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Purpose: Early language intervention is essential for children with indicators of language delay. Enhanced milieu teaching (EMT) is a naturalistic intervention that supports the language development of children with emerging language. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of all qualifying singlecase and group design studies that evaluate the experimental effects of EMT on child outcomes. Method: We evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies and conducted a descriptive analysis of study quality, effect sizes, and demographics. We reviewed a total of 29 single-case and 17 group design studies in which 1,590 children participated. Results: Out of 46 studies, 39 met the What Works Clearinghouse standards without reservations, showing low levels of risk of bias. The effects were comparable when EMT was implemented alone and when it was implemented with another intervention component, and EMT was more effective when implemented by caregivers than when implemented by therapists. Most studies did not report sufficient participant demographics. Conclusions: The EMT research literature published thus far is of high study quality; the effects across studies are comparable; and the intervention has been studied via a wide range of delivery modalities, contexts, implementers, and samples. Future research could systematically examine the effects of EMT and explore these varying intervention delivery, implementer, and learner characteristics as moderators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional communication training (FCT) is a commonly used, often recommended intervention that involves teaching a functionally equivalent communicative response to replace challenging behavior. The purpose of this literature review was to evaluate the strength of the evidence for the use of FCT. A systematic review of the literature resulted in the identification of 215 single-case-design articles that evaluated the efficacy of FCT to reduce challenging behavior for individuals diagnosed with a disability. FCT resulted in a decrease in challenging behavior for 135 participants. The reviewers rated FCT as an evidence-based practice for individuals with autism, intellectual disability, other health impairments, and multiple disabilities based on What Works Clearinghouse standards. Overall, the extant literature indicates FCT consistently results in the reduction of challenging behavior in children with disabilities. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of mobile technology is ubiquitous in modern society and is rapidly increasing in novel use. The use of mobile devices and software applications (“apps”) as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is rapidly expanding in the community, and this is also reflected in the research literature. This article reports the social-communication outcome results of a meta-analysis of single-case experimental research on the use of high-tech AAC, including mobile devices, by individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder. Following inclusion determination, and excluding studies with poor design quality, raw data from 24 publications were extracted and included 89 A-B phase contrasts. Tau-U nonparametric, non-overlap effect size was used to aggregate the results across all studies for an omnibus and moderator analyses. Kendall’s S was calculated for confidence intervals,p-values, and standard error. The omnibus analysis indicated overall low to moderate positive effects on social-communication outcomes for high-tech AAC use by individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the wide usage of technology in educational settings, the overall evidence base of technology-aided reading interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has not been fully investigated. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to quantify the effects of technology-aided reading interventions for students with ASD and determine if participant and intervention characteristics moderate intervention effects. Reviewed articles were systematically identified and evaluated for methodological rigor according to design standards suggested by What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). A total of 13 single-case studies that met the WWC standards (50%) were analyzed for effects using Tau-U and yielded 50 separate effect sizes with 33 participants. Results of this study found a moderate overall effect of .89 (CI95 [.83, .96]) for technology-aided reading interventions, and variables associated with using time delay moderated reading outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]