrooms, and hands-on experience and assessment with assistive technologies. The Department of Teaching & Learning collaborated with the Regional Access and Mobilization Project (RAMP) to pursue and receive a four-year grant from the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities (ICDD). The purpose of the grant was to develop and evaluate an innovative model for preparing teachers for service and leadership in inclusive schools. As an advocacy organization for individuals with disabilities and their families, RAMP contributed expertise in shaping positive attitudes toward individuals with disabilities, as well as access to families of students with disabilities. University faculty focused on logistics of restructuring the program, development of field-based experiences, and enhancement of critical competencies for all pre-service teachers to meet new state standards. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Toni VanLaarhoven, Department of Teaching and Learning, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115. E-mail: tvanlaar@niu.edu Research described herein was supported by a grant from the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities. Teacher Education and Special Education 2006, Volume 29, No. 4, 209–212

Discrimination training: a comparison of two procedures for presenting multiple examples within a fading and non-fading paradigm.

When teaching discriminations, many researchers and practitioners recommend presenting multiple examples of both the correct and incorrect stimuli. To test this suggestion, we compared two procedures for presenting multiple examples. In one, multiple examples across trials (ME, Across), one correct (S+) and one incorrect (S-) stimulus were presented each trial; examples then changed across trials. In another procedure, multiple examples within trials (ME, Within), three stimuli (either 2 S+s and 1 S-, or 1 S+ and 2 S-s) were presented each trial; examples again changed across trials. Two experiments were conducted to test these procedures. The first procedure used a non-fading program to teach discrimination; the second used a fading procedure. In the first experiment, we taught 10 persons to identify words under these two procedures. The former procedure was superior in acquisition; the latter procedure, however, was better under generalization for most participants. In the second experiment, we presented the two procedures within a fading paradigm. The results replicated those in Experiment 1: ME, Across was better for acquisition, but ME, Within was better for generalization. Results were discussed and follow-up studies suggested.

Promoting Self-Determination and Transition Planning Using Technology Student and Parent Perspectives

Despite the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA) mandates for student involvement in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process, several researchers have demonstrated limited student participation. One method for encouraging self-advocacy and active IEP participation is to teach students to communicate their hopes, dreams, and goals through technology. The purpose of the study was to measure student and parent satisfaction with Project Multimedia for Youth to Voice Outcomes Individually Created for Empowerment (MY VOICE), a 3-year project aimed at supporting students with developmental disabilities through the use of multimedia to have a voice in their transition planning and IEP meetings. Results indicated students were satisfied with the project and their parents were significantly more satisfied with the outcomes of the IEP process when the project was in place for four of six measured variables.

Effects on stereotypy and other challenging behavior of matching rates of instruction to free-operant rates of responding

Research has shown that when individuals are in situations that do not occasion one form of motoric responding, they will engage in another so that the overall level of motoric responding is homeostatic. The purpose of this study was to test whether students would substitute task-related behaviors for stereotypic or other challenging behaviors when the opportunity for active responding did or did not match the level of motoric responding in a free-operant baseline. Four students with mental retardation participated. Results showed that they did substitute behaviors, with stereotypic and other challenging behaviors occurring 1.5-14 times as much in the Non-matched condition for the four students. Further analysis showed considerably more of these behaviors in passive than in active tasks (by a factor up to 21 times as much). Results were discussed in terms of homeostasis, functional assessment, and opportunities to improve educational behaviors.

Comparing Mobile Technologies for Teaching Vocational Skills to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders and/or Intellectual Disabilities Using Universally-Designed Prompting Systems

The purpose of this study was to compare mobile technologies with universally-designed prompting systems to improve the independent vocational performance of four adolescents with ASD and/or ID in school-based employment settings. Specific aims were to (1) compare the effectiveness of universally-designed prompting systems presented on iPads and HP Slates that involved participant-selection and participant-fading of available on-screen media prompts; (2) compare the usability of different mobile devices; and (3) determine if built-in decision prompts could improve problem-solving behavior during task completion. Results indicated that both devices resulted in immediate and substantial increases in independent responding for three of the four participants. All participants performed better with their preferred device and all self-faded reliance on instructional prompts as skill acquisition increased.