Families in rural or remote areas have limited access to evidence-based intervention for their children with autism. Using web-based training and telemedicine technology, the current study investigated the feasibility of training seven parents to implement Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) strategies with their children with autism. In this exploratory formative evaluation, parents increased their knowledge of ABA strategies and concepts by an average of 39 percentage points, and improved their implementation of ABA strategies with their children by an average of 41 percentage points. A total of 9,052 driving miles were saved across the four families. Implications for families living in remote areas, improvements in the training program, and future research directions are discussed.

Recess plays an integral role in the social and emotional development of children given the time provided to engage in interactions with others and practice important social skills. Students with ASD, however, typically fail to achieve even minimal benefit from recess due to social and communication impairments as well as a tendency to withdraw. Implementation of evidence-based interventions such as peer-mediated social skills groups, are necessary to ensure recess is an advantageous learning environment for students with ASD. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used to determine if a functional relationship exists between a social skills instructional program combined with peer networks with school staff as implementers and increases in level of communicative acts for participants with ASD at recess. Results indicate all participants demonstrated an immediate increase in the number of communicative acts with the introduction of the intervention. Implications for practice are discussed.

Peer networks including social groups using typical peers, scripted instruction, visual text cues, and reinforcement were examined with students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A multiple baseline design across four participants was used to measure students’ use of communication acts with peers during free play following instruction. Peer Network groups occurred over a 3-month period for 30 min 3 times per week. Visual inspection of trends and TauU effect size calculations showed significant changes in total communication acts for all four participants during peer network sessions and increased initiations for three of the four participants. Generalization probes during classroom centers indicated increased communications following interventions for three of the four participants.

Four studies examined the effectiveness of user-adaptive computer-aided instruction that explicitly models the cognitive processes of composing for developmental writers, and is integrated with classroom composition instruction. The four school-year studies were designed to build on each other, each informing design improvements to a writing tutor named Reading and Writing in a Supportive Environment (R-WISE) as well as informing subsequent research designs. The first year study ( N = 852) compared traditional classroom controls with R-WISE treatment classrooms. The second year study ( N = 1,151) compared students using R-WISE with students using a word processor. The third year study ( N = 1,277) measured the effect of the teacher's instructional style, and the level of student control over the R-WISE software, on student performance. The fourth year study ( N = 617) replicated previous studies. The treatment groups for the four studies each posted significant gains over controls on most holistic and analytical measures of writing quality. The results of testing multiple design factors of R-WISE demonstrated the efficacy of long-term evaluation and enhancement of user-adaptive writing software in a field-based context.

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