Academic or Functional Life Skills? Using Behaviors Associated with Happiness to Guide Instruction for Students with Profound/Multiple Disabilities

Jonna L Bobzien

doi:10.1155/2014/710816

Abstract

The field of special education has begun to concentrate its efforts on developing objectives and procedural strategies that promote a positive quality of life for students with profound multiple disabilities, while determining which educational strategies are the most appropriate. A multielement design was used to compare the effects of two educational conditions, academic skills instruction and functional life skills instruction, on the quality of life indicators of four students with profound multiple disabilities. Results indicated that all four students demonstrated a greater number of behaviors associated with happiness while receiving academic skills instruction. Implications for current educational practices are addressed and directions for future research are discussed.

Highlights

A relatively limited amount of research in the field of special education has focused upon both the academic and functional needs of students with profound multiple disabilities (PMD)
Four students were purposefully selected to participate in the study based on the following selection criteria: (a) an intelligence quotient that was considered unable to be calculated via traditional I.Q. assessments, the student being subsequently given the educational label of severe/profound intellectual disability (SPD) by the school program, (b) overall functioning of developmental age below 2 years as indicated by results obtained from the Battelle Developmental Inventory [46], (c) being nonverbal, but able to engage in functional communication via nontraditional methods, (d) receiving all nourishment via gastrostomy tube, and (e) having consistent school attendance prior to the onset of the study
Functional skills instructional condition Academic skills instructional condition Missed sessions. The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain the potential existence of a link between teaching academic skills and an improvement in quality of life for students with profound multiple disabilities (PMD) as demonstrated through an increased number of happiness behaviors during academic instruction

Summary

Introduction

A relatively limited amount of research in the field of special education has focused upon both the academic and functional needs of students with profound multiple disabilities (PMD). In public schools in the United States, this small population of students encompasses children between the ages of three and twenty-one diagnosed with a combination of disabilities including, but not limited to profound cognitive impairment, severe physical disabilities, substantial sensory difficulties, and/or chronic medical conditions [1,2,3]. These students require pervasive levels of support while in school as their level of overall development peaked at approximately two years of age in all core areas of functioning (e.g., communication, social skills, mobility, and self-help skills) [3]. Quality of life concepts, such as happiness and self-determination, were often disregarded when considering educational focus [6,7,8]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion