This article quantitatively summarizes experimental and quasi-experimental studies on teaching students with mathematics difficulties (MD) published between 2000 and 2014, research that was available following earlier syntheses. It reports the analysis of effect sizes of 25 intervention studies on participant characteristics, intervention parameters, domains of mathematics interventions, and instructional approaches and components. Results indicate that several participant characteristics (e.g., grade level and level of mathematics difficulties) and intervention parameters (e.g., methodological soundness, intervention agent, and grouping) mediated the treatment effects. In addition, different types of instructional approaches and several instructional components contributed to the improvements in mathematics performance in students with MD.

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Deficits in social-communication skills can leave high school students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) socially marginalized where conversation is the primary medium for social interaction. Interventions are needed to improve conversational skills and facilitate interactions with peers while students with ASD are still in school, yet few research-based strategies exist for high school settings. In this article, we describe three peer-mediated conversational strategies documented to be effective through our research: strategies to (a) support overall conversational engagement, (b) increase initiations to start conversations, and (c) increase follow-up questions to sustain conversations. The peer-mediated strategies are combined with teaching students with ASD to use visual supports to strengthen intervention effectiveness. We highlight methods for peer training, outcomes of our research, and implications for speech-language pathologists (SLPs).

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