Virtual manipulatives are increasingly being used to support students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual and developmental disability (ASD/IDD), in mathematics. However, to date, virtual manipulatives have not been examined or classified as an evidence-based practice for students with ASD/IDD, despite classifications of virtual manipulatives as evidence-based for students with learning disabilities (LD; Park, Bouck, & Fisher, 2021) and concrete manipulatives as evidence-based for students with ASD/IDD (Spooner et al., 2019). The purpose of this review was to assess the current state of the literature on virtual manipulatives and determine whether virtual manipulatives are an evidence-based practice for students with ASD/IDD. Eighteen of the 24 articles located for the review met quality indicators according to Cook et al. (2014) and presented positive results for the 42 students. The authors of this synthesis concluded virtual manipulatives broadly and virtual manipulative-based instructional sequences disaggregated are evidence-based practices in mathematics for students with ASD/IDD.
Mathematics education for students with and at-risk for a disability is important and high-quality, research-supported practices should be used for online teaching-whether intentional or as a result of a global pandemic. This single-case design multiple probe replicated across participants study explored the online delivery of an intervention package consisting of the virtual-abstract instructional sequencetaught via modified explicit instruction-and the system of least prompts to three upper elementary students with a disability or at-risk in solving equivalent fractions. Researchers determined a functional relation existed between the intervention package and student accuracy. Researchers also found students were independent and able to maintain accuracy when instruction did not proceed either following the intervention or with the support of boost sessions. Implications for providing mathematical interventions to students with disabilities or at-risk online exist. Further, the study lends support to virtual manipulative-based instructional sequences, as the setting, population, and implementation of explicit instruction differed in this study as compared to previous research.
Increasingly in K–12 schools, students are gaining access to computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS). This access, however, is not always extended to students with disabilities. One way to increase CT and CS (CT/CS) exposure for students with disabilities is through preparing special education teachers to do so. In this study, researchers explore exposing special education preservice teachers to the ideas of CT/CS in the context of a mathematics methods course for students with disabilities or those at risk of disability. Through analyzing lesson plans and reflections from 31 preservice special education teachers, the researchers learned that overall emerging promise exists with regard to the limited exposure of preservice special education teachers to CT/CS in mathematics. Specifically, preservice teachers demonstrated the ability to include CT/CS in math lesson plans and showed understanding of how CT/CS might enhance instruction with students with disabilities via reflections on these lessons. The researchers, however, also found a need for increased experiences and opportunities for preservice special education teachers with CT/CS to more positively impact access for students with disabilities.
Assistive technology can benefit students with disabilities in terms of independence and performance. Yet more research is needed regarding usage of assistive technology. Using the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 database, the authors explored reported use regarding assistive technology by secondary students with disabilities. Overall, the authors found low rates of assistive technology reported use among students with disabilities aggregated, although there were large ranges across disability categories (e.g., 14.5%–74.0% for use of assistive technology). Disability category had a statistically significant relationship with reported assistive technology use for secondary students.
While research exists on parent expectations associated with post-school outcomes of youth with intellectual disability, limited research examines issues of parent—and youth—post-school expectations relative to issues of community, such as living in rural versus urban or suburban settings. Through a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) 2012, we examined parent and youth expectations regarding post-school outcomes for students with intellectual disability relative to school locale (i.e., rural, urban, and suburban) and severity of intellectual disability. Youth from rural schools reported high rates of positive post-school expectations with regard to independent living and being employed, and their rates relative to independent living exceeded parental expectations. However, across the different variables, school locale was only a factor in the binary or ordinal logistic regression analyses for two dependent variables: parental expectation for their child to support themselves financially and parental expectations of obtained level of education.
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