Presented at ISEC 2000

Video-interaction training of preschool teachers from special education: effectiveness with respect to improving competence with mentally impaired pupils

G.M. van der Aalsvoort & A. Langeslag

e-mail: aalsvoort@rulfsw.Leidenuniv.nl

Abstract

The experimental study investigated whether competence of mentally impaired preschoolers improved by way of feedback to their teachers on social interaction quality during small group tasks. The study was carried out in Holland. 47 pupils (mean age 69 months). A quasi-experimental pretest-post test-control group design was used with the factors care condition (special care or special school), and intervention condition (Video School Consultancy regarding social interaction quality in small group tasks versus control group). Individual competence and social interaction quality were the dependent variables. MANOVA were conducted in order to reveal whether care condition or intervention caused differences regarding effects. Significant univariate effects of factor Time were found with competence and social interaction quality measures. Moreover, it was analysed whether the quality of Video School Consultancy was related to the outcomes of the experiment. It was discussed, due the outcomes of the experiment that specific input is required from their teachers in order to enhance social interaction quality, and thus to better classify which support is asked for to assist in optimal adaptation in the classroom.

Introduction

Although Dutch society apparently changes her attitude towards integration regarding the care of mentally impaired children, as a growing number of them visit regular schools in order to enhance effective functioning, recent findings reveal that most of these students are referred to special education again after having started off in regular schools. Both parents and teachers agree that not enough opportunities could be offered in the classroom in order to guarantee the students' optimal social, emotional, and academic progress (Scheepstra, Pijl & Stevens, 1997). Inclusion of these students requires that their teachers are familiar with specific environmental demands, implying that the relationship between them and their environment is defined (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994). An experiment is reported her that aimed at improving competence with 47 mentally impaired preschool students (mean age 69 months).The results suggest that social interaction between the preschoolers and their teachers need to be actively steered through feedback to their teachers in order to increase effective functioning

Theoretical framework of the study

The theoretical framework included the bio-ecological model (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994) according to which three elements decide for effective functioning of individuals: individual's genetic potential, environment, and mechanisms of reciprocal organism-environment interaction, called proximal processes. Moreover, a task in the model is understood as an integrated and situation dependent system. Social interaction provides a means to individual and socially shared learning processes. When children try to make sense of a task they construct the meaning of the situation itself as well as the social relationship that is involved with respect to the teacher's and the peers' identities during the task. Making sense includes trying to understand the goal and the social rules of that task (Damon, 1991; Grossen & Perret-Clermont, 1994; Grossen, 1995; Strain & Shores, 1987).

Being mentally impaired according to the bio-ecological model is explained as the result of little genetic potential that decreases the quantity and quality of social interactions initiated by the child. Moreover, poor proximal processes result when strong dependency on environment is not met by eliciting qualitatively optimal social interaction at home and in special care, leading to poor effective functioning in the long run.

Intellectually retarded children show a delay in all developmental domains. Raising and educating them requires stimulation of their abilities, and creating opportunities in order to elicit developmental progress. Doing this successfully asks for responsive social interaction from the part of the teacher in order to attune to the child's potentials. The child's environment may compensate for impairments but he will profit less than his normal developing peers from encouragement, staying more dependent on his environment in order to reach effective functioning. The home environment, in which mentally impaired children grow up are of importance to understand and fully use the social interaction patterns that the child is used to.

Mentally impaired children in Holland visit special day care from the age of two to seven, followed by either staying in day care institutions until they reach the age of 18 or placement in special schools. Schools for mentally impaired children are not attached to regular schools, and accept students only when their social development and their mental abilities meet certain standards. The school program stresses stimulation of social self-reliance more than academic achievement.

As society changes her attitude towards integration regarding the care of these children, a growing number of mentally impaired children visit regular schools in order to enhance optimal development. This integration movement takes place especially regarding children with Down syndrom. Recent findings reveal however that most of these students are refered to special education again after having started off in regular schools. Both parents and teachers agree that not enough opportunities could be offered in the classroom in order to garantee the students' optimal social, emotional, and academic progress. Problems concerning views on integration within the school as a team, however, obstruct integration as well (Scheepstra, Pijl & Stevens, 1997).

Lately, an integration placement in schools for regular education may follow in combination with a professional consultant who advises the school team (Schalock, et al, 1994). Integration of mentally impaired students is, however, hard. A first reason is found in understanding too little how competence is elicited regarding both child and environmental characteristics. Studies that regard the way these children are met in the classroom in regular and special schools show that social interactions between teachers and these children are limited and poor (Guralnick & Groom, 1987; Guralnick, et al, 1996; Van der Aalsvoort & Ruijssenaars, 1996). Most studies regarding mentally impaired students aim at child characteristics that are met by training social abilities. Little information is collected regarding the way social interaction proceeds reciprocally during tasks that require social and intellectual understanding of adequate social behavior.

Results from training social adaptation show that transfer of social skills is poor (Chandler, Lubeck, & Fowler, 1992; Beelmann, Pfingsten & Lösel, 1994; Odom & McConnell, 1996; Putnam, Johnson & Johnson, 1989). A second reason that may explain why successful integration in schools is hard is educational selection. Formal equal criteria exist, such as, speaking the standard language and understanding instruction; middle class norms as to social behavior that is expected, e.g., high interest in autonomy during parenting, and high expectations regarding parent involvement (Black & Logan, 1995; Janssens, et al, 1999; Leseman & Sijsling, 1996; Jungbluth & Satzewich, 1999; Veenman, 1999).

Mentally impaired pupils are disadvantaged with respect to the use of social interaction and family socialization by the time they enter school because of developmental delays (Rosenthal & Klein, 1999). This means that these children develop more poorly by the time school starts than their normal developing peers. Moreover, differences regarding parenting will show up in problems that the child encounters in social interaction with other adults and peers. Solutions as to enhance the chance that their child profits from going to school will require great investments from the school in order to overcome problems from the start.

An experiment was designed to investigate whether competence with intellectually impaired pupils would improve as a result of Video School Consultation, VSC (Van den Heykant, 1997). VSC focusses on elements in communication during tasks that improve social interaction quality by giving feedback on the following behaviors that are supposed to enhance successfulness according to VSC: verbal initiatives from teachers, such as, naming materials and actions during the task, as well as nonverbal communication, e.g., making eye-contact, nodding; joining in the activity as a teacher, and regulating the taking of turns during tasks. This method was used successfully in several Dutch studies regarding regular education supposedly because of its power to use the adults' strength in social interaction (Janssens & Kemper, 1996).

Competence was defined in this study as including social skills and nonsocial skills, such as language ability (to interact socially), perceptual skills (as they relate to the ability to perceive social situations), and cognitive skills (decisions regarding when and how to engage in various task behavior) (Merrell & Gimpel, 1998). It was hypothesized that pupils' competence in the intervention condition would increase more than in the control condition. The design controlled for environmental influence by including measures regarding institution quality and socioeconomic background of the pupils that participated. The research design and variables included measures that offered the possibility to integrate and relate data from social interaction quality in order to relate these to social competence data.

Subjects

44 mentally impaired pupils participated from schools for intellectually handicapped students (N = 43, mean age 79 months; SD=13.35) and from special day care (N= 35, mean age 60 months; SD=11.49). All parents and their children were Dutch citizens, but 10 pupils came from ethnic minorities. Eight preschool teachers took part from four special day care institutions and four special schools, and one group per institution. A group consisted of 8 to 10 pupils. The subjects in this study were mentally impaired referring to substantial limitations in present functioning and characterized by significantly sub average intellectual functioning concurrently existing with related limitations in functioning in his or her social environment (AAMR, 1992). According to DSM-IV-r classification (APA, 1994) mentally impaired children are classified as such when their intellectual impairment reflects an intelligence quotient level of 50 to approximately 70. The preschool teachers' education level was comparable being primary schoolteacher training with courses on special education, or higher social work education. All of them worked for at least three days a week with the group of pupils that participated in the study.

Design

A quasi-experimental pretest-post test-control group design was used with two factors: care condition (special care or special school) and intervention condition (VSC regarding social interaction quality in small group tasks or control group). Individual competence and social interaction quality were the dependent variables. Table 1 shows the design.

Table 1 reveals that the intervention period took 24 weeks per condition in all. Four institutions (two schools and two special day care centres received treatment 'Small group tasks' for a period of twelve weeks, followed by 'Small group tasks with Video feedback' for another 12 weeks, and the reverse took place in the other four institutions.

Table 1 Design

Table 1 shows that the first group of each care condition received the treatment for 12 weeks followed by retrieval of the treatment. The second group served as control condition in the first period and received treatment in the second period of 12 weeks. As the treatment was intensive and took a long time to be carried out, the participating teachers agreed upon two intervention rounds.

The choice of receiving treatment in the first period or the second one was randomized. All conditions participated in small group activities four times a week, during 10 minutes for each activity. A small group consisted of three students and their teacher. The tasks were composed of games, such as memory; singing songs with loco motor activities; jigsaw puzzles, and construction materials. The teachers' compliance to participate in small group tasks fitted in their regular schedule. They were asked, however, to write down which task they had chosen, and a video registration was made of a small group task every two weeks in order to collect baseline data in the second group.

Data regarding the variables were collected before and after each intervention period. The instruments that were used in order to assess individual competence and social interaction quality are listed in Table 2.

Instruments

Psycho-Educational Profile-Revised (translated in Dutch by Van Berckelaer-Onnes, Van der Ploeg & Dijkxhoorn, 1995a) in order to measure developmental age. This instrument consists of items regarding the following domains: Imitation, Perception, Fine and Gross Motor Development, Eye-Hand coordination, and Performal and Verbal Cognition. Each child was assessed individually. A score was given from S (succesful performance) to D (succesful performance in progress) to F (failed peformance). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales for Schools (translated in Dutch by Van Berckelaer-Onnes, Van der Ploeg & Dijkxhoorn, 1995b) in order to measure developmental age according to the teacher.

This list contains items regarding the domains of Communication, Daily routines, Socialisation and Gross motor development. The items are composed of a rating scale of 0 (no such behaviour is observed) to 2 (sucessful performance), and were rated by the teacher. Social Support of preschool teachers (scales are designed by Erickson, Sroufe and Egeland (1985). The scale consists of 5 seven-point rating scales in order to evaluate the teachers' behaviour. Ratings were given from 1 (poor) to 7 (high): subscales: Supportive presence; Respect for autonomy; Structure and limit setting; Hostility and Quality of instruction). The mean subscales score was used to measure Social Support.

Mediation quality of preschool teachers (scales are designed by Lidz, 1991). The following subscales were used: Intentionality; Competence of task regulation; Competence of praise; Competence of challenging in the zone of proximal development; Information on change. Each subscale consisted of four-point rating scales in order to evaluate teacher behaviour. Ratings were given from 0 (not observed) to 3 (high).

Competence of students (scales are designed by Erickson, et al., 1985), consisting of 4 seven-point rating scales in order to evaluate the students' behaviour. Ratings were given from 1 (poor) to 7 (high) for the subscales: Avoidance of teacher, Reliance on teacher, Persistence, and Compliance. The mean of the individual subscale score from the three pupils were combined to measure Competence.

Reaction to mediation of students (scales are designed by Lidz (1997). The subscales are: Responsiveness of interaction with mediator; Self-regulation of attention and impulses; Affective quality of interaction with mediator; Communication related to shared activity; Comprehension of activity demands; Use of mediator as resource; Reaction to challenge; Modifiability to interaction. Each subscale consisted of five-point rating scales in order to evaluate the students' behaviour. Ratings were given from 1 (poor) to 5 (high).

Covariables were:
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (Harms & Clifford, 1980: translated in Dutch by Reiling, Verhoeven & Tavecchio, 1995). This instrument rates pedagogical quality regarding appropriateness of caregiving and activities in the participating institutions, containing 37 items that regard seven categories on Daily individual care, Language and thinking experiences, Activities regarding fine and gross motor skills, Creative activities, Social development, and Adult facilities. Each item was rated on a 1 to 7 point scale. Socioeconomic Status as analysed by collecting parental educational level and current application followed by rating the combination of data according to ISEI (Bakker, et al, 1997).

Procedure

All parents approved of their child's participation in the study, and complied to send in information regarding parental occupation and educational level. The individual cognitive competence of the pupils was assessed with the Psycho-Educational Profile-Revised (Van Berckelaer-Onnes, Van der Ploeg & Dijkxhoorn, 1995a) taking 60 minutes per child. Next social adaptation was assessed by the preschool teachers with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales for Schools (Van Berckelaer-Onnes et al, 1995b). Then ECERS was carried out. Next the standard task 'Wobble Tower Game' was introduced. This task was proceeded by seating the preschool teacher with a random sampled group of three pupils from the classroom, and asking her to assist them during the game. The game consists of a plastic tower with a round bottom, plastic puppets in green, yellow, blue and red, and a marble with these colors in stead of numbers. Pupils and teacher take turns in throwing the marble. The color that comes up refers to the color of the puppet that has to be placed on the tower. Putting the puppet in an incorrect place brings the tower out of balance and all placed puppets will fall of. Then the game is started again. The preschool teacher was shown ways of playing the game before the actual play was started. She was also told that she was allowed to invent her own rules regarding the game as it challenges cognitive, loco motor, and eye-hand movement coordination of children. She was free to assist the pupils in any way she wished. These tasks consisted of curriculum activities, such as playing with water and sand, construction materials, drawing, puppet-play, and small group-games (e.g., memory, card plays).

The game was played for 10 minutes. Then the next small group was invited to start playing until all pupils had participated. The tasks were videotaped. Next, the preschool teacher was asked to carry out a regular small group task with three students of her classroom. This time she was asked to choose a game from her classroom that was familiar to the pupils. This task was also videotaped.

Then the intervention started. The regular curriculum was offered including small group tasks in both intervention conditions four times a week during ten minutes per session. The children and their teacher participated in different group combinations. Each child thus participated at least 12 times in the twelve weeks in both experimental conditions. Video feedback was offered to the preschool teachers in the intervention condition. The regular small group task that had been videotaped was used for the feedback session. The teacher was asked to use the feedback during small group tasks. After two weeks another feedback session was offered after having recorded a small group task again. This procedure was repeated in the seventh and ninth week of the intervention period. Meanwhile, videotapes of small group tasks were recorded in the control condition during the first, the fourth and the ninth week. After 12 weeks the measures from the pretests were repeated. The experimental conditions were reversed in the second intervention period followed by the measures from the pretests in both intervention conditions. Then all videotaped sessions were rated including 25 percent by two trained observers in order to measure Pearson r-coefficient with each social interaction quality measure (See Table 2 for the results). The measures regarding the pre and post tests were analyzed in order to answer the research questions. Information from the process measures is not presented in this paper.

Results

The first question was whether social competence had improved in the treatment conditions with respect to care condition. The second question was whether social interaction quality had improved in order to reveal whether a relationship between treatment and effects could be found. The scores presented here refer to the mean scores on competence (Psycho Educational Profile score and Vineland) and social interaction quality. The ratings on Social support and Competence, and on Mediation quality and Response to mediation were combined in order to express the reciprocity of social interaction quality ratings.

Table 3 shows the means, standard deviations and results on MANOVA from competence and social interaction quality per care condition. ECERS ratings did not differ significantly between groups regarding care condition (Group Special schools: M= 41.5; SD=6.64; Group Special Care: M=55.8; SD=2.35), and Socioeconomic status was also comparable between groups (Group Special schools: M=5.2; SD=2.51; Group Special Care: M=6.1, SD=2.76). MANOVA were conducted in order to investigate whether care condition or treatment interacted with individual competence and social interaction quality. Two factors were distinguished: Care condition and Time. Significant univariate effects of Time were found for competence (PEP: F (2) 156, 232, p .000; and Vineland: F(2) 11.697, p .003), and for social interaction quality (Mediation quality and Response to Mediation: F(2) 13.302, p .002) within the condition Special Schools.

Significant univariate effects of Time were found for competence (PEP: F(2) 12.159, p .001), and for social interaction quality (Social Support and Competence: F(2) 5.560, p .021) within the condition Special Care, controlled for SES. Table 3 shows that the means with respect to care condition had improved after each intervention period, revealing that offering tasks in small groups either preceded or followed by video feedback to their teachers improved competence and social interaction quality regardless of care condition or treatment order.

Conclusions

The first research question whether social competence had improved in the treatment conditions with respect to care condition was answered positively for all conditions. The answer to the second question whether social interaction quality had improved was that treatement order had no negative effects on competence. The pupils from both care conditions profited equally well from the intervention with respect to competence.

Specific input is required from their teachers in order to enhance proximal process quality, and thus to better classify which support is asked for to assist in optimal adaptation in the classroom.

References

American Association on Mental Retardation (1992). Mental Retardation: Definition, classification, and systems of support-Workbook. Washington, DC: Author.

American Psychiatric Association (1994: fourth edition). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Washington, DC: Author.

Berckelaer-Onnes, van I.A., Ploeg, van der, D., & Dijkxhoorn, Y. (1995a). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Nederlandse vertaling). Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit: Research groep Ern stige Ontwikkelingsstoornissen.

Berckelaer-Onnes, van I.A., Ploeg, van der, D., & Dijkxhoorn, Y. (1995b). Psycho-Educational Profile, Revised (Nederlandse vertaling). Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit: Research groep Ernstige Ontwikkelingsstoornissen.

Bakker, B., Sieben, J., Nieuwbeerta, P., & Ganzeboom, H. (1997). Maten voor prestige, sociaal-economische status en sociale klasse voor de standaard beroepenclassificatie 1992. Sociale Wetenschappen, 40, 1-22.

Beelmann, A., Pfingsten, U., & Lösel, F. (1994). Effects of Training Social Competence in Children: A Meta-Analysis of Recent Evaluation Studies. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 23, 260-271.

Black, B., & Logan, A. (1995). Links between Communication Patterns in Mother-Child, Father-Child, and Child-peer Interactions and Children's Social Status. Child Development, 66, 255-271.

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Ceci, S.J. (1994). Nature-nurture Reconceptualized in Developmental Perspective: A Bioecological Model. Psychological review, 10, 568-586.

Chandler, L.K., Lubeck, R.C., Fowler, S.A. (1992). Generalization and Maintenance of Preschool Children's Social Skills: a Critical Review and Analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 25, 415-428.

Damon, W. (1991). Problems of direction in socially shared cognition. In J.M. Levine (Ed.), Prospectives on socially shared cognition (pp. 384-397). APA: Washington DC.

Erickson, M.F., Sroufe, L.A., & Egeland, B. (1985). The relationship between quality of attachment and behavior problems in a high-risk sample. In J. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the society for Research in Child Development, (pp. 147-166), 50.

Grossen, M. (1995). Theoretical and Methodological Consequences of a Change in the Unit of analysis for he Study of Peer Interactions in a Problem Solving Situation. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 10, 159-173.

Grossen, M., & Perret-Clermont, A-N (1994). Psychosocial Perspective on Cognitive Development: Construction of Adult-Child Intersubjectivity in Logic Tasks. In W. de Graaf & R. Maier (Eds.), Sociogenesis Reexamined (pp. 243-260). New York: Springer Verlag.

Guralnick, M.J., & Groom, J.M. (1987). The Peer Relations of Mildly Delayed and Nonhandicapped Preschool Children in Mainstreamed Playgroups. Child Develop ment, 58, 1556-1572.

Guralnick, M.J., Connor, R.T., Hammond, M.A., Gottman, J.M., & Kinnish, K. (1996). The Peer Relations of Preschool Children with Communication Disorders. Child Development, 67, 471-489.

Harms, T., & Clifford, R.M. (1980). Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. New York: Teachers College Press.

Heykant, C., van den (1997). Leren en Helpen. Voorhout: Stichting Don Bosco.

Janssens, J.M.A.M., & Kemper, A.A.M. (1996). Uitgangspunten en effecten van Video- hometraining. Tijdschrift voor Orthopedagogiek, 35, 178-193.

Janssens, J.M.A.M., Pels, T., Decoviç, M., & Nijsten, C. (1999). Child rearing goals. Tijdschrift voor Orthopedagogiek, 38, 318-329.

Jungbluth, P., & Satzewich, V. (1999). School carreers, social class and ethnicity. The case of elementary school pupils in the Netherlands. Nederlands tijdschrift voor opvoeding, vorming en onderwijs, 15, 182-196.

Leseman, P.P.M., & Sijsling, F.F. (1996). Cooperation and instruction in practical problemsolving. Differences in interaction styles of mother-child dyads as related to socio-economic background and cognitive development. Learning and Instruction, 6, 307-323.

Lidz, C.S. (1991). Practitioners Guide to Dynamic Assessment. New York: Guilford Press.

Lidz, C.S. (1997). Reaction to Mediation Scales. Personal Correspondence.

Merrell, K.W., & Gimpel, G.A. (1998). Social Skills of Children and Adolescents. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Odom, S.L., & McConnell, S.R. (1996). Promoting Peer-related Social Competence of Young Children With Disabilities. In M. Brambring, H. Rauh & A. Beelman (Eds.), Early childhood intervention. Theory, evaluation, and Practice (pp.436-456). New York: de Gruyter.

Polloway, E.A., Smith, J.D., Chamberlain, J., Denning, C.B., & Smith, T.E.C. (1999). Levels of Deficits or Supports in the Classification of Mental Retardation: Implementation Practices. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, June, 200-206.

Putnam, J.W., Johnson, R.T., & Johnson, D.W. (1989). Collaborative skill instruction for promoting positive interactions between mentally handicapped and nonhandicapped children. Exceptional Children, 55, 550-557.

Rosenthal, V., & Klein, P.S. (1999). Development of preverbal communication in relation to patterns of mediation in mother-infant interactions with normal and Down syndrome infants. Paper presented at the Seventh Conference of International Association of Cognitive Education: Calgary, June 25-29.

Schalock, R.L., Stark, J.A., Snell, M.E., Coulter, D.L., Polloway, E.A., Luckasson, R., Reiss, S., & Spitalnick, D.M. (1994). The Changing Conception of Mental Retardation for the Field. Mental Retardation, June, 181-193.

Strain, P.S., & Shores, R.E. (1977). Social reciprocity: A review of research and educational implications. Exceptional Children, 43, 526-532.

Tavecchio, L.W.C., Van IJzendoorn, M.H., Verhoeven, M.J.E., Reiling, E.J., & Stams, G.J.J.M. (1996). Kinderopvang in Nederland. Leiden: Drukkerij Rijksuniversiteit.

Van der Aalsvoort, G.M., & Ruijssenaars, A.J.J.M. (1996). De opvang van jonge kinderen met problemen in de gemeente Leiden. Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit/Pedologisch Instituut.

Veenman, J. (1999). Minority: educational position and school carreer. Tijdschrift voor Orthopedagogiek, 38, 303-317.

Table 2 Tests and instruments in the study

Table 3 Means, standard deviations and results on MANOVA for competence and social interaction quality measures per care condition.

Index