Promoting Social Skills among Generation Alpha Learners with Special Needs

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for submitting the interesting qualitative study. The topic is relevant to the current education field, considering both technology and generational alpha learners. 

There are some improvements I want to suggest to improve the paper for publication.

1. This paper describes 'technology' as a broad term, and assistive technology was also mentioned briefly in the introduction. Without an extensive background in special education or disability studies, readers might get confused about the differences between educational technology and assistive technology. Please provide further information about the technology you want to focus on. 

2. This paper discusses using technology to improve social skills for students with disabilities in inclusive settings. If so, social skills should be elaborated on in the introduction.

3. The methodology section is too simple. What grade levels are the teacher participants currently teaching? What types of disabilities do the students have? What are their competency levels and previous experiences in using technology? Are all teachers just general education teachers? What kinds of questions did you use? Did this study conduct in-person f2f interviews? How did the researchers analyze data using content analysis (detailed information)? 

4. Research question 2 was not clearly demonstrated in the results section. Could be more specific. 

5. Readers might want to know additional information about the characteristics of GA with disabilities, changed learning environments with technology development, and how to integrate technology when developing social skills in inclusive education settings (in the literature review). -- This information could bolster the Results/Discussion. 

Hope to review the revised version of this paper soon! 

Author Response

Reply to Reviewer 1’s comments:

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your important comments that provided me with the opportunity to improve my paper.

I have carefully read each one of them and revised the paper accordingly, and I hope the paper is now improved and ready for publication.

All revisions are highlighted in yellow in the revised paper.

Below are my responses to each of your comments. 

Sincerely,

Author of manuscript titled:

Promoting social skills among Generation Alpha learners with special needs.

 

Comment #1:   this paper describes “technology” as a broad term, and assistive technology was also mentioned briefly in the introduction. Without an extensive background in special education or disabilities studies, readers might get confused about the differences between educational technology and assistive technology. Please provide further information about the technology you want to focus on.

• Thank you for these highlights. Accordingly, I added (p.2 & p. 4) explanations and examples regarding the assistive technology. I also explained why they are not the educational technology tools that are used nowadays for the development of social skills.
• I also integrated new references to support the information I present in my paper.
• I referred to the digital tools on which I wish to focus on p.4, just before the methodology. But- only in general because one of the goals of the study was to understand which technology tools the participants thought were relevant while including learners with SN in an inclusive learning environment.

Comment #2: This paper discussed using technology to improve social skills for students with disabilities in inclusive settings. If so, social skills should be elaborated on in the introduction.

• Thank you for mentioning this missing information for the readers. Following your comment, I added relevant information about social skills and their importance, along with new references (p. 4)

 

Comment # 3: The methodology section is too simple. What grade levels are the teacher participants currently teaching? What type of disabilities do the students have? What are their competence levels and previous experiences in using technology? Are all teachers just general education teachers? What kind of question did you use? Did this study conduct in-person 21 interviews? How did the researchers analyze data using content analysis (detailed information)?

• Your questions regarding the methodology are very important and therefore I integrated all missing information in the methodology section. Please look at p.5. where you can read all the information I included.

 

Comment #4: Research question #2 was not clearly demonstrated in the result section. Could be more specific.

• Thanks, if you look at section 4.4 (results), it refers specifically to research question #2. Which was: “How can teachers develop individual intervention programs that promote social inclusion of GA learners with SN?” The relevant results refer to participants’ perceptions of the need to integrate digital tools through individual intervention programs, along with conducting relevant adaptations.

 

Comment #5: Readers might want to know additional information about characteristics of GA with disabilities, changed learning environments with technology development, and how to integrate technology when developing social skills in inclusive education settings (in the literature review) – This information could bolster the results/discussion.

• Thank you for this important comment that highlights readers’ needs. Following your comments I integrated some relevant information both in the literature review section (p.4) and through the discussion (p. 10). I hope, as you wrote, that these additions bolstered the paper.

 

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for allowing me to review your manuscript.  Below are a few recommendations:

line 10- "learners diagnosed with special needs". People are not diagnosed with special needs, rather with a disability.  Throughout the article you refer to those with SN, but I am not clear what that encompasses.  

line 46-47 "In addition, it should be remembered that one of the goals of the education system is to promote the inclusion of learners with SN into the school system and into society"- provide citation

line 132: "Moreover, educators scarcely refer to the possible ways GA learners with SN might use technologies to develop their social skills outside the classroom."- provide citation to support this claim. "Special Needs" is a very broad term...and there have been numerous studies that incorporate the use of technology to improve social skills in children with autism. 

line 172- "diagnosed with special needs". 

Participants- I think it would be beneficial to the reader to also know what grade levels these 21 teachers taught, their content area, and the disabilities they have experience working with.  

line 254-258- I can see how this can benefit the student! It would be helpful to know what grades these students were in too!

line 294- what is an ICT system? information communication technology?

line 311- "learners with disorders" & line 312 "children with disabilities - As an expert in the field of special education, I would recommend using the phrase "learners/children with disabilities" instead of learners with special needs or learners with disorders.  Those terms are too vague.

line 321- specifically, what are the technological tools and how are they being adapted?

line 407-408 is a bit of an overstatement for a journal article"For example, these learners are familiar with digital tools from the day they are born, and they use them daily for communication and collecting information". 

line 452- "To begin with, over the years, several digital tools have been developed to allow learners with SN to learn independently and efficiently [25, 28], but these tools focus mainly on promoting academic rather than social skills." I disagree. There are several interventions/applications that have been implemented specifically on children with autism that focus on social skills (app games on tablets and phones, augmented reality, etc.) interventions.  

The purpose of your study was to learn about teachers’ perspectives regarding the social inclusion of GA learners with SN, and understand how teachers think digital tools should be implemented in order to promote social inclusion.  As I stated before, you didn't operationally define SN, and you also used "learners with disorders" and teachers stated "children with disabilities".  I would recommend using the phrase "children/students with disabilities" for clarity & continuity purposes. You also reference technological tools and digital tools often, but I'm not clear specifically what these tools are.  Please provide specific examples on what you are referring to. If the teachers mentioned the tools that they used, that could be useful information to share with the readers.  

Overall I think this could provide some insight on teacher's perspectives on GA learners with disabilities, however I would recommend addressing the issues I highlighted in regards to what digital tools are being implemented, and clarifying the term SN. 

 

Author Response

 

Reply to Reviewer 2’s comments:

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your important comments that provided me with the opportunity to improve my paper.

I have carefully read each one of them and revised the paper accordingly, and I hope the paper is now improved and ready for publication.

All revisions are highlighted in yellow in the revised paper.

Below are my responses to each of your comments. 

Sincerely,

Author of manuscript titled:

Promoting social skills among Generation Alpha learners with special needs.

 

Comment #1: line 10 “learners diagnosed with special needs”. People are not diagnosed with special needs, rather with disability. Throughout the article you refer to those with SN, but I am not clear what that encompasses.

• Thank you for highlighting the need to use precise concepts. Accordingly, I changed the relevant concepts throughout the paper. Furthermore, I explained my reference to SN (p.4), so I hope it is much clearer now.

 

Comment #2: line 46-47: “in addition, it should be remembered that one of the goals of the education system is to promote the inclusion of learners with SN into the school system and into society” – provide citation.

• I have updated the sentence and added two new references to support my writing.

 

Comment #3: line 132:” Moreover, educators scarcely refer to the possible ways GA learners with SN might use technology to develop their social skills outside the classroom” – provide citation to support this claim. “special needs” s a very broad term… and there have been numerous studies that incorporate the use of technology to improve social skills in children with autism.

• Following your comment, I edited this section and added relevant references.
• As mentioned earlier, I explained my meaning of SN on p.4.
• Regarding the studies about the technologies developed to improve social skills among children with autism, these are the assistive technologies I refer to in the introduction and the literature review. Unfortunately, educators use these assistive technologies for basic communication in schools and do not integrate them to promote social inclusion.

 

Comment # 4: line 172:”diagnosed with special needs”.

• Following your first comment I fixed this as well.   

 

Comment #5: Participants – I think it would be beneficial to the reader to also know what grade levels these 21 teachers taught, with content of area, and the disabilities that have experience working with.

• I edited the methodology section and added this important information you mentioned as missing.

 

Comment #6: line 254-258 – I can see how this can benefit the students! It would be helpful to know what grades these students were in too!

• All participants taught during this study were elementary school learners (I added this information after reading your comments), and thus the results and recommendations of this paper refer to these grades as well.

 

Comment #7: line 294 – what is an ICT system? Information communication technology?

• Thanks for mentioning this lack of information. I added an explanation first in page 3, with relevant references.

 

Comment #8: line 311 – “learners with disorders” and line 132 “children with disabilities” – As an expert on the field of special education, I would recommend using the phrase “learners/children with disabilities” instead of learners with special needs or learners with disorders. Those terms are too vague.

• I understand and accept your perception regarding the use of the term SN. Therefore, I added some explanation in the introduction and the literature review. Additionally, I edited the whole paper so the use of each term will be precise.

 

Comment #9: line 321- specifically, what are the technological tools and how are they adapted?

• Following your suggestion, I added a few examples.

 

Comment #10: line 407-408- is a but of an overstatement for a journal article. “For example, these learners are familiar with digital tools from the day they are born, and they use them daily for communication and collecting information”

• Thank you for this opportunity to specify my thoughts. I have edited this section accordingly.

  

Comment #11: line 452 “To begin with…. Rather than social skills”. I disagree. There are several intervention/applications that have been implemented specifically on children with autism that focus on social skills (app games on tablets and phones, augmented reality, etc.) intervention.

• I understand your disagreement. I am aware of the great apps and technologies that were developed for children with autism. But, as I wrote earlier, this assistive technology is not integrated in inclusive schools to promote their social skills and social inclusion, but only as a platform to allow them better academic skills.
• Your important comment just strengthens the need to conduct in the future specific studies regarding the inclusion of children with autism. Thank you for this insight.

 

Comment #12: The purpose of your study was to learn about teachers’ perspectives regarding social inclusion of GA learners with SN, and understand how teachers think digital tools should be implemented in order to promote social inclusion. As I stated before, you did not operationally define SN, and you also used “learners with disorders: and teachers stated “children with disabilities”. I would recommend using the phrase “children with disabilities” for clarity and continuity purposes. You also reference technological tools often, but I’m not clear specifically what these tools are. Please provide specific examples on what you are referring to. If the teachers mentioned the tools the used, that could be useful information to share with the readers.

• Following your important previous comments, I have edited the paper and integrated all the above suggestions. I hope the paper now is clearer and more suitable for publication.

 

Comment #13: overall I think this could provide some insight on teachers’ perspectives on GA learners with disabilities, however, I would recommend addressing the issues I highlighted in regards to what digital tools are being implemented and clarifying the term SN.

• Thank you, I believe I addressed all your recommendations.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for addressing the suggestions! Nice work!