Suchergebnisse

This study describes patterns of co-worker involvement among 264 supported employees in relation to level of disability versus placement approach (i.e., individual, clustered, crew). Results indicated that supported employees extensively associate with their nonhandicapped co-workers, followed by co-workers evaluating and training these same supported employees. Supported employees who were members of mobile work crews, however, experienced far less co-worker involvement than their colleagues who were employed in clustered or individual placements. Differences in levels of co-worker involvement provided were observed to relate less to level of disability than to type of placement.

This study investigated the effects of self-monitoring instruction delivered by peer tutors on the occurrence of academic survival skills displayed by five middle school students with severe disabilities. We employed a multiple baseline across subjects design. Instruction was provided in general education content classes. The students were taught to indicate on a self-recording sheet if they performed each of 11 skills. Data revealed an increase in the percentages of occurrence of survival skills across all students. Also, their general education teachers indicated that they observed a positive change for four of the five students. All students indicated that they believed that they were part of the class and reported an increase in their classroom participation. The implications of these findings are discussed.

We examined the differences between two groups of general education high school students: Those who volunteered to participate in a peer buddy program designed to increase their social interactions with their peers with severe disabilities ( n = 30), and those who chose not to volunteer ( n = 30). Differences were examined using the Social Distance Questionnaire for Attitudes of High School Students Toward Handicapped Persons. Analyses indicated that, at pre-test, peer buddies reported significantly greater willingness to interact with people with severe disabilities and more previous contact with these individuals than did nonvolunteers. There were no differences between the scores of the groups on knowledge of disability or affect toward persons with disabilities. After one semester of enrollment in the program, social willingness, knowledge, and contact scores of peer buddies increased significantly, whereas the scores of nonvolunteers remained the same as at the pre-test. In addition, students' self-reported previous contact with individuals with disabilities positively correlated with their scores indicating their social willingness to interact with their peers with disabilities. Implications of the study are discussed with respect to benefits of and recommendations for peer interaction programs.

Incorporating general education peers into social skills instructional programs has been effective at increasing social interaction of high school students with intellectual disabilities and autism with their classmates. In this study, communication book use (Hughes et al., 2000), combined with providing the opportunity to interact, was associated with increases in conversational initiations and responses of five high school students identified with intellectual disabilities and autism and their general education peers. We also addressed a limitation of Hughes et al. (2000) by expanding the role of peers during generalization to (a) engage in conversational interactions that were more reciprocal and typical of high school student dyads and (b) provide support to participants while interacting. This study adds to the few published social skills interventions involving high school students with intellectual disabilities and autism in inclusive settings and extends findings to a population of students with more varied communication characteristics.

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This investigation examined the effects of self-prompted communication book training provided by peers on the conversational initiations of four high school students with extensive support needs. The intervention was associated with increases in participants' appropriate initiations and general education conversational partners' corresponding responses. The self-prompting strategy also was associated with increases in conversational topics discussed and decreases in inappropriate initiations by participants. In addition, interviews conducted postintervention generally indicated that participants believed they had (a) met their social goals to increase their interactions with their general education peers and (b) made more friends at school. Implications of findings are discussed and suggestions made for future programmatic efforts.

Limited social interaction typically occurs between high school students with autism and their general education peers unless programming is introduced to promote interaction. However, few published social interaction interventions have been conducted among high school students with autism and their general education classmates. Such studies typically have involved considerable researcher assistance in arranging and supporting opportunities for interaction. This study represents a departure from previous interventions by teaching general education students a strategy to prompt themselves to increase their interactions with classmates with autism. Three general education high school students were taught to set interaction goals and monitor their interactions with a peer with autism in their classes. The goal-setting package was associated with increased social interaction among participating students. Based on findings, recommendations are provided for future research and practice.

We reviewed studies to identify strategies effective at increasing social interaction skills across a range of secondary school students with autism and/or intellectual disability who experienced limited peer interaction. We were particularly interested in identifying strategies that involved peers and were effective at increasing peer interaction beyond the instructional setting. We identified 13 intervention studies that we analyzed by (a) participant characteristics, settings, and outcomes measured; (b) effective instructional strategies, including role of peers and programming for generalization, related to generalized effects of social interaction interventions; (c) the relation of participant characteristics, type of intervention, and generalization effects; (d) social validation and treatment fidelity measures; and (e) methodological limitations. Findings allowed us to provide recommendations for future research and practice.