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Academic outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain poor, especially in the area of reading, in particular, reading comprehension. In recent years, researchers have begun to investigate subcomponent skills of reading comprehension for children with ASD in order to better understand its development and potential interventions to enhance outcomes. This chapter highlights the current knowledge in the field in regards to the key cognitive and language skills associated with reading development for individuals with ASD. These include emergent-literacy skills, word-reading and decoding, reading fluency, oral language, and social cognition. Additionally, the chapter makes suggestions for future research in this area, in particular the need to conduct research to establish evidence-based practices to better support the syndrome-specific reading needs for this population.

There is a clear national trend toward the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. This trend poses particularly vexing challenges for delivering appropriate programs for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). This chapter describes the complexity of determining appropriate inclusive placements for students with EBD within the historical, legal, and philosophical context of inclusion and related to what we know about these students and how we can improve outcomes. Recommended practices for maximally appropriate placements include a comprehensive approach that integrates academic and behavioral interventions, and robust professional development in research-validated instructional practices for teachers. Shifting roles and shared responsibility of the professionals who are now working with students with EBD must be considered. Finally, issues currently being addressed that will shape the future direction of service delivery for students with EBD are discussed including the need for systematically and objectively manipulating key variables, including educational placement, to impact student achievement across settings.

An exploratory study was undertaken to examine the implementation of strategy instruction in persuasive writing with a class of 10 adolescent students with severe emotional/behavioral disabilities (EBD). Several learner characteristics were observed to interact with curriculum and instructional variables. Modifications were made, on an ongoing basis, to respond to these student characteristics. After approximately four months of instruction, findings indicated that all students had mastered the components of effective persuasive essay writing, and performed competently on criterion writing measures, greatly different from performance at the beginning of instruction. Although the design of this investigation does not allow for definitive causal explanations, insights were gained regarding the interaction between EBD characteristics and strategy instruction. Implications for further research are discussed.

ABA has been described as a precise psychological approach to the study of behavior (Bailey & Burch, 2002), involving well-defined principles that can be used in the analysis and modification of individual behavior (Miltenberger, 1997). Special education, on the contrary, has been characterized as “a customized instructional program designed to meet the unique needs of the individual learner” (Gargiulo, 2009, p. 9). Certainly the two disciplines have much in common; indeed, ABA specifically addresses issues at the focal point of IDEA. For instance, ABA's stance on the right to effective behavioral treatment (Van Houten et al., 1988) is similar to special education regulations regarding the right to an appropriate public education and the right to be educated in the least restrictive environment.

Purpose – This chapter examines how and why the continued use of Indianness in sport makes many American Indians uneasy and then turns to consider the manner in which Native Americans have assisted with and even endorsed such monikers and mascots.

Design/methodology/approach – The current study employs interpretive approaches common in cultural studies (broadly defined). It offers textual readings of historical incidences as well as ethnographic readings of current events.

Findings – The key findings of the study offer new insights into the multiple and often competing ways in which indigenous athletes, fans, and communities interpret Native American mascots, stressing the overlooked role of American Indians who enact and endorse them.

Research limitations/implications – The focus on the use of indigeneity in the United States is the key limitation of the current research.

Originality/value – The central contribution of this work lies in its attention to the social significance and cultural politics of indigenous interpretations of American Indian mascots. In particular, it explores the complexities and contradictions central to such interpretations, stressing the unappreciated role of expectations and the pronounced uneasiness at their core.