Improving engagement in young children with disabilities.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which classroom-based interventions, consisting of incidental teaching, zone defense scheduling, and collecting data on children's engagement, result in improved engagement in individual children with disabilities. Classroom teachers were taught the three interventions over the course of the study in individual training workshops. Engagement data were collected on participating children in three phases: baseline, intervention, and maintenance probes. Because this study is a multiple-probe (across children) single-subject experimental design, each child's baseline data served as his or her individual control. Parents and teachers of the target children completed demographics questionnaires, a developmental abilities scale, and a rating scale that estimates the child's global engagement to provide a descriptive picture of each child. Changes in children's levels of engagement were recorded using an observational coding system and assessed via graphing and visual analysis. Overall results showed very mild positive effects in terms of increasing engagement although findings were mixed with respect to specific levels of engagement and children. Findings are discussed in the context of previous research and implications for the future are presented.