Educator Knowledge and Implementation of Assistive Technology to Support Challenging Behaviors: An Exploratory Inquiry

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-174
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Emerling ◽  
Sarah Wilkinson ◽  
Daniel M. Maggin
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Challenging Behaviors ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Dynamic Learning ◽  
Behavioral Challenges ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
K 12

Emerging trends and advancements in technology allow educators to develop dynamic learning environments to support their students’ academic and behavioral needs. The study documented the lived experience of special educators using assistive technology (AT) to support behavioral challenges in students with disabilities and the environmental factors that support educator’s use of AT. Fifteen educators who worked in K–12 schools participated in semi-structured interviews and completed a researcher-developed Assistive Technology Treatment Integrity Checklist (ATTIC). This exploratory study indicated that participants had limited experiences using AT to target challenging behaviors. However, participants used technology to support evidence-based interventions or customized instructional technologies to manage students’ needs. Our findings also indicated that school structures impacted AT-related attitudes and eventual use. The findings from this study add to the literature on technology supports for students with challenging behaviors. Implications for practice and future research are also discussed.

Fostering Inclusion of Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders in Daily Settings Through Technological Supports

2021 ◽  
pp. 224-245
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Stasolla ◽  
Alessandro O. Caffò ◽  
Viviana Perilli
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Challenging Behaviors ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Third ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Adolescents With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

This chapter emphasizes a selective overview of the newest empirical contributions available in the literature within the last decade (i.e., 2008-2019) regarding the use of assistive technology for the inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in daily settings. According to the including and excluding criteria, 40 studies were retained and grouped in five main categories, namely (1) communication skills, (2) adaptive and/or social skills, (3) life skills, (4) challenging behaviors, and (5) academic performance. The first aim of the chapter was to outline strengths and weaknesses of the aforementioned studies. The second objective of the chapter was to provide some practical and illustrative examples of assistive technology-based programs aimed at the integration of children with ASD in daily settings. Finally, the third purpose was to discuss the findings pointing out some useful guidelines for future research and practice. Results were fairly positive, although some failure occurred. Clinical, educational, psychological, and rehabilitative implications were critically discussed.

scholarly journals Understanding the lived experience of British non-offending paedophiles

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-81
Author(s):  
Harriet Dymond ◽  
Simon Duff
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Sexual Attraction ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
The Uk

Purpose Research into paedophilia mainly uses offender samples; thus, little is understood about non-offending paedophiles. The limited body of research has been conducted in North America or Europe whose health and legal systems differ from those in the UK. Using semi-structured interviews, the purpose of this study is to explore the experience of three non-offending British paedophilic males. Design/methodology/approach The interview discussed their paedophilia, refraining from offending and perspectives on treatment initiatives. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings Three superordinate themes emerged: “paedophilia as more than a sexuality,” “acceptance leads to management” and “barriers to support.” These encapsulated how paedophilia was understood, how accepting one’s sexual attraction is tantamount to well-being and the various obstacles to providing support were discussed. Research limitations/implications Acknowledging the sampling considerations (size and recruitment), the results implicate research into paedophilia. The onset of paedophilia was chronologically associated with typical sexual attraction, and not the result of sexual abuse as some theories suggest. Furthermore, the tenets of attraction to children extending beyond sexual desire were highlighted. Practically, the results influence future research into the area and highlight the dearth in our understanding of diverse behavioural management techniques (i.e. computerised images of children or human-like dolls). Originality/value This paper presents novel insight into the aspects of paedophilia, excluding offensive behaviour and highlights the need for affordable, UK-based services targeted towards people with a paedophilic attraction to manage child sexual abuse preventatively and not reactively.

Perceptions of Students and Educators on the Impact of No Child Left Behind: Some Will and Some Won't

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy E. Harriman
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Special Educators ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

How do students and educators perceive the No Child Left Behind law and its impact? The author reports on structured interviews with 15 staff members K-12 and 37 middle level students in a small, northeastern coastal community. The responses of students included three themes: fairness to subgroups, student effort and self-determination, and apprehensions about changing schools. Issues identified by teachers, special educators and administrators included: desirable effects of accountability; concerns about fairness to students with disabilities and diverse learning needs; conflicts between state and federal requirements; and negative effects on teaching, learning and allocation of resources. Most respondents recommended that the law be amended to achieve the original intent. Of particular relevance to special educators in small or rural schools is the overall challenge identified by educators of finding time to balance the often apparently competing demands of existing initiatives such as individualized instruction, curriculum of place, community involvement, and development of functional skills, with the additional bureaucratic and assessment related demands required by No Child Left Behind.

A Meta-Analysis of Paraprofessional-Delivered Interventions to Address Challenging Behavior Among Students With Disabilities

2020 ◽  
pp. 109830072091114
Author(s):  
Virginia L. Walker ◽  
Megan E. Carpenter ◽  
Kristin J. Lyon ◽  
Lindsey Button
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Challenging Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Challenging Behaviors ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Future Research ◽  
School Environments ◽  
Wide Range

Paraprofessionals report spending a substantial amount of time addressing challenging behavior in a range of school environments, yet identify behavioral intervention as a high-priority training area. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to systematically review and summarize single-case intervention studies involving paraprofessional-delivered behavioral interventions for students with disabilities. Descriptive findings suggest that, among the reviewed studies, paraprofessionals primarily provided behavioral support to students with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and multiple disabilities who engage in a wide range of challenging behaviors in both inclusive and noninclusive school environments. Overall, training largely was delivered by researchers and resulted in positive paraprofessional implementation outcomes. Likewise, paraprofessional-implemented behavioral interventions contributed to desirable changes in student challenging and appropriate behavior, with effect size estimates significantly higher for interventions delivered to early childhood–age students and within inclusive school settings. Implications for practice, limitations, and future research directions are described.

scholarly journals Shining a light on the daily occupational experiences of lesbian and gay adults’ in Ireland: applying an occupational justice lens

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
Letitia Hadden ◽  
Aisling O’Riordan ◽  
Jeanne Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Recent Change ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Occupational Justice ◽  
Qualitative Phenomenological

Purpose Equality of rights for individuals who identify as being lesbian or gay (LG) have emerged over recent years, and significant advancements have been made in recognition and support of LG rights in Ireland. Given the recent change in legal rights for the LG population, Civil Partnership 2010 and Marriage Equality 2015, this paper aims to explore the lived experience of daily occupations of LG adult’s in Ireland today, by applying an occupational justice lens. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative phenomenological research study, examined the concept of occupational justice as experienced by eight adults, who identified as being LG. Data was collected through face to face, semi-structured interviews. Findings Four themes capturing the complexity of each participant’s experience of daily occupations and occupational justice emerged, namely, transitions and personal journeys, celebrating differences, empowerment through occupation and inner conflict. Findings demonstrate how occupational justice is experienced as a complex, contextually embedded and dynamic process specific to each individual. Originality/value Future research in this area should aim to explore the experiences of both a younger and older LG population, along with those who identify as bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex to continue to raise awareness of the potential for occupational injustice within this minority population.

On the Lived Experience of Sex Offenders’ Therapists: Their Perceptions of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Consequences and Patterns of Coping

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 848-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haneen Elias ◽  
Muhammad M. Haj-Yahia
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Stress And Coping ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Coping Theory ◽  
Interpersonal Consequences ◽  
Therapeutic Encounter ◽  
And Coping

In the last two decades, there has been a growing understanding that the therapeutic encounter with sex offenders takes a cost and has consequences on therapists. Despite the increasing research on the consequences of treating sex offenders, these studies in fact, have merely described the consequences, without providing an outlook for how therapists cope with them. The study presented in this article was part of a larger qualitative research project conducted among social workers, using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Emphasis is placed on therapists’ perceptions of the intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences they experience from treating sex offenders, as well as the strategies they use to cope with these consequences. The study’s central findings concern the therapists’ perception of the intrapersonal consequences, which included two levels: primary responses and cumulative responses, and their perception of the interpersonal consequences that included their parenting relationships, intimate relationships, their attitude toward others (strangers and acquaintances), loss of their quality of life, and further positive consequences. The findings indicated a sequence and integrated use of the strategies to cope with the consequences. The results are discussed in light of the theoretical framework of Lazarus and Folkman’s stress and coping theory. The limitations of the study as well as its implications for future research are discussed.

Reviewing Research on Mobile Learning in K–12 Educational Settings

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingrong Xie ◽  
James D. Basham ◽  
Matthew T. Marino ◽  
Mary F. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Mobile Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Inclusive Settings ◽  
K 12

Mobile technologies have shown great potential in various educational settings. Moreover, there is an emerging research base demonstrating how students view and interact with mobile devices to learn. As more of these technologies enter inclusive educational settings, an understanding of the extant research base for mobile learning (M-learning) and students with various exceptionalities including disabilities is necessary for technology developers, researchers, educators, and school administrators to support student success. To this end, this study used a synthesis approach to reviewing the literature published on M-learning for students with and without disabilities in formal and informal K–12 educational settings. It provides a comprehensive mapping of 47 studies from 2007 to 2016. The current review revealed that (a) most studies focused on the effectiveness of M-learning on teaching and learning, (b) mixed methods and experimental studies were the most popular methodologies, and most importantly (c) research outcomes were generally positive about the potential of M-learning to support the needs of students with disabilities in inclusive settings. Limitations and implications for future research on M-learning are also discussed.

lived experience and transformational potential of 5 Rhythms dancing meditation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 31-46
Author(s):  
Zsofia Maurer
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Western World ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Intuitive Inquiry ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Self Compassion ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Self Development ◽  
And Control

Forms of dancing meditation have been popular choices for self-development in the Western world, yet they continue to be under-represented in the academic literature on mindfulness and transformative practices. The present study explored the lived experience and transformative potential of 5 Rhythms, a dancing meditation practice developed by Gabrielle Roth (1998). Anderson’s (1998) qualitative research method, intuitive inquiry, was applied in order to engage both intellect and intuition, enabling the researcher to tap her own embodied knowing of 5 Rhythms practice. The research progressed through 5 hermeneutical cycles, allowing a process of reappraisal, transforming the researcher’s original understanding of 5 Rhythms through in-depth engagement with nine participants, all of whom were 5 Rhythms dancers. Following semi-structured interviews and transcription, a Thematic Content Analysis yielded eight core themes. Overall, the findings suggested a number of processes and conditions that facilitated and accompanied psycho-spiritual transformation in 5 Rhythms dancing, including embodiment, interconnection with others, self and the world, mindful presence, self-compassion, freedom, spirituality, creativity, and the interplay of opposing forces such as surrender and control. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed at the end.

scholarly journals Unseen and unheard? Women managers and organizational learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn M. Martin ◽  
Gemma Lord ◽  
Izzy Warren-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Women Managers ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Gendered Organizations

Purpose This paper aims to use (in)visibility as a lens to understand the lived experience of six women managers in the headquarters of a large multinational organization in the UK to identify how “gender” is expressed in the context of organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach The researchers take a phenomenological approach via qualitative data collection with a purposeful sample – the six female managers in a group of 24. Data were collected through quarterly semi-structured interviews over 12 months with the themes – knowledge, interaction and gender. Findings Organizations seek to build advantage to gain and retain competitive leadership. Their resilience in a changing task environment depends on their ability to recognize, gain and use knowledge likely to deliver these capabilities. Here, gender was a barrier to effective organizational learning with women’s knowledge and experience often unseen and unheard. Research limitations/implications This is a piece of research limited to exploration of gender as other, but ethnicity, age, social class, disability and sexual preference, alone or in combination, may be equally subject to invisibility in knowledge terms; further research would be needed to test this however. Practical implications Practical applications relate to the need for organizations to examine and address their operations for exclusion based on perceived “otherness”. Gendered organizations cause problems for their female members, but they also exclude the experience and knowledge of key individuals as seen here, where gender impacted on effective knowledge sharing and cocreation of knowledge. Social implications The study offers further evidence of gendered organizations and their impacts on organizational effectiveness, but it also offers insights into the continues social acceptance of a masculinized normative model for socio-economic practice. Originality/value This exploration of gender and organizational learning offers new insights to help explain the way in which organizational learning occurs – or fails to occur – with visibility/invisibility of one group shaped by gendered attitudes and processes. It shows that organizational learning is not gender neutral (as it appears in mainstream organizational learning research) and calls for researchers to include this as a factor in future research.

scholarly journals Incivility in Higher Education: Challenges of Inclusion for Neurodiverse Students with Traumatic Brain Injury in Ireland

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Teresa Shiels ◽  
Neil Kenny ◽  
Roy Shiels ◽  
Patricia Mannix-McNamara
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Structured Interviews

This paper explores the lived experience of incivility for neurodiverse students with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Ireland. The higher education (HE) environment can be challenging for students with TBI. Incivility is common in higher education, and students with disabilities such as TBI are often marginalized within academia, making them more vulnerable to incivility. For this paper, data are drawn from the first author’s autoethnographic study, and is supplemented with semi-structured interviews from a sample of HE seven students also with TBI. Results revealed that participants’ experiences of incivility were common and were linked to the organizational culture of higher education. Our experiences point to a need for better responsiveness when interactions are frequently uncivil, despite there being policies that recognize diversity and equality. This is the first paper of its kind to explore this particular experience in Ireland and the purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the challenges of neurodiverse students and how they are exacerbated by organizational and interpersonal incivility.

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