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- Creator:
- Frierson, Jocelyn
- Description:
- Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience difficulties in social interactions, communication, and engage in restricted, repetitive behaviors or interest (Harstad et al., 2014; Neal & Hattier, 2012). These symptoms may hinder a child’s ability to develop and maintain quality friendships. Children with ASD have a harder time making friends compared to their, neurotypical peers. These hindrances may be stemming from core social-cognitive difficulties and ASD symptoms (De Boer, Pijl, Post, & Minnaert, 2013). Recreational activities may provide an important social context for children to develop these social skills and friendships. Current research has found that recreational activities have influenced neurotypical children's personal and social skills, including self-perceptions, positive social behaviors, feelings and attitudes (Durlak et al., 2010). Neurotypical peers may find it difficult to interact with and include peers with ASD due to many of the symptoms of ASD. Research has found that various peer-training programs can create more inclusive environments and promote more social initiation from children with ASD (Owen-DeSchryver et al., 2008). As these programs are not readily available for all, many parents seek out additional social opportunities, in the form of peer supported recreational activities, that might facilitate connections. Many neurotypical peers do not have access to or would not be interested in peer training programs, however may be drawn to participating in a less structured recreational activities environment where peer acceptance can also be developed. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of participation in peer supported recreational activities on individuals with ASD’s friendship quality and social skills, and their neurotypical peers’ peer acceptance.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Housein, Angela
- Description:
- Literacy is a complex and vital part of modern day life. Individuals need an array of literacy skills in order to successfully access their environments (social, technological, academic, etc.) Students with disabilities tend to demonstrate lower levels of literacy performance when compared to the population in general. A lack of access to authentic texts, social learning opportunities, and appropriate pedagogy contribute to the growing literacy achievement gap among students with and without disabilities. Using classic texts and the most current best practices, this education researcher designed a unit of instruction using a particular classic text, Animal Farm by George Orwell. The unit employs a Universal Lesson Design approached to demonstrate for teachers how to differentiate instruction in order to create an engaging, relevant and worthwhile learning experience for students with and without disabilities.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Poulson, Tayla
- Description:
- This project is a classroom-level implementation guide that aims to identify the problems of traditional discipline and offer guidance for reshaping public education discipline to become more restorative. Problems of traditional discipline include disproportionate office discipline referrals, suspensions and expulsions based on race and disability, in addition to a lack of social and emotional support following behavioral incidents. The author first brings awareness to the current state of research on traditional discipline and then offers restorative discipline as an alternative approach to increase positive school climate, including equitable discipline trends and greater social emotional support and relationships. Through a three-month pilot period in an inclusive classroom, the author was able to gain data and feedback to revise and increase effectiveness of the classroom-level implementation guide. As a result, the implementation guide pilot, along with additional literature in the field, supports the increase of equitable and positive outcomes upon implementation of restorative practices on a classroom-, school-wide, or district-wide level.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Dotson, Lauren
- Description:
- In the field of special education, students are referred, assessed and receive multiple interventions in order to be placed in settings, programs, and learning experiences intended to best fulfill their academic and social needs, which further advance their progress as students and individuals in our society. In order to best support and accommodate students with exceptionalities who are found to be eligible for these services, an Individualized Educational Program is developed by a team of specially trained professionals. An IEP requires lengthy procedures and sometimes delicate terms, and is often conducted without the students themselves present or aware of the process that is intended to legally support them in their educational journey. This study promotes the involvement of students as the key component of facilitating the IEP process, promoting movement toward success academically, socially and emotionally. Through the implementation of this purposeful curriculum program, students are provided an opportunity for involvement and ownership of their learning through the development of a greater understanding of themselves and the details of their Individual Education Program (IEP). With the structures of the curriculum found in this project manual, students gain an in-depth insight, awareness, and future action plan to enhance their learning capabilities and self-advocacy and determination practices.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Ruth, Brent
- Description:
- Currently, many students with disabilities are being observed playing by themselves on the playground. Some educators believe the reasoning behind this behavior is students with disabilities prefer to play by themselves. However, often it is due to the student’s lack of social skills and knowledge of how to play the recess games with their typical peers (De Bildt, Serra, Luteijin, Sytema, & Minderra, 2005; Hinkle, 2016; Myles & Simpson, 2001). It is common for students with disabilities to have trouble learning social skills in a typical way. However, simply teaching the social skill in a special education setting is not best practice. Students with disabilities should be given an opportunity to practice these skills in context with their typical peers (Kunc, 2013). This project is an eight-week social skills curriculum that explicitly teaches students with disabilities a target social skill and the rules of a common recess game. The students are then given an opportunity to practice the target social skill and the recess game with their typical peers during recess. The goal of this project is to help give students with disabilities and their typical peers the exposure, confidence, and skills needed to create and maintain a fully inclusive playground setting.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Ednalino, Kiarlo
- Description:
- The numbers of children who receive special education services are on the rise; current reports reflect that 13% of all children and youth, aged 3 – 21, currently receive special education academic or related services – equating to 6.5 million students nationwide. Within this population, the United States Census in 2010 approximated that 38% of school-aged children who receive special education services come from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families. With this substantial population in mind, there is a pressing need to appropriately address the unique needs of these diverse families. Individualized areas of need for CLD families include understanding the affects of culture, increasing levels of collaboration and involvement in their child’s education, and becoming informed decision makers. Review of literature indicates that appropriate components to increased understanding of informational resources for these families include improving readability of parent resources and the ongoing use of culturally relevant and culturally sensitive practices. A trifold, entitled Special Education at a Glance: What Do I Need to Know?, has been created to address the aforementioned issues.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Hammack, Angelique
- Description:
- The purpose of this project was to create a handbook, Zumba-Brain-Breaks: A Guide for Teachers, which explains how to include Zumba dance moves and brain breaks into a daily classroom schedule, in ways that help minimize student inattention, hyperactivity, and behavior problems, while maximizing learning, student readiness, and achievement. The handbook builds upon the previous research that evidences the positive effects of exercise on students with and without ADHD, during and outside of academic instruction. Although previous studies and movement and sensory regulation programs have used some form of aerobic exercises like jumping, jogging, and hopping to facilitate student readiness to learn, none could be found that introduce a dance program like Zumba into classroom routines. This handbook was designed with students with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) in mind. However, it can be used to benefit all students with diverse learning abilities.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Mandell, Jeanne-Marie
- Description:
- This project examines the benefits of a classroom pet, specifically a leopard gecko, for middle school students with developmental disabilities, and provides a teacher manual for the implementation of a classroom pet program. Animals have long been used for the benefit of humans, and research supports the position that animals have a positive effect on children, especially when they can be used as instructional tools in the classroom. Children thrive when given the opportunity to learn about the world through animals, and by including animals in the classroom, students are more interested, engaged, and curious. Not all animals are suitable to be classroom pets, but the leopard gecko possesses a number of qualities which make it an ideal candidate, including hardiness, longevity, ease of care, and being hypoallergenic. The project “Teacher Handbook for Classroom Pets: Leopard Geckos” was designed to educate teachers, staff, administrators, parents, and students about the benefits that a leopard gecko can have on the classroom environment. This handbook contains eight Common Core-aligned lessons designed to help teachers utilize the leopard gecko as a vehicle for engaging middle school students living with special learning needs, and as teaching tool and a complement for social and affective development.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Alcantara, Silvia
- Description:
- This project promotes equity amongst all students through the use of Culturally Proficient Teaching practices. This project consists of a Community Helpers thematic unit; the Spanish written lessons will allow the teacher to analyze and reflect upon his/her practices in the classroom. The lessons ensure that the teacher is constantly self-reflecting on the lessons to ensure that Culturally Relevant Teaching goals are being met. The curriculum also aims to mirror students’ culture, race, gender, and heritage not only to engage them in the lessons but also to validate their values, identity, and history. This project stems from a desire to become a Culturally Relevant Teacher and create equitably and socially just lessons using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy that will empower all students.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Lynch, Valerie Ann
- Description:
- In 2008-2009, nearly one million children experiencing homelessness were enrolled in school. In 2012, over 1.5 million children were identified as homeless. In a 2013 U. S. Census report, 2.5 million children were identified as homeless in America. The number of homeless children in America continues to increase every year. Homeless students are among the most marginalized and vulnerable populations in schools. They experience daily trauma and encounter more risks than their non-homeless peers. Unfortunately, there is a dearth in educational research regarding how teachers work with homeless students and what they do to meet the children’s educational needs. There is even less research on homeless school-age children. Through the lens of two theoretical frameworks of care theory and attachment theory, this inquiry explored what relationship building practices teachers engage in and how elementary teachers build relationships and interact with their homeless students to meet the children’s educational needs. By examining how homeless students’ educational needs are currently being met, this study contributes to a better understanding of the challenges homeless students face, the types of support they need to be successful, and the support needed to provide elementary school teachers with the tools and knowledge to help them meet the unique needs of homeless students.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education