Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) Researcher Leads Efforts to Design VR Training for Educators of Students with Autism

Children with autism are more likely than their typically developing peers to engage in challenging behavior, which can lead to injury, lower rates of social inclusion, and adverse effects on learning. To support these children, special education professionals in schools need training on functional analysis —the methods used to identify factors that influence challenging behavior. Joseph Lambert, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN IDDRC, UCEDD, LEND) researcher and assistant professor of special education at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, plans to develop this training using virtual-reality-based simulations.

Lambert received a four-year, $1.99 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to lead a multi-institutional team to design fully automated training modules for preservice special education teachers. Dubbed Project AVID—automated virtual-reality-based training for intervention development—the modules will train teachers on assessment and intervention designs and implementations so that teachers feel empowered to effectively identify influences of challenging behavior and reduce such behavior in classrooms. This approach will offer educators approximated authentic experiences that can inform real-world classroom practices.

“Because I work with low-incidence populations—children with autism, intellectual, and multiple disabilities—it’s always a real challenge to recreate the circumstances under which the methods I teach are relevant. Virtual reality offers the potential to contextualize these methods in a low-stakes setting that allows students to learn, and make mistakes, without significantly impacting the educational experiences of actual children with high-intensity needs,” said Lambert, the study’s principal investigator.

The research team anticipates that Project AVID will enhance outcomes for pre-service special education teachers and K-5 students with autism by strengthening interventions informed by functional analysis. Such interventions have a greater impact on challenging behavior than other assessments. The team also believes the project will strengthen outcomes by highlighting important procedural, conceptual, and ethical considerations associated with assessment and intervention and by establishing teacher competence through theory-informed instruction and simulated practice opportunities.

Lambert is collaborating with researchers from three institutions:

• Bimal Balakrishnan, professor and associate dean for research in the College of Architecture, Art and Design at Mississippi State University
• Casey Clay, assistant professor in the Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Department at Utah State University
• Mandy Rispoli, Quantitative Foundation Bicentennial Professor of Special Education at the University of Virginia