SUNSET Expand Your Scope! Meta-analysis of ASD interventions: How to use them, how to do them.

Expanding our scope of competence once we are out in the field isn't always easy.

Meta-analysis is a powerful tool for understanding the effects of ASD interventions.  Despite longstanding use of meta-analyses throughout the clinical sciences, applied behavior analysts have only recently (and, perhaps, reluctantly) adopted their use in ASD intervention. In this presentation, Dr. Tincani will overview the benefits of meta-analysis for understanding ASD interventions, with a specific focus on meta-analysis methods with single-case design studies. 

Participants will gain an understanding of how to use meta-analysis to guide decision making in their clinical practice. He will discuss current strategies for article identification, data extraction, and data analysis, contrasting the procedures of meta-analysis from those of systematic reviews. Throughout the presentation, he will describe advantages and pitfalls of meta-analysis techniques, including the file drawer effect, and differentiate strategies for single-case meta-analysis from group design meta-analysis. 

Examples of meta-analyses focusing on specific ASD interventions, including augmentative and alternative communication training and challenging behavior reduction strategies, will be discussed.