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A multiple-probe design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of social stories on the duration of appropriate social engagement and the frequency of 4 social skills in 3 elementary-age students with autism. The social skills were seeking attention, initiating comments, initiating requests, and making contingent responses. Following the intervention, which consisted of reading individualized social stories, answering comprehension questions, and participating in a 10-min play session, the duration of social engagement increased for all 3 students with both a training peer and a novel peer. The number of target social skills displayed during the 10-min play sessions increased after the intervention was introduced. Two students demonstrated generalization to a classroom setting. These findings suggest that the use of social stories without additional social skill interventions may be effective in increasing the duration of social engagement and the frequency of specific social skills.

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This literature review was conducted to evaluate the current state of evidence supporting communication interventions for individuals with severe disabilities. Authors reviewed 116 articles published between 1987 and 2007 in refereed journals meeting three criteria: (a) described a communication intervention, (b) involved one or more participants with severe disabilities, and (c) addressed one or more areas of communication performance. Many researchers failed to report treatment fidelity or to assess basic aspects of intervention effects including generalization, maintenance, and social validity. The evidence reviewed indicates that 96% of the studies reported positive changes in some aspects of communication. These findings support the provision of 1 We would like to thank both Youngzie Lee, University of Virginia, and R. Michael Barker, Georgia State University, for their help with the analyses. We also thank the National Center on Evidence-Based Practice in Communication Disorders of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for their assistance in conducting the systematic literature search.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Martha E. Snell, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, P. O. Box 400273, Charlottesville, VA, 22904-4273., Snell@virginia.edu. NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript Am J Intellect Dev Disabil. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 February 8. Published in final edited form as: Am J Intellect Dev Disabil. 2010 September ; 115(5): 364-380. doi:10.1352/1944. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript communication intervention to persons with severe disabilities. Gaps in the research were reported with recommendations for future research. Keywords communication; mental retardation; severe disabilities; intellectual and developmental disabilities; autism; multiple disabilities; literature review; intervention The ability to communicate effectively with others is essential for good quality of life. Individuals who have severe disabilities include those with severe to profound intellectual disability, autism, deaf-blindness, and multiple-disabilities. For these individuals, the ability to communicate can be substantially compromised. The question of whether and how this ability to communicate can be improved through intervention was the focus of a national consensus conference convened by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, (OSEP) and its Technical Assistance Development System (TADS) in 1985 (OSEP/TADS, 1985). In addition to producing a number of consensus statements, these 1985 conferees called for the formation of "an interagency task force" to disseminate guidelines for the "development and enhancement of functional communication abilities" in individuals with severe disabilities.This recommendation resulted in the establishment of a "National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities" (NJC) in 1986. The present review was con...

The purposes of this review were to (a) use meta-analytic procedures to examine the effectiveness of single-case AAC intervention research on challenging behaviors exhibited by individuals with disabilities, (b) identify study characteristics that moderate intervention effects, and (c) evaluate the quality of research. The authors provided inferential and descriptive analyses of 54 studies representing 111 participants and estimated effect sizes using the Nonoverlap of All Pairs (NAP) method. Overall, AAC interventions were found to be equally effective across a broad spectrum of participants and interventions. AAC interventions were more effective with younger children than with adults. Interventions in which functional behavior assessments (FBA) were used had significantly larger effect sizes than those that did not use FBAs. Further, functional communication training interventions resulted in larger effect sizes than Picture Exchange Communication System interventions. Descriptive analysis revealed that (a) interventions often occurred in atypical environments (e.g., therapy room, experimental room) and with atypical interventionists (e.g., therapists, researchers), and (b) numerous studies did not exhibit quality characteristics of single-case research.

Interviews were conducted to gather advice about integration from general and special education teachers and administrators from 10 schools in five school districts where students with moderate and severe disabilities had recently been integrated into general education schools and classrooms. The study explored not only the educational change process, but general educators' perceptions of factors that had initially created and later reduced their resistance to integration. Qualitative analysis of interview data revealed teachers' perceptions of the success of integration, as well as their advice to others contemplating integration: district administrators, building administrators, special education teachers, and general education teachers.

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This paper provides results of a descriptive analysis of peer-reviewed, single subject design, intervention research on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for individuals with severe disabilities, from birth to 21 years, published in English between 1997 and 2003. A database of 40 studies was found that met seven specified criteria. The descriptive analysis showed that a variety of antecedent, both adult and child directed, and consequent intervention components, typically used in combination, were effective in improving communication. Most research contexts were rated as less natural. Parents, teachers, and siblings or peers were infrequently involved in intervention. When problem behavior and communication were targeted, functional communication training (FCT) was the method of choice. Treatment integrity was infrequently measured. When measured, generalization and maintenance of treatment effects were good but were reported less than half of the time. Implications for interventionists and researchers are discussed.