An Evidence-Based Practice Synthesis of Virtual Manipulatives for Students With ASD and IDD

Abstract

Virtual manipulatives are increasingly being used to support students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual and developmental disability (ASD/IDD), in mathematics. However, to date, virtual manipulatives have not been examined or classified as an evidence-based practice for students with ASD/IDD, despite classifications of virtual manipulatives as evidence-based for students with learning disabilities (LD; Park, Bouck, & Fisher, 2021) and concrete manipulatives as evidence-based for students with ASD/IDD (Spooner et al., 2019). The purpose of this review was to assess the current state of the literature on virtual manipulatives and determine whether virtual manipulatives are an evidence-based practice for students with ASD/IDD. Eighteen of the 24 articles located for the review met quality indicators according to Cook et al. (2014) and presented positive results for the 42 students. The authors of this synthesis concluded virtual manipulatives broadly—and virtual manipulative-based instructional sequences disaggregated—are evidence-based practices in mathematics for students with ASD/IDD.