Using the ImPAACT program with preschoolers with Down syndrome: a hybrid service-delivery model.

Three parents of preschool-aged children with Down syndrome using mobile augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies to communicate participated indirect, systematic communication-partner instruction. Intervention featured an adaptation of the ImPAACT Program (Improving Partner Applications of Augmentative Communication Techniques; Kent-Walsh, Binger, & Malani, 2010) that included six face-to-face and three telepractice sessions. Parents learned to use the evidence-based Read-Ask-Answer (RAA) instructional strategy (Kent-Walsh, Binger, & Hasham, 2010) during shared storybook reading with their children. A single-case, multiple-probe across participants design was used to assess parents' accurate implementation of the instructional strategy and children's multimodal communicative turns. All three parents increased their use of the RAA strategy and maintained strategy use over time, and all three children increased their frequency of communicative turns taken and maintained higher turn-taking rates. Results support the use of the ImPAACT Program with parents of children with complex communication needs, including the integration of hybrid learning as part of the instructional approach.

Joint attention interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: A core social-communication deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited joint attention behaviours-important in the diagnosis of ASD and shown to be a powerful predictor of later language ability. Various interventions have been used to train joint attention skills in children with ASD. However, it is unclear which participant, intervention and interventionist factors yield more positive results. AIMS: The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to provide a quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of joint attention interventions aimed at improving joint attention abilities in children with ASD. METHODS & PROCEDURES: The researchers searched six databases for studies meeting the inclusion criteria at two levels: title/abstract and full-text stages. Two independent coders completed data extraction using a coding manual and form developed specifically for this research study. Meta-analysis procedures were used to determine the overall effects of several comparisons including treatment type, treatment administrator, intervention characteristics and follow-up. MAIN CONTRIBUTION: Fifteen randomized experimental studies met inclusion criteria. All comparisons resulted in statistically significant effects, though overlapping confidence intervals suggest that none of the comparisons were statistically different from each other. Specifically, treatment administrator, dosage and design (control or comparison, etc.) characteristics of the studies do not appear to produce significantly different effects. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The results of this meta-analysis provide strong support for explicit joint attention interventions for young children with ASD; however, it remains unclear which children with ASD respond to which type of intervention.

A randomized controlled trial of an inference generation strategy intervention for adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.

PURPOSE: The present intervention study investigated the efficacy of the ACT & Check Strategy intervention to improve inference generation when reading, metacognitive ability, general reading comprehension, and social inference ability in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD). METHOD: Twenty-five adults with HF-ASD were randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control group. Treatment sessions were conducted in 1-hr sessions, twice a week, for a total of 6 weeks. Treatment focused on explicit instruction of components of inference generation, categories of inferences, and increasingly independent strategy use. RESULTS: The treatment group demonstrated significantly superior performance on 1 of 2 measures of inference generation in reading and 1 measure of metacognitive ability compared with the control group. Significant differences between groups were not found on measures of reading comprehension or social inference ability. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the ACT & Check Strategy was effective in improving participants' ability to generate inferences in reading and certain metacognitive abilities, but the skills do not appear to generalize to other social communication contexts, such as social inference generation. This research provides a measure of support for explicitly teaching inference generation to address a reading inference deficit in adults with HF-ASD.

Behavioral stuttering interventions for children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral interventions designed to treat stuttering in children. METHOD: Studies were included for review if (a) the treatment was a behavioral intervention, (b) participants were between 2 and 18 years old, (c) the design was an experimental or quasi-experimental group design, and (d) the reported outcome measure assessed stuttering. An electronic search of 8 databases yielded a total of 9 studies, representing 327 treated participants across 7 different intervention types. Data were extracted for participant, treatment, and outcome characteristics as well as for methodological quality. RESULTS: An analysis of the treatment effects yielded significant positive effects approaching 1 SD when compared with a nontreatment control group. No significant differences emerged for studies comparing 2 different treatments. CONCLUSION: Conclusions drawn from the extant research suggest that data to support the efficacy of behavioral intervention in children exists for a limited number of intervention strategies, based on a meager number of methodologically acceptable studies.