Welcome to the MITTIN Memo

As we head into the 2024-2025 school year, we have a great deal to celebrate.

• MITTIN has received continued funding for the development of additional module topics, instructional resources, professional learning and implementation;
• At the end of September we will be releasing our 16th module -- Mopping the Floor; and
• The first research article on MITTIN as been published which is beginning to establish empirical support for what we all know - MITTIN resources are beneficial to strengthening a student's independent living skills.

If you are interested in learning more about MITTIN, joining virtual PLCs or having a MITTIN facilitator provide an onsite workshop, contact Kristine Gullen, our MITTIN Project Manager at kristinegullen@maase.org. There is also a QR code below to connect you to this work.

Looking forward to a great year.

Best Regards,

Dr. Derek Cooley,

MITTIN Committee Chair

Congratulations are in order! We are excited to share that the MSU / MITTIN research project created an article titled: Enhancing Independence: Non-Immersive Virtual Reality for Teaching Cooking Skills to High School Students With Intellectual Diasbility. This article has been published in the Journal of Special Education Technology, 2024. This research comes from the MSU /MITTIN work in Ionia Public Schools. The article was written by Larissa Jakubow, Emily C. Bouck, Laura Norwine, Holly M. Long, James Nuse and Anna Maria Kitsios.

Article Summary/Abstract: Virtual reality (VR) is a promising avenue to enhance the independence and daily living skills of high school students with intellectual disability. This study investigated the efficacy of a non-immersive VR focused on teaching food preparation skills to secondary students with intellectual disability. Three high school students with intellectual disability participated in a multiple probe across participants single case design study, in which they engaged with non-immersive VR to learn to cook a grilled cheese sandwich on a stove. Researchers found students improved their accuracy with cooking a grilled cheese sandwich on a stove following intervention as measured by task analysis steps on a delayed probe. Students also maintained high levels of accuracy after the intervention ended. Researchers determined non-immersive VR an effective and efficient intervention for secondary students with intellectual disability learning daily living skills.

Dr. Meg Chamberlin is a social scientist and leader with 15 years of experience in the public service, research and consulting. She is a seasoned, multi-disciplinary researcher with experience leading quantitative and qualitative analyses, and a strong record for identifying, understanding, and incorporating cultural and social factors into her work.

For MITTIN, Dr. Chamberlin has been instrumental in the development of a Logic Model and Theory of Change we are using in Federal grant applications. We look forward to our continued collaboration.