A Systematic Review of Precorrection in PK-12 Settings

Precorrection is a proactive strategy designed to prevent problem behavior from occurring by identifying contexts likely to occasion problem behavior and facilitating the occurrence of appropriate behavior. To determine the evidence base for this practice we applied the Council for Exceptional Children's (CEC) Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education to the body of research on precorrection. We identified 10 single-case research design articles that (a) evaluated the effects of a precorrection intervention, (b) occurred in a PK-12 traditional school settings, (c) used experimental or quasi-experimental design, and (d) were published in a peer-reviewed journal. We identified five articles meeting an 80% weighted criterion of CEC's quality indicators. These five articles contained over 20 participants with positive effects based on CEC standards; therefore, we concluded precorrection to be an evidence-based practice using a weighted coding criterion to examine the evidence-based determination (retaining the presence and absence coding for each item constituting each quality indicator). Implications for future research and practice are outlined.