Abstract
Soles of the Feet for Students (SOF) has demonstrated effectiveness at increasing academic engagement among general education students. This work intended to replicate and extend previous work by exploring the effectiveness and social validity of SOF among students receiving special education services, who had low levels of academic engagement and high levels of disruptive classroom behavior, in a public school setting. This study utilized a multiple baseline single-subject design. Four students (grades 4–7) were taught SOF over the course of five 20–30-min sessions. Direct observation data of student academically engaged behavior were collected during baseline and post intervention study phases. Students and teachers also completed social validity questionnaires. Following SOF training, all four students demonstrated improved mean levels of academically engaged behavior. Students and teachers also reported that SOF was an acceptable, feasible, and effective intervention. SOF offers a brief and effective manualized intervention to increase student academic engagement, and conversely reduce classroom disruptive behavior, for students receiving special education services.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the following for their participation in this research project (listed alphabetically): Jacob Groff, Brian Martens, Christabelle Moore, Maxwell Morris, Kara Tom, and Wayne Wilson. At the time this research study was conducted, all authors were affiliated with the University of Oregon.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Funding
This work was supported by National Institutes of Mental Health Grant.
T32MH20012.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Appendix
Appendix
Post implementation social validity questionnaire for teachers
1. What were your initial thoughts regarding this intervention when you first began to learn about it? Did you have any immediate concerns or questions?
2. Are the types of problems addressed by the SOF program important?
3. Overall, is the amount of time teachers invest in implementation reasonable?
4. Do you feel the SOF program was effective for this student? (Why/why not)
5. Would you recommend this intervention to other teachers? (Why/why not)
6. Did you utilize SOF strategies demonstrated at the start of the student? (Why/why not)? If yes, how effective were they for you personally?
7. Did the student use SOF? How often, when, and in what circumstances?
8. Additional comments or suggestions
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Felver, J.C., Felver, S.L., Margolis, K.L. et al. Effectiveness and Social Validity of the Soles of the Feet Mindfulness-Based Intervention with Special Education Students. Contemp School Psychol 21, 358–368 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-017-0133-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-017-0133-2