This study compared the effects of Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and sign language training on the acquisition of mands (requests for preferred items) of students With autism. The study also examined the differential effects of each modality on students' acquisition of vocal behavior. Participants Were tWo elementary school students With autism enrolled in a suburban public school. Training sessions involved presentations of preferred items, prompting and prompt fading procedures. Probes Were conducted to evaluate the generalization of learned mands to classroom teachers. For one participant, sign language training produced a higher percentage of independent mands. PECS training produced a higher percentage of independent mands for the other participant. For both participants, sign language training produced a higher percentage of vocalizations during training. Mands learned With the experimenter generalized to classroom teachers. The results of the study suggest that acquisition of picture exchange and sign language may vary as a function of individual student characteristics, specifically, motor imitation skills prior to intervention. HoWever, further research is needed to determine the optimal procedures for teaching both modalities to students With communication difficulties.

Social Stories are a popular intervention for preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but little research on Social Stories has been conducted with this population. This study investigated the effects of Social Stories on prosocial behavior of three preschool children with ASD in an inclusive setting. An ABAB design was used for two participants, while an ABACBC was used for the third. Social Stories increased appropriate behavior and decreased inappropriate behavior for two participants. The addition of verbal prompts (condition C) was necessary to increase appropriate behavior for the third participant. Maintenance probes were conducted to assess whether stories became imbedded in classroom routines. Results are discussed in relation to applications, study limitations, and areas for future research.

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Demonstration of experimental control is considered a hallmark of high-quality single-case research design (SCRD). Studies that fail to demonstrate experimental control may not be published because researchers are unwilling to submit these papers for publication and journals are unlikely to publish negative results (i.e., the file drawer effect). SCRD studies comprise a large proportion of intervention research in special education. Consequently, the existing body of research, comprised mainly of studies that show experimental control, may artificially inflate efficacy of interventions. We discuss how experimental control evolved as the standard for high-quality SCRD; why, in the era of evidence-based practice, rigorous studies that fail to fully demonstrate experimental control are important to include in the body of published intervention research; the role of non-replication studies in discovering intervention boundaries; and considerations for researchers who wish to conduct and appraise studies that fail to yield full experimental control.

Despite the popularity of Social StoriesTM as an intervention for disruptive behavior in children with autism, there have been few investigations on the effectiveness of Social Stories. Scattone, Wilczynski, EdWards, and Rabian (2002) found that Social Stories decreased challenging behaviors in children With autism, but they identified verbal prompts as a source of variability to be examined in future study. The current study examined the effects of a modified social story, with and without verbal prompts, on the disruptive behavior of a student with autism in his preschool classroom. A reversal design Was used to compare the effectiveness of the modified social story With and Without verbal prompts. The disruptive behavior decreased during both phases of the intervention but to a greater degree when the story was paired with prompting. Maintenance probes conducted 2 weeks after intervention revealed that the modified social story had become a regular instructional routine for the student. Results are discussed in relation to study limitations, applications, and directions for future research.

Contingent, behavior-specific praise is universally recommended as an effective tool to increase students' academic achievement and proscocial behavior. Despite this recommendation, little research has examined the effects of training teachers to increase their praise-to-behavior correction ratio in classroom settings. This study evaluated the effects of training teachers to provide a 1:1 ratio of praise-to-behavior correction to decrease student disruption in three general-education classrooms. Three urban middle-school generalteachers who exhibited very low rates of praise participated in the study. Teachers received training, including modeling and performance feedback, to achieve a 1:1 ratio of praise-to-behavior correction administered within a multiple-baseline across participants design. Results demonstrated that (a) the teachers were able to achieve and maintain a 1:1 praise-to-behavior correction ratio; (b) a reduction in student disruption coincided with teachers' use of a 1:1 praise-to-behavior correction ration; and (c) two teachers evidenced moderate levels of generalization to classrooms where no training took place. Implications for practitioners and future research are discussed.

The "replication crisis" describes recent difficulties in replicating studies in various scientific fields, most notably psychology. The available evidence primarily documents replication failures for group research designs. However, we argue that contingencies of publication bias that led to the "replication crisis" also operate on applied behavior analysis (ABA) researchers who use single-case research designs (SCRD). This bias strongly favors publication of SCRD studies that show strong experimental effect, and disfavors publication of studies that show less robust effect. The resulting research literature may unjustifiably inflate confidence about intervention effects, limit researchers' ability to delineate intervention boundary conditions, and diminish the credibility of our science. To counter problems of publication bias in ABA, we recommend that journals that publish SCRD research establish journal standards for publication of noneffect studies; that our research community adopt open sharing of SCRD protocols and data; and that members of our community routinely publish systematic literature reviews that include gray (i.e., unpublished) research.

The iPad 2™ with Book Creator™ software may be an effective way to teach independent shopping skills in the community; additional replications are needed.