The Functional Effect of Teacher Positive and Neutral Affect on Task Performance of Students With Significant Disabilities

Abstract

The study uses an alternating treatment design to evaluate the functional effect of teacher's affect on students' task performance. Tradition in special education holds that teachers should engage students using positive and enthusiastic affect for task presentations and praise. To test this assumption, we compared two affective conditions. Three teachers working with a total of 4 elementary-age students with severe disabilities presented discrete trial tasks in neighborhood public school settings. The teachers alternated their affect between a positive affective condition characterized by smiling, enthusiasm, and rising and falling voice inflection and a neutral affect condition characterized by a flat voice tone and inexpressive facial features. Three of the four students responded more accurately to instructional tasks when teachers presented task demands and praise using positive affect. A fourth student, however, performed worse under the positive affect condition. This student had a long history of problem behavior in instructional settings. Implications for assessment practices are discussed.

Education and children with Down syndrome: Neuroscience, development, and intervention

“…However, it is important to consider that the strong social motivation observed in this population may serve as a distractor as well [Wishart, 1996;Fidler, 2006; see discussion below]. There is also some evidence that, because of strengths in early social relatedness in this population, affective cues put forth by a teacher or interventionist can impact learning and motivation in a particularly pronounced way [Park et al, 2005]. It may also be important for educators to be mindful of potential changes in mood and social engagement as children with Down syndrome transition into adolescence, and perhaps adopt modified strategies as these behavioral changes become evident [Dykens et al, 2002].…”

“…It is true that relative to other disorders, greater research emphasis has been placed on identifying educational strategies that might improve outcomes in Down syndrome. Some of these recent approaches are informed by and specifically target aspects of the Down syndrome behavioral phenotype [Laws et al, 1996;Kennedy and Flynn, 2003;Iarocci et al, 2006;van Bysterveldt et al, 2006], and others do not [Garcia and Conte, 2004;Park et al, 2005;Trent et al, 2005]. Those existing syndrome-based recommendations may be potentially quite useful, but lack empirical validation [Alton, 1998;Fidler, 2005].…”

Preferred contexts as motivating operations for indices of happiness and task engagement

“…Consistent with previous research, the current study demonstrated that preferred stimuli incorporated into otherwise nonpreferred tasks can increase compliance (Cooper et al, 1992;Gardner et al, 2009; and positive affect (Dunlap et al, 1984;Lancioni et al, 2004;Park et al, 2005). Additionally, the current study demonstrated that empirically validated preference assessments can be implemented efficiently to achieve these results.…”

“…The results showed an increase in both engagement and indices of happiness when the preferred stimuli were activated concurrently with the exercise equipment (Lancioni et al, 2004). Park, Singer, and Gibson (2005) extended the research on indices of happiness by evaluating preferred attention rather than preferred tangible items as the independent variable. Specifically, they studied the role of quality of attention in increasing task engagement and indices of happiness with elementary-aged students with severe disabilities.…”

“…They manipulated teacher quality of attention, alternating between enthusiastic and neutral affect, displayed by the teachers during typical work tasks. Three of the four participants showed increased indices of happiness, as well as more accurate task completion, under the enthusiastic teacher attention condition (Park et al, 2005).…”