Special education and related professionals often understand the importance of adhering to intervention procedures (i.e., fidelity), but may be less familiar with concepts of intervention intensity. In some cases, professionals may correctly apply an intervention, but with insufficient intensity. This can result in an intervention failing to…

Students who are slow to respond to traditional instruction and intervention require intensified intervention. Visual Activity Schedules (VAS) are an evidence-based type of visual support that provide sequential organization of the steps for an activity or skill. VAS can be aligned with individual student needs, including behavioral support. VAS…

Serious Games (SGs), defined as a game in which education (in its various forms) is the primary goal rather than entertainment, have been proven as an effective educational tool for engaging and motivating students. However, more research is needed to sustain the suitability of these games to train users with cognitive impairments. This empirical…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a family-centered feeding intervention, Easing Anxiety Together with Understanding and Perseverance (EAT-UP™), for promoting food acceptance of children with autism spectrum disorder at home. A concurrent multiple-baseline design was used with systematic replication across three families. Baseline was…

The purpose of this study was to determine effectiveness of a modified version of Azrin and Foxx's (1971) intensive toilet training method on teaching of toilet skills to children with autism. This method consists of administering extra fluids and a time schedule, but does not use overcorrection procedures. Implementation requires a study of six…

Several recent studies have shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are less physically active than their typically developing peers and are thus at risk of health problems associated with inactivity (e.g., obesity or diabetes). There is a need to examine the effectiveness of interventions such as swimming that are aimed at…

Despite growing knowledge of the effectiveness of various interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), it is never clear whether a particular intervention will be effective for a specific child with ASD. Careful monitoring of an individual child's progress is necessary to know whether an intervention is effective. In this…

Social skills instruction is as important for many students with disabilities as instruction in core academic subjects. Frequently, students with autism require individualized social skills instruction to experience success in general education settings. Literacy-based behavioral Interventions (LBBIs) are an effective intervention that instructors…

The authors supervised and trained pre-service teachers while conducting extended school year (ESY) services for pre-kindergarten and elementary students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DD). Each classroom was responsible for conducting communication assessments and developing interventions focused on…

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a highly effective, rigorously researched intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders--but most teachers don't get the training they need to put it to work in their inclusive classroom. That's why every K-12 educator needs this practical guidebook, packed with teaching plans and plain-English…

Discrete trial instruction or naturalistic, incidental teaching: How do you choose which approach to use with young children with autism? Now there's no need to "pick a side"--this groundbreaking book helps professionals skillfully blend the best of both behavioral approaches to respond to "each child's individual needs". Developed by one of the…

With increasing availability of interventions for children with autism, it is important that these are backed by rigorous evaluation data that have high levels of ecological validity. To achieve this, a key prerequisite for any evaluation is to gather data on typical consumers and typical implementation patterns of the intervention. This study…

This article provides instruction for caregivers on managing and monitoring psychotropic medication for individuals with autism. Includes 20 questions for caregivers to ask about psychotropic medication, 12 guidelines for caregivers to follow when giving medications, and specific examples of data collection methods to measure the effect of…

Teacher action research using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were used to examine impacts of using visual learning strategies on five preschool children (ages 3-5) with autism in a self-contained classroom. During the six weeks of the study, pictures representing nine learning areas and specific developmental…