FACILITATING CONVERSATION USING SMART PHONE PHOTO ALBUMS FOR A YOUNG ...

47 Pages·2015·2.11 MB·English

FACILITATING CONVERSATION USING SMART PHONE PHOTO
ALBUMS FOR A YOUNG ADULT WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
A thesis submitted to the faculty of
San Francisco State University
In partial fulfillment of
3(^
the requirements for
£
201
the Degree
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Master of Arts
In
Special Education
by
Jennifer Forbes Kabbabe
San Francisco, California
May 2015
CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL
I certify that I have read Facilitating Conversation Using Smart Phone Photo Albums for
a Young Adult With Intellectual Disabilities by Jennifer Forbes Kabbabe, and that in my
opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Special Education at San Francisco
State University.
LL »~1~
a
Pamela Hunt, Ph.D.
Professor
Yvonne Bui, Ph.D.
Department Chair
FACILITATING CONVERSATION USING SMART PHONE PHOTO ALBUMS FOR
A YOUNG ADULT WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
Jennifer Forbes Kabbabe
San Francisco, California
2015
This paper reviewed recent literature on hand-held technology and communication book
use to facilitate conversation for students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities.
The study sought to investigate whether a young adult student with a moderate to severe
intellectual disability could use pictures on his smart phone to increase the number of
social initiations he made to familiar peers and staff across three different settings in his
community-based transition program. The study expands on the work of previous
researchers by working with a young adult student and using a smart phone to store and
deliver the intervention. The results of the study indicate that the smart phone
conversation photo album enabled the student to increase his social initiations. Results of
a survey administered reveal the intervention was perceived as effective, easy to use, and
enhanced the subject’s relationships with his peers.
I certify that the abstract is a correct representation of the content of this thesis
s~lt( h r
Chair, Thesis Committee Date
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables.............................................................................................................................v
List of Figures...........................................................................................................................vi
Introduction...............................................................................................................................1
Method......................................................................................................................................10
Participants...................................................................................................................10
Setting..........................................................................................................................13
Independent Variable..................................................................................................15
Dependent Variables and Measures..........................................................................17
Interobserver Agreement...........................................................................................19
Social Validity............................................................................................................22
Procedures...................................................................................................................23
Results......................................................................................................................................27
Social Initiations.........................................................................................................27
Social Validity Results...............................................................................................30
Discussion................................................................................................................................33
Reference.................................................................................................................................36
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Social validity survey results...........................................................................33
v
LIST OF FIGURES
Figures Page
1. Smart phone make and model.............................................................................16
2. Example data sheet...............................................................................................18
3. Example of independent observer data sheet......................................................20
4. Social validity questionnaire...............................................................................24
5. Results graph........................................................................................................28
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Chapter 1
Introduction
The ability to interact, communicate, and converse with others is an important
component of independence, a crucial skill for building meaningful relationships, and an
important quality of life factor for individuals with intellectual disabilities (Schalock et
al., 2002). Intellectual disability, by definition, affects adaptive functioning in the realms
of language, interpersonal communication, and the ability to make and maintain
friendships (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In addition to the physical and
cognitive mechanics that may make language and communication difficult for these
individuals, the social acuity required to understand and navigate interpersonal exchanges
and decipher relevant social cues may also be a challenge. Deficiencies in social
communication can make creating and maintaining relationships difficult for individuals
with intellectual disabilities. These deficits only become more impacted as individuals
age, as the social world becomes far more complex and nuanced into adulthood (Carter &
Hughes, 2005).
Research has demonstrated that adolescents and adults with intellectual
disabilities are, in fact, dramatically lacking in meaningful relationships and friendships.
In a survey of 235 adolescents and adults with autism, only 8.1% of them reportedly had
at least one same-aged friend outside of organized settings, and almost half (46.4%) of
this sample were reported to have no same-aged friends, either in natural or prearranged
settings (Orsmond, Krauss, & Seltzer, 2004). Even adults with intellectual disabilities
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who are highly active in their communities have significantly restricted support networks
and develop and maintain few relationships outside of their support staff, despite a desire
to see and interact with friends more often (Lippold & Bums, 2009; McVilly, Stancliffe,
Parmenter, & Burton-Smith, 2006). There is a need for this population to increase
interaction and social communication in order to improve the likelihood that they may
develop reciprocal friendships throughout their lifetime. Helping individuals with
disabilities form and maintain meaningful social relationships would require, then, some
training in the area of navigating interpersonal communication and exchanges.
Of the numerous interventions available to support social communication, many
have focused specifically on increasing interactions between school-aged students with
disabilities and their peers. One such intervention is the use of communication books, or
picture prompt booklets, to facilitate conversation. These interventions provide visual
supports, along with training, to increase initiations, responses, and conversation topics
discussed during social exchanges (Carter & Hughes, 2005). These interventions seek to
support students with disabilities to have more social communication with their peers,
and in turn, foster friendships and relationships.
Some studies using conversation books have looked specifically at the number of
conversational turns occurring between students with disabilities and their conversation
partners, specifically for students with significant support needs and limited verbal
communication (Hunt, Alwell, Goetz, & Sailor, 1990; Hunt, Alwell, & Goetz, 1991a;
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Hunt, Alwell, & Goetz, 1991b). In these studies, students used high-interest images in
photo albums to augment communication with their peers and family members. The
pictures in the communication books were used to guide conversation topics, as both the
student and conversation partner could refer to the images in order to generate questions,
comments, and responses during conversation. With training, the communication books
proved to increase balanced turn taking between multiple conversation partners across
various settings. In addition, these skills were found to generalize to new settings once
new communication partners received basic training on how to use the books to prompt
and facilitate conversation. The participants with disabilities also showed increases in
conversation skills such as greeting and commenting, and decreases in inappropriate
social behaviors (Hunt et al., 1990).
More recently, a number of similar studies were conducted with students of
varying communication levels and verbal abilities that sought to increase the percentage
of time intervals students with disabilities spent conversing with their peers. A study by
Hughes, Rung, and Wehmeyer (2000) looked specifically at increasing social initiations
made by students with disabilities while interacting with peer partners during 5-minute
observation periods. The students learned to use conversation books with black and white
drawings printed on index cards to visually support the initiation of comments and
questions. Non-disabled peers trained the participants to use the books to start and
maintain conversation. After the intervention was introduced, all participants showed a
rapid increase in appropriate social initiations to both familiar and unfamiliar peers, as
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well as an increase in conversational topics discussed, and a decrease in inappropriate
social initiations. All participants reported they had made more friends at school as a
result of the intervention.
A following study by Hughes et al. (2011) implemented the conversation turn-
taking intervention with high school students with autism and intellectual disabilities,
who ranged in their verbal abilities from non-verbal to use of perseverative verbal speech.
The conversation books included laminated cards with picture communication symbols
and typed communication openers that the student either read or pointed to, depending on
their verbal skills. Students and their peer partners were trained in how to effectively use
the books and were paired for conversation during 5-minute observation sessions. During
baseline, participants rarely interacted with their peers. After participants were trained to
use their communication books, they increased their level of conversational initiations to
within the range of expected behavior of typical high school students. All participants
reported they had more friends at school after the intervention, and peers reported
enjoying talking with the participants while using the communication books.
A few years later, Hughes et al. (2013) used a similar design for students with
strong verbal and literacy skills. The communication books had 10-20 pages with a
variety of conversation topics that used text, text with a supporting picture, or text with
corresponding Braille to support students in self-prompting conversational initiations.
During baseline sessions, participants initiated in only 2% of timed intervals, with few