Teaching Inclusion Preparation Skills. to Children with Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

The general purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of simultaneous prompting embedded in activities for teaching preparatory skills to children with developmental disabilities. Furthermore, determining the perspectives of the teachers about the skills taught to the participants and also to themselves were targeted. Depending on the performance and characteristics oldie participants and the observations conducted in the classroom, three skills were determined to be taught to three children with developmental disabilities. The effectiveness of simultaneous prompting embedded into teaching activities for teaching these skills to children with developmental disabilities was planned. A multiple probe design across behaviors was used and replicated across subjects. Also, the perspectives of the teachers about the skills taught to the participants and themselves were determined through interviews conducted by the researchers. The participants of the study had Down syndrome with an age range of 36-44 months. The target skills taught to the participants were: (a) following two step instructions provided in group activities, (b) participating in group activities by raising his/her hand, and (c) nodding the head when asked "Do you want...?". The effectiveness results of the study revealed that all three participants acquired the target skills at criterion level. Moreover, two of the participants maintained the skills in the inclusive environments where they were placed seven weeks after the study was completed. Furthermore, the social validity data revealed that the preschool teachers idle two participants were very pleased about having the participants in their classes, the participants' skills acquisitions and also about being informed about inclusion and children with special needs at the beginning of the school year.