Many meta-analytic reviews have misrepresented the literature evaluating interventions to promote social communication skills in children with autism. This is because they failed to include the bulk of the experimental research base, namely single-case experimental designs. This presentation will expand upon approaches to identify evidence-based practices (EBPs). A Consumer Reports framework will be used to evaluate social communication intervention studies and illustrate a way to fairly and comprehensively evaluate this literature. This framework evaluates the quality of both group and single-case experiments with respect to design characteristics and internal validity, measurement features, results, and external validity. The advent of effect size estimates also may improve the incorporation of single-case experiments into the EBP literature. The presentation will show how these analytic frameworks provide useful information that can be cross-referenced with descriptive information about the articles reviewed. This approach has the potential to improve the ease and effectiveness with which behavior analysts select efficacious practices that meet the particular needs of their clients.

Review Howard Goldstein’s biographical statement.