Teaching Small Talk: Increasing On-Topic Conversational Exchanges in College Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Using Remote Audio Coaching

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often have deficits in interpersonal skills due to limited social-communication opportunities. Knowing how to engage in “small talk” or simple social conversational exchanges can be beneficial in postsecondary schooling, employment sites, community environments, and social gatherings. Recently, covert audio coaching (CAC) showed a positive impact on increasing conversational exchanges. As the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for remote delivery tools, we explored the effectiveness of remote audio coaching (RAC) to teach this skill to college students with IDD. We used a multiple baseline design across participants to examine whether RAC might increase on-topic, small talk conversational exchanges. Results demonstrated that RAC effectively increased small talk skills between participants and a confederate. Upon removal of RAC, all participants still performed above their baselines, with two participants maintaining near mastery levels 2 weeks after the intervention was removed. Limitations and future research are discussed.

Effects of Covert Audio Coaching on the Attending Behavior of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The effects of covert audio coaching, a form of performance feedback delivered remotely through a two-way radio and earbud speaker, was examined on the classroom attending behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Four elementary-aged students with ASD participated. This study was conducted in a private, separate day school for students with ASD. Baseline data showed that participants emitted low levels of attending behavior with a degree of variability. During intervention, all participants increased their level of attending behavior and these data were stable. Follow-up data revealed higher levels of attending compared with baseline; however, these data were more variable than what was observed during intervention. These results and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Evolution of Covert Coaching as an Evidence-Based Practice in Professional Development and Preparation of Teachers

There is a tradition of coaching in many fields that prepares and improves performance among professionals. Coaching practices evolved over time, with several technological applications developed to improve the coaching process. An application gaining attention as an evidence-based practice is the use of wireless communication systems in which coaching statements are delivered to individuals while they engage in work. In education this has been called Bug-in-Ear coaching or Covert Audio Coaching, and has demonstrated its efficacy as a coaching intervention with teachers, families, and individuals with developmental disabilities. In this chapter the evolution of coaching across disciplines is summarized and specific applications that hold promise as an evidence-based practice for the professional development and preparation of teachers are described. This chapter summarizes 22 studies which support covert coaching as an evidence-based practice. Covert coaching enables immediate feedback without interrupting the participants, and provides opportunities for immediate error correction.