Behavioral Interventions in Special Education: Focus on Academic Skills

Dear Colleagues,

In classrooms around the world, educators and researchers are challenged with how best to support learners with disabilities in achieving meaningful academic outcomes such as literacy, numeracy, and written expression. Expectations for using evidence‑based practices that are both effective and scalable continue to be an important goal in special education, and applied behavior analysis (ABA) has long offered a robust framework for designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions that promote measurable improvements in student performance. Despite decades of progress, many educators face challenges with translating research into practice, ensuring fidelity, and adapting academic interventions to real‑world educational contexts.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present research examining the effects of academic interventions based on applied behavior analysis for students with learning challenges in grades pre-K through 12. We welcome experimental research studies that examine the effects of behavioral interventions on the following student outcomes: reading (e.g., decoding, fluency, and comprehension), language arts, written expression, and mathematics. Examples of behavioral interventions for academic skills may include (but are not limited to) explicit instruction, systematic prompting, shaping, chaining, active student responding (choral responding or response cards), differential reinforcement, self-monitoring, self-management, group contingencies, token economies, matrix training, contingency contracting, peer-mediated instruction, technology mediated instruction, and precision teaching. We look forward to receiving submissions that advance the field, strengthen the bridge between research and practice, and extend current research.

Sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Sheila Alber-Morgan
Guest Editor

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