Peabody College Department of Special Education

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https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/handle/1803/8786
The Department of Special Education has a rich tradition of excellence in teacher education and is routinely ranked as one of the top training programs in the country. The four-year degree program is structured to endow students with the necessary skills to assess, plan, and monitor the progress of persons with disabilities. Our program can also lead to licensure for kindergarten to twelfth grade.

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Browsing Peabody College Department of Special Education by Title

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    Bots Impact On Online Surveys Within Special Education Research
    (2023) Deheck, Caroline
    Researchers use online surveys to collect data from diverse populations (Phillips, 2017; Simone, 2019a). With the use of online surveys comes the potential for Artificial Intelligence Bots (AI Bots) to enter a survey and pose as valid participant. In this study we asked participants to inform us about their online research and if bots impacted their research in any way. To be eligible for the survey participants had to conduct an online survey in the field of special education research from 2010 to present. The participants could report up to ten surveys they have conducted since 2010 and if bots impacted their online survey. Out of the 88 surveys reported, 50 surveys (56.8%) had known or suspected bots. Of the participants who reported having known or suspected bots the mean percentage of bot responses in their data set was between 21%-40% of survey responses. When participants had known or suspected bots in their survey they reported having an increased amount of time during data cleaning. Having an increased number of bots in your survey can lead to data results being skewed (Storozuk et al., 2020). Currently, there is no research on how published online research results might be skewed due to bots posing as participants.
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    Breaking the Silence: Siblings of Individuals with Disabilities Speak-Up About Their Support Needs
    (2024-02-26) Neff, Gillian
    Sibling relationships are important in that they can help predict the social-emotional development, understanding, and outcomes, and help shape the relationship between them. Due to these multi-facet predictors, it is critical that siblings of individual with disabilities feel supported from their childhood to their adult lives as they navigate the new responsibility and caretaking for their sibling with a disability. Unfortunately, research on siblings of individuals with disabilities is a lacking field of special education. There is a need for research to better understand and determine the unique needs of the sibling of individuals with disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the views of siblings on what could have been helpful to support them while growing up, through their childhood and teenage years. Through an online and paper survey siblings’ perspective were collected, and the views of 446 siblings of individuals with autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy were analyzed. A total of six themes were identified from the perspectives of these siblings. Findings suggest that most siblings felt they were ‘not adequately’ supported during childhood, and identified various supports as potentially beneficial, to them, their families, and their communities. Implications for future research and future practice are discussed.
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    Choice of Alternative Seating for Preschool Children
    (2023)
    Alternative seating options and choice as an antecedent intervention have been previously researched. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a choice of alternative seating on in-seat behavior and engagement for preschool children during circle time. An A-B-A-B withdrawal design was combined with an Alternating Treatments Design (ATD) to evaluate the relationship between participant choice and dependent variables while simultaneously comparing alternative seating options in contrast to typical instructional seat (i.e., floor). Results demonstrate alternative seating and choice (in isolation or combined) can increase engagement and in-seat behavior.
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    A Closer Look at the Impact of Special Education Advocacy Training on Graduates
    (2024-04-29) Scoggins, Mattie
    As the special education process can be difficult for parents to navigate, special education advocates have arisen to help. Yet because there is no formal training required to become a special education advocate, there is a need to research how to best train these advocates. This study serves as part of a second wave of research into the effectiveness of a special education advocacy program. Looking at the pre-tests and post-tests of 108 participants across three years, this study found that there were certain areas of strength and weakness within measures of advocacy. Specifically, respondents rated lower items that included systems-change advocacy (such things as getting in contact with legislators and getting legislators to listen to their ideas). We also found that several measures—especially the degree to which they felt themselves "insiders" in the disability world and their degrees of empowerment--were correlated at the pretest, post-test, and pre-to-post-test measures. Implications for future advocacy trainings are discussed.
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    The Communication Contribution Of Children Learning To Use Speech Generating Device During Parent-Child Shared Book Reading
    (2023-05-05)
    The purpose of this research is to examine the nature of parent-child interactions for elementary-aged children (K-4th grade) who have complex communication needs and are learning to use speech generating devices. Data come from a larger longitudinal mixed method study focused on language and literacy learning of children with complex communication needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants are 18 families who participated in the larger study whose children had access to a speech generating device at home. Video observational data were collected during parent-child interactions during everyday home routines (e.g., shared reading, other routines). Data will be coded using SALT and then analyzed using SPSS. Findings showed the heterogeneity of how children communicate based on frequency of communication and how frequency relates to other aspects of their communication, providing varied opportunities for parents to respond. The varied frequency patterns allowed for grouping of children into three groups, to reveal across group communication based on form, topic responsivity, function, and focus. Important insight from this study revealed information that can help shape the development of more effective interventions to support the communication of children with complex communication needs, especially at home.
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    The Communication Contribution of Children Learning to Use Speech Generating Device During Parent-Child Shared Book Reading
    (2023) Scotti, Kendra
    The purpose of this research is to examine the nature of parent-child interactions for elementary-aged children (K-4th grade) who have complex communication needs and are learning to use speech generating devices. Data come from a larger longitudinal mixed method study focused on language and literacy learning of children with complex communication needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants are 18 families who participated in the larger study whose children had access to a speech generating device at home. Video observational data were collected during parent-child interactions during everyday home routines (e.g., shared reading, other routines). Data will be coded using SALT and then analyzed using SPSS. Findings showed the heterogeneity of how children communicate based on frequency of communication and how frequency relates to other aspects of their communication, providing varied opportunities for parents to respond. The varied frequency patterns allowed for grouping of children into three groups, to reveal across group communication based on form, topic responsivity, function, and focus. Important insight from this study revealed information that can help shape the development of more effective interventions to support the communication of children with complex communication needs, especially at home.
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    Compassion in the classroom: Trauma-informed attitudes and practices of special educators working with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities
    (2024-05) Sarah Rhyne
    Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are more likely to experience trauma than their peers without disabilities, and therefore strongly benefit from the implementation of trauma-informed practices. The present study used a web-based survey to investigate attitudes towards, knowledge and use of trauma-informed practices of special education teachers who worked with students with IDD. Scores were found via the use of the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) scale and a sum score of researcher-created trauma-informed practices. Findings revealed that the 217 special education teachers had moderately high, yet variable, attitudes towards trauma-informed practices. Elementary school teachers scored higher in three out of the five core ARTIC subscales, as well as the ARTIC 35 sum score, than secondary school teachers. Special education teachers reported a strong knowledge and fairly high use of the list of trauma-informed practices. This research provides encouraging insight into the readiness of special education teachers to receive further training on trauma-informed practices and the opportunity for system-wide capacity-building and change regarding trauma-informed practices.
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    Craving Friendship: Investigating Friendship Behaviors of Young Adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome
    (2025-05) Knauss, Carly; Hodapp, Robert
    Friendships are important to all of us, including those with such disabilities, as Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). This study investigated the friendship behaviors of 24 young adults with PWS through reports given by the young adult and their caregiver. Young adults with PWS completed an individual interview, while parents asynchronously completed a separate questionnaire. Young adults answered questions about their friendship behaviors, while parents answered demographic information about themselves and their child, questions on PWS behavioral phenotype characteristics, general friendship questions (e.g., what their friends are like, where they meet friends, etc.), and their friendship behaviors. Findings reveal that young adults with PWS mainly meet their friends through family connections and most friends are individuals with other disabilities. Further, lower friendship behavior scores relate to more severe maladaptive behavior and rigidity. Furthermore, young adults consistently rated themselves as a better friend than their parent did. Directions for future research and policy implications are suggested.
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    Effects of Banking Time on Child Talk of Preschool Low-Rate Talkers
    (2023) Perez, Mary Antoinette
    Each individual child varies in their developmental progression. Developmental milestones can be used to determine if a child needs additional support to learn language. Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Banking Time (BT) as an approach to improve children’s classroom behaviors and teacher-child relationships. However, no study has evaluated the effect of BT on language development. The rationale for examining the impact of BT on language is that adult-child relationships are the context in which children learn language. To address the gaps in the research, the impact of BT on child talk was examined on two target participants who were at risk for social or linguistic delay but had not been diagnosed with any disability nor in need of an assessment. An A-B-A-B withdrawal designed was used to examine impact of BT strategies on the rate of child talk. Findings show that despite mixed effects on child talk, BT resulted in positive teacher-child relationships as well as child excitement and confidence in play. Finally, BT strategies were seen as a socially valid way to increase talk according to early childhood teachers who had been in the field for at least two years.
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    Effects of Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) on Middle School Teachers' Praise and Reprimand Frequency
    (2024-05) Fisher, Ashton
    There is a large body of empirical research showing the effectiveness of teacher praise as an intervention to reduce unwanted classroom behaviors and increase student engagement. Despite this evidence, research shows that teachers do not naturally provide praise at high rates. Over the past 60 years, researchers have tested numerous methods to improve rates of teacher praise including prompting, visual performance feedback, and peer coaching. In our study of 15 teachers, we investigate the effects of Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) on middle school teachers' rates of praise and reprimands. Using a regression analysis, results showed that CW-FIT increased teachers' frequency of praise compared to teachers not using the CW-FIT intervention. Future directions and implications for using tier 1 behavior management systems to increase levels of teacher praise are discussed.
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    EFFECTS OF EMAIL PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK ON EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS' USE OF EMOTION WORDS
    (2023) Chen, Hanlin
    Social emotion plays a vital role in children's development, and email performance- based feedback (email PF) has been shown to effectively improve teachers' social-emotional practice. In this research, I evaluated the effect of brief training and email PF on teachers' and children's use of emotion words and the diversity of the emotion words they use. Participants in this study included four early childhood education teachers. A multiple probe design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of email PF. Participants received brief training at the beginning of the study and received a general email that did not include feedback on their emotion word uses. They received email PF which had descriptive feedback on their emotion word uses in the intervened settings (i.e., center time). They did not receive an email in the generalized settings (i.e., small groups and recess) across the study and during the maintenance conditions. Results showed that there was a functional relationship between email PF and teachers and children's use and diversity of emotion words in the intervened setting. Further researchers can modify the coaching content according to individuals' diverse needs, set criteria for intervention conditions to avoid extraneous variables, conduct more covert observations, etc.
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    The Effects of Enhanced Milieu Teaching Words + Signs on the Communication of Toddlers with Language Delays
    (2023) Bushong, Lillian
    It is common for toddlers under the age of 3 to have language delays, though few studies have focused on improving communication within this population. Enhanced Milieu Teaching paired with Words + Signs is an evidence-based practice that has been used to increase communication in toddlers by targeting functional communication skills during play and routines. Combining both interventions, EMT and Words + Signs, creates multiple pathways of communication for toddlers by using both signs and spoken word. EMT has been used primarily with children with Autism and Down Syndrome and was designed primarily for parents. Building upon previous research, this study implemented EMT Words + Signs in the classroom during free play to two toddlers with language delays and their classroom teachers. A multiple baseline design across word sets was used to measure participants’ use of target words, as well as the frequency of spontaneous words used in each session. Findings show that there was a presence of a functional relation for both participants between target word use and EMT Words + Signs. Data on spontaneous total word use and target word use were also consistently higher during intervention sessions than during baseline sessions. Data were inconsistent during generalization and maintenance sessions, though some words were maintained for each participant to a variable degree.
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    Evaluating Cognitive and Academic Achievement Factors as Predictors of Math Achievement in Kindergarten
    (2023-05) Yee, Carolyn
    Understanding the academic and cognitive factors that contribute to the development of early mathematical knowledge and skills is crucial for effective assessment and intervention. However, these factors are often studied separately and in different student populations. To better understand the relative contributions of end of pre-kindergarten (pre-K) factors to math achievement in kindergarten, this study assessed domain-general factors (literacy, executive functioning, attention, visual-spatial skills) and domain-specific factors (initial mathematical knowledge, approximate number system or ANS acuity) in 277 children, who entered pre-K with limited mathematical knowledge (<25th percentile TEMA-3). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that math performance at the end of pre-K and kindergarten age accounted for 55.6% of variance in kindergarten math achievement, suggesting that math performance at the end of pre-K may be used to identify students at-risk for math difficulties in kindergarten. Although most end of pre-K factors were significantly correlated with kindergarten math achievement, only early print knowledge and inhibition predicted kindergarten math achievement over and above end of pre-K math performance. Working memory and ANS acuity were not significant predictors. These findings suggest that math and print knowledge accumulated by end of pre-K are critical to math performance in kindergarten for students who enter pre-K at-risk for math difficulties, and inhibition may play a central role in math performance for low-performing students in kindergarten. Results call for the consideration of prior mathematical knowledge as a potential mediator between cognitive and language skills and later mathematics.
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    Evaluating the Efficiency and Effectiveness of a Web Tool for Tech Based Math Intensifying Math Interventions
    (2024-12-04) Myeesha Saquib
    Mathematics achievement continues to be a struggle for many students, especially for those with learning disabilities and other high incidence disabilities. Many of these students struggle with foundational and higher order math concepts. Despite the abundance of existing technology tools, there are often barriers to locating and accessing evidence-based practices (EBPs) that meet students' diverse learning needs. This research study reports on the development and testing of an online tool, MathSurf, which supports teachers' identification and implementation of technology-enhanced math interventions. Using principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), and Virtual Manipulatives (VM), this tool strives to promote effective differentiated instruction in classes tailored to individual student learning goals, when aligned with state standards. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to assess the efficiency, usability, and the tool's ability to meet the learning needs of the students.   The overall outcome shows that while the prototype was easy to use and helpful, considerable improvement is needed for the refinement of the tool toward the diverse student needs. These insights will inform subsequent iterations of the tool, enhancing its  ability to assist educators in developing flexible, personalized, and effective mathematical interventions.
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    An Examination of Interstate Differences in Eligibility Criteria for Vocational Rehabilitation Services for Individuals with Visual Impairments
    (2024) Johanns, Grace
    State VR agencies provide services to individuals with disabilities so that they may prepare for and participate in competitive integrated employment with consideration of their unique strengths and abilities (U.S. DOE, 2020). While general differences between VR agencies have been documented between states (e.g., Cavenaugh, 2010; NTRC, 2022), there has never been an analysis of interstate differences in the interpretation of the outlined eligibility requirements for individuals with visual impairments (VI). In this study, we asked participants to upload their state eligibility document to the survey or email directly to a research team member. To be eligible for the survey, participants had to be current vocational rehabilitation (VR) administrators, directors, or supervisors. Out of the 57 U.S. states and territories contacted, 20 participated in the study, (35%). Eleven states submitted eligibility documentation and completed the survey (19%). Differences in the use of assessment, specifically eye reports and educational records, was found. All survey respondents reported the consideration assessments when determining eligibility for services. However, only eight eligibility criteria documents included the use of assessment. This study is the first of its kind, and more research is needed to understand interstate differences in VR eligibility criteria for individuals with VI.
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    Examining the use of FBSApp and virtual strategy-based coaching with a family of a young child with ASD and ADHD
    (2023-05) Eatman, Grace
    Challenging behavior (CB) is a concern for many parents, especially as CB can have negative impacts on child development. It is critical for parents to receive supports to help address their child’s CB. The FBSApp is a mobile application designed to teach parents specific strategies to use to prevent and respond to their child’s CB. In addition to the FBSApp, this study used virtual strategy-based coaching that involved Behavior Skills Training (BST) on the target strategies and weekly coaching sessions. This study analyzed the effects of the FBSApp and virtual strategy-based coaching on parent use of target strategies and child behavior, using a multiple baseline across behaviors, single case design. Results indicated that the FBSApp and virtual strategy-based coaching was effective in increasing parent use of target strategies. Target strategy usage maintained when coaching was faded. Results were inconclusive on if parent strategy usage decreased child CB or increased the replacement behavior. More research is needed to determine the effect on child behavior. The parent rated the FBSApp and virtual strategy-based coaching highly, indicating that the intervention was socially valid.
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    Experiences of Burnout in Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVIs) in Tennessee
    (2022-12-12) Agnes, Shannon
    The purpose of this paper was to determine the following research questions: (1) What are the demographics of TVIs in Tennessee (eg. caseload size, professional setting years from retirement) (2a) What is the average burnout score of TVIs in Tennessee using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory- Work Related Burnout Scale? (2b) How does the average burnout score of TVIs relate to human service professions? (3) How do TVI demographic factors correlate to their burnout? Survey results from 64 teachers of students with visual impairments in Tennessee were analyzed. TVIs had an average of 13.41 years of experience and served an average of 11.62 schools. TVIs commonly worked for one school district, were in itinerant positions, had more than 10 students on their caseload, and were either considering or planning to leave their position within the next five years. TVIs in Tennessee are experiencing high rates of burnout which is correlated to their years from retirement and their district’s likelihood to hire a TVI. These results have implications for the future of this profession in Tennessee.
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    Exploring Career Longevity in Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments
    (2023-05-01) McGrath, Erin
    A prevalent problem in the American education system is that schools are facing extreme shortages of qualified special education teachers, specifically teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs). TVIs are leaving their jobs for a multitude of reasons, including large caseloads, burnout, and attrition. As TVIs are leaving, there are fewer qualified teachers to provide students with visual impairments the support they need to be successful academically. This study analyzes the results of nationally distributed survey to TVIs that obtained a TVI role and credentials from the years 2000-2021. The data used for this paper was extracted from the final dataset from this survey and only focuses on participants who obtained TVI credentials between the years 2011- 2021. Descriptive statistics and linear regression models conducted were created to identify if any variables correlated to how many years respondents spent as a TVI. A correlation matrix demonstrates that there were no correlations between TVI years with level of preparation and program format. Additionally, there was a positive correlation between age and program format. Further implications and next steps for research are addressed based on the key findings from the analysis.
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