Strengthening systems of care to meet the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is of growing importance. Administrative data provide advantages for research and planning purposes, including large sample sizes and the ability to identify enrollment in insurance coverage and service utilization of individuals with ASD.…

Incidental findings in research with human participants may have implications for a person's present health or future health outcomes. Current guidelines focus on methods for handling and reporting incidental findings from biological test data but incidental findings might also arise from non-biological tests. This article presents three examples…

The EEG reflects the activation of large populations of neurons that act in synchrony and propagate to the scalp surface. This activity reflects both the brain's background electrical activity and when the brain is being challenged by a task. Despite strong theoretical and methodological arguments for the use of EEG in understanding the…

The purpose of this article is to assist general and special educators in identifying and implementing effective academic programming in the general education environment for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Throughout this article, the authors attempt to demonstrate how students with ASD can successfully receive instruction in a…

Applied behavior analysis (ABA), or the application of behavioral principles to important social issues, has long served a crucial role in programming for special education students. Its procedures have been well established in the research literature and many deemed as evidence-based practices for students with and without disabilities.…

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often challenged by social interaction and may require substantial support to interact with peers even in inclusive settings. Having adults support students with ASD during peer interactions, however, may ostracize the student from peers without disabilities. Peer-mediated strategies are needed so…

Food selectivity is the most commonly reported feeding problem in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD.) Schreck et al. (2004) surveyed 472 caregivers of children between 5 and 12 years of age. They found that 72% of those children diagnosed with ASD had feeding difficulties, significantly higher than same-age peers without ASD.…

Students who are slow to respond to traditional instruction and intervention require intensified intervention. Visual Activity Schedules (VAS) are an evidence-based type of visual support that provide sequential organization of the steps for an activity or skill. VAS can be aligned with individual student needs, including behavioral support. VAS…

Elucidating the heterogeneous etiologies of autism will require investment in comprehensive longitudinal data acquisition from large community based cohorts. With this in mind, we have established a hospital-university-based (HUB) database of autism which incorporates prospective and retrospective data from a large and ethnically diverse…

Students may need explicit training in informal statistical reasoning in order to design experiments or use formal statistical tests effectively. By using scientific scandals and media misinterpretation, we can explore the need for good experimental design in an informal way. This article describes the use of a paper that reviews the measles mumps…

For students with autism, homework time may be especially challenging due to problems in self-organization and difficulties generalizing skills from one setting to another. Although often problematic, homework can provide a valuable context for teaching organizational skills that become essential as students become more independent. By learning to…

The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) supports research that contributes to the identification of effective strategies for improving the performance of current teachers and other instructional personnel, and related services providers in ways that increase student learning and achievement, social and behavioral skills, and…

This evidence-based practice overview on Cognitive Behavioral Intervention includes the following components: (1) Overview: A quick summary of salient features of the practice, including what it is, who it can be used with, what skills it has been used with, and settings for instruction; (2) Evidence-base: The "CBI Evidence-base" details…

This paper problematizes contemporary cultural understandings of autism. We make use of the developmental psychology concepts of "Theory of Mind" and "mindblindness" to uncover the meaning of autism as expressed in these concepts. Our concern is that autism is depicted as a puzzle and that this depiction governs not only the way Western culture…

In school, students are expected to navigate different types of transitions every day, including those between instructors, subjects, and instructional formats, as well as classrooms. Despite the routines that many teachers develop to facilitate efficient transitions and maximize instructional time, many learners with ASD continue to struggle with…