This research examines the effects of Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) on elementary-aged students' social and emotional development. Public school systems are tasked with finding programs to help develop social and emotional skills in students to help promote overall success. This research provides insight into how PBIS can impact…

Students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) almost always lack independence compared to their same-aged typical peers. To increase the independence of students with SCD, a dissertation project was conducted in the William Henry Middle School (WHMS) Intensive Learning Center - Academic (ILC-A) special education classroom. The purpose of…

Decades of research maintain that culturally relevant teaching (CRT) is a powerful methodology for understanding the obligation to teach minoritized students of color in authentic ways that acknowledge and honor them and the ethnic groups they represent, increase achievement and engagement of students representing diverse cultures, and reduce…

My dissertation examined the effect of adaptive prompts in virtual reality (VR) based social skills training on social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In my dissertation, adaptive prompts refer to an instructional technique to enhance social skill performance of children with ASD considering their emotional states. Despite…

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) teach mindfulness skills. Mindfulness is defined as self-regulation of attention on immediate experience combined with an open attitude towards present moment experience (Bishop et al., 2004). Current studies suggest that MBIs for youth can be conceptualized as a subset of social-emotional learning skills…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to explore how African American single mothers describe the efficacy and accessibility of afterschool enrichment programs for elementary school children from socio-economically challenged homes. This study will contribute to the gap in the literature with respect to African American single…

Promoting healthy development for youth requires understanding the factors that predict positive outcomes. Although cognitive skills are important for student development, research has also identified social-emotional and behavioral growth as key developmental contributors. Social-emotional and behavioral skills, such as adaptability, emotional…

This study aimed to identify students self-reported growth after participating in a Social Skills Group program and explore what factors of the program students perceived as having the greatest and least impact on their social skills knowledge. As prevalence rates for ASD continue to rise, the Autism Tsunami of college students will soon be…

A large proportion of students with disabilities (SWD) have social skills deficits that make it difficult for them to succeed in school, work, and life. This quantitative, quasi-experimental, non-equivalent, pretest-posttest, control group study was designed to explore whether SWD can better transfer their learned social skills to natural…

The challenges facing adolescents today are greater than ever. It is imperative that students have the social and emotional skills to help them succeed. Mindfulness helps support social, emotional, and academic learning as it assists children in becoming more self-aware and builds self-regulation. Mindfulness is about being present within yourself…

The developmental path of children has not changed, but the world around them has. More than ever, it is imperative that students have the social and emotional skills to help them thrive in school, in their homes, and in their community. Mindfulness helps support social, emotional, and academic learning as it assists children in becoming more…

The increase in diagnoses of autism for elementary aged students paired with schools increasingly moving towards inclusive classroom models creates a challenge for general education teachers. This quantitative quasi-experimental study was designed to investigate the efficacy of an after school, explicit social skills intervention, and the impact…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine how high school instructional educators (teachers, curriculum development leaders), support staff members (guidance counselors, coaches, social workers, deans), and two principals employed within a U.S. northeastern urban city charter high school network described how an effective…

Schools provide the opportunity for children to learn not only academic skills, but social and emotional skills as well. Programs within schools that target childrens' emotional needs and social skills, lead to an increase in academic achievement and self-regulation skills as well as a decrease in maladaptive behaviors and mental illness risk…

There has been a significant rise in mental health needs in adolescents, and the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disturbed everyday life, causing an increase in anxiety and social isolation amongst adolescents throughout the world (CDC, 2017; Yale Child Study Center, 2020). Effective Tier 1 social-emotional universal interventions to foster…