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 We are pleased to introduce a new tool for your everyday decision-making—a
combination electronic and print, peer-reviewed journal called Evidence-based Practice (EBP) Briefs.
Since its beginning in 2006, EBP Briefs seeks to answer some of the biggest questions of your daily activities, supported with evidence and written practically and efficiently for you by leaders in speech-language pathology and related disciplines. One of the goals of EBP Briefs
is to allow you to read and implement easily. Read an introduction by 2008 (Volume
3) editor, Dr. Chad Nye. You can also read the introduction by Dr.
Laura Justice, editor of Volumes 1 and 2.
As always, we are interested in your feedback on EBP Briefs in general and are also looking to you to help identify specific questions you would like us to explore in upcoming EBP Briefs. Thank you in advance!
EBP Briefs is published in two ways for your benefit:
- FREE Electronic format: four articles are published during the year, quarterly (below).
- For-purchase Paper format: the four electronic articles from the calendar year plus two additional articles not available online are published annually.
NOW in audio format! Look for a new "podcast" feature to EBP Briefs! No time to read? Just download to your iPod or mp3 player and listen as you travel (not while driving, of course!), exercise, or wait in line. Review the sample at the top of this page and sign up for updates as more podcasts are completed.
Looking for CEUs? EBP Briefs is an appropriate journal for ASHA's Learn and Earn program.
University Alliance Program (UAP) members: consider EBP Briefs as supplementary reading in your classes, in print or electronic formats.
EBP Briefs, Volumes 1, 2 and 3
Volumes 1, 2
and 3 of the annual journal are available for purchase and contain the first four issues as well as two additional articles not available electronically.
Links to Journal Articles Online
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Remediation of Phonological Disorders in Preschool Age Children: Evidence for the Cycles Approach
Volume 5, Number 2, June 2010
by Johanna M. Hassink and Oliver Wendt, Purdue University
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View Brief
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| Does the Cycles Approach result in effective remediation of phonological
disorders? Evidence for the efficacy of the Cycles Approach is limited. The best evidence
available suggest that this approach is effective with children who exhibit severe phonological
disorders both in isolation and in combination with other language disorders.
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Choosing the Language of Intervention for Spanish-English Bilingual Preschoolers with Language Impairment
Volume 5, Number 1, March 2010
by Lisa M. Bedore, University of Texas at Austin |
View Brief |
| Katy is a speech-language pathologist working with a preschooler
who has just been indentified as having language impairment, and speaks
predominantly Spanish. In his home environment, Spanish is the primary language
and his parents want him to be able to communicate in that environment, as well
as at school. The child's teacher, however, believes that intervention should be
in English. In which language should Katy conduct intervention? |
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Vocabulary Intervention for Elementary and
Secondary School Students Who are English
Language Learners: A Review of Research
Volume 4, Number 4, November 2009
by Stacy D. Shepard & Li Sheng, University of Texas-Austin |
View Brief |
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Debbie, a monolingual
elementary school speech-language pathologist (SLP), frequently
assists other teachers with creating and implementing intervention
plans for students. She recently was approached by a fifth-grade
teacher who was concerned about one Spanish-English bilingual
student who struggles in English class. The teacher thinks that this
student's limited English vocabulary knowledge could be influencing his
reading comprehension, but is unsure of how to address these needs
in the classroom. Can Debbie suggest evidence-based strategies the
teacher may implement to help this student?
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Evidence-Based Practice for Bilingual Students with Language Impairment: General and Specific Treatment Questions
Volume 4, Number 3, September 2009
by Amelia Medina and Jill Rentmeester, University of Minnesota
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View Brief
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| Julia, a speech-language pathologist (SLP), is working in a K–8 elementary school in a large urban school district. In the past five years, the school’s Somali population has more than doubled from 20% to 45%. Her goal, like other SLPs, is to enable her students’ success by building and bridging Somali and English communication skills for home, community, and school settings. Julia’s research has focused on monolingual English-speaking students with impairments.
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Reducing Self-Injurious Behaviors in Individuals With Autism: Benefits of Functional Communication Training
Volume 4, Number 2, June 2009
by Miriam C. Boesch and Oliver Wendt, Purdue University
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View Brief
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Beth, a special education teacher reports that a student with
Autism is increasingly exhibiting self-injurious behavior. Helen a (SLP) also notices the increase in negative behavior. Beth and Helen consider the use of functional communication training (FCT).
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Video Modeling to Improve Play Skills in a Child with Autism:
A Procedure to Examine Single-Subject
Experimental Research
Volume 4, Number 1, March 2009
by Veronica Smith, Ph.D., University of Alberta |
View Brief |
| Maryanne, a school-based SLP, works with the IEP team to support a kindergarten student with autism. Maryanne researches an intervention called “video modeling” to determine the appropriateness for this student, given the IEP team’s view that play-based skills are a critical element for this student’s IEP. Will Maryanne find enough EBP support to warrant the implementation of video modeling?
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A Clinical Language/Literacy Decision: Evidence-based Story Grammar Instruction
Volume 3, Number 4, December 2008
by Kim Murza and Chad Nye, University of Central Florida |
View Brief |
An SLP in a small urban elementary school wants to help second grade students on his caseload improve their reading comprehension. He looks to his knowledge of evidence-based practice for the answer to his question: does explicit instruction in story grammar positively impact elementary school students’ comprehension abilities in reading narrative text? |
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Finding, Analyzing and Implementing a Phonemic Awareness Intervention: Guidelines to a Decision-Making Process
Volume 3, Number 3, September 2008
by Jamie Schwartz, Debbie Hahs-Vaughn, Cheran Zadroga & Ana Rivera, University of Central Florida |
View Brief |
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A reading specialist and an SLP team up to support a change request
to a 3rd grader’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) regarding phonemic awareness intervention.
Will they find the evidence they need to support the IEP change? |
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The Use of Phonics in the Teaching of Reading and Spelling
Volume 3, Number 2, June 2008
by Greg Brooks, University of Sheffield, UK, and Carole J. Torgerson and Jill
Hall, University of York, UK |
View Brief |
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Whether or not to teach phonics has long been a polarizing debate between phonics and whole language advocates. The authors provide a research-based review of phonics and its role in teaching reading and writing. Their findings lead to recommendations of how to best incorporate systematic phonics teaching in the classroom and in teacher training.
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Making Informed Decisions about Literacy Intervention in Schools:
An Adolescent Literacy Example
Volume 3, Number 1, April 2008
by Barbara J. Ehren, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, University of Central Florida |
View Brief |
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in schools are exploring new or expanded roles with literacy, including intervention with students with language impairment (LI). At the same time, they seem to be struggling to find the motivation and time to engage in evidence-based practice (EBP). The author makes the case that EBP fits well within school culture. An example is provided to demonstrate how a school SLP can utilize the questions to make EBP
decisions regarding literacy-related interventions. Use the icons to the right to listen to the podcast or author/editor conversation about this article and topic. |
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Evidence-Based Practice for School-Age Stuttering: Balancing Existing
Research with Clinical Practice
Volume 2, Number 4, December 2007
by J. Scott Yaruss and Kristin Pelczarski, University of Pittsburgh |
View Brief |
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A speech-language pathologist (SLP) works with a
child who stutters to translate successes from the therapy room to her
school and home settings. When the current treatment plan isn't working,
the SLP looks to research for answers. What process will she use to narrow
and evaluate the research in order to make effective treatment changes? |
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Self-Regulated Strategy Development for Written Expression: Is it
Effective for Adolescents?
Volume 2, Number 3, September 2007
by Laura Jacobson and Robert Reid, University of Nebraska - Lincoln |
View Brief |
| An educator examines why the special education students at his
small, urban high school have difficulty with writing and what he can do to
help. Because his school system already expects students to have the
requisite writing skills, many special education students don’t have the
chance to improve their skills during high school and may not pass the
district’s graduation exam. The educator and his colleagues respond by
applying the research-based Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)
model. What will they and their students learn from their efforts? |
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English Literacy Development for English Language Learners:
Does Spanish Instruction Promote or Hinder?
Volume 2, Number 2, July 2007
by Kelly M. Thomason and Brenda K. Gorman, Marquette University and Connie Summers, The University of Texas at Austin |
View Brief |
| In this brief, the authors consider whether instruction in a
child¹s native language (particularly Spanish) hinders or promotes learning
of literacy in English. The authors conduct a four-step process for
identifying research on this topic, examining this literature, and then
determining the answer to this clinical question.
The results suggest that supporting a child's home/native language
promotes rather than hinders development of English literacy skills. |
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Parent-Implemented Interactive Language Intervention:
Can It Be Used Effectively?
Volume 2, Number 1, March 2007
by Laura M. Justice and Khara Pence, University of Virginia |
View Brief |
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In this brief, a hypothetical clinician takes on the task of identifying a "research based" approach for training parents to provide language intervention in the home environment. This brief describes a four-step process for identifying effective interventions, and describes the outcomes of this process as applied to home-based parent-implemented language intervention. |
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Social Skills Intervention for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of the Experimental Evidence
Volume 1, Number 4, December 2006
by Sloane Burgess and Lyn S. Turkstra |
View Brief
View Summary of Studies |
The social situations that adolescents encounter on a daily basis require both speed and agility: they must select comments that directly address the topic at hand, control utterance length so as not to monopolize the conversation, take the perspective of others and use both verbal and nonverbal methods to convey and state implied meaning.
Added to this, the idiomatic language of adolescent peer groups continually evolves,and familiarity with this language is important to building and sustaining relationships with one’s peer group.
With the vast array of therapy materials and approaches available, how would a clinician determine the most recent evidence available supporting current intervention practices?
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Evidence-Based Vocabulary Instruction for Elementary Students via Storybook Reading
Volume 1, Number 3, October 2006
by Carla J. Johnson and Erin Yeates, University of Toronto |
View Brief |
| Speech-language pathologists who are interested in evidence-based practice may wish to know whether there is scientific evidence to support particular methods of vocabulary instruction...Do elementary schools students learn new vocabulary more effectively from hearing stories with brief explanations of unknown words than from hearing stories without such explanations? |
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Improving Communication for Children with Autism: Does Sign Language Work?
Volume 1, Number 2, July 2006
by Jamie B. Schwartz, Ph.D., and Chad Nye, Ph.D., University of Central Florida |
View Brief |
| One of the signature characteristics of children with autism is failure to develop adequate communication skills. Clinicians often are faced with the decision of selecting and implementing an aided or unaided augmentative or alternative communication system for these individuals. Given that a clinician may recommend sign language training for a child with autism, what evidence is available upon which to base this decision? |
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Classroom-Based versus Pull-Out Language Intervention:
An Examination of the Experimental Evidence
Volume 1, Number 1, April 2006
by Anita S. McGinty and Laura Justice, University of Virginia |
View Brief |
| In this brief, we consulted the available experimental evidence to
consider an important question that clinicians often ask: Should I provide
speech-language intervention within the child’s classroom (classroom-based)
or outside of the classroom (pull-out)? |
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