Technology Tools Available for Implementing Social Skill Instruction

General and special education teachers report feeling inadequate in providing social skill instruction to students. Yet, researchers and government bodies (ASELA, 2015) report students receiving social skill instruction display marked improvements in: (a) motivation to learn, (b) commitment to school, (c) time devoted to schoolwork, (d) mastery of subject matter, (e) school attendance, (f) graduation rates, (g) grades, and (h) test scores. Numerous technology tools are available to assist educators in providing social skill instruction to students with disabilities. However, determining a student's social skill need and finding tools that utilize effective research-based interventions can be a time-consuming and daunting task for educators. In this article, the authors provide a streamlined process for determining an individual student’s social skill instructional need and present technology tools available that utilize high-leverage and evidence-based practices (EBPs) to provide instruction for these targeted areas.

Lost in Translation: Simple Steps in Experimental Design of Neurorehabilitation-Based Research Interventions to Promote Motor Recovery Post-Stroke

Stroke continues to be a leading cause of disability. Basic neurorehabilitation research is necessary to inform the neuropathophysiology of impaired motor control, and to develop targeted interventions with potential to remediate disability post-stroke. Despite knowledge gained from basic research studies, the effectiveness of research-based interventions for reducing motor impairment has been no greater than standard of practice interventions. In this perspective, we offer suggestions for overcoming translational barriers integral to experimental design, to augment traditional protocols, and re-route the rehabilitation trajectory toward recovery and away from compensation. First, we suggest that researchers consider modifying task practice schedules to focus on key aspects of movement quality, while minimizing the appearance of compensatory behaviors. Second, we suggest that researchers supplement primary outcome measures with secondary measures that capture emerging maladaptive compensations at other segments or joints. Third, we offer suggestions about how to maximize participant engagement, self-direction, and motivation, by embedding the task into a meaningful context, a strategy more likely to enable goal-action coupling, associated with improved neuro-motor control and learning. Finally, we remind the reader that motor impairment post-stroke is a multidimensional problem that involves central and peripheral sensorimotor systems, likely influenced by chronicity of stroke. Thus, stroke chronicity should be given special consideration for both participant recruitment and subsequent data analyses. We hope that future research endeavors will consider these suggestions in the design of the next generation of intervention studies in neurorehabilitation, to improve translation of research advances to improved participation and quality of life for stroke survivors.

Pre-employment transition services for students with disabilities: A scoping review

BACKGROUND: Students with disabilities often experience numerous challenges in terms of finding employment. Given the important role of vocational rehabilitation counselors in supporting employment activities for these students, a need exists for identifying effective strategies that increase employment outcomes for this population. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this scoping review is to examine and describe successful research- based interventions on pre-employment transition services for students with disabilities that can be used by vocational rehabilitation counselors. METHODS: The search strategy examined literature from 1998 through 2017 focused on vocational rehabilitation counselors, students with disabilities, and elements related to pre-employment transition services. Articles included American, European, and Australian literature published in English. RESULTS: This review identified a number of research-based interventions that support employment outcomes for students with disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: The research-based interventions identified in this scoping review can help vocational rehabilitation counselors consider effective strategies for increasing employment outcomes for students with disabilities.

Teachers’ Attributions and Intervention Strategies for Students’ Classroom Misbehaviours: Evidence from Senior High Schools in Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem Municipality

The study explored teachers’ attributions in addressing misbehaviour of students in the classroom. To achieve this, a descriptive survey was adopted through the use of quantitative approach. A sample size of 140 teachers was selected for the study using cluster sampling technique. Questionnaires were used to elicit responses from the selected teachers. Inferential statistics and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the research questions. The findings from the study revealed that generally, teachers in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem Municipality attribute students’ disruptive behaviours to blame and intentionality of the students. Again, in the quest for managing these attributed behaviours, supportive measures were identified by the teachers to be very effective. It was recommended that teachers’ beliefs about causality with reference to student misbehaviour be improved by training teachers to embrace controllable as opposed to non-controllable attributions. Teachers who might otherwise embrace unsupportive interventions may be more open to implementing research-based interventions for students who exhibit problem behaviour.

Adrift in a Borderland: Experimenting with Participatory and Embodied Methodologies as a Collective of Asylum seekers, Refugees, Civic Activists and Academic Scholars

This article examines our on-going attempts to operationalise a critical qualitative research approach – drifting, which we have adopted from the feminist collective Precarias a la deriva, – in order to conduct research with people who have arrived in Finland as asylum seekers and refugees, as well as with the civic activists who work by their side. Our research focuses on the everyday bordering practices that exclude asylum seekers and refugees, and the activities of de-bordering. The article claims that drifting combines the advantages of mobile research methods with the critical and collective praxis of activist research, which allows the upsurge of non-hegemonic knowledge. Drifting holds great promise for exploring everyday borders and their consequences, which usually remain hidden to the majority of native residents. In drifting, the injustices that occur at borders within countries in Europe are not only exposed for research and the wider public, but they are also challenged with research-based interventions.

Minimizing the Impact of Language Deprivation and Limited Access to Role Models on Deaf Identity Development in Children and Young Adults: Global Perspectives for Positive Change

The implications of language deprivation for identity development in deaf people are not frequently treated in the literature. For this chapter, a deaf anthropologist/social scientist and a hearing deaf educator partnered to explore the implications of language deprivation for deaf identities and present strategies to encourage the internalization of positive deaf identities in the face of limited linguistic input. The reader will find descriptions of the impact of language deprivation from a global perspective on two periods of the life course: early childhood and young adulthood. To counteract this deprivation, the authors describe research-based interventions that combine language and identity development using creative visual and digital approaches of storytelling and exposure to Deaf role models for both children and young adults.

Where Are All the Reading Teachers? Redesigning a Reading Master’s Degree

This article examines how a small, regional comprehensive university located in a geographically isolated context reinvigorated its master’s degree in reading. The process began with articulating a vision for the program that was centered in understanding the unique geographic context of the region. Coherent program goals were then developed to align with state and national standards. Following goal development, curriculum was developed which addressed methods of teaching reading grounded in rich theoretical underpinnings. This article will also address how partnerships with K–12 stakeholders helped shape the curriculum redesign. Finally, this article also addresses how quality online pedagogies bridge relationships across rural regions and ultimately helps to bring research-based interventions to children across the state.