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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]

Systematic reviews of single-case experimental research (SCER) in special education often use the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Standards to assess the methodological rigor of studies within a given literature base. While significant changes were made between the two most recent versions of the WWC standards, no research to date has evaluated the extent to which these standards would result in different evaluation outcomes. To examine potential differences, we applied version 4.1 and 5.0 of the standards to a sample database of SCER addressing the challenging behavior of students with autism in general education settings. Systematic search, screening, and review procedures resulted in a total of 20 articles included for this review. Findings indicated a 27% change in overall ratings across the studies, with version 5.0 leading to lower ratings than version 4.1, due to factors such as a lack of assessment of procedural fidelity, therapeutic baseline trends, and insufficient data points in the first baseline phase. We discuss implications for research based on our findings and recommend future directions for SCER in the field of special education. [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 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]

The purpose of this review was to evaluate the quality of research focused on the effects of telehealth‐mediated behavior‐analytic assessments and interventions on client outcomes. The majority of studies utilized a single‐case methodology (n = 44; 81%), while 10 studies (19%) used a group design. Of the 246 single‐case designs, 99 (40%) met design standards with or without reservation. For the 10 group design studies, 7 (70%) met the design standards. When evaluating the evidence offered according to the prime independent variable (e.g., behavior assessment, intervention designed for behavior reduction, and intervention designed to establish or strengthen behavior), the literature supports the use of telehealth to conduct behavior assessments and provide interventions designed to establish or strengthen behavior. Additional research is necessary to establish the use of telehealth to conduct interventions designed for behavior reduction. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. [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]

Although high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is commonly used to teach social-communication skills to people with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disabilities who have complex communication needs, there is a critical need to evaluate the efficacy of this approach. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the quality of single-case experimental design research on the use of high-tech AAC to teach social-communication skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disabilities who have complex communication needs, to determine if this intervention approach meets the criteria for evidence-based practices as outlined by the What Works Clearinghouse. Additionally, information on the following extended methodological standards is reported on all included studies: participant description, description of setting and materials, interventionist description, baseline and intervention description, maintenance, generalization, procedural integrity, and social validity. The results from 18 multiple-baseline or multiple-probe experiments across 17 studies indicate that using high-tech AAC to teach social-communication skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disabilities and complex communication needs can be considered an evidence-based practice, although the review of comparison (i.e., alternating treatment) design studies did not indicate that high-tech AAC is significantly better than low-tech AAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supporting parents in reducing challenging behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) requires the identification of effective, feasible, and sustainable interventions. Functional communication training (FCT) is one of the most well-established interventions in the behavioral literature and is used increasingly by parents. However, there is a need for additional evaluation of the literature related to parent-implemented FCT. In the present review, we identified 26 peer-reviewed studies on parent-implemented FCT. We conducted systematic descriptive and social validity analyses to summarize the extant literature. Across studies, parent-implemented FCT was effective in reducing child challenging behavior, and in some cases, intervention outcomes maintained and generalized to novel settings and implementers. However, few studies reported fidelity data on parent implementation of FCT, and data regarding sustained use of FCT by parents were limited. Results of the social validity analysis indicate that while FCT is often implemented by natural change agents in typical settings, parent training is often provided by professionals not typically accessible to parents. These findings suggest that future research is warranted in the areas of parent training and long-term sustainability of parent-implemented FCT. [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]

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]

Technology has been widely used to teach reading skills to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the quality of research backing up this practice has not yet been fully investigated. The purpose of this review was to examine the quality of research on technology-aided reading interventions for students with ASD and summarize study characteristics of research studies with meeting the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) design standards. A total of 31 studies using group design (n = 4) or single-case design (n = 27) were systematically aggregated, and 16 studies (52%) met the WWC design standards. Study features related to participants, intervention, technology usage, and outcome variables were synthesized for these 16 studies. Results indicated that two types of technology (i.e., computer, iPad) were used to deliver reading instruction through software programs or support interventionist-directed reading instruction. Finally, implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]