Systematic review of single case design meta‐analyses for school‐age students with autism spectrum disorders: Current trend and future direction

Abstract

Although numerous meta-analyses of single-case design (SCD) research have been published, no systematic review has been conducted to holistically reveal the trends in content focus, and the state-of-the-art practices in conducting SCD meta-analyses for school-aged students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study synthesized the intervention/practices and participant characteristics, and identified the trends and limitations in previous SCD metaanalyses. Systematic review of meta-analyses can contribute to the summary of current evidence and further identify ways to improve SCD meta-analyses. We conducted a systematic literature search and identified 30 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Findings suggest that multiple interventions may be employed to improve various outcomes for school-aged students with ASD. Researchers may use our findings to map out the intervention and targeted outcomes and identify underresearched areas.Meanwhile, findings suggest several measures to improve the quality of future SCD meta-analysis practices and publication, such as documenting racial/ethnicity information, using a set of potential moderators to conduct

Introduction: International use of single‐case research design in the schools

“…However, they show how school psychologists can use their analysis of variables like the specific skill being targeted or intervention agent (e.g., paraprofessional, teacher, and peer) to apply the evidence‐based practice decision‐making model to select interventions that are most likely to produce favorable outcomes. Similarly, Zeng et al (2022) conducted a meta‐analysis of 30 articles relying on SCRD in which school‐aged Autistic students served as participants (title: Systematic review of single case design meta‐analyses for school‐aged students with autism spectrum disorders: Current trend and future direction). By examining the quality of the studies and aggregating research outcomes, they provide school psychologists with an understanding of the strength of evidence supporting some interventions and warn that the paucity of information included in some studies limit school psychologists ability to determine the extent to which the results will apply across all students with whom they work.…”