Systematic prompting is a versatile evidence-based practice that can improve a range of outcomes for students with disabilities, but many teachers and paraeducators are not familiar with systematic prompting or may struggle with implementation. In this systematic review, the authors identified 28 articles that evaluated training practices for…

Paraeducators play an important role in the education of students with significant disabilities. They can best contribute to improving student outcomes when they are skilled in using evidence-based practices. Tiered training is a practical and promising solution for how teachers can train teams of paraeducators to use evidence-based practices.…

For students with autism, recess is often a missed opportunity to develop social competence and relationships. Although interventions have been developed to promote interactions and social skills for students with average or above-average intellectual functioning, there has been less focus on students with autism who have below-average…

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have a significantly lower employment rate than those without disabilities. One promising intervention for improving employment outcomes is video-based instruction. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the application of video-based instruction (VBI) to teach…

Previous findings demonstrate peer support arrangements improve academic and social outcomes for secondary students with severe disabilities, but further research is needed to determine (a) the degree to which this practice would benefit younger students, (b) the impact on student independence, and (c) how teachers can best support paraeducator…

Paraprofessionals are often tasked with providing instruction to students with severe disabilities despite little or no training in evidence-based practices. Previous studies have demonstrated that specific strategies (i.e., didactic instruction, modeling, and immediate performance feedback) in a 1-to-1 format can enable paraprofessionals to…

Federal law allows for paraprofessionals to provide instruction to students with developmental disabilities if they are adequately trained and supervised, but how to best provide this training and support remains unclear. In this paper, we update a systematic review of experimental studies that test the efficacy of paraprofessional-implemented…

Existing approaches for training paraeducators rely heavily on intensive one-to-one coaching and may not be feasible in practice. In this study, we test a tiered training model in which all paraeducators first received group training, and then coaching was provided only for the subset who did not meet performance criteria after group training.…

Supporting agency can be complex and challenging, especially when teaching students with severe disabilities (i.e., students with intellectual disability, autism, and/or multiple disabilities who are eligible for their state's alternate assessment). In this article, we compare Bandura's model of agency with constructs from the severe disabilities…

Coaching with live observation and immediate performance feedback is an effective means to train paraprofessionals, but might not always be feasible. We used a multiple baseline across participants design with six paraprofessionals who taught elementary students with severe disabilities to test the efficacy of two innovations designed to improve…

Peer networks are a promising intervention for increasing social interactions between students with severe disabilities and their peers. However, this approach has not been well studied with high school students who have complex communication needs and use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). In this study, we used a multiple probe…

Students with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities deserve access to instruction on academic skills in addition to functional skills. Many teachers, however, report challenges with identifying appropriate evidence-based practices to teach academics to these students. The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize and…

Despite broad consensus that a research-to-practice gap exists in the education of students with autism, the extent of this gap has not been well studied. We surveyed 99 teachers in Ohio about their highest priority goals for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), their approach for addressing these goals, the degree to which students had…