A Rationale for the Use of Case Reports in Special Education: The Significance of Detailed Descriptions of Assessment and Intervention Scenarios for Bridging the Research-to-Practice Gap

Case reports make up a significant part of the medical literature by documenting unique clinical scenarios or exemplary treatment practices from which real-life lessons can be learned. But while such studies play an essential role in medical research, they rarely appear in special education journals. Competently assessing and instructing children, adolescents, and adults with special needs is complicated. Case reports that explicitly illustrate how to carry out such challenging tasks could be just as helpful in special education as they are in various medical fields. In this paper, we argue for the importance of such accounts and provide guidelines for how to structure them as a sound scholarly outlet.