College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD INSTRUCTION ON EARLY NUMERACY SKILLS OF STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS(2017) Maajeeny, Fayez; Kohl, Frances L; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of interactive whiteboard instruction on early numeracy skills of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Four students diagnosed with ASD between the ages of five to seven years old participated. They were taught early numeracy skills, specifically one-to-one correspondence and representation of numbers, using an interactive whiteboard (IAW) and discrete trial training (DTT). A multiple probe design across subjects was used to determine the effectiveness of the IAW instruction. It was predicted that students with ASD would acquire, maintain, and generalize the early numeracy skills taught using the IAW. Results revealed the IAW with DTT was effective for teaching early numeracy skills to students with ASD. The introduction of the intervention resulted in all participants meeting the established criteria. All students generalized the target early numeracy skills to a different setting and with different materials and the results were maintained over time. The findings of the study support the effectiveness of the IAW, coupled with DTT, to teach early numeracy skills to students with ASD. This study met the evidence standards for single case design addressed by What Works Clearinghouse. Implications for practice include the consideration of using the IAW to teach a variety of academic skills as well as developing interactive lessons based on each student’s needs. Future research should focus on generalization of skills gained using IAW instruction.Item Neural Bases of Emotional Language Processing in Individuals with and without Autism(2015) Sand, Lesley Ann; Bolger, Donald J.; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A fundamental aspect of successful social interactions is the ability to accurately infer others’ verbal communication, often including information related to the speaker’s feelings. Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by language and social-affective impairments, and also aberrant functional neural responses to socially-relevant stimuli. The main objective of the current research was to examine the behavioral and neural effects of making affective inferences from language lacking overt prosody or explicit emotional words in individuals with and without autism. In neurotypical individuals, the current data are consistent with previous studies showing that verbal emotional stimuli enhances activation of brain regions generally responsive to discourse, and also “social-affective” brain regions, specifically medial/orbital frontal regions, bilateral middle temporal areas, temporal parietal junction/superior temporal gyri and pCC/PC. Moreover, these regions respond differentially to positive and negative valence, most clearly in the medial frontal area. Further, results suggest that mentalizing alone does not account for the differences between emotional and neutral stories, as all of our stories required similar inferencing of the feelings of the protagonist. In autism, there is general agreement that the neurodevelopmental disorder is marked by impairments in pragmatic language understandings, emotional processes, and the ability to “mentalize,” others’ thoughts, intentions and beliefs. However, findings are mixed regarding the precise nature of emotional language understandings. Results of the present study suggest that autistic individuals are able to make language-based emotional inferences, and that like neurotypical controls, social-affective brain regions show task-related facilitation effects for emotional compared to neutral valence. However, the neural activations in the autism group were generally greater than controls, especially in response to emotion. Additionally, results showed greater difficulty with incongruent judgments in participants with autism. Together, these findings represent a first step toward revealing social-affective abilities in the language context in autism, despite irregular brain response. Such understandings are critical to generating effective intervention strategies and therapeutic practices for autistic individuals and their families. For remediation to be most beneficial, one must understand and utilize areas of skill, and leverage those to positively impact deficits.Item Maternal Experiences of Parenting Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Analysis(2015) Duchene, Melissa S.; Jones Harden, Brenda; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite the increased prevalence rates of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) over the last two decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015), little is known about the parenting of children with ASD, including parenting behaviors, parent-child interactions, and how the specific characteristics of children with ASD affect parenting practices. The goals of this qualitative study were: (1) To explore parenting practices and behaviors among mothers of children with ASD; and (2) To illuminate the unique experiences of mothers raising children with ASD. Three research questions guided the inquiry: 1) What are the parenting practices and behaviors that mothers use with their preschool age children with ASD?; 2) What are the beliefs and experiences of mothers relative to raising preschool aged children with ASD?; and 3) What facilitates or hinders mothers' parenting of their preschool aged children with ASD? In this qualitative inquiry, six mothers and their preschool-age children with ASD were recruited from the Autism Center in a metropolitan children's hospital. Each mother participated in three 1-1 ½ hour long semi-structured audio-recorded interviews that entailed a series of open-ended questions about the unique experiences associated with raising a child with ASD. Two home observations and one public observation of mother-child interactions lasting 1-2 hours in length were conducted per family. Eleven themes emerged during the coding process: 1) positivity within the mother-child relationship, 2) schedules and routines, 3) strategies encouraging child cooperation, 4) crisis management, 5) perspectives on child's maladaptive behavior, 6) perspectives on child's abilities, 7) perceptions and experiences around public interfacing, 8) stress associated with caring for a child with ASD, 9) maternal resources, 10) interpersonal supports, and 11) ecological factors. These results shed light on factors that contribute to the everyday realities and experiences of parents who have children with ASD, thereby allowing for a more accurate understanding of their parenting approaches and behaviors. Findings from this study can be considered in the context of developing interventions focused on parenting children with ASD.Item Sibling Relationships in Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders(2013) White, Jamell Delaine; Klein, Elisa L; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the fastest growing disabilities in the United States. As the number of children diagnosed with ASD rises there is a parallel increase in families and siblings of children with ASD (F-ASD). There is a gap in the research (Meadan, Halle, & Ebata, 2010) on the interaction between children with ASD and other family members, especially siblings. In this study I explored sibling relationships in families of children with ASD with a focus on children of elementary to early middle- school age. Three research questions guided the inquiry: 1) What is the nature of sibling interactions in families of children with ASD, and do the individual characteristics of the child with and without ASD influence sibling relationships? 2) How do family attitudes and beliefs about ASD have an influence on sibling relationships? and 3) What factors contribute to parental decisions to access sibling support services? Sibling relationships in families of children with ASD were examined through observations, interviews, and focus groups. Siblings with and without ASD, parents, and clinical professionals participated in the process in order to gain multiple perspectives. Consistent with qualitative methods (Miles & Huberman, 1994), a four-stage analytic process involving transcription of the data, coding and categorization, interpretation and identification of patterns and themes, and verification of the data was used to identify themes. Data analysis revealed one core theme and five subthemes. The findings of this study suggest that sibling relationships were bound by the way in which the ASD traits were seen in each child, the individual characteristics of each child, and the way in which the children and family perceived and understood their circumstances. The sibling relationships were, in many ways, similar to those between typical siblings but with an added layer of complexity related to the ASD. The findings are discussed with reference to current literature on sibling adjustment and relationships in families of children with disabilities. Implications for practice and future research are also discussed.Item Treatment Effectiveness in Preschool Education- A Look at Affective Variables(2009) Tsakiris, Elizabeth Ann; Strein, William O; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Autism now occurs in 1 out of 150 births in the United States (Centers for Disease Control, 2008). Increasing numbers and complexity of the disorder make the need for identifying effective interventions critical. DSM-IVTR identifies core characteristics of autism as significant deficits in communication, social interaction, and symbolic play. Neither intellectual ability nor academic achievement, two variables frequently used for measuring intervention effectiveness, are included as diagnostic criteria. Yet IQ scores are often used as entry criteria for treatment studies (Tsakiris, 2000). Therefore, intervention effectiveness has utilized variables other than the primary deficits and cannot be applied to the wider range (and truer representation) of children with autism.. From 1980 to 1999, Applied Behavior Analysis (Lovaas, 1987) and the Developmental-Individual Differences Relationship model (Greenspan & Wieder, 1998) were associated with improvement for children with autism; they remain the foundation for most current interventions. While researchers have examined gains in language and academic skills for these models, few empirical studies have examined improvement in the core deficits for autism. This study examined the core affect variables for 28 children with autism who had undergone a minimum of two years of intensive intervention. This study used a retrospective descriptive design to examine treatment effectiveness in development of social interaction, play, and communication competencies. Assessment instruments measured these skills in young children, incorporating both quantitative behavioral data and qualitative psychodynamic interpretation. Results were analyzed to determine relationships between social interaction, communication, and play with the intervention. Parent interviews and record reviews were used to examine child characteristics that might differentiate the presence or lack of relationship to the selected therapies, including age at symptom onset and treatment initiation, self-stimulation levels, echolalia, motor planning and language skills, and biomedical factors. No differences were seen between treatment programs on all outcome measures. The individual characteristics of the children played the more significant role in determining social interaction and communication improvements regardless of the child's intellectual functioning level. The results have important implications for determining which treatments may have better potential for addressing the core deficits of autism and identifying skill trajectories that warrant more attention.