To: Whom It May Concern s11

To: Whom It May Concern

From: Christee L. Jenlink

Chair, Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership

Northeastern State University

Re: Preliminary Results

Horace Hopper Study

Fall, 2003 School Term

Date: April 19, 2004

The following is a preliminary review of results from the Horace Hopper Study during the fall, 2004, school term at two school sites in the Oklahoma City Public School system. While this is a preliminary review only, it is based upon data from both school sites.

School Site A

The three students studied in this classroom are categorized as “autistic”. The students are fully mobile. The Horace Hopper program was introduced to the students in March, 2003. A parent orientation was held at this time to discuss the study and the software to be used. The students’ parents received free software and learning material. The classroom teacher and the software developer, Lonnie Liggitt, began working with the students and the software on an experimental basis in April to determine what improvements could be made in the software itself. After those improvements were made, the study formally began in September. The teacher worked with the students on a daily basis and Mr. Liggitt worked with them on a weekly basis. A weekly assessment, the Oklahoma Alternate Assessment Program, was the tool used to assess the students. This tool, called the “Oklahoma Alternate Assessment Program” is used with students of significant disabilities as mandated by the “No Child Left Behind Act”. The assessment uses a prompt hierarchy. The goal is for a student to complete a task as independently as possible as noted by the least restrictive prompt. The ultimate goal is for a student to complete the task by a “natural environmental” prompt, i.e. no assistance from the teacher. The teacher also documented if a student responded vocally or verbally during the activity or upon completion of the activity. Vocal is defined as making a sound, and verbal is defined as actually saying a word that is understandable. This is particularly significant with student “C”. According to his teacher, before this study, “C” had been totally non-verbal. In this study “C” was verbal and/or vocal after every trial, except the last one. “C” also started responding verbally during the September 19 trial and continued to be verbal during the activity until the last trial. The teacher stated that according to “C’s” father, “…the program is really kicking in because (student) is talking up a storm!”

The teacher conducted two trials, one day per week from September 4 to December 18. In reviewing the graphs of all three students, the hierarchy prompt went consistently from a full physical prompt to the natural environmental prompt. The natural environmental response indicates that the students were able to complete a language development activity which used a musical tone as a means of association without the assistance of the teacher. A perspective of this is to draw a line from the prompt beginning with the September 4 trial and continue that line to the last trial date, December 18.

Preliminary Conclusion

The conclusion is (1) the students were able to complete a language activity using a musical tone as a means of association using a natural environmental prompt and (2) the students were more vocal and verbal during the task and or after the task. Both parts of the conclusion are significant for autistic children. The combination of visual imagery, music, and technology resulted in these children completing tasks independently and responding verbally and/or vocally during and after the tasks.

School Site B

The students in this school site are mentally retarded orthopedically. They are also classified as nonverbal because they do not have a “functional communication” ability. According to one teacher, “Anything that they do that’s functional is done with augmentative communication or pushing a button, or whatever. Some of our students that did it (the program) can think, and some don’t.” Ages ranged from 4 to 11 years of age. A control group and an experimental group were established. The make-up of the experimental group closely matched the experimental group according to age and disabilities. The students were given a pre-test in September, 2003 using the Receptive One-Word Vocabulary Test. In this assessment, the examiner says a word then shows three pictures to the child. The child points to the picture that matches the word the examiner gave. The assessment continues until a child misses three word-picture associations in a row. A post-test was given in January, 2004. From September to December the students worked with the Horace Hopper program with assistance provided by the classroom teacher, a teacher’s assistant, or Lonnie Liggitt. This was for 15-20 minutes per day. The post-test was given in January. The number of students in the control group given the pre-test and post-test was 10. The number of students in the experimental group given the pre-test and post-test was 12.

The control group’s average word gain from the pre-test assessment to the post-test assessment was 6.6 words. The experimental group’s average word gain was 9.83. (See graph) These results indicate that the students using the Horace Hopper program made greater gains as measured by the Receptive One-Word Vocabulary assessment that those students who did not use the program. One teacher stated,

“When they (the students) were doing the program they would use more of their words than they would without the music. The music was motivating to them. The computer is motivating, also. The music, the computer, and sitting one-on-one with the teacher seems to be motivating for the student.

The principal stated, “I think it (the program) would be good to use for language impaired students, ones that have vocabulary problems. Maybe used for speech pathology, the language part of it anyway.”

Preliminary Conclusion

Students in the experimental group who worked with the Horace Hopper program showed greater gains than did students in a control group who did not work with the program as measured by the Receptive One-Word Vocabulary assessment. Preliminary qualitative results from the teachers and the principal of the school indicate that the program was useful for the students in achieving positive verbal and physical responses.

Conclusion

Analysis of these results is on-going with a more in-depth report forthcoming. The conclusions at this point about students who participated in the Horace Hopper program are: (1) autistic students in school “A” moved from requiring a full physical prompt to a natural environmental prompt to complete a language development activity from September to December, and (2) orthopedically retarded students with functional communication skills made greater gains in word-picture associations as measured by the Receptive One-Word Vocabulary assessment.