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An Emerging Behavioral-Developmental Consensus on Autism Treatment |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 9:00 AM–9:50 AM |
| Back Bay B |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: Jack Scott, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Jack Scott (Florida Atlantic University) |
| TODD R. RISLEY (University of Alaska, Anchorage) |
 Dr. Todd R. Risley received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Washington in 1966. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Alaska and a former Professor of Human Development and Senior Scientist of the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas. He was a founding editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, a founding associate editor of Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, and has served on the editorial boards of 15 other scientific journals. He is a Past President of both the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and the Behavior Analysis Division of the American Psychological Association. His widely cited and reprinted “action research” has introduced many new procedures and concepts including: time out (with Wolf and Mees in 1964); discrete trials language training (with Wolf in 1964); incidental teaching of language (with Hart in 1968); single-subject research designs and applied behavior analysis (with Baer and Wolf in 1968); engagement measures (in 1972); life arrangements and life coaching interventions (in 1996); and meaningful differences in amount of parent talk and child vocabulary size, and the details of children learning to talk (with Hart in 1995 & 1999). His work has received many awards including the Edgar A. Doll Award from the American Psychological Association, and the Outstanding Research Award from the American Association on Mental Retardation. He has served on many boards and commissions in Alaska, and as Director of Alaska’s Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. He is known for promoting flexible funding and individualized arrangements–anathema for bureaucrats–as being the most humane, the most effective, and the least expensive way to provide services. Since 1982, Todd Risley has lived at “Risley Mountain”, the Alaska homestead where he was born in 1937. |
| Abstract: Todd Risley is now known for his research on language development of typical children but was one of the founders of applied behavior analysis and of behavioral interventions with autistic children. His presentation will integrate behavioral and developmental information to emphasize consensus rather than controversy in early intervention for autistic children. |
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Schools as the Unit of Analysis: School-wide Behavior Support |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 10:30 AM–11:20 AM |
| Gardner |
| Area: EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: Anne Cummings, Psy.D. |
| Chair: Anne Cummings (Western Michigan University) |
| GEORGE SUGAI (University of Oregon), Robert H. Horner (University of Oregon) |
 George Sugai is a Professor in Special Education in the College of Education at the University of Oregon with expertise in behavior analysis, classroom and behavior management, school-wide discipline, function-based behavior support, positive behavior supports, and educating students with emotional and behavioral disorders. He has been a teacher in the public schools, treatment director in a residential program, and program administrator. Dr. Sugai conducts applied school and classroom research and works with schools to translate research into practice. He is currently co-director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports at the University of Oregon. |
| Abstract: The purpose of this presentation is to describe how the principles and practices of behavior analysis have been applied to the improvement of school-wide behavior support systems. In particular, the school will be considered as the unit of analysis. The development and durable implementation of school-wide systems of behavior support will be emphasized through a discussion of need, features, guiding principles, and examples and outcomes. |
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| Evidence-Based Educational Methods in Teaching Behavior Analysis |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 AM |
| Beacon A |
| Area: TBA/EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Daniel J. Moran (MidAmerican Psychological Institute) |
| CE Instructor: Daniel J. Moran, Ph.D. |
| Abstract: When teaching evidence-based behavior change methods to students of behavior analysis, it is prudent to utilize evidence-based educational methods. Such a commitment allows for proper modeling of applied endeavors, and also helps to ensure that the students behavior will be properly changed during the instruction. An orientation to the importance of this view, given the current climate of increasing accountability of applied services, will be presented. Investigations regarding the sequential analysis of student behaviors, as well as the learning efficiency of students of the selectionistic sciences will be discussed, and will demonstrate that the application of behavior analysis to teaching behavior analysis leads to important instructional gains. In addition, behavior systems of instruction will be the thread that puckers these presentations. |
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| No Behavior Analyst Left Behind |
| DANIEL J. MORAN (MidAmerican Psychological Institute) |
| Abstract: The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB; Public Law 107-110) encourages the use of proven pedagogical techniques that can meet the growing demand for increased accountability on the outcomes of elementary and secondary education. The legislation puts “special emphasis on determining which educational programs and practices have been proven effective through rigorous scientific research” (US Department of Education, n.d.), and suggests using evidence-based educational methods. Evidence-based education is “the integration of professional wisdom with the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction” (Whitehurst, 2003). Teaching behavior analysis methods and principles is beyond the scope of NCLB, but should also be done with proven pedagogical techniques that can meet the growing demand for increased accountability of our services. Applied behavior analysis will likely be better executed when the behavior analyst is well-trained. A survey of the effective methods of instructing students in the science and practice of behavior analysis of will be discussed, and hortatory standards of education in applied selectionistic science will be presented. |
 Dr. D. J. Moran is a Visiting Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and is also the director of the MidAmerican Psychological Institute in Joliet, IL. He completed his doctoral degree in Clinical/School Psychology at Hofstra University under the supervision of Kurt Salzinger, and earned the J. R. Kantor fellowship in 2000 for working with Bill Verplanck (B.F. Skinner’s chairperson) on the applications of the ‘Associate Technique’ in order to improve training in psychology. D.J . is also a clinical supervisor at Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park and is on staff at Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet. Dr. Moran was president of the Behavior Analysis Society of Illinois (BASIL) for two years and was director of graduate training at Valparaiso University for four years prior to starting at IIT. D. J.’s first co-edited book, Evidence-Based Educational Methods (Elsevier Press), will be published in January 2004. He spent the summer of 2002 running therapy groups and events with Albert Ellis, and currently practices and investigates clinical behavior analysis with anxiety, depression, and post-bariatric surgery clients. His recent scholarly work centers on natural science interpretations of cognitive therapy techniques.
In 2002, Dr. Moran was lampooned by Jay Leno on the Tonite Show when a local paper announced that the BASIL Presidential Address was being given by “Doctor Moron.” When D. J. is not busy being a self-proclaimed “psych-geek,” he likes to listen to Slayer, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden, train for marathons, and sing ridiculously silly rap songs to his cherished offspring: Harmony Sierra (4) and Louden Justice (3). |
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| Learning Efficiency Goes to College |
| GUY S. BRUCE (St. Cloud State University), Shasta Brenske (St. Cloud State University), Amber Maki (St. Cloud State University) |
| Abstract: CPSY 101 is an introductory general education course, which is designed to teach freshman college students how to solve human performance problems using techniques from applied behavior analysis. To successfully complete their performance improvement projects, students need to be fluent in component skills such as discriminating between behaviors and results or types of reinforcement errors. We have set up computer-based testing to measure performance improvement in specific learning objectives and asked students to graph their learning efficiencies for each objective. Learning efficiency is the improvement in the students’ accuracy and speed from pre to posttest per number of minutes of learning time. Although learning time is self-reported by students we do have computer-based measures of the performance accuracy and speed for each student in the course both prior and subsequent to their use of the learning activities for each learning objective. We will present examples of learning efficiency data for these learning objectives and describe how we make decisions to revise the course learning activities based on student learning efficiencies. |
 Dr. Guy Bruce first became interested in the design of more efficient learning programs while pursuing a doctorate at West Virginia University, where he had the opportunity to teach an undergraduate behavior analysis course and to direct a tutoring program for students failing calculus and chemistry. He began to evaluate both the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching activities, by measuring student performance improvement from pre- to post-test and recording the number of minutes of learning time required to produce that improvement. His dissertation compared the learning efficiencies produced by the delivering prompts during or following student responding. As an Aubrey Daniels consultant, Guy helped corporate clients measure, evaluate, and improve their training efficiencies, a method that increased their return on investment by reducing the time required to get employees fully competent. In his current position as an assistant professor at Saint Cloud State University and the Managing Partner of APEX Consulting, he continues to collect learning efficiency data and use it to improve the efficiency of his behavior analysis courses and the staff training that he provides for clients. |
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| Demonstrating Implications and Applications of Computer-based Behavior Systems Analysis in Education Research and Assessment |
| THOMAS L. SHARPE, JR. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) |
| Abstract: An ongoing challenge with applied behavior analysis (ABA) efforts in highly interactive education settings exists with respect to (a) inclusive recording of multiple behavior and stimulus events that typify most educational settings, and (b) capture of the time-based interaction effects across multiple stimuli and response functions among teacher, student, and setting events (Sharpe, in press). One computer-based data collection and analysis protocol is first shown in summary form to demonstrate ABA capability with respect to these two challenges (Sharpe & Koperwas, 2000). Next, recent advances in behavior systems theory in the context of the importance of a sequential analysis lens are summarized in support of a means to address these challenges. Select data are presented to explicate the salient differences among more traditional discrete research and assessment activity, versus a sequential analysis-based behavior systems approach to the same education research and assessment illustration. A behavior systems approach to research and assessment activity in the education science professions is argued as essential to a more complete evaluation, diagnosis, and prescription approach to the complex configurations of stimulus–response classes that typically operate in applied education settings among teacher(s) and students. At issue are the salient differences among mechanistic and interbehavioral theoretical constructs (Morris, 1992; Sharpe & Koperwas, 2003), of which the latter is argued as facilitative of methodological development for applied education settings. |
 Dr. Tom Sharpe is a Professor and Doctoral Program Coordinator in the Department of Educational Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He draws from a wealth of varied professional experiences and activities in public and private school, coaching, and university teaching settings and from a long education and social science research career in a variety of graduate programs at different universities. Trained by many of the leading applied and experimental behavior analysts in the profession at West Virginia University, Tom has pursued academic work largely in the education and social science application of behavior systems observational methodologies and in related computer-based tool development. He has authored over 100 refereed articles and book chapters and is a regular contributor to the principles and practice of applied behavior analysis through conference and workshop presentations and a variety of consulting activities. |
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| A Behavioral World View of Higher Education |
| RICHARD W. MALOTT (Western Michigan University) |
| Abstract: MD: The practice of medicine wouldn’t be so bad, if it weren’t for the damn patients. Manager: The practice of management wouldn’t be so bad, if it weren’t for the damn workers. Prototypical Faculty Member: Teaching wouldn’t be so bad, if it weren’t for those damn students. Students today are not as serious as when we were students. And they are not as well prepared as when we were students. Why don’t we have good students here, like the ones at Harvard University? Behaviorman: Please don’t blame the victims. Famous Behavior Analyst: Many students fail to study enough for my courses. That’s because other things, like their social lives, have a higher priority. Those students have decided to pursue their social lives, rather than their academic career. Behaviorman: Come on, man, that’s just cheap cognitive rationalization. The reason they don’t study is that you haven’t made the effort to arranged effective performance-management contingencies to support their studying. Behavior Woman: Behavior analysts, please don’t blame the victim. Etc. This will be a non-data-based. multi-media presentation. |
 Dr. Dick Malott received his BA in psychology at Indiana University in 1958 where he was privileged to study with James Dinsmoor. He received his PhD at Columbia University in 1963 where he had the additional privilege of studying with William Cumming, W. N. Schoenfeld, and Fred S. Keller. Then he taught with the Kantorians at Denison University from 1963 to 1966. In 1966, he helped start the behavior-analysis program at Western Michigan University (WMU), where he continues to teach. At WMU, he also helped start an intro psych course that taught behavior analysis to 1,000 students per semester, with the aid of 500 lab rats and 100 Skinner boxes (1,000 lever-pressing rats per year). Now, his students only condition 230 rats per year, but they also do 130 self-management projects and provide 13,500 hours of training to autistic children each year.
Malott and his students have packaged their teaching/learning efforts in educational systems known as the Student-Centered Education Project (aka The First Fly-by-night Underground College of Kalamazoo), the Behavioral Social Action Program, and the Behavior Analysis Training System. Currently, every summer, he teaches the Behavioral Boot Camp, an intense 18-hour-per-week, 7.5 week, graduate-level, behavior-analysis seminar. |
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A Unified Protocol for Emotional Disorders with Behavioral Analytic Considerations |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 1:30 PM–2:20 PM |
| Conference Room 2 |
| Area: CBM; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: David H. Barlow, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Lisa Coyne (University of Mississipppi) |
| DAVID H. BARLOW (Boston University) |
 Dr. David H. Barlow received his PhD from the University of Vermont in 1969 and has published over 450 articles and chapters and over 20 books, mostly in the area of anxiety disorders, sexual problems, and clinical research methodology. He is formerly Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Brown University and founded clinical psychology internships in both settings. He was also Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Currently, he is Professor of Psychology, Research Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Clinical Training Programs, and Director of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. Dr. Barlow is the recipient of the 2000 American Psychological Association (APA) Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology. He is also the recipient of the First Annual Science Dissemination Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology of the APA; and recipient of the 2000 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society of Clinical Psychology of the APA. He also received an award in appreciation of outstanding achievements from the General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing, China, with an appointment as Honorary Visiting Professor of Clinical Psychology. During the 1997/1998 academic year, he was Fritz Redlich Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, in Palo Alto, California. Other awards include Career Contribution Awards from Massachusetts and California Psychological Associations; The First Graduate Alumni Scholar Award from the Graduate College, The University of Vermont; The Masters and Johnson Award, from the Society for Sex Therapy and Research; G. Stanley Hall Lectureship, American Psychological Association Annual Convention; A certificate of appreciation for contributions to women in clinical psychology from Section IV of Division 12, the Clinical Psychology of Women; and a MERIT award from the National Institute of Mental Health for long term contributions to the clinical research effort. He is Past-President of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Past-Associate Editor of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Past-Editor of the journals Behavior Therapy and Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Currently, he is Editor of the journal Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. He was also Chair of the American Psychological Association Task Force of Psychological Intervention Guidelines, was a member of the DSM-IV Task Force of the American Psychiatric Association, and was a Co-Chair of the Work Group for revising the anxiety disorder categories. He is also a Diplomat in Clinical Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology and maintains a private practice. |
| Abstract: In the 1970s and 1980s, approaches to anxiety disorders concentrated on reducing arousal and overt avoidance behavior. In the 1980s, innovations in psychological treatments focused on psychopathology specific to each disorder, such as panic attacks in panic disorder, directly utilizing interoceptive exposure tailored to the individual based on behavioral assessment to counter avoidance of somatic cues; the worry process itself in GAD conceptualized as an avoidance of negative affect; and depressive cognitions in depression. These psychological treatments were organized into therapeutic manuals. Now we have developed a modular approach directed at the core features of all anxiety and related emotional disorders such that existing treatments can be reduced to one strategic approach that varies based only on individual functional analysis. This treatment, now undergoing evaluation, focuses on: psychoeducation and antecedent cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotion based distortions; the prevention of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional avoidance; and enhancing opposite action tendencies through provocative interoceptive and exteroceptive emotional exposure-based procedures, focusing particularly on appropriate emotional expression. |
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Interval Timing and Memory Dynamics |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 1:30 PM–2:20 PM |
| Commonwealth |
| Area: EAB; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: Michael C. Davison, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Michael C. Davison (University of Auckland) |
| JENNIFER J. HIGA (Honolulu Community College) |
 Dr. Jennifer Higa received her MS and PhD from Washington State University, with her research supervised by Frances McSweeney and John Hinson. After several years in postdoctoral and research faculty positions at Duke University with John Staddon, she joined the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Texas Christian University where she is an Assistant Professor. Her research has covered topics on behavioral contrast, stimulus control, transitive inference, and, more recently, the dynamics of interval timing. Pigeons and rats are her primary subjects, although she has recently begun to study timing in Betta splendens. Jennifer serves on the Board of Editors for the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Learning and Behavior, and the International Journal of Comparative Psychology, and was the Guest Editor for a special issue on timing for the journal Behavioral Processes. She is the recipient of a NRSA and Neurobehavioral Sciences Research Training Fellowship, as well as several teaching awards. |
| Abstract: Psychologists studying learning and memory have been increasingly interested in how animals - human and non-human - detect, integrate, and use temporal information. The importance of understanding interval timing is underscored by the fact that the time between events, responses, rewards, and punishers determine what is learned, what associations are made, and how learning progresses. Until recently, the majority of experimental and theoretical work has been aimed at understanding results obtained from procedures designed to measure steady state timing behavior. In contrast, relatively little is known about timing under changing conditions. I plan to review the results from temporal tracking and gap procedures and discuss the data in terms of a model for interval timing that is based on memory dynamics called the multiple time scale (MTS) model. |
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The Power and Glory of Human Performance Technology |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 1:30 PM–2:20 PM |
| Liberty B |
| Area: OBM; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: Rene Quinones, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Rene Quinones (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| DONALD TOSTI (Vanguard Consulting) |
 Dr. Donald T. Tosti is the founding partner of Vanguard Consulting, Inc. He has an extensive and varied background in both management and human performance development, and has been a recognized expert in performance-based approaches to organizational effectiveness for three decades. His pioneering work on contingency management (he coined the term) began in the 1960s. His articles on “Contingency Management and Motivation”, “Media and Presentation Design,” “Formative Feedback,” “Organizational Alignment,” “Performance-Based Leadership,” and “Systemic Change” are considered seminal in the field. Dr. Tosti has been involved in a wide range of organizational alignment and change programs for companies in the United States, the Middle East, and Europe. His consulting activities include work in leadership, management, culture change, strategic alliance, and internal marketing. He has also written numerous books and articles on human performance and its application in today’s business world. He is President-Elect of the International Society of Performance Improvement. |
| Abstract: Human Performance Technology (HPT) was begun in the early 1960s by behavioral scientists who felt that what they had learned in the laboratory could be applied in the real world. In the last 40+ years the technology has matured and its applications greatly expanded. With the blending of behavioral and systems theory it may well be one of the most important and powerful technologies in the world today. In this presentation we will discuss HPT principles and models and their many applications focused on individual, operational, organizational and marketplace performance. |
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| What about Us? Literacy Development Using Direct Instruction with Non-Traditional Populations |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 1:30 PM–2:50 PM |
| Constitution A |
| Area: DDA/EDC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Kent Johnson (Morningside Academy & Headsprout) |
| Discussant: Kent Johnson (Morningside Academy & Headsprout) |
| CE Instructor: Kent Johnson, Ph.D. |
| Abstract: Increasingly, distance learning technology is opening university (and other) doors to a much larger audience. With a modern computer and an internet connection, employees, parents, indeed anyone who has limited access to or interest in traditional campus-based options, can conveniently participate in an increasing range of coursework. As teachers of behavior analysis, we can now reach a greatly expanded demographic base. Such is the case with Behavioral Intervention in Autism (BIA), a four-course distance learning curriculum designed to educate a large number of parents and personnel in the application of behavioral intervention with children with autism. A team of behavior analysts have collaborated to develop and evaluate this curriculum, with generous support from autism and instructional design experts outside of the team. In this tutorial, I have the pleasure of sharing our work on BIA as the illustrative case in support of two objectives: First, to describe and present data on how distance learning can be used with professional integrity to educate a greatly expanded number of parents and personnel seeking to master behavioral intervention, and second, to illustrate how behavior analytic instructional pedagogy can be meshed with current and emerging technologies to produce highly effective distance learning courses. |
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| Implementation of Direct Instruction with Persons with Moderate/Severe Developmental Disability and Limited Verbal Populations |
| WENDY KOZMA (Evergreen Center), David Agee (Evergreen Center), Judy Hurlburt (Evergreen Center) |
| Abstract: This presentation reports the academic and social-emotional outcomes achieved by students 10 to 18 years of age exhibiting moderate to severe developmental delays who have participated in Direct Instruction (DI) reading programs. Data evidencing specific gains in decoding, fluency and comprehension measures will be presented. Enhanced cueing techniques that enable students with limited verbal skills to access the Direct Instruction curriculum will also be discussed. The discussion of outcomes will go beyond reports of academic gains to review the impact of literacy achievements on the socio-emotional performance of participating students. Characteristics of "Best Outcome" students will be analyzed in order to provide data-based support for expectations of clinical outcomes. |
 Wendy Kozma has focused her career on teaching, teacher training, and curriculum development and implementation; she has worked with a wide variety of special needs and regular education students. Wendy completed her undergraduate studies at Eastern Michigan University where she specialized in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults. She completed her Masters program at the University of Redlands, California, graduating with a degree in school administration. A member of the Association for Direct Instruction, Wendy has more than 12 years experience in the implementation of Direct Instruction programs. She currently serves as the Direct Instruction consultant for school programs and educational organizations in Massachusetts and California. Locally, she works with the staff and students at the Evergreen Center in Milford, Massachusetts, a residential school program serving children and young adults with moderate to severe developmental disabilities. Wendy also consults with BEACON Services (Behavioral Education, Assessment, and Consultation); BEACON provides early intervention and school-age support services for children with autism. She also provides DI training and coaching for preschool teachers and program implementation support for Criterion Child Enrichment’s network of childcare centers for typically developing children that operate under the name of Rise and Shine Academy. |
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| The Use of Direct Instruction as a Supplementary Curriculum for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Receiving Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention |
| ANN FILER (BEACON Services), Robert K. Ross (BEACON Services) |
| Abstract: Programs providing early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) to children with autism often use a variety of commercial and agency-developed curricula to guide treatment. Few of these curricula include comprehensive support for the development of early literacy skills. This presentation will provide an overview of how the Direct Instruction (DI) curriculum is suited to teaching early literacy skills to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders who are receiving EIBI services. Treatment results for children who received EIBI that included instruction using the Language for Learning Program and Reading Mastery Direct Instruction Programs will be reviewed. Data will include repeated measures taken on the Sequenced Inventory for Communicative Development, Woodcock Tests of Reading Mastery (revised) and DI mastery test scores. Implications for the development of literacy skills in children receiving EIBI services will be discussed. |
 Ms. Filer is the Vice President of Educational services at Behavioral Education Assessment and Consultation Inc. (BEACON Services), here she has been since 1994. BEACON Services provides intensive behavioral educational services (EIBI) to children diagnosed with PDD/Autism and behavioral and learning challenges. BEACON Services works in both early intervention (under age three) and school age programs. She received her Masters degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1989 with certification in moderate to severe special needs.
Ms. Filer currently oversees the implementation of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention services for six teams of staff serving approximately 90 children with PDD/Autism. She is responsible for all clinical and educational monitoring systems. She also provides direct educational services and consultation services to numerous Early Intervention programs as well as Public school districts.
Ann regularly presents at professional conferences and university training programs on a range of topics related to early child hood learning and behavior. |
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System-Wide Implementation of Direct Instruction in a Preschool for Typically Developing Children |
| WENDY KOZMA (Criterion Child Enrichment), Jo-Ann Otlin (Criterion Child Enrichment), Margaret Eaton (Rise and Shine Academy) |
| Abstract: Implementation of Direct Instruction (DI) programs as a means of promoting early literacy for typically developing pre-school aged children is not widespread in practice. Few commercially available curricula, other than DI, provide preschool teachers with instructional materials capable of accelerating acquisition of literacy skills. This is of concern given recent federal legislative initiatives (e.g. No Child Left Behind) and research establishing a link between early language deficits and later reading performance problems. This presentation will provide an overview of the effectiveness of the DI curriculum in accelerating literacy skills of .preschool children who are 3.8 years of age or older. Baseline literacy measures and subsequent gains in literacy skill development will be reported utilizing data obtained from the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests (revised) and DI program mastery tests. System-wide application of literacy initiatives for preschool-aged children and the use of DI programs, as a means of early detection of children at risk for literacy skill development, will also be discussed. |
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