Will using extracurricular activities such as karate and basketball three times a week for a five week period for students with learning disabilities increase levels of social acceptance of other non-disabled classmates? Cereine Lewis April 6, 2016 Midterm Project

Literature Review As a whole, youth with learning disabilities have hard times with establishing and maintaining satisfactory social relationships with peers and are often rejected by them (Kavale & Forness, 1996; Ochoa & Olivarez, 1995; Swanson & Malone, 1992). Students with learning disabilities are characterized by loneliness, low self-esteem, lack of trust and a lack of coherence (Margalit & Al-Yagon, 2002; Al-Yagon & Mikulincer, 2004). There are many studies that indicate that children with learning disabilities demonstrate information processing difficulties (Turkaspa, 2004) and also a lack of self- control (Meaden & Halle, 2004), which are both qualities that are essential for effective social relationships.

Research Design This research design is a one shot case study design (A B). Subjects attend a public elementary school in a large urban area and were selected from an integrated co-teaching classroom of 25 students. There were two groups selected; learning disabled students and non- disabled students. There are 5 learning disabled subjects and 5 non-disabled subjects. The study is set to determine if the uses of extracurricular activities, such as karate and basketball, will increase the social acceptance of learning disabled students to their non-disabled peers. Students will complete self attitude rating scales before and after participating in extra curricular activities in order to determine if social acceptance was achieved.

DEMOGRAPHICS Subjects were selected from the original class of 25 students (9 girls, 16 boys) of whom 3 Hispanic, and 22 African-American. Subjects attend public elementary school in a large urban area. There were two groups selected for this study, the learning disabled students and the non disabled students. There are 5 learning disabled subjects (2 girls, 3 boys). The group that is non-disabled consists of 5 students (5 boys, 2 girls). Participants will join karate and basketball team. This is a one shot case study (X O).

Threats to Internal Validity Threats to Internal validity History: The subjects may be facing bullying from peers outside of school. Maturation: Overtime, the subjects in the experiment may fall short of their interest in karate and basketball. Testing/pre-test sensitization: Subjects would take SARS twice a month for four months before starting the extracurricular activities. Subjects would take SARS every week while taking part in activities. The post SARS will be used to measure results. Mortality: Mortality might pose as a big threat to this research. Students attendance to extracurricular activities may vary. Students may have to be absent from school and miss the activities. Statistical regression: This will not be a threat. Differential selection of subjects: This may be a threat to internal validity because some students with LD may be less outspoken than their peers. In the beginning stages of the activities, they may take longer to warm up or get use to the activity. Selection maturation-interaction: There is a possibility that there would be a differentiation between the maturation rates. There are some month differences among the students and this could have a significant effect on maturity levels.

Threats to External Validity Pretest-treatment: This is not applicable to this study. Subjects will not be pretested. Selection-treatment interaction: The selection of students are the ones that attend the after school extracurricular activities and are in the same second grade class. Specificity of variables: This threat may be valid because some students may have been pre-exposed to basketball and karate and may perform better than other students. This factor may determine whether or not SWD are socially accepted or not. Multiple treatment: This does not pose as a threat in this research. Treatment diffusion: This would not be a threat. Experimenter effects: The researcher will not present potential threats either passive or active.

Threats to External Validity Cont. Reactive arrangements/participants effects Hawthorne Effect: The Hawthorne Effect is when an individual’s behaviors are changed just because they know that they are being studied. This will not be a threat because students would not know that they are being part of an experiment. Compensatory rivalry: This may be a threat because students may try to out perform their peers while taking part of in the extracurricular activities. If students try to outperform others, there may be a possibility where that they would think that they are better than their peers. Placebo effect: This will not be a threat. Novelty effect: This is a threat to validity because some students may be better in karate or basketball than their peers. They may not want to play on the same instructional level as others.

Pre and Post test Survey Results

Appendices Copy of SARS

References Kavale, K. A., &Forness, S. R. (1996). Social skill deficits and learning disabilities: A meta-analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29, 226–237. Margalit, M., & Al-Yagon, M. (2002).The loneliness experience of children with learning disabilities. In B. Y. L.Wong&M.Donahue (Eds.), The social dimensions of learning disabilities (pp. 53–76). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Meaden, H., & Halle, J. W. (2004). Social perceptions of students with learning disabilities who differ in social status.Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 19, 71–82. Tur-Kaspa, H. (2004).Social-information processing skills of kindergarten children with developmental learning disabilities.Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 19, 3–11.

Appendix A.

Appendix A. Count.