Causton-Theoharis, Julie (2003). Increasing Interactions between Students with Severe Disabilities and their Peers via Paraprofessional Training.
Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison
THE FOLLOWING ABSTRACT IS POSTED WITH THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
Social interactions form a critical component of learning. Students with special
needs are at particular risk of being socially isolated. As students with severe
disabilities are included in general education settings with increasing frequency,
the use of paraprofessionals has also expanded to meet the needs of these students
within inclusive classrooms. Unfortunately, the utilization of paraprofessionals
often has the inadvertent detrimental effect of intensifying the social isolation
of students with disabilities. The intent of this study is to
determine whether paraprofessional training can improve the facilitativ behaviors
of paraprofessionals and the quantity of interactions that occur between students
with and without disabilities. The efficacy of an intervention aimed at training
paraprofessionals was under examination, using a multiple baseline single-subject
design across pairs. The operating assumptions that guided this study were that
paraprofessionals (a) lack awareness about the importance of interaction to
educational growth (b) use support strategies that actually hinder the interactions
between students and (c) can learn new support strategies that help the students
whom they support to interact with their peers. Major findings in this study
revealed that all of the paraprofessional participants improved their rate of
facilitative behaviors and as a result, all of the student participants significantly
increased their rates of peer interaction.
Last modified February 14 2008 11:22 AM
