Supporting Student Agency in Communication Intervention: Alternatives to Spelling to Communicate and Other Unproven Fads

Abstract

Many interventions and supports rooted in applied behavior analysis have been established as evidence-based and high leverage practices for educating students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (e.g., Hume et al., 2021; Pennington et al., 2023). Unfortunately, despite decades of evidence and widespread availability of these practices, educators may consider other practices without research evidence to support their effectiveness. Unsupported practices may appear enticing to educators for myriad reasons, but their adoption puts students at risk for lack of achievement and other potential harms (Travers, 2017). The potentially negative impacts of adopting unsupported practices are magnified when they are used in the place of well-established practices to address the education-related needs for vulnerable populations of students, such as those who do not develop communication skills necessary to successfully navigate the world around them.