There is growing pressure to make efficacy experiments more useful. This requires attending to the twin goals of generalizing experimental results to those schools that will use the results and testing the intervention's theory of action. We show how electronic records, created naturally during the daily operation of technology-based…

Determining how best to meet the needs of learners with Down syndrome requires an approach to intervention delivered at some level of intensity. How treatment intensity affects learner acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of skills can help optimize the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of interventions. There is a growing body of research…

Scholarship on teaching undergraduates increasingly emphasizes the benefits of providing students with an active role in their education whereby instructors are more aptly described as facilitators of knowledge rather than merely providers of it. Additionally, recommendations from the American Sociological Association aimed specifically at the…

This issue of "FOCUS" discusses external validity and what rehabilitation researchers can do to help practitioners answer the question "How far can we generalize this finding-- is it applicable to other clients/patients, with different characteristics, in dissimilar settings treated by other clinicians?," which clinicians and…

This meta-analysis examined school-based intervention research based on functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to determine the effectiveness of key individualized positive behavior support (IPBS) practices in school settings. In all, 83 studies representing 145 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Intervention, maintenance, and…

The research synthesis presented here reviewed the currently available evidence on the effectiveness of sibling-implemented interventions for their siblings with disabilities. The search for appropriate research literature spanned from 1975 to 2008 and resulted in a total of eight studies that met the inclusion criteria. All eight studies in this…

D'Eon et al. concluded that change in performance self-assessment means from before to after a workshop can detect workshop success in their and other situations. In this commentary, their recommendation is refuted by showing that (a) self-assessments with balanced over- and underestimations are still biased and should not be used to evaluate…

The author analyzes evidence from 10 studies on early intervention (EC 181 136--181 145) in terms of the nature and quality of documentation. Qualified support for casual inference in most of the studies is cited along with problems in determining generalizability of findings. (CL)

A strategy proposed by T. Cook and D. Campbell (1979) was used to investigate attrition in a community-based literacy program, focusing on 287 Head Start families. Data revealed interactions among intervention program-centered characteristics and person-centered characteristics that have implications for study validity and generalizability.…

Teaching social skills to students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) has become an accepted practice. Literally hundreds of social skills training (SST) efficacy studies for students with EBD appear in the literature. As a result, many authors have published both narrative and meta-analytic reviews of the literature. Reviews have…

In the study reported on here, the authors used computer-based video instruction (CBVI) to teach 3 high school students with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities how to order in fast-food restaurants by using an augmentative, alternative communication device. The study employed a multiple probe design to institute CBVI as the only…

British and U.S. preschool intervention projects are now reporting dramatic long-term follow-up findings that appear to vindicate the claim that preschool can serve as an "innoculation against failure," especially with disadvantaged children. However, important questions remain about the generalizability of these effects in other…