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K A Raven

Publications and source records attributed to K A Raven.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Teaching basic skills to children with Down syndrome and developmental delays: the relative efficacy of interactive modeling with social rewards for benchmark achievements and passive observation.

In interventions attempting to remediate deficiencies in the skills repertoire of developmentally delayed children, no less than in medical interventions, it may be fairly said that less is more. That is, the instructor should intervene as little as possible both from the perspective of efficient instructional practice and from time allotment concerns which modern classrooms face. Evidence from this laboratory has indicated that in skills training for children with severe developmental delays the passive observation of a model demonstrating the target skill is more effective than interactive modeling involving hand-over-hand instruction with verbal prompting. We have considered the role of verbal prompting in interactive modeling and have found that prompts intended to provide typical social reinforcers are counterproductive (e.g., Biederman, Davey, Ryder, & Franchi, 1994). The present study examines the efficacy of hand-over-hand modeling with response-contingent verbal prompts. In such instruction, tasks are divided into identifiable sequential components, and the achievement of each component is marked by the delivery of some form of verbal prompt. In a within-subjects design, children were trained in one skill with response-contingent verbal prompts and in a second skill with simple passive observation. A separate group of children were trained with less rigorous verbal prompting in one skill and with passive observation in a second. Consistent with previous research, we found that passive modeling was overall significantly more effective than hand-over-hand modeling and moreover that passive modeling was significantly more effective than hand-over-hand modeling with response-contingent prompting. Our evidence therefore indicates that current classroom practice in training basic skills to children with severe developmental delays may require reassessment in that simple observation of modeled skills appears to be more effective than more labor-intensive instruction.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hemicorporectomy: a nursing challenge.

After 10 years of recurring giant cell tumor of the back, a 32-year-old man faced the most difficult decision of his life: whether or not to undergo a hemicorporectomy. This radical surgery, which removes the lower half of the body, is generally not performed until other avenues of treatment have been tried. Up to 1982 there were only 24 hemicorporectomies reported in the literature. For many nurses this surgical procedure is unfamiliar, and many nurses will probably never care for a patient having had a hemicorporectomy, but the difficulties facing this patient may be faced by many amputation patients. As primary nurses for this case we developed a preoperative and postoperative care plan encompassing his major nursing diagnoses: pain, mobility, nutrition, and coping. The implications of cost, rehabilitation, and radical changes in lifestyle and appearance are serious questions facing a patient considering this surgery. Addressing these problems professionally requires a multidisciplinary approach with patients and families through education, motivation, and support. This article discusses some of these issues as seen with this particular patient.

Adult↗