ERIC Number: EJ1199194
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Dec
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1088-3576
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Efficacy of a Teacher Training a Paraprofessional to Promote Communication for a Student with Autism and Complex Communication Needs
Wermer, Lauryn; Brock, Matthew E.; Seaman, Rachel L.
Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, v33 n4 p217-226 Dec 2018
Students with complex communication needs require well-designed supports to communicate effectively in school settings. Although paraprofessionals are often charged with supporting these students, they are rarely trained in how to promote communication, and there is limited research on how they might be trained. In this study, we used a multiple baseline across behaviors design to test the efficacy of a teacher-implemented training package to train a paraprofessional to provide opportunities for an elementary student with autism to respond, set up opportunities for her to initiate, and implement a systematic prompting hierarchy. We demonstrated a functional relation between the teacher-implemented training and paraprofessional acquisition of the strategies, and paraprofessional implementation coincided with increased student communication. This study replicates previous findings that paraprofessionals can be trained to implement evidence-based practices to promote use of alternative/augmentative communication, and extends this literature by demonstrating that a classroom teacher can deliver paraprofessional training effectively.
Descriptors: Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Communication Problems, Communication Strategies, Program Effectiveness, Training, Paraprofessional School Personnel, Elementary School Students, Correlation, Evidence Based Practice, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Adjustment (to Environment), Behavior Rating Scales
SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2814
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A