Foo Fang Wei Janice - Group A

Case Study 1 – Annie

(i) The intervention:

Child-specific and peer-mediated interventions

“Child specific” interventions include providing instructions and trainings directly to the child on skills that they may use during their social interactions with their peers. Examples of child’s specific interventions include, promoting social problem-solving skills and teaching social initiations (Strayhome & Strain, 1986; Vaughn, Ridley, & COX, 1984, as cited in Odom, McConnell, & Chandler, 1993). It also include when teachers prompt children to engage in social interaction with their peers and reinforcing on these interactions.

For “peer-mediated” interventions, they involve the other children who are socially competent rather than the teachers. Teachers only act as an instructor, guiding the children on how to initiate interactions with children with disabilities, supporting the children’s interactions and prompts when necessary (Strain & Odom, 1986, as cited in Odom, McConnell, & Chandler, 1993). Teachers can also include group socialization activities in class or in daily lessons to teach the children to be affectionate with children with disabilities (Brown, Ragland, & Fox, 1988; as cited in Odom, McConnell, & Chandler, 1993).


ii) It’s effectiveness:

According to the article, research was done with the teachers of children with and without disability. Teachers were asked to rate the acceptability and feasibility of different intervention strategies. As found out from the data, child-specific interventions were rated with very positive ratings for acceptability and feasibility. This shows that such interventions do help with the social interaction of children with disabilities. The teaching of skills and reinforcing social skills were favored by the teachers from the gathered data. The peer-mediated interventions involved cooperation, and it is an approach designed for older children and it can also be adapted for children with disabilities. Since it is possible to have cooperation among children, it is possible to include both children with disabilities and children without disabilities into the interventions that require cooperation, like small group learning and peer interaction. Incorporating cooperation would combine aspects from child-specific and peer-mediated interventions. However, in order to make these interventions work, children who are socially responsive is a major contributing factor and not only the teachers.


iii) Your personal evaluation how the child will benefit from this intervention

I think that Annie will benefit from this intervention as it involves her directly. The teachers can make use of the “child-specific” intervention like teaching Annie on how to interact with her peers and also guiding beside her the right way to do so. In my opinion, Annie displayed the actions because she may not have the ability to correctly portray out what she feels or means. Thus the teacher can make use of this ‘child-specific’ intervention by creating interaction opportunities with Anna and her peers, but focus on teaching Annie the right method.

Also, I think it is a good idea for the teacher to also teach other children on how to communicate and interact with Anna while guiding along the sidelines. From the research, peer-mediated is suitable for older children, thus I feel that it is appropriate for that to happen in Annie’s case where her peers and herself are six years old. Only teaching Annie is insufficient, other children have to be willing to play a part in the interaction for social communication to be possible.

iv)Your suggestions how you can make adjustments to cater to the needs of the
child and to facilitate integration of the child / the intervention activity into
your classroom.

As the journal as stated, building on social skills is important, therefore the teacher can have a buddy system set up for Annie. However, instead of one child, there could be two children to buddy up with Annie so that she will be able to interact with these two peers and be helped when necessary.
Also, the teacher can have small group teaching and small group discussions and exercises to help Annie practice opening up to her peers and also to practice her social interactions.


Reference

Odom, S L, McConnell, S R, & Chandler, L K (Dec-Jan 1993). Acceptability and feasibility of
classroom-based social interaction interventions for young children with disabilities. Exceptional Children. , 60, n3. p.226(11). Retrieved September 08, 2009, from Academic OneFile via Gale:
http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A14689576&source=gale&userGroupName=whe_main&version=1.0