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The goal of this special issue is to highlight recent work advancing supportive interventions that facilitate meaningful access for persons with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities to inclusive community-based settings. The special issue includes a literature synthesis focused on informal education settings, interventions for critical skills such as pool side safety, and articles focused on adults with disabilities. Notable strengths include long-term follow-up of intervention effects, investigation of novel settings such as airports and informal educational settings, and inclusion of adults with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English language development is a critical component for young children's school readiness. In this study, we examined the effect of Read it again-Pre-K! (Justice and McGinty in Read it again!-Prek: a preschool curriculum supplement to promote language and literacy foundations, Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, Columbus, 2013), a literacy curriculum designed to prepare young children's school readiness on the English literacy skills of Korean dual language learners in general education. Using a multiple probe design, eight 4- to 5-year-old Korean dual language learners (1 female, 7 males) received 1:1 online synchronous daily instruction over 2 months during the summer before entering their kindergarten programs. Through the intervention, all eight children demonstrated increases in the use of English vocabulary, story comprehension, and oral fluency. Post-intervention data on vocabulary and reading fluency through three standardized tests, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and Expressive Vocabulary Test, showed improvement over baseline for most children. Discussion and implications for future research were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood special education teachers require training and support in implementing function-based intervention for challenging behavior. Yet, teacher professional development practices are not universally effective,and teachers may benefit from differentiated supports. The purpose of this study was to pilot and evaluate a multilevel approach to teacher professional development for function-based intervention. The multilevel approach included behavioral skills training, practice-based coaching, and teacher self-monitoring and was evaluated using a multiple baseline across participants single-case research design. Results demonstrated that while all teachers benefited from the professional development, teachers required different levels of support within the multilevel approach. These findings support a growing body of work suggesting that teachers may require varying levels of support to implement evidence-based practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether a systematic instruction package was effective in child acquisition of question answering using an iPad-based speech generating device (SGD). The study was conducted with two children with autism using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Results demonstrated that the systematic instruction package consisting of graduated guidance, discrete trial teaching, time delay, and reinforcement resulted in acquisition of answering all questions. Follow-up data were collected one, three, and five weeks after instruction ended. For all participants, skills maintained during follow-up and generalized to novel settings and skills. Social validity data were also collected and indicated that teachers without experience using SGDs found them to be effective and feasible for teaching communication skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caregiver-implemented interventions are increasingly utilized to address the needs of families of autistic children. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the studies evaluating interventions implemented by caregivers of autistic teens and young adults. We identified 10 studies that evaluated the efficacy of a caregiver-implemented intervention for autistic adolescents and young adults. We analyzed information related to participant and methodological characteristics, dependent variables, caregiver involvement, caregiver implementation fidelity, social validity, design quality, and strength of the results. In the included studies, daily living skills were the most common outcome targeted for intervention. Caregiver training often consisted of some or all of the components of behavioral skills training. Seven of the ten included studies (70%) met the What Works Clearinghouse methodological design standards. Across studies, results suggest caregiver-implemented interventions improved outcomes for autistic individuals and caregivers rated the interventions as socially valid. The current body of literature provides initial support for the use of caregiver-implemented interventions to improve outcomes for autistic adolescents and young adults, although additional research in this area is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging behavior tends to increase in levels during adolescence for individuals with developmental disabilities (DD). If not addressed, this can lead to negative post-school outcomes for adolescents with DD. The purposes of this meta-analysis were to examine the effects of behavioral intervention in reducing challenging behaviors of adolescents with DD and to identify variables that could potentially moderate these effects. This meta-analysis included thirty single-case design studies that met standards for methodological rigor and experimental control. Overall, behavioral interventions were found to yield moderate effects for adolescents with DD (overall Tau-U = 0.68, SD = 0.04, [0.62, 0.73]) across settings and types of challenging behaviors. With regards to participant and setting characteristics, verbal ability and classroom setting were found to moderate the effects of the intervention outcomes with statistical significance. No other variables produced similar findings. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found between interventions that included or did not include planned reinforcement as an intervention component. Several implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging behaviors are prevalent among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In this review, we used the What Works Clearinghouse Standards (WWC) to evaluate the quality of 84 studies that aimed to treat the challenging behaviors of adults with IDD, ages 22 years and older, using a function-based intervention. Then, we summarized 43 studies that met the WWC Standards with or without reservations. Overall, we found self-injurious behaviors were the most commonly targeted behaviors and functional analyses were the most frequently used functional behavior assessment. Function-based interventions were effective across the majority of the included studies. We discuss the findings and provide directions for future research and implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may engage in challenging behavior. These behaviors present challenges to support staff who often lack training in effective behavior management procedures. Behavioral skills training (BST) is an empirically supported method of staff training and has been used to teach support staff a number of intervention skills. The purpose of this study was to extend the literature on BST and to examine the effects of BST on staff implementation of functional communication training (FCT) for three adults with IDD using a non-concurrent multiple baseline design. Results indicated that with BST, staff fidelity increased over baseline levels. With the addition of individualized coaching, staff implementation reached mastery criteria. Improvements in staff implementation fidelity corresponded with decreases in participant challenging behavior and increases in appropriate communication. Findings suggest that BST with coaching may be an effective method to train staff to implement FCT with adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging behavior is a significant barrier in accessing the general education curriculum for students with developmental disabilities. This necessitates the identification of evidence-based practices for addressing challenging behavior in inclusive settings. The purpose of our meta-analysis is to (a) quantify the magnitude of effect of interventions targeting the reduction of challenging behavior in students with developmental disabilities in inclusive educational settings and (b) determine if participant and intervention characteristics moderate intervention effects. A systematic search of academic databases was conducted to identify studies, which were evaluated for methodological rigor and analyzed for effects using Tau-U. Results indicate a strong overall effect of.94 (95% CI [.87, 1]) and moderating variables associated with behavior topography, interventionist, and intervention components were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deficits in social-communication skills are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Deficits in social communication progress into adolescence and adulthood, making complex social interactions particularly difficult and preventing the development of meaningful friendships. Interventions aimed to improve conversational skills needed to foster development of relationships for this age group are needed. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of instructional modules and covert audio coaching (CAC), on the frequency of question asking skills among college students diagnosed with ASD. Four college females diagnosed with ASD and six neurotypical peers participated in the current study. The effects of the instructional modules and covert audio coaching were evaluated using a concurrent multiple-baseline design. CAC was associated with variable increases in the frequency of question asking across participants. The introduction of a feedback phase resulted in further increases in the frequency of question asking for two of the participants. Results suggest that CAC is feasible and may be an effective tool to teach conversation skills to female college students with ASD. Further, participants indicated they found the intervention helpful and preferred it to other interventions in which they had previously experienced. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a shared reading intervention on narrative story comprehension and task engagement of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A single-case multiple baseline design was used, and three elementary-aged students with ASD participated in this study. The shared reading intervention included before, during, and after reading strategies (i.e., topic anticipation, dynamic reading, story retelling). Results of this study indicated that all participants demonstrated noticeable improvements in reading comprehension. Despite the longer duration of intervention sessions as compared to baseline sessions, participants showed similar or better task engagement with intervention. Improved reading outcomes were maintained at follow up for all participants. Implications for practical implementation and future research were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current review summarized 54 peer-reviewed articles concerning the assessment treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB) in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Results indicated that functional analysis was most commonly used to identify the operant function of SIB. Noncontingent reinforcement, differential reinforcement, functional communication training and response blocking were found to be the most frequently implemented interventions across studies. The methodological quality of each study was evaluated using the Council for Exceptional Children quality indicator standards. None of the included studies met all indicators to be considered methodologically sound. Directions for future research and implications for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Teaching Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder to Answer Questions Using an iPad-Based Speech-Generating Device," by Derya Genc-Tosun, Onur Kurt and Zehra Cevher, published online on July 22, 2023, is presented.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy and efficiency of a training package to teach public school special educators to conduct functional analyses of challenging behavior. Six public school educators were divided into two cohorts of three and were taught two models of functional analysis of challenging behavior: traditional and trial-based functional analysis. The effect of the training package on functional analysis implementation was evaluated using multiple-baseline designs across participants for each functional analysis model. The sequence of functional analysis models taught was counterbalanced across cohorts. Following the training package, all participants reached 100 % implementation fidelity during role-plays and classroom sessions with students, and maintained high fidelity at follow-up role-play sessions. Data on training duration, trials to criterion, and social validity revealed that trial-based functional analysis training had a shorter duration and was rated as the more favorable functional analysis model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with autism tend to engage in challenging behavior more than other children, which impacts their ability to engage appropriately with instructional tasks. Existing literature has established that visual activity schedules are effective for maximizing on-task behaviors and reducing challenging behavior in individuals with autism. However, in some cases challenging behavior may not be effectively reduced, especially when the visual activity schedule includes a less preferred task. This study aimed to address this need by (a) examining the effects of a treatment package consisting of a visual activity schedule and instructional choice on escape-maintained challenging behavior of children with autism during less preferred tasks and (b) comparing the effects of the treatment package with a visual activity schedule only treatment. Results suggest the treatment package effectively reduced challenging behavior during less preferred tasks and had more consistent effects than the visual schedule only treatment on the reduction of challenging behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using adapted science eBooks within shared reading on comprehension and task engagement of high school students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A grade-level science textbook was selected and converted into an eBook format, incorporating various visual and auditory features (e.g., text-to-speech, summarized sentences, highlighted keywords) and presented on an iPad. The shared reading intervention included before, during, and after reading strategies (i.e., pre-teaching target vocabulary words, sharing information, retelling), with direct instruction on locating literal information. The intervention effects on reading comprehension and task engagement were evaluated using a single-case multiple probe design. The results of this study indicated that all participants demonstrated improvements in reading comprehension. Despite the longer intervention sessions compared to the baseline, all participants exhibited similar or enhanced levels of task engagement during the intervention sessions. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence supporting the use of adapted eBooks within shared reading as a means to increase access to grade-level science texts for high school students with ASD while maintaining a high level of task engagement. This intervention holds promise for improving the learning outcomes for students with ASD in science content area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]