GOVERNMENT BASED PROPOSAL
TEACHING STUDENTS WITH LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION DISABILITIES: ANALYSIS OF INSTRUCTIONAL BEHAVIORS AND STUDENTS PERFORMANCES
PURPOSE OF STUDY
This research proposal is set to identify instructional behaviors that are associated with better outcomes for students with language and communication disabilities.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
“Emitting words and speaking constitutes learned behavioral skill that is conditioned by contact with a verbal environment” [Skinner 1957].
The specific difficulty experienced by students with language and communication disabilities in an instructional environment is that they mostly rely on social mediators [instructors/peers] to contact the community of reinforcers, hence they hardly attain the same performance thresholds like their peers on a range of outcome measures especially when the environment(s) fail to adequately resonate in sympathy with their needs. With the challenges of having students with disabilities meet the proficiency for reading and math under the No Child Left Behind Scheme [NCLB] in the United States, it is critical that the teachers acquire the skills to enable them present with effective instructional behaviors.
Despite the volume of research in the areas of education, the United States Government has continued to explore ways of improving school performance. The No Child Left Behind Act [NCLB] of 2001 remain one land mark in education reform designed to improve students achievement and change the culture of American schools. The new law represents a sweeping overhaul of federal efforts to support elementary and secondary school education in the United States and it embodies four key principles one among which is the emphasis on ‘teaching methods that have been demonstrated to work’ [Idaho State Department of Education NCLB website 2008]. Equally of social and clinical significance is the fact that as at this school year period, more than one million of students served in the United States public schools’ special education program were categorized as having speech or language impairment [excluding children who have speech/language problems secondary to other conditions such deafness]. These groups of students with disabilities do not commonly attain the same performance thresholds on a range of state and Federal outcome measures under normal circumstances especially when the environment(s) fail to adequately resonate in sympathy with their needs. With the challenges of having students with disabilities meet the proficiency for reading and math under the No Child Left Behind Scheme [NCLB] in the United States, there has been records of serial failures to meet the proficiency standard e.g. in 2007-08, students with developmental disabilities in Idaho State: ISAT reading 98.97% 48.8%, ISAT math 98.81% 44.74% = Proficient or above; representing the highest level of performances since 2001.
With the consistent levels of poor performances of the various school districts in Idaho State, there has been a lot of controversies ranging from – expression of pessimism about NCLB scheme, blames, self praise, denials, and indifference and in-attitude, helplessness, resignation and waiting for ‘time’ to resolve the lingering state of predicament.
INDIVIDUAL BASED RESEARCH
1. The use of Pointing and Touching as a functional unit of Communication: A case study of 8 years old boy with a clinical history of traumatic brain injury, hypoxemic encephalopathy, expressive speech disorder, quadruparieses, dysphagia and cortical blindness.
2. The use of a 'squeeze call ball' as a prosthentic communication device: A case study of a 30 years old female with a clinical diagnosis of severe mental retardation, seizures disorder, scoliosis, traumatic brain injury, Ataxic disorder, receptive speech disorder, depression and cortical blindness.
3. The use of High Density Play Activity to improve Grasping and Self-feeding skills : A case study of a 30years old female with a clinical diagnosis of severemental retardation, seizures disorder, receptive speech disorder, scoliosis, traumatic brain injury, Ataxic disorder, depression and cortical blindness.
4. The use of positive verbal behavior to reduce verbal and physical aggressive presentations: A case study of a 12 years old female with a diagnosis of mild mental retardation, and Autistic spectrum disorder. 
