This study examines teachers' perceptions about a structured literacy curriculum that uses explicit instruction and teacher script combined with instructional practices common in special education such as time delay, error correction, and prompting strategies. The main research question addressed by this study was "What are the perceptions and…

As part of a collaborative project between a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and a local private business, we examined the effects of video modeling to teach vocational skills to four adolescents and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Video modeling was used to teach the participants to wear a WalkAround[R]…

The general purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of simultaneous prompting embedded in activities for teaching preparatory skills to children with developmental disabilities. Furthermore, determining the perspectives of the teachers about the skills taught to the participants and also to themselves were targeted. Depending…

In recent years there has been a growing interest in autism and information about the disorder has frequently been covered in magazines and newspapers, and on television (Kantrowitz & Scelfo, 2006). According to the Autism Society of America (ASA) (2006), autism is the fastest growing developmental disability with projected annual growth of 10% to…

This study assessed effectiveness of simultaneous prompting procedure in teaching two middle school students with cognitive impairment decimal subtraction using regrouping. A multiple baseline, multiple probe design replicated across subjects successfully taught two students with cognitive impairment at middle school level decimal subtraction…

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is commonly used to implement applied behavior analysis treatment for children with autism. The authors investigated a revised self-instructional manual for teaching university students to implement a 21-component DTT procedure to teach three tasks to confederates role-playing children with autism. Also, as a…

Beginning in April 2007, the Japanese government implemented efforts to shift the focus of educational policy away from the notion of "Special Education" towards "Special Needs Education". The primary objective of this change in focus is to move towards a policy of ensuring that the educational needs of students with learning…

As social beings, humans have to learn social behaviors, too. The social behavior repertoire is increased by learning, and is affected by any factors that may impact learning. Individuals with developmental disabilities need systematic teaching in order to acquire social skills (SS) in natural settings. Via SS instruction, SS are taught to…

Objectives: This article addresses the potential role for psychiatrists in teaching sexuality to other medical disciplines. Methods: The authors searched PsycNet and PubMed/MEDLINE for pertinent articles and studies from the period between 1990 and 2009 using the terms human sexuality; teaching human sexuality; teaching methods; education and…

Although menstrual care is among the most important skill areas for females with mild to moderate developmental disabilities to facilitate their independence, there is limited research examining this issue. The present study was designed to analyze the acquisition and maintenance effects of antecedent prompt and test procedure on teaching changing…

This article explores how an online course was received by a group of teachers who teach students with severe/profound intellectual developmental disabilities. The intent of the course was to engage teachers in conversations, activities and reflections that support the development of curriculum and instruction in a least restrictive environment.…

Communication skills are of great importance for children with developmental disabilities to be functional and independent in their own lives. This paper provides results of a comprehensive literature review on current researched-based intervention strategies that appear effective to increase communication skills for students who have severe…

Video prompting is a training procedure used to teach a complex behavior by showing steps of a task analysis on video. The present study evaluated how many steps in the video model were required for the learner to acquire a 10 step laundry task. Participants were three individuals with mental retardation. Participants viewed the entire task on…

Discrete trial instruction (DTI) was used to teach functional skills to three children with Angelman syndrome, a neurogenetic disorder that overlaps with autism and is associated with severe cognitive, speech, and motor impairments. Children received individual DTI teaching sessions 2 to 3 times per week over a 12-month period and displayed…

A review of the literature was conducted for articles published between 1975 and 2007 on the application of time delay as an instructional procedure to teach word and picture recognition to students with severe developmental disabilities in an effort to evaluate time delay as an evidence-based practice. A total of 30 experiments were analyzed…