Teaching High School Psychology

Wahoo! Glad you're all there! Hope the early d...

2012-06-03T20:54:50.579-07:00

Wahoo! Glad you're all there! Hope the early days are going well and you are already cruising!

I am here as well, and after a low-sleep day, I am...

2012-06-03T05:06:50.705-07:00

I am here as well, and after a low-sleep day, I am feeling great and looking forward to day two. It is wonderful getting to meet everyone and being able to put faces to names. Happy reading!!!

The term "Rapid Prompting" was new to me...

2012-05-24T10:32:27.745-07:00

The term "Rapid Prompting" was new to me until recently. When I saw it in action, though, on a video, it reminded me of how facilitated communication was being taught in the early 1990's. Even the FC proponents back then warned against holding the letter board or Canon communicator (the technological tool at the time) in the air because of facilitator influence, though obviously the practice has continued. It seems the technology has changed in the twenty years I've been away from it, but the technique has not. Worse still, the proponents of FC (or Rapid Prompting or Supported Typing), seem to be resistant to the idea that even trained facilitators who believe in what they are doing have the capacity to influence the communications without realizing it. I echo Dr. Todd's recommendation to evaluate authorship objectively and independently. From personal experience and in observing others using FC or this new Rapid Prompting, I can attest to the fact that facilitators are much too busy focusing on the communication process during activities meant to be conversational to maintain the constant vigilance required to ensure independent communication 100% of the time. All efforts must be taken to make sure no signaling (conscious or unconscious) is being passed from the facilitator to the disabled person. Despite their intentions not to influence the communications and any guidelines they're trying to follow, facilitators (in my opinion) aren't reliable in providing the objective feedback necessary to determine independence. They're simply too close to the situation to be objective. I also don't think facilitators can reliably test facilitators for the same reason. Testing doesn't have to be complicated, but it does need to be carried out independently and in a way that proves authorship. There are examples from the scientific literature on this subject that demonstrate how this can be done. Safeguards must be put in place so that no person is having someone else do the typing for them. I would think iPads do have a lot to offer in terms of legitimate applications in learning and expressing language...as long as the person using it is truly using it independently. Regards, Janyce

Mr. McEntarffer: Excellent question. The use of...

2012-05-22T14:27:59.213-07:00

Mr. McEntarffer:

Excellent question. The use of iPads will open up many opportunities not before imagined. But, there are many pitfalls. One of the most problematical is "prompt dependency," when the teacher give cues unconsciously, as in facilitated communication (FC), and the student learns to respond to them instead of to the real questions or information.

It is not enough to not be holding the child's hand. The exact same set of problems arise when someone is holding the communication device. Anything can signal choices, and create the illusion of genuine communication.

If a person holds the iPad, the cues are just moved. They are not eliminated. Subtle movements of the device (or paper letterboard) can easily signal the choices. Often this involves the aide moving the next letter or choice slightly in the direction of the child's finger, and the child responds with a larger movement in the opposite direction until they meet. This is exactly what seems to be happening in the FC variant Rapid Prompting. In RP, the communication aide is gradually taught to give increasingly subtle signals while the communicator is taught to respond more effectively to them.

But, we also must be concerned about other kinds of signaling.

A parent or aide can breath unconsciously or give another signal when the child moves toward the correct selection. I have seen children sequence through a series of items then stop when the aide reaches out, signaling the expected response is made. This can happen with iPads, or even when children are choosing PECs chips. And, the illusion can be even more subtle (and impressive in its own way). I once watched a parent move his hand around on his torso (I hope unconsciously) as his child mirrored the movements on the keyboard. He was clearly the one composing. She was only the typist.

No matter what the method, it is critical that the authorship be evaluated objectively and independently. As Ms. Boynton points out, you can't feel yourself controlling the output. (That is what over 100 years of research on these unconscious cueing phenomena also shows.) I have seen many smart people fall for the most obviously cued output. Falling for subtle FC is even easier.

James T. Todd, Ph.D.

I recently got a thoughtful email about this issue...

2012-05-22T09:08:36.860-07:00

I recently got a thoughtful email about this issue and I wanted to make sure it got "attached" to this post - if you are interested in reading more about FC, I think this email and the linked article are an important resources! (Thanks Janyce!)

"Hi, I recently saw a post about facilitated communication on your "Teaching High School Psychology" blog. I thought you might be interested in an article I wrote, recently published in the journal Evidence Based Communication Assessment and Intervention. I was the facilitator in the Wheaton case (from the Frontline show "Prisoners of Silence) and decided to write about my experiences with FC after the most recent abuse allegations was aired in January 2012 on ABC's 20/20. I believe the access to the article is still free online (until June). Please feel free to pass along this link to anyone you think might be interested. FC hasn't changed much in 20 years and, in my opinion and experience, it should be stopped. Here's the link to the article: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119398&CultureCode=en"

Link to the original article:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17489539.2012.674680

This is such a helpful post! When I use radiolab, ...

2012-05-13T06:21:56.192-07:00

This is such a helpful post! When I use radiolab, I also like to provide the transcript (available on the radiolab website) for the kids to kids read along. This is especially helpful for my ELL kids since the podcasts are rich with distracting (enhancing!) sound effects!

An Optical Illusion provides a new illusion each and every weekday. A good resource for teachers and anyone else interested in visual phenomena.

The 2008 "Practice Test" is out on the i...

2012-04-25T18:03:54.593-07:00

The 2008 "Practice Test" is out on the internet. My students found it and I had a huge cheating fiasco.

Mary

Thank you Travel Junkie. :D

2012-04-13T15:17:18.457-07:00

Thank you Travel Junkie. :D

I've added four more short videos today and pl...

2012-04-13T15:16:53.879-07:00

I've added four more short videos today and plan on adding several more over the next couple of days.

Great idea. I set up a search column in my Tweetd...

2012-04-13T03:43:20.617-07:00

Great idea. I set up a search column in my Tweetdeck for the hashtag. Let's see how this goes.

Nice! A great idea.

2012-04-12T18:14:57.288-07:00

Nice! A great idea.

Thank you so much for your blog and these videos! ...

2012-04-12T09:07:37.749-07:00

Thank you so much for your blog and these videos! I've gotten so many great ideas and resources from you. YOU are a very valuable resource for all of us.

Thank you Mrs. Reis. Very kind words. I also wou...

2012-04-11T15:36:53.781-07:00

Thank you Mrs. Reis. Very kind words. I also would like to let people know I am up over ten videos on there now. I've focused on the more confusing aspects of psych that my kids tend to have. More on the way. :)

These are wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing yo...

2012-04-09T20:53:25.259-07:00

These are wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing your resources, they are so inspiring. It's clear that you love your job and that your students love you!

I made and added a key to this exercise--it can be...

2012-04-09T09:32:33.177-07:00

I made and added a key to this exercise--it can be found on the same linked page as the exercise itself.

Hi, I have a quick question about your blog, do yo...

2012-04-05T07:25:22.243-07:00

Hi,
I have a quick question about your blog, do you think you could email me?
David

Congratulations to Steve and everyone else on this...

2012-04-04T03:52:33.745-07:00

Congratulations to Steve and everyone else on this coverage. You're all doing a great job on THSP!

Cool! Thanks Steve. I think I heard about that one...

2012-03-27T10:07:14.780-07:00

Cool! Thanks Steve. I think I heard about that one a while back but I forgot about it. Thanks!

There's also this one from the NY Times - a ga...

2012-03-27T03:00:13.457-07:00

There's also this one from the NY Times - a game that lets you simulate texting while driving. I am terrible at this one (and it nicely reminds me not to ever try texting and driving!). http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html

What a shock! I'm a Swiss teacher and from abr...

2012-03-24T17:24:49.010-07:00

What a shock! I'm a Swiss teacher and from abroad it's amazing to think that such laws can even be envisaged(outside of Iran :-)! How sad would it be for your students, it would just teach them lies.
Great blog by the way! It's just too bad that the same kind of blog and material doesn't exist in French, so I could use it in my classes!

I think this was a great program. It brings atten...

2012-03-20T20:55:09.172-07:00

I think this was a great program. It brings attention to a condition that is very hard to get people to understand.

My favorite part was when they flipped the faces upside down and even the interviewer could not recognize people. The entire face was seen, the knowledge they should be identifiable was there, yet there was no spark of familiarity.

I wish I could take this example everywhere I go. I have severe prosopagnosia and hope to help more people understand this condition. Thank you for helping people learn.

I was glad to see this video! I was recently liste...

2012-03-19T19:09:21.343-07:00

I was glad to see this video! I was recently listening to a "Stuff You Should Know" Podcast called "What are microexpressions?" and they discussed face blindness, something that I think would be very difficult to live with. Its a good Podcast to listen to about our face and brain. You can download it on iTunes. Thanks for the video!

Good news for educators in our state! The Governo...

2012-03-16T21:47:57.829-07:00

Good news for educators in our state! The Governor vetoed this bill this evening. I am happy and relieved to see this development, but still concerned. This is the result of this round, what's next?

An update about the conference from Pam Marek at K...

2012-03-15T12:04:38.538-07:00

An update about the conference from Pam Marek at Kennesaw:

"a reminder about the 11th Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference in Psychology (GURP) on April 14, 2012: The deadline for submitting abstracts for review is March 21, 2011. We are also inviting high school students, post baccalaureate students, and junior graduate students in their first or second year of study. Further information about submissions, plus directions to the college, lodging, etc., are available at the GURP website,http://www.kennesaw.edu/gurp/. If you have any questions about the conference, please contact Adrienne Williamson, awill176@kennesaw.edu, our Department Chair, Sharon Pearcey, spearcey@kennesaw.edu, or email KSU's designated GURP account, gurp@kennesaw.edu.

We will be holding the one-day conference in the new Social Sciences Building on the KSU campus in Kennesaw GA. We encourage you to promote this opportunity for students to present the results of their empirical research, either in poster form or as a paper presentation. We will be awarding prizes for the best paper and poster. Please email pmarek@kennesaw.edu if you are interested in a 1-page Microsoft Word file that you might use to advertise GURP to your students. We hope that you can join us this year!