Single-case Experimental Design Research Research Articles

Single-Case Experimental Design for Evaluating Basic Reading Interventions for Students With Learning Disabilities: An Illustrative Case

Many students with learning disabilities (LD) do not master basic reading skills, which affects later reading fluency and reading comprehension development. Single-case experimental design (SCED) research yields unique opportunities to better understand which aspects of a basic reading intervention are effective with a particular student, including the individual’s rate of growth, stability, or maintenance of acquired skills, and whether or not modifications need to be made to the intervention under study. In this article, we use a case study illustration to highlight unique considerations for using SCED research to investigate basic reading interventions for students with LD. Finally, we provide a discussion of future directions and a potential shift in SCED methodology that is responsive to the comprehensive and multiple skill nature of reading instruction.

Introduction to the Special Section: Translating Advanced Quantitative Techniques for Single-Case Experimental Design Data.

The articles in this special section offer strategies to single-case experimental design (SCED) researchers to interpret their outcomes, communicate their results, and compare the results using common, quantitative results. Advancing quantitative methods applied to SCED data will facilitate communication with scientists and other professionals that do not typically interpret graphed data of the dependent variable. Horner and Ferron aptly note that innovative statistical procedures are improving the precision and credibility of SCED research as disseminate our findings to an increasingly diverse audience. This special section promotes the translation of these quantitative methods to encourage their adoption in research using single case experimental designs.

Reading Comprehension and Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systematic Review of Interventions Involving Single-Case Experimental Designs

Research was reviewed that focussed on the reading comprehension abilities of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Although single-case experimental design (SCD) is an accepted and widely used way in which to evaluate an evidence-based practice, very few studies met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards for evidence-based SCD research. These studies were then grouped into six non-exclusionary intervention categories (a) visually-cued instruction, (b) collaborative strategies, (c) metacognitive strategy instruction, (d) technology-assisted instruction, (e) adapted text, and (f) behavioural strategies. Effect size calculations indicated that visually-cued instruction, metacognitive strategy instruction, and adapted text were highly effective, while collaborative strategies and technology-assisted instruction were moderately effective. While effective interventions were identified, the need for replications that met WWC standards was noted.

Reprint of “The Single-Case Reporting Guideline In BEhavioural Interventions (SCRIBE) 2016: Explanation and Elaboration”

There is substantial evidence that research studies reported in the scientific literature do not provide adequate information so that readers know exactly what was done and what was found. This problem has been addressed by the development of reporting guidelines which tell authors what should be reported and how it should be described. Many reporting guidelines are now available for different types of research designs. There is no such guideline for one type of research design commonly used in the behavioral sciences, the single-case experimental design (SCED). The present study addressed this gap. This report describes the Single-Case Reporting guideline In BEhavioural interventions (SCRIBE) 2016, which is a set of 26 items that authors need to address when writing about SCED research for publication in a scientific journal. Each item is described, a rationale for its inclusion is provided, and examples of adequate reporting taken from the literature are quoted. It is recommended that the SCRIBE 2016 is used by authors preparing manuscripts describing SCED research for publication, as well as journal reviewers and editors who are evaluating such manuscripts.

Real-time monitoring technology in single-case experimental design research: Opportunities and challenges

Single-case experimental design (SCED) is a rigorous method of studying behavior and behavior change. A key characteristic of SCED is repeated, systematic assessment of outcome variables, which is critical to achieving high internal validity, collecting a sufficient number of observations to conduct adequately powered statistical analyses, capturing dynamic and fine-grained changes in outcomes, and tailoring interventions at the individual level. Recent advances in real-time monitoring technology, such as digital ecological momentary assessment, passive smartphone-based behavioral tracking, and physiological assessment with wearable biosensors, are extremely well-suited to conducting these repeated, systematic measurements. Here, we discuss the rationale for incorporating real-time data collection technologies within SCED and highlight how recent studies have paired SCED with real-time monitoring. We also present original data illustrating how real-time digital monitoring can provide an idiographic and granular view of behavior (in this case, suicidal ideation). Last, we discuss the challenges of, and offer our recommendations for, using real-time monitoring technologies in SCED research.

Replication Research and Special Education

Replicating previously reported empirical research is a necessary aspect of an evidence-based field of special education, but little formal investigation into the prevalence of replication research in the special education research literature has been conducted. Various factors may explain the lack of attention to replication of special education intervention research, including emphasis on quantity of publications, esteem for novel findings, and barriers to publishing high-quality studies with null or negative effects. This article introduces the special issue on replication of special education intervention research by first providing an overview of concepts and issues related to replication. Specific attention is then given to replication as it relates to group design and single case experimental design research, two prominent albeit philosophically different empirical methodologies. We then briefly describe how replications using these research designs can be conducted in complementary ways to better understand intervention effects and advance evidence-based practices in special education.

Single-case experimental designs: A systematic review of published research and current standards.

This article systematically reviews the research design and methodological characteristics of single-case experimental design (SCED) research published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2010. SCEDs provide researchers with a flexible and viable alternative to group designs with large sample sizes. However, methodological challenges have precluded widespread implementation and acceptance of the SCED as a viable complementary methodology to the predominant group design. This article includes a description of the research design, measurement, and analysis domains distinctive to the SCED; a discussion of the results within the framework of contemporary standards and guidelines in the field; and a presentation of updated benchmarks for key characteristics (e.g., baseline sampling, method of analysis), and overall, it provides researchers and reviewers with a resource for conducting and evaluating SCED research. The results of the systematic review of 409 studies suggest that recently published SCED research is largely in accordance with contemporary criteria for experimental quality. Analytic method emerged as an area of discord. Comparison of the findings of this review with historical estimates of the use of statistical analysis indicates an upward trend, but visual analysis remains the most common analytic method and also garners the most support among those entities providing SCED standards. Although consensus exists along key dimensions of single-case research design, and researchers appear to be practicing within these parameters, there remains a need for further evaluation of assessment and sampling techniques and data analytic methods.