Self-instruction can enhance intellectual competence. These studies search for conditions under which self-instructions will mediate generalized problem-solving by children and by adults with developmental disabilities (especially with few language skills)> The target skills are various sorting and memory tasks, in both formal teaching and naturalistic formats suggesting probably practical significance. Specifically, we will investigate whether we can (1) find cases in which correct self-instruction occurs but fails to mediate correct problem- solving, and remediate those failures by teaching the skill of self compliance with self-instructions; (2) develop forms of self-compliance suitable and effective for both typically developing young children and adults with developmental disabilities; (3) thereby reduce dependence on teacher prompts; (4) extend the self-instructional and newly developed self-compliance train procedures to participants lacking the verbal skills necessary for spoken self-instruction, by teaching them to create their own visual samples matching to which solves the previously unsolved problem; (5) extend the techniques of self-creating visual samples to become useful self-instructions for problem solving in the everyday lives of these participants; and (6) teach generalized sample self-creation skills suitable to diverse new problems otherwise dependent on (and usually failing because of) short-term memory deficiencies. Our research design is aimed at showing (1) that the self-instructional training contributes only to the skill of self-instruction, not to the problem whose solution is facilitated by that self-instruction; and (2) that the resultant improvement is attributable simply to the new self-instruction skills. We offer a conceptualization of self-instruction as an observable, teachable, and experimentally analyzable set of behavioral skills; we argue that the experimental analysis of these particular skills requires a research design sensitive to a wide range of individual differences, and to the likelihood that newly acquired self-instructional skills will rapidly become covert, which means their function must be clarified very quickly after they are taught.
| Olswang, Lesley B; Dowden, Patricia; Feuerstein, Julie et al. (2014) Triadic gaze intervention for young children with physical disabilities. J Speech Lang Hear Res 57:1740-53 |
| Brady, Nancy C; Anderson, Christa J; Hahn, Laura J et al. (2014) Eye tracking as a measure of receptive vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorders. Augment Altern Commun 30:147-59 |
| Brady, Nancy C; Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy; Fleming, Kandace et al. (2013) Predicting language outcomes for children learning augmentative and alternative communication: child and environmental factors. J Speech Lang Hear Res 56:1595-612 |
| Barker, R Michael; Akaba, Sanae; Brady, Nancy C et al. (2013) Support for AAC use in preschool, and growth in language skills, for young children with developmental disabilities. Augment Altern Commun 29:334-46 |
| Olswang, Lesley B; Feuerstein, Julie L; Pinder, Gay Lloyd et al. (2013) Validating dynamic assessment of triadic gaze for young children with severe disabilities. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 22:449-62 |
| Saunders, Muriel D; Sella, Ana Carolina; Attri, Dua et al. (2013) Establishing a conditional signal for assistance in teenagers with blindness. Res Dev Disabil 34:1488-97 |
| Brady, Nancy C; Fleming, Kandace; Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy et al. (2012) Development of the communication complexity scale. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 21:16-28 |
| Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy (2012) Peer-Mediated AAC Instruction for Young Children with Autism and other Developmental Disabilities. Perspect Augment altern commun 21: |
| Thiemann-Bourque, Kathy S; Brady, Nancy C; Fleming, Kandace K (2012) Symbolic play of preschoolers with severe communication impairments with autism and other developmental delays: more similarities than differences. J Autism Dev Disord 42:863-73 |
| Saunders, Muriel D; Saunders, Richard R (2012) Teaching Individuals to Signal for Assistance in a Timely Manner. Behav Interv 27: |
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