According to Jim Knight, learning something new--such as a new instructional approach or other innovation--and applying it in practice is complex and involves adaptations that take time. Knight describes the five stages he believes people go through in learning and practicing any innovation, from "non-use," gradually up to the stage of…

High probability request (high-"p") sequences, based on the momentum of behavior principle, have been an effective intervention for improving compliance and work completion for students who display challenging behaviors. They have been portrayed as a low-intensity intervention because of being perceived as simple, clear, and easy for any…

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability caused by a neurological problem. It is a worldwide problem with a prevalence of 5-10% of the population. It is described mainly by difficulties in reading, spelling, accuracy, fluency, and decoding abilities. This article is chiefly concerned to provide an overview of dyslexia, some key issues based on…

Interventions often require multiple decisions to improve outcomes for every student. Whether the decision to implement a practice, tailor an existing protocol, or change approaches, these decisions should be based on individual variables and outcomes via a sequence of treatment. To develop adaptive interventions that have sufficient evidence to…

Students with or at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders can benefit from a variety of self-regulation strategies. One such strategy is goal setting, which can be used to improve both academic and behavioral outcomes in the classroom. In this article, we discuss the importance of goal setting and current research in this area. In addition,…

Geometry is a course that is increasingly required for students to graduate from high school. However, geometric concepts can pose a great challenge to high school youth with math difficulties. Although research on teaching geometry to students with mathematics difficulties is limited, teachers are challenged daily with providing support for youth…

To improve student success in mathematics, the use of research-based interventions is necessary to help secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) access the algebra curriculum. The authors provide an overview of the following research-based approaches: explicit instruction, graduated instructional sequence, technology, and graphic…

This article describes a 5-step model of intervention research. From lessons learned in our work, we develop an outline of core activities in designing and developing social programs. These include (a) develop problem and program theories; (b) design program materials and measures; (c) confirm and refine program components in efficacy tests; (d)…

This article presents a story of James, an elementary student who was recently mainstreamed into a regular education classroom for science and now struggles to succeed in his new environment. It also describes how the New Tools reclaiming intervention puts him on the right track to making new friends. James is a ten-year-old African American…

Differentiated instruction denotes varying instruction in terms of content, product, and process to meet the needs of all learners. One way to differentiate the instructional process is to provide multi-tiered instruction. Examples of systematic approaches to multi-tiered instruction are response to intervention (RTI) and school-wide positive…

Recently, high-probability request sequences has shown promise as a method to enhance student compliance using positive methods without sacrificing the quality of the assignment. High-probability request sequences use a series of preferred behaviors to increase the likelihood that nonpreferred behaviors will occur. For this intervention, a series…

Although supplemental reading services are meant to improve reading achievement of struggling readers and students with reading disabilities, without concerted effort to ensure communication and coordination with in-school instruction, they may fall short of their desired mark. To promote learning, it is critical that any services provided outside…

The nature of special education has changed appreciably over the past several decades. As a result, the role of special educators needs to be examined and further developed to provide the most effective education for all learners at-risk and those with high- and low-incidence disabilities. In this article, the authors discuss five important roles…

The purpose of this manuscript is to conceptualize a unified Response to Intervention (RTI) model that may be applied to Head Starts or preschools with typical children and those identified as "at risk," or "children with disabilities." RTI basically provides a specific and discrete cumulative intervention history of services which also may be…

Over the last several years, there has been an increased focus on school readiness and supporting children during the preschool years to learn the skills they need to be successful in elementary school and beyond (Bowman, Donovan, Burns, et al., 2000; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). The capacity to develop positive social relationships, to concentrate…