Participants
Participants will include first graders from ____ Elementary School. Students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and students who are classified as level 1, 2, or 3 English Language Learners will be excluded from the study. Students who score below benchmark on mCLASS: Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills Next (mCLASS: DIBELS Next) will be assessed by their teacher for elevated inattention rates. The students who have both below benchmark reading scores and high inattention scores will be included in the study.
Measurement
Record Review. Students will be coded the following factors: qualification for free or reduced lunch as a proxy for socioeconomic (SES) status, primary 1st grade teacher, and English …show more content…
Students’ scores will be categorized into one of three benchmark levels: At or Above Benchmark, Below Benchmark, and Well Below Benchmark (Dynamic Measurement Group, 2010). Students who score below the 1st grade benchmark established by DIBELS on both the ORF and the NWF assessments, but are not considered Well Below Benchmark, will be included in the study if they also exhibit elevated inattention.
Inattention. First grade teachers will rate students scoring below benchmark scores on the ADHD-IV Rating Scale and the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS). Students who a score 1.0 standard deviations above the mean on the inattention subscale of the ADHD-IV Rating Scale will be included in the study. The SAEBRS will be used to determine if a brief universal behavior screener identifies the same children as the ADHD-IV Rating Scale.
The ADHD-IV Rating Scale is a norm-referenced scale based off of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ' criteria for diagnosis attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). This scale consists of two subscales: Inattention and Hyperactive-Impulsive. This study will utilize the inattention subscale, which includes 9 items. The scale is internally consistent, and there is also evidence that the scale has discriminate, predictive, and criterion-related validity (DePaul, Power, Anastopoulos, …show more content…
The teachers’ ratings are based on a 4-point scale (0 = never, 1 = sometimes, 2 = often, and 3 = almost always) (Kilgus, Chafouleas, & Riley-Tillman, 2013). Using Cronback 's alpha, SAEBRS demonstrates internal consistency reliability for social behaviors (r = .89), for academic behaviors (r = .93), and for general behaviors (r = .93) (Kilgus, Sims, von der Embse, & Riley-Tillman, 2015) .
Attention-to-Task. Attention-to-task will be coded once a week by graduate and undergraduate students. The student will be observed for 15 minutes. Every 15 seconds the observer will note if the child is on- or off-task. On-task behaviors will include the child participating in small group instruction or being actively engaged during the CAI. Off-task behavior will entail the student not participating in small group instruction or not looking at the computer screen.