Running head: MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH

Measurement in Social Work Research

SW 4810
October 1st 2014
Amanda Cummings
FJ4309

MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH

Measurement in Social Work Research
Description of the agency
My field placement is at P.E.A.C.E Academy in Pontiac School District.
P.E.A.C.E Academy is for early childhood education and has pre-school and
some kindergarten classes providing services and educating young children
from ages three to five. Their mission is to strive to make children confident
and creative learners. The curriculum they follow is the high scope and
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) curriculum. They also
have a few programs they provide for their students and parents, which
include second step, nutrition program, and positive behavior support. The
services provided within the school are social work, speech therapy,
occupational therapy, physical therapy, and a school psychologist. The
population that social work provides services to would be special education
which includes children with disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD), Cognitively impaired (CI), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD), Early Childhood development delay (ECDD), and Emotionally
Impaired (EI).
Impacts of measurement
My research question is specific to children diagnosed with Autism
Spectrum Disorder. Children with ASD typically have trouble communicating
and trouble with social interaction. At my specific placement many of the
children diagnosed with this disorder have little to no communication skills at

MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH

all and many isolate themselves in the classroom. The research question that
I have is how does teacher involvement affect the communication and social
interaction of children with ASD in the classroom? I will be measuring the
communication and social interaction of children with ASD in the classroom.
My survey questions will be based on these behaviors of these specific
children and the survey will be administered to their teachers.
Outcomes assessed
I selected an article that did a study to increase social interaction using
prelinguistic milieu teaching with nonverbal school-age children with ASD.
The intervention they implemented was creating a framework for developing
and maintaining social interaction between ASD children and their
communication partners by using play routines (Franco, Davis and Davis,
2013). The results showed that with intervention, all of the children improved
their ability to sustain social interactions, as evidenced by an increase in the
number of communicative interactions during play routines (Franco, Davis
and Davis, 2013). Participants also increased their overall rate of initiated
intentional communication (Franco, Davis and Davis, 2013). They concluded
that development of intentional prelinguistic communication within social and
communication skills to young school-age children with ASD who function at a
nonverbal level (Franco, Davis and Davis, 2013). I selected this article
because if teachers implemented this kind of intervention with their ASD

MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH

students I may be able to see results with my research question just as their
research showed results using this method.

References
Franco, J., Davis, B. and Davis, J. (2013). Increasing Social Interaction Using
Prelinguistic

Milieu Teaching With Nonverbal School-Age Children With

Autism. American Journal

502.

of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(3), pp.489--