3cisd

3C Institute

An Interactive Social Tutoring System to Improve and Measure Social Goals for Students in Preparation for the Transition to Middle School

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
ID: ED-IES-13-C-0041
PI: MELISSA DEROSIER, ASHLEY CRAIG
TERM: 05/13 – 05/15

Research supports the need to prepare students socially—as much as academically—to ensure a successful transition to middle school and foster subsequent academic success. In fact, students’ pre-transition social interactions play a critical role in their academic achievement following the transition to middle school. However, current social interventions delivered in education settings typically produce more modest effects on student outcomes than desired, possibly due to their inability to adapt social training to the needs of individual students. Further, tools that allow educators to simultaneously implement a social intervention and measure its impact on students’ social functioning are lacking. Through this SBIR Phase II project, we will continue iterative development and refinement of highly innovative Intelligent Social Tutoring System (ISTS) software with the capacity to dynamically adapt training to the individual student and document their progress toward specific measurable social goals. We will conduct a series of tests to demonstrate the product’s usability, feasibility, and promise for generating intended student outcomes. This new social intervention will be specifically designed to improve 5thgrade students’ ability to cope with the social challenges of middle school to socially prepare them for a successful middle school transition and foster their subsequent academic success.

The primary commercial application will be the ground-breaking Hall of Heroes software and social intervention package leveraging technology to provide (a) an engaging, powerful, and individualized social learning experience for 5th grade students; (b) unprecedented professional development tools and on-going implementation support for teachers; and (c) real-time Reporting Center through which educators can monitor and document students’ progress toward specific measurable social goals. By enhancing students’ social problem solving skills needed to navigate the social challenges of middle school, Hall of Heroes holds the potential for significant and lasting impact on the quality of students’ school-based social and academic adjustment.

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.