IMPACT OF WORKING MEMORY ON FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Date of Award

Fall 12-20-2018

Document Type

Project (696 or 796 registration)

Degree Name

Master of Science in Special Education

Department

Graduate Studies

Committee Chair

David Kupferman

Keywords

executive function, working memory, following directions, special education, disability

Abstract

This study examined the effects of a brief, small group intervention on building working memory in students age 6-8. These students all received special education services. The intervention involved “brain games” in 5-10 minute sessions three times per week in a small group setting. Data was taken using an adapted version of the Reading Recall subtest of the Woodcock Johnson Test of Academic Achievement IV. After receiving the intervention for five weeks, significant gains were made in students’ working memory. The study also measured students’ ability to follow directions through an observation measuring frequency of directions followed. This was done to see if increase of working memory generalized to an increase in students’ ability to follow directions; the results did not show a significant trend to support this.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Abstract only: No full text available.

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