This paper discusses the importance and use of single-subject experimental analysis for special education practitioners. Brief descriptions are presented for the basic N = 1 research designs available to evaluate instructional and treatment strategies. The ability of these designs to control threats to internal validity is examined and the present state of measuring and interpreting single-subject data is described. Replication of studies is discussed as the ultimate test of the effectiveness of an intervention. The need for documentation of procedures and results is seen as a primary means for allowing practitioners to incorporate research and methodology into their own practices and as part of the process of developing an effective instructional technology for people with special education needs.Within the field of special education, there is an increasing demand from both consumers and professionals for practitioners to be accountable for the outcomes of the instructional practices that they employ in the delivery of service to clients with special education needs. This is a healthy demand as it reflects an optimism by concerned members of the community that socially valued outcomes of special education procedures can exist. Such an optimism is well justified. Research findings over the past decade have indicated empirically that the use of systematic instruction based on behavioural principles can result in clients acquiring a diverse array of social and academic "classroom behaviours, vocational skills, daily living skills and other social skills that are critical for age-appropriate community functioning (for example
Ten Year 3 children from a Sydney primary school, identified by testing as the poorest readers out of the five classes in the grade, received remedial tutoring using a set of highly structured remedial materials. The tutoring involved twenty one volunteer mothers, and each mother worked with a child for two sessions a week to allow the child to receive four sessions of tutoring each week. The tutoring sessions involved (1) drill of single sounds and digraphs (2) tutoring and practice of word attack skills, and (3) reading practice using an appropriate reader, with verbal comprehension questions relevant to the reader. The volunteers kept records of each child’s performance during each session. After an average of one term of tutoring, the children demonstrated considerable improvement on test gains in comparison with gains made by a control group from the same classes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.