Social and Behavioral Goals for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Emotional Disturbance in the Context of Special Education : A Pilot Study Monika Parikh Alyssa Newcomb Brandon Rennie Lisa Milkavich Marcy Szarkowski Faculty Advisor: Gwen Mitchell Parent Consultant: Vicki Mcguiness

Project Aims Explored the alignment between legal requirements, best practices and current school practices in relation to social and behavioral IEP goals for children with an ASD or Emotional Disturbance (ED)

Literature Review Many forms of disability are associated with delays in socialization and appropriate behavior Importance of social skills and goals for students with ASD and ED in IEPs Behavior assessments (FBAs encouraged, not necessarily mandated)

Research Questions Identification and implementation of social/behavioral goals Assessment of how IEP teams address important aspects of social and behavioral IEP intervention elements such as writing measurable goals, aligning goals and plans with informative assessments, progress monitoring, and ensuring delivery fidelity Identification of possible barriers to designing and implementing effective social and behavioral goals/plans and carrying them out with fidelity

Methodology Participants 21 participants from various disciplines Thirteen states were represented Instrument Developed by group members based on current literature Included demographic questions and information about social and behavior IEP goals Procedure Participants completed the web-based questionnaire through mTurk using QuestionPro

Results IEP creation: primarily written by Sped Teachers (21), followed by counselors (9); 57% had behavior goals and 55% had social goals; FBA data was used by 91%! Goals: 30% were measurable, had the setting specified, and specified a criterion for performance. Barriers: Time (4), Resources (8), Staff cooperation (7), Parent involvement (4), Other Results table

Discussion Many special education professionals in our study are writing social and behavioral IEP goals for children with ASD or ED The vast majority of our respondents are using FBA data to inform goal creation, however, only 1/3 of the goals were written in a way that meets required criteria The second most endorsed barrier (after resources) was staff cooperation and consistency, including a lack of consistency across staff and a lack of collaboration between staff members

Limitations and Future Direction Limitations of pilot study Sample- size & bias Survey questions -items misunderstood & gaps in knowledge Terms- ED & ASD not clearly defined Direction for future research Address limitations Better understand implementation barriers Information on goal writing & progress monitoring and training received by school personal

Questions

Reflections & Recommendations for URLEND

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