The Effects of Two Schedules of Instruction with Constant Time Delay on the Receptive Word Learning Skills of Preschool Children with Developmental Delays

Young children with special needs in inclusive settings may be provided special education services by itinerant early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers. These teachers typically travel to the community-based preschool program and work with a child for about 1 hour, 1 day each week. Research suggests that once itinerant ECSE teachers leave the classroom, children with disabilities are rarely provided specialized instruction. Additionally, the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the primary ESCE professional organization in the U.S., recommends that instruction be embedded within everyday routines and that it be distributed across the day and throughout the week. Despite these recommendations, the practice of providing specialized services directly to a child, during one visit per week, continues. This study examined if a once-a-week instructional schedule as used by ECSE teachers providing direct services was sufficient to promote learning in young children with disabilities, especially those with cognitive disabilities. The extent to which instruction should be distributed in order to promote learning in young children with disabilities was addressed by comparing two different intervention intensities (i.e., schedules) with the constant time delay strategy. Four preschool children with identified disabilities participated along with their 3 preschool teachers. The ECSE teachers taught children to identify items by pointing to them using the constant time delay strategy with a 1x/week schedule and a 3x/week schedule. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of the two schedules. The results indicated that both the 1x/week and 3x/week schedules were effective to teach two of the four children both target words and to teach one child one target word. Examination of the three teachers’ procedural fidelity data revealed that three emails with specific corrective feedback were sufficient to yield PF scores of 100%. While teachers were nearly perfect in their implementation of the CTD procedures, they were less successful in implementing the procedure with the intended dose frequency.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Special Education

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Toledo

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Spino, Margie A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• McInerney, William

• Early Childhood Education
• Preschool Education
• Special Education
• Teaching
• preschool
• developmental disabilities
• treatment intensity
• treatment fidelity
• constant time delay
• distributed instruction

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1365122852

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:toledo1365122852