Graduation Year

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Granting Department

Applied Behavior Analysis

Major Professor

Maria dePerczel Goodwin, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Judith B. Bryant, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Trevor F. Stokes, Ph.D.

Keywords

psychology, teacher training, students, social phobia, anxiety

Abstract

The present study focused on the interactions between a child with selective mutism and that child's teachers. The hypothesis was that the teachers unknowingly maintained the mutism by not placing the expectations of speech on the child. Therefore, by training three out of the four teachers how to interact with the child with selective mutism, and using the fourth teacher as a control, the researchers were able to identify that the training not only changed the three teachers' behaviors, but also the child with selective mutism's behaviors as well. Also, based on a pre-training/post-training test, the teachers had a much better understanding of the disorder after the training was implemented. The control's behaviors did not change during the course of study.

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