Quiz and Discussion questions from class (Semester 2)

Discussion Question: Do you agree or disagree with the practice of assigning a typically developing peer to assist a student with disabilities? Why?

Answer: I absolutely agree with the idea of having typically developing peers assist with others. This offers benefits for both parties. For the typically developing student, this is a wonderful chance to share his skills and assist another, less able student. This will not only increase his subject matter knowledge (teaching, I find, is a good way to learn) but it will also increase his self-esteem, as working with the other student will prove his usefulness and value in being beneficial to other people. This will also help this person to better relate to and understand those less abled than himself. There are so many stereotypes and prejudices against students with disabilities. Working with these students directly helps people see that the disabled are real people, with real needs and real assets to offer.

For this to work best, the teacher will have to be supportive of the disabled peers, teaching that all people are valuable and worth our attention and time.

Quiz Question: List the 4 types of social relationships that may exist between a student with a severe disability and typically-developing peers. Include one important piece of information for each type of relationship (for example, an advantage or disadvantage).

Answer:

1. play/companionship – Everyone needs positive interaction to survive happily in this life. The play relationship gives both parties a chance to simply "enjoy" time with an other person and is a positive experience. Playing with others will lead to greater levels of friendship, rather than just hanging out. This will add to the students' self worth. Teachers should be encouraged to support play between students who are typically developing and those with disabilities and should model appropriate interactions with all children.
2. helpee – This speaks to the discussion question above. Research shows that for the helpee student, increases in social skills, conversational turn-taking, and improvements in academic skill development will be shown. In these relationships, the teacher should be careful to make sure the helper knows that there are limits to the amount of help that should be offered. The disabled student needs to be encouraged to do as much as possible on his/her own, and not allow the helpee relationship to become a crutch against further learning and accomplishment.
3. helper – this is a less common relationship between typically developing students and disabled peers. These relationships are beneficial to the disabled student because they build self-esteem and prove to the student that he or she has value and worth to others. These relationships may be best fostered by having older disabled students assist in younger grade levels. In doing this, the material being helped with will not be too difficult for the disabled peer and he/she will be able to be an asset in the lives of the younger students.
4. conflictual (adversarial) – these are relationships that could just as easily exist between any variety of students. The confilctual relationship involves fighting, arguing, teasing, pushing, etc. Teachers who are prepared, will be ready to teach problem solving skills to all students involved in an adversarial relationship. These skills can then be applied in the future to prevent / lesson conflictual problems. Of note: It is important to teach typically developing students the value of being honest with disabled peers. Disabled students should not be ignored when they do something inappropriate just because of their disability, but should be taught that what they are doing is wrong and hurts others. The book gives an example of the appropriate way to deal with a disabled peer who makes a mess by rubbing food on someone's clothes. Here, the disabled student needs direct feedback regarding his or her actions. The disabled student will not learn anything if the behavior is ignored and those hurt simply move away from the student, trying to avoid conflict.

Discussion Question: Discuss some important points about Milieu Teaching that one should be aware of before implementing this strategy.

Answer:
The teacher must have knowledge of the student's physical, cognitive, and intentional communication abilities and knowledge of the opportunities for and barriers to communication in order to best choose the communication mode to be used. For this, expert assistance is recommended, so that the best method of communication is taught in the best way possible.

Though Milieu teaching occurs in the natural setting, some students will need initial exposure and training of the techniques. This can occur at the same time as naturalistic teaching, rather than waiting until the student is "ready." The purpose of this initial exposure is to teach and introduce the skills (such as computer skills, or basic hand movements for signs) which will be needed for communication.

The teacher must realize that he or she will also need to teach others, besides the target student. This is necessary because the new communication system needs to be functional, and understood by the important people in the student's every day life.

Some teachers who begin Milieu teaching may incorrectly assume that traditional verbal communication skills no longer need to be addressed. There is no evidence to support this line of thinking, and spoken language should be modeled concurrently with Milieu teaching techniques. (From page 457)

Quiz Question: List the six environmental strategies listed that have been shown to increase the likelihood that students will show interest in the environment and that will encourage communicative attempts.

Answer:

1. Have interesting materials.
2. Keep desired objects out of reach. This will increase the likelihood that students will attempt communication to gain the desired object.
3. When a task is assigned, make sure the student has inadequate portions so that the student will need to communicate a need for materials in order to complete the task.
4. Give students a choice so they must communicate their preference.
5. Set up tasks which require assistance, so that the student has the opportunity to communicate this need.
6. Create unexpected situations. These situations often produce communication. (From page 467)

Quiz Question: List four of the six prompting and feedback procedures and explain how each method is used.

1: Least intrusive - this method of prompting is designed to begin by using the least amount of assistance, then only increasing the amount of assistance when needed. This enables the student to do as much as he or she can independently. An increase in assistance may be from going from a simple verbal reminder, to a physical gesture reminding of what is required to an actual physical modeling of what is required, to a physical prompt where the instructor uses touch to assist the student in prompting in the correct manner.

2: Progressive time delay - Here, the teacher starts by immediately prompting the student, and then gradually increasing a delay for future prompts. This requires that the teacher time the prompts, rather than carelessly going by how long it felt like she waited before, and then waiting a little longer the next time. Personally, I feel this would make this an annoying method to use.

3: Simultaneous prompting with modeled response - Here, the teacher gives the student the correct answer before asking the question. This is done repeatedly for all questions in a series. In order to see if the student has learned the responses, they can be asked again, without the antecedent answering.

4: Practice with feedback - This is simple, and just as it sounds. The student is given many chances to practice a new skill, and feedback is offered. This is the most natural form of teaching, and it often seen in every day life with teaching people.

Discussion Question: Discuss the importance of the following quote as it relates to students with severe disabilities:

"...functional academics can provide skills to enhance independence in daily living and allow for learning activities that parallel regular education, the relative importance of functional academics depends on the total educational needs of an individual student."

For most students, functional academics is an unspoken and naturally occurring part of life and school in general. As students are more disabled, the ability to naturally learn what they need to function in everyday life is diminished. For these students, academics must be altered so that they more directly address the needs students will not only have in the school, but also at home and in their future jobs. If this were to be graphed, there would be an inverse correlation. As intelligence/ability goes down, the need to more directly teach functional life skills increases.

Discussion Question: At what age/grade level would it be appropriate to begin instruction on daily living and community skills? Explain.

Daily living and community skills start as close to birth as possible. Everything from toilet training to learning to look both ways when crossing the street and saying thank you to the stranger who gives you candy are all daily living and community skills. The more skilled child wouldnt have taken the candy in the first place.

So, for the disabled student (as well as all students) it would be appropriate to teach daily living and community skills from the start. Everyday, students should be taught to better interact with their peers, and their peers should be taught the same. These skills will then have the most time available to mature and grow into new situations as the student ages. When students are separated from society, and not taught the skills needed to function with society, it becomes more of a challenge to them when/if eventual integration begins to occur.

Quiz Question: Name and briefly describe the three levels of deviant behavior as described within Evans and Meyer's (1985) decision model.

From least to most severe:

Level 3: Behaviors that reflect “normal deviation” These are the negative behaviors that are “on the edge” of being worthy of targeting. Sometimes, normal deviation behaviors are not as distractive as an intervention would be. In these cases, the behavior is ignored. However, if the “normal deviation” behavior is excessively distractive to the class/student, then the behavior will be targeted for improvement. You will want to ask if the behavior is getting worse, damaging to materials/others, been longstanding, and related to other negative behaviors in the classroom which may improve if this behavior improves before deciding if you want to intervene.

Level 2: Serious behaviors requiring formal consideration. These behaviors are more serious than level three behaviors. Here, the behavior has been longstanding and is often getting worse, and bothering other students/the educational process. These behaviors exist despite the implementation of a well-designed education program.

Level 1: Urgent behaviors requiring immediate social intervention. These are the most serious behaviors. These are behaviors which could result in permanent physical harm to the student(s). These behavior will be clearly evident to those who interact with the student.

Discussion Question: How do you assess a child with a severe disability for a social skills or problem behavior differently than a typically developing child?

In looking at social skills for those with severe disabilities, it is important to focus on the skills needed for the specific situations faced by the student in his/her daily life. Whereas for the typical student, it is assumed that the child will know and understand what skills are required in various situations, it will be easier with the severely disabled student to research and teach the specific skills needed in specific situations (you do this in both cases, but more so in the latter).

In looking at behavior problems, it is my opinion that the differences are less. No matter who the student, problem behaviors typically serve a function to the student. Screaming/crying in class gets desired attention. Pushing people gets a desired position in line. A simple “ABC” method of observation will often point to the function of the behavior and identify the reasons these behaviors continue to occur. For all types of students, interventions can be built with this knowledge.

However, it must be noted that severely disabled students often do not have the communication abilities of their typically developing peer. Because of this, one should not assume that “because Jon has not complained about a headache” that he does not have head pain and therefore the behavior must be the result of something else. So, with severely disabled people, greater care needs to be given to ruling out medical conditions when considering the causes of problem behavior.

Filed under: EDC 571 Biological Bases of Behavior (I and II)
Copyright: January, 2005 - David Profitt