Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling

Department name when degree awarded

Special Education and Rehabilitation

Committee Chair(s)

Thomas S. Higbee

Committee

Thomas S. Higbee

Committee

Robert L. Morgan

Committee

Timothy A. Slocum

Committee

Eadric Bressel

Committee

Tyra P. Sellers

Abstract

As special education classrooms continue to rely on paraprofessionals to implement interventions, provide instructions, and monitor student progress— it is imperative paraprofessionals are well trained. Without adequate training, paraprofessionals can unintentionally create prompt dependency, limit academic growth, and reinforce problem behavior. However, providing quality training to paraprofessionals can be costly to school districts. Interactive computerized trainings may be a solution. The current study investigated the effectiveness of an interactive computerized training to teaching paraprofessionals a commonly used teaching strategy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other related developmental disabilities called discrete trial instruction. Often procedures to reduce student errors are embedded within discrete trial instruction. Secondary, this study evaluated the effectives of the training to teach paraprofessionals to implement an errorless learning procedure. All participants completed the interactive computerized training online from their home or work computer in an average of 5 hours. Following the training all participants increased their accuracy of teaching discrete trial instruction with a student in their classrooms. Five participants needed additional training of either performance feedback or performance feedback and coaching in order to reach high levels of accurate teaching.

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adcffb0a35b139182ba1a80c270bbbab

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