Early engagement with the world around us provides opportunities for learning and practising new skills and acquiring knowledge critical to cognitive and social development. Children with autism typically display low levels of engagement, particularly in their social world, which limits the opportunities for learning that occur for their typically…

This article reports on the development of an interpersonal measure for students with additional learning needs. A questionnaire and learning continuum were constructed using a methodology devised by Griffin (2007a) for creating criterion-referenced frameworks. Teachers reported on 1619 students, ranging in age from 3 to 18 years. Analysis of the…

The aim of the research described in this article was to build a protocol for describing students' development of emotional knowledge and understanding, and to tailor this to the requirements of assessing the progress of students with additional needs. The paper reports the establishment of such a developmental profile, using procedures for…

Social Stories[TM] have gained wide acceptance as an intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) yet extant research provides only circumscribed empirical evidence in support of their efficacy. While it is claimed that Social Stories may be appropriate to children with significant levels of intellectual disability and basic…

This article reports on the pilot work for a collaborative National Health and Medical Research Council project in Australia involving education and health professionals to improve the health and well-being of young people who have an intellectual disability. The pilot study was a qualitative exploration of teacher experiences using a health diary…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can have a major impact on students' functioning at school--academically and socially. This study examined parental perceptions of schools in relation to their understanding of ADHD, information provided and general support. Parents of consecutive children with ADHD seen at the Centre for Community…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) provides online reports to the public about the scientific evidence for educational interventions. The quality of these reports is important because they effectively tell the non-scientific community which programmes do and do not work. The aim of this brief review is to assess WWC's report on a clinically…

Management of inappropriate behaviour is a major priority in special education. Evidence-based practice dictates that interventions to reduce inappropriate behaviour should be evaluated at the individual level to demonstrate their efficacy in the classroom. This study illustrates the evaluation of an evidence-based procedure (response…

In this article, the evidence regarding a proposed "cure" for dyslexia and other, arguably related, conditions is examined critically. The origins and history of the Dore program and its progenitors, its introduction to Australia and its advertising claims are reviewed, with a focus on the claims made with regard to dyslexia, and particularly with…

Research on the efficacy of sensory integration therapy (SIT) is addressed in this article. Initially, past key reviews of intervention studies until 1994 are considered. Subsequently, more recent studies from 1994 until 2007 are examined. Consistent with numerous previous reviews, no robust evidence supporting the efficacy of SIT was found.…

Principles of scientific data accumulation and evidence-based practices are vehicles of professional enhancement. In this article, the author argues that a scientific knowledge base exists descriptive of the relationship between teachers' activities and student learning. This database appears barely recognised however, for reasons including (a)…

One goal of basic research in education is to identify the variables of effective instruction. As this pursuit has been conceived, however, its theoretical problems make it unlikely that the effort will provide a clear picture of instructional variables, their interactions, or the kind of teacher training that is implied by instructional variables.

Educational policies for students with a disability in Australia, the USA, the UK and in most western countries stipulate that inclusive placement should be an option available to parents. This article examines three principal drivers of inclusion: social justice principles, legislation, and research findings, and considers the extent to which…

This study investigated the effects of a multiphase teacher professional development package on student use of speech-generating augmentative and alternative communication devices (SGDs). Teachers were taught (a) device operation and programming, (b) device integration and embedding using environmental arrangement strategies, and (c) systematic…

In this article, the authors argue the case for scientific evidenced-based practice in education. They consider what differentiates science from pseudoscience and what sources of information teachers typically regard as reliable. The What Works Clearinghouse is discussed with reference to certain limitations of its current operation. Given the…