The Journal of Special Education, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 220-231, February 2025.
The objective of the current study was to assess how a LEGO intervention, implemented by a grandparent and a parent at home, affected social interactions for four children (two girls, two boys; ages 6–7 years) on the autism spectrum in China. A multiple ...

The Journal of Special Education, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 187-197, February 2025.
This scholarly review presents a case for transforming special education rather than reauthorizing special education law in its present form and, in doing so, reconceptualizing the inclusion movement to recognize marginalizing influences. A comprehensive ...

The Journal of Special Education, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 232-243, February 2025.
While deaf children learning American Sign Language (ASL) from deaf caregivers generally develop along typical trajectories, some have been skeptical that deaf children who have hearing caregivers—the majority of deaf children—can similarly benefit from ...

The Journal of Special Education, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 198-207, February 2025.
The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act placed a 1.0% cap on the participation of students with disabilities in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). U.S. Department of ...

The Journal of Special Education, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 208-219, February 2025.
Most students with complex support needs are taught in separate special education classrooms; one reason is teams that inappropriately use the intensity of support needs as the basis for placement in more restrictive placements. This study used Bayesian ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Guided by the Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study aimed to further explore factors associated with career readiness among college students with disabilities. Through online survey, students with disabilities were assessed with the Career Futures ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
The prevalence of disability diagnoses among young children has risen significantly over recent decades. This growth has prompted inquiries into the identification processes, notably focusing on teachers who are the primary sources of referrals. While ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Very little is known about how unidentified dual sensory loss (DSL) may affect education and academic outcomes for students with extensive support needs (ESN). We used data from a teacher survey on over 100,000 students with ESN who take statewide ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Autistic youth demonstrate an overestimation of competencies when compared with neurotypical (NT) peers. Research has also shown NT males/boys tend to overestimate their competencies more than NT females/girls. This study assessed sex differences in ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Students with extensive support needs (ESN) have an increased risk of engaging in challenging behavior due to a range of factors, including communication and health needs common among this student population. When students engage in behaviors that impede ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
The purpose of this study was to examine responses from high school students with (n= 356) and without (n= 1,599) an individualized education program (IEP) on 11 independent living skills (ILS) items taken from a broader college and career readiness ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Parents of individuals with disabilities face many challenges in accessing appropriate school services for their offspring. While advocacy programs are becoming increasingly common, little is known about the nature of parent advocacy including its related ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Investigating the extent to which professional organization standards reflect family–professional partnerships can identify opportunities for professional organizations to enrich a focus on partnerships, thus better-preparing education professionals to ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Augmented reality (AR) provides students with visual, auditory, and concrete learning understandings that facilitate their understanding of abstract concepts, leading to positive experiences in the learning process. Positive experiences increase students’ ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Understanding the experiences of autistic high school students, including participation in social and vocational activities, has important implications for high school programming and links to postsecondary outcomes. The primary aims of this study are to ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
For students with moderate and severe intellectual disability (ID), reading instruction has focused on teaching sight words. However, research supports a shift in focusing instruction on reading skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency. The ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Autistic individuals face challenges in expressing their sexuality and understanding social norms, exacerbated by inadequate sex education. To improve the acquisition of sex education programs, this systematic review identified and synthesized the ...

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Parents of individuals with disabilities face many challenges in accessing appropriate school services for their offspring. While advocacy programs are becoming increasingly common, little is known about the nature of parent advocacy including its related constructs. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between motivation, special education knowledge, empowerment, three types of advocacy activities (i.e., individual, peer, and systemic), and civic engagement among 246 parents of children with disabilities using structural equation modeling. Results show that motivation leads to improved knowledge and empowerment. More than knowledge, empowerment significantly and positively correlates with individual advocacy. There is a linear relationship suggesting that individual advocacy informs peer advocacy and peer advocacy informs systemic advocacy. Finally, greater systemic advocacy positively and significantly correlated with greater civic engagement. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The Journal of Special Education, Ahead of Print.
The purpose of this study was to examine responses from high school students with (n = 356) and without (n = 1,599) an individualized education program (IEP) on 11 independent living skills (ILS) items taken from a broader college and career readiness assessment. Results indicated significant differences in ILS proficiency based on IEP status. Specifically, students with IEPs self-rated lower across all items. Students with and without IEPs self-rated the most similarly on community participation and differed the most on technology use. There were also notable differences based on school demographics. Limitations, implications for practice and policy, and research are discussed with regard to critical ILS that should be prioritized for all students, including those who receive special education transition services.