The venerable and valuable Association for Science Autism Treatment published its monthly newsletter for January 2023 (20.1) on 2 January 2023. Regular readers will remember that I’ve announced (“shared,” in contemporary intertube parlance) the previous publications of the newsletter pretty consistently.

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My consistent sharing is because the newsletter almost invariably includes valuable content. Among other articles and features (e.g., clinical recommendations, looks back at historical events, etc.) linked to in this issue, for example, there is one about the research on Direct Instruction with students with autism.

Direct Instruction (DI) is an evidence-based practice developed by Carl Bereiter and Siegfried Engelmann in 1966. It has been demonstrated to improve skills in academic content areas (e.g., reading, math) with a variety of students, including students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It is an approach to instruction that stresses mastery of content and teachers are urged to obtain professional development to ensure the best implementation results. In this installment of our treatment summaries, Drs. Alice Shillingsburg and Sarah Frampton provide a timely review of the DI literature with current recommendations for practice for our readers. 

Oh! Why did I use “venerable” as an adjective for ASAT? That’s easy to answer. ASAT is celebrating its 25 anniversy! This group has done lots of good work for people cocnerned about autism and, especially, for people with autism. I hope readers will Follow ASAT and read its newsletter.

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Special Education Today by John Wills Lloyd

ASAT newlsetter Jan 2023