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Learners with autism require specialized education and supports to ensure acquisition and mastery of various communication skills. This is particularly true for individuals whose disability significantly impacts their language development. Without functional communication, these individuals often engage in severe behavior, have reduced self-determination, and experience diminished quality of life. Accordingly, researchers in special education and related fields have sought ways to improve the communication skills of learners with autism who need specialized language and communication interventions. Although the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is well-established in the empirical literature and has helped countless individuals learn to communicate, the method known as facilitated communication (FC; which also is being called "supported typing" and "rapid prompting method") has become increasingly popular in recent years. Few methods in special education have been as thoroughly discredited as FC and perhaps none are as dangerous. This chapter contrasts the thoroughly debunked FC and its pseudoscientific characteristics with those underpinning PECS. A brief historical account of each method is provided along with key scientific and pseudoscientific features that distinguish science from pseudoscience. Ultimately, our intent is to further clarify how FC is not an augmentative or alternative communication method and why PECS is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the iPad 2™ with Book Creator™ software to provide visual cues and video prompting to teach shopping skills in the community to a young adult with an autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. Methods: A multiple probe across settings design was used to assess effects of the intervention on the participant's independence with following a shopping list in a grocery store across three community locations. Results: Visual cues and video prompting substantially increased the participant's shopping skills within two of the three community locations, skill increases maintained after the intervention was withdrawn, and shopping skills generalized to two untaught shopping items. Social validity surveys suggested that the participant's parent and staff favorably viewed the goals, procedures, and outcomes of intervention. Conclusions: The iPad 2™ with Book Creator™ software may be an effective way to teach independent shopping skills in the community; additional replications are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study examined the effectiveness of music therapy incorporating social stories for 3 young children with challenging behaviors within a special education setting. Two problem behaviors, hitting and screaming, and one alternative behavior, asking, were targeted for intervention. Music therapy was administered within a multiple baseline across participants design with target behaviors measured during 10 minute free play sessions immediately following therapy. Visual analyses revealed that music therapy decreased problem behaviors and increased alternative behaviors for Participants 1 and 2. For the Participant 3, who exhibited few challenging behaviors during baseline, music therapy had less therapeutic effect. Maintenance probes revealed that music therapy gains continued at least 3 weeks after intervention. Results support those of previous studies demonstrating the effectiveness of music therapy targeted at specific social, communicative, and behavioral skills. Future research should target the role of classroom staff in promoting the generality of music therapy across environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Handwashing is a vital skill for maintaining health and hygiene. For individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), such as autism spectrum disorder, evidence-based strategies, such as prompting and task analysis, may be effective in teaching these skills. Due to the shortage of experts who teach individuals with IDD skills such as handwashing, staff working with children need a means of ensuring these instructional strategies are implemented with fidelity. This study examined the effects of a tablet-based application that used artificial intelligence (GAINS®) on four behavior technicians' implementation of least-to-most prompting, total task chaining, and time delay during an acquisition of handwashing program with young children with autism. All four technicians increased fidelity immediately upon using GAINS and all four technicians reached mastery criteria within the shortest number of sessions possible. One child participant met mastery criteria, two showed some gains, and one demonstrated a high degree of variability across sessions. Limitations of the least-to-most prompting procedure, user design, considerations and directions for future research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publication bias is the disproportionate representation of studies with large effects and statistically significant findings in the published research literature. If publication bias occurs in single-case research design studies on applied behavior-analytic (ABA) interventions, it can result in inflated estimates of ABA intervention effects. We conducted an empirical evaluation of publication bias on an evidence-based ABA intervention for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, response interruption and redirection (RIRD). We determined effect size estimates for published and unpublished studies using 3 metrics, percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND), Hedges' g, and log response ratios (LRR). Omnibus effect size estimates across all 3 metrics were positive, supporting that RIRD is an effective treatment for reducing problem behavior maintained by nonsocial consequences. We observed larger PND for published compared to unpublished studies, small and nonsignificant differences in LRR for published compared to unpublished studies, and significant differences in Hedges' g for published compared to unpublished studies, with published studies showing slightly larger effect. We found little, if any, difference in methodological quality between published and unpublished studies. While RIRD appears to be an effective intervention for challenging behavior maintained by nonsocial consequences, our results reflect some degree of publication bias present in the RIRD research literature., (© 2020 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)