Supporting students with disability to improve academic, social and emotional, and self-determination and life-skills outcomes: umbrella review of evidence-based practices

The implementation of evidence-based practices by teachers is critical to improving outcomes for students with disability. Whilst existing reviews have identified evidence-based practices, these reviews themselves have yet to be synthesised to determine which evidence-based practices are most universal across international literature, and how they are implemented in different school environments with diverse populations of students with disability. Consequently, the objective of this umbrella review was to identify the most common evidence-based practices used in providing supports for students with disability within school educational settings. Using the Joanna Briggs Institute umbrella review protocol, this study found 31 rigorous reviews published between 2011 and 2020. Visual and video supports, peer-mediated instruction and intervention, systematic instruction, self-management, time delay, and prompting were identified as the most commonly used evidence-based practices. Findings around the range of students with disability, outcomes and educational settings were more complex and require further research coverage and clarity.