Louise Kaczmarek - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Louise Kaczmarek

Journal of Early Intervention, Apr 1, 1996

Donegan, Ostrosky, and Fowler (1996) have brought to our attention the needs of children who are ... more Donegan, Ostrosky, and Fowler (1996) have brought to our attention the needs of children who are enrolled in multiple early childhood programs, a group of children that has not been considered widely in the literature. A focus on these children is important, because they make daily transitions between programs, usually experiencing different sets of expectations and routines in each environment. As the authors point out, some children make these regular transitions smoothly. Others do not; they show distress, fatigue, and a range of behavior problems. Communication between programs would ease the transition of these children and would have other potential benefits for all dually enrolled children, their families, and program staff. Although limited to a small number of teachers in one state, this is a well-constructed and -executed qualitative study that underscores many of the issues surrounding the provision of early intervention services to dually enrolled children. From it, we learn that both early childhood education and early childhood special education teachers recognized the importance of cross-agency communication but showed variations in the extent and characteristics of that communication. We come to understand that the barriers were not unlike those documented for inclusion generally (Odom & McEvoy, 1990; Peck, Hayden, Wandchneider, Peterson, & Richarz, 1989). Because it is likely that young children with disabilities in many communities wil l continue to be enrolled in more than one early childhood program, some thought should be given to what cross-agency communication and collaboration should look like. Four questions seemed to arise from the study: (a) When should communication and collaboration occur across agencies? (b) What types of communication and collaboration can occur? (c) How do families fit into cross-agency communication and collaboration? and (d) What's the bottom line in establishing and maintaining communication and collaboration? It is not surprising that the researchers found communication most often between programs when challenging behaviors arose. By communicating only when problems arise, however, we are abdicating a very important role of early intervention: prevention. Ideally, communication needs to occur before the dual placement begins. The teachers in each setting, the family, and, if appropriate, related-service providers should meet to exchange information about each other's programs, to discuss the child's needs as well as the similarities and differences in the demands of each setting, and to develop plans, based on the combined knowledge of the people in attendance, that wi l l assist the child in

Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Jul 11, 2022

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often struggle with early social engagement, such as... more Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often struggle with early social engagement, such as joint attention, imitation, symbolic play, and spontaneous social communication (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) leading to more complex social deficits as they enter school and beyond. One category of interventions to address these deficits is naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBI; Schreibman et al., 2015). NDBI have evolved in the last 20 years, combining the natural environment and natural reinforcers, adult and child sharing focus during play, and the use of behavioral strategies (Schreibman et al., 2015) to increase social communication behaviors in young children with ASD (Tiede & Walton, 2019). When implementing NDBI, the involved adults must learn to implement responsive strategies such as joining the child in play, imitating the child, commenting on play rather than asking questions or making demands, to create an environment that promotes child engagement by pairing the adult with reinforcement during play (Hampton et al., 2021; Schreibman et al., 2015). When the child engages with the adult, the adult arranges the environment to promote more communicative acts (e.g., requesting and initiating joint attention) and in the final piece of the intervention, the adult prompts the child for more complex initiations (Ingersoll & Dvortcsak, 2010; Rogers & Dawson, 2010). Research on NDBIs has centered on training professionals and parents in clinic (Hampton et al., 2021) or 1110166T ECXXX10.

This eye-opening set looks at young children with special needs, their families, and the laws, po... more This eye-opening set looks at young children with special needs, their families, and the laws, policies, programs, and services designed to help them. * Chapters from over 50 best-in-the-field contributors from disciplines including law, medicine, social work, occupational therapy, and education * Matrices, graphs, and diagrams * Extensive reference lists with every chapter

An exploratory study was conducted to compare 2 naturalistic language intervention methods: milie... more An exploratory study was conducted to compare 2 naturalistic language intervention methods: milieu teaching and responsive interaction. Classroom teachers implemented the treatment methods in 6 classrooms. Thirty-six children were matched on 4 pretreatment language measures and assigned to 7 of the 2 treatments. No main effects for treatment were found. However, milieu teaching was more effective than responsive interaction in facilitating receptive language and expressive vocabulary, if the children began intervention with relatively low receptive or expressive language levels. In contrast, responsive interaction was more effective than milieu teaching in facilitating receptive language and expressive vocabulary if the children began intervention with relatively high receptive or expressive language levels. The explanations for these results suggest several directions for future research and highlight the increasingly common finding that no 7 intervention is superior for all childr...

Journal of Childhood & Developmental Disorders, 2019

This case study describes the journey of a kindergartner with Down Syndrome in an inclusive class... more This case study describes the journey of a kindergartner with Down Syndrome in an inclusive classroom. Characteristics of the participant are discussed in comparison to characteristics of children with Down Syndrome and the impact of those characteristics for the child's overall development. Various strategies that were effectively used to facilitate the child's participation, transitioning, academics, and social skills are addressed. The child's improvements in various areas of development as a result of inclusion in the kindergarten classroom are discussed. Finally, investigating the efficacy of inclusion for children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities is recommended for further research.

Autism, 2019

Four databases were searched to identify studies published by Arab researchers on parents’ percep... more Four databases were searched to identify studies published by Arab researchers on parents’ perceptions of autism spectrum disorder and studies conducted by US researchers and published in systematic reviews of this topic. The electronic search resulted in 14 studies published by Arab researchers and 55 studies published by US researchers. The results showed that autism spectrum disorder has many of the same effects on Arab and American families. Six major areas were identified in the results. Financial difficulties associated with raising children with autism spectrum disorder were mentioned more in Arab studies than in US studies. Arab studies had more emphasis on gender than US studies. The results related to quality of life of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder in Arab studies were equivocal. US studies included comparisons with families without a child with autism spectrum disorder, and addressed factors that were associated with quality of life indicators. More h...

Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2019

The Bridging the Word Gap Research Network conducted a review of literature to identify effective... more The Bridging the Word Gap Research Network conducted a review of literature to identify effective interventions to facilitate the communication development of young children in hopes of identifying ways to reduce the well-documented word gap among children associated with socioeconomic class. As part of this effort, we focused on the ways in which caregivers (teachers, parents, and others) were taught to implement evidence-based practices for facilitating language learning and use. Our goal was to characterize (a) the implementation fidelity, to describe the teaching functions and implementation procedures for teaching those language intervention strategies and (b) the intervention fidelity with which caregivers used strategies for facilitating their children's language development. Because training procedures are not well described in the implementation and professional development literature, a new framework was developed and its feasibility was assessed in an attempt to characterize the teaching functions and specific implementation procedures used across studies. Among the 270 intervention studies reviewed, there were 124 in which caregivers were taught to implement language intervention strategies. Teaching functions included a variety of implementation procedures, with 95% of studies sharing information, 80% incorporating modeling, 65% providing feedback, and only 18% using prompting/guiding/scaffolding. Seventy-two of these studies (58%) reported intervention fidelity, with an increasing proportion reporting fidelity in recent years. Of these 72 studies, 81% were rated as having a 'moderate to strong' description of fidelity measures, and 50% reported high levels of intervention fidelity (i.e., >70% fidelity). These analyses demonstrate the need for reporting more detailed and precise information on intervention fidelity and the teaching functions and procedures used to teach caregivers to implement language interventions.

Journal of Early Intervention, 2018

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by early and pervas... more Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by early and pervasive deficits in social orienting and social engagement. Although parent-implemented interventions using a range of responsive interactive techniques have demonstrated effectiveness to increase social engagement, more work is needed to examine how best to support a responsive parental style to increase social engagement in an exceptionally heterogeneous population. Emerging evidence suggests that contingent imitation (CI) may be a uniquely effective way to increase social engagement in children with ASD. This study used a multiple-baseline single case design across participants to examine how three caregivers learned to use CI at home with fidelity with their young children at-risk for or who had ASD. Results demonstrated that parents quickly acquired the accurate use of this simple technique at home. Furthermore, using CI with fidelity, caregivers sharply reduced their use of questions a...

Autism-Open Access, 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of video self-modeling with video feedback ... more The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of video self-modeling with video feedback using iPads for establishing mands and greeting to peers in three young children with autism using a multiple probe single subject design across participants. Findings demonstrated that the intervention was effective for improving the target behaviors of two of the three participants. Independent mands generalized and were maintained, both short and long term, for two participants. Greetings generalized and were maintained in the short-term for one participant. Social validity results indicated that the raters viewed the intervention as beneficial for improving mands and greetings to peers.

European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research, 2017

Social initiation skills are considered among the most challenging skills to acquire by children ... more Social initiation skills are considered among the most challenging skills to acquire by children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Generalization of social initiations is another related challenging area. Research indicates that when provided with appropriate interventions, children with ASD may enhance social initiation skills and generalize them across settings, people, and materials. This study implemented a multiple probe single subject design across three children with ASD to examine whether a video self-modeling intervention is effective in establishing a mand repertoire and other types of peer social initiations. Generalization and maintenance effects were measured in addition to the social validity of the video self-modeling intervention. While video self-modeling led to substantial improvements in almost all of the target behaviors for one participant, additional strategies were implemented for two other participants. Discussion of findings, study limitations, and future...

Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 1993

Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2016

This literature review examined 36 studies that implemented Video-Based Instruction (VBI) to prom... more This literature review examined 36 studies that implemented Video-Based Instruction (VBI) to promote the social initiation skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Studies that met the criteria were analyzed to determine (a) characteristics of participants, (b) dependent variable(s), (c) independent variable, (d) results, (e) maintenance and generalization, and (f) social validity. Studies were analyzed into categories based on the nature of the independent variable: (a) video modeling, (b) video self-modeling, (c) video modeling and/or video self-modeling in a treatment package, (d) other VBI approaches, and (e) comparative studies. Results of this review strongly support the efficacy of VBI for promoting social initiation skills of children with autism. Discussion of findings and further recommendations for research are provided.

Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 2017

Children are diagnosed at increasingly earlier ages with autism spectrum disorder, characterized ... more Children are diagnosed at increasingly earlier ages with autism spectrum disorder, characterized by diminished levels of social orienting and engagement. Parent-mediated interventions incorporating the use of responsive parent behaviors have shown promise for use with young children with autism spectrum disorder to increase a variety of socialcommunication behaviors. This study examined the manner in which parents acquired and used a set of responsive parenting techniques with their young children with fidelity and investigated the associations of fidelity use of these techniques with changes in child joint engagement outcomes. Although parents began the training phase demonstrating low levels of responsive parenting behaviors, they acquired and implemented a specific set of responsive parent techniques with their children with ongoing fidelity, and the use of these techniques was collaterally associated with increased levels of joint engagement in two of the three participant children. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 2016

Social communication skills are considered a core deficit in children diagnosed with autism spect... more Social communication skills are considered a core deficit in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Evidence-based practices that have emerged to address these critical skills in children with ASD have largely been implemented by researchers, teachers, and parents. Only recently have researchers studied paraprofessionals as implementers of these interventions. The following review examines studies in which paraprofessionals were taught to implement social communication interventions with young children with ASD. The seven articles that met inclusion criteria were evaluated with respect to (a) type of social communication intervention, (b) evidence of effectiveness, (c) training methods and components, (d) child outcomes. The primary intervention studies included pivotal response training (PRT), natural language paradigm (NLP), and incidental teaching strategies as well as mand training and general antecedent/consequent interventions. All studies reported improvement...

TEACHING Exceptional Children, 1996

European Journal of Special Needs Education, 2010

This study investigated the opinions of general education teachers working in public elementary s... more This study investigated the opinions of general education teachers working in public elementary schools in Turkey regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities into their classrooms and their willingness also to include students with more severe learning disabilities. One hundred and ninety‐four general education teachers completed the survey package. The analysis of data showed that the sample possessed slightly negative attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities into regular education classrooms. Results also demonstated that only 35% of the teachers who responded to the survey were willing to include students with severe learning difficulties into their classrooms. However, most of the teachers were open to learning new skills in order to better accommodate students with disabilities by attending in‐service education programmes and then using those new skills while working with students with disabilities. Most also expressed willingness to collaborate with the families of students with disabilities. Recommendations were made for modifying the current educational policies and practices of Turkey based on the current findings.

Educating the Young Child, 2021