High prevalence of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the legislation movement impacted the placement of students with ASD in general education settings. Hence, the increase raised the need to conduct research for ASD populations, and to examine the effectiveness of these interventions. With the increase of single case-design…

Play is an important aspect of children's development and its value to education has been widely explored. However, play in children with disabilities and especially children with autism may be restricted when compared to that of their non-disabled peers of similar age and abilities. Moreover, play has been neglected to a certain extent in school…

The purpose of this review was to identify naturalistic language interventions for increasing spontaneous expressive language (defined in this review as absence of verbal prompt or other verbalization from adults or peers) in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Also, the methodological rigor and effectiveness of each study were evaluated…

Social narratives (e.g., Social Stories™) are common antecedent-based interventions promoted for the purposes of improving prosocial behaviors and reducing challenging behavior for children with and without disabilities. Although they are commonly prescribed and used, their effectiveness has almost exclusively been assessed for children with…

The purpose of this investigation was to explore whether a difference existed between the effectiveness of paper-based format and tablet computer-based format Social Story interventions on frequency of undesired behaviors. An adapted alternating treatment design was implemented with four children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data regarding…

Purpose: The purpose of this supplement article is to provide a resource of pertinent information concerning implementation science for immediate research application in communication sciences and disorders. Method: Key terminology related to implementation science is reviewed. Practical suggestions for the application of implementation science…

This synthesis paper summarizes research literature addressing challenging behaviours in children and youth with autism spectrum disorders and developmental disabilities in school settings. We conducted a comprehensive literature review to identify relevant peer-reviewed articles published between the years 2000 and 2011. The methodological…

In order to better assist practitioners and better serve persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families, it is vital for professionals to systematically evaluate the existing body of literature and synthesize its scientific evidence, so that the efficacy of research can be translated to evidence-based practices (EBPs) (Wheeler,…

Early detection methods for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infancy are rapidly advancing, yet the development of interventions for infants under two years with or at-risk for ASD remains limited. In order to guide research and practice, this paper systematically reviewed studies investigating interventions for infants under 24 months with or…

Problem statement: Two of the techniques used in the meta-analysis of single-case research are calculating the percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) and the percentage of data points that exceed the median of the baseline phase (PEM). The PND is a nonparametric approach in which the researcher calculates the percentage of data points in the…

This meta-analysis used hierarchical linear modeling to examine 115 single-case studies with 343 participants that examined the effectiveness of social skills interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The average effect size of the included studies was 1.40 (SD = 0.43, 95% CL = 1.32-1.48, N = 115). In the further, several…

This study examined the effectiveness of a Verbal Query Intervention (VQI) procedure in decreasing motor and vocal stereotypy in four elementary students with autism. The VQI procedure involved the presentation of behavior-related questions that the students were required to respond to in an appropriate fashion. An ABC multiple-baseline across…

Some children with autism have excessive daytime sleep but intervention research for this problem has not been conducted. The present study evaluated procedures with a 13 year old boy who had autism and slept for prolonged periods during the day. Classroom staff at a specialized school implemented procedures with the boy according to an ABAB…

To address methodological challenges in research on psychosocial interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a model was developed for systematically validating and disseminating interventions in a sequence of steps. First, initial efficacy studies are conducted to establish interventions as promising. Next, promising interventions are…

This article describes several features important in the success of using a behavioral model when treating individuals with autism and presents remaining issues to be addressed for improving treatment effectiveness. It urges future research to include strict empirical designs that allow for sound inferences regarding the parameters of treatment…