Effects of Interventions with Manipulatives on Immediate Learning, Maintenance, and Transfer in Children with Mathematics Learning Disabilities: A Systematic Review

Table 3

Quality ratings and research design to establish value added by manipulatives and causal effects of interventions.

Authors	Quality rating	Study design to establish value added by manipulatives	Study design to establish causal effect of intervention	Conclusion
Bouck et al. [29]	High	TI phase	Baseline with 3 to 7 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Bouck et al. [43]	Acceptable	Random order of: TI phase (concrete manipulative); control phase (app-based manipulatives); NI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	Value-added
				Causal effect
Shin and Bryant [44]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 3 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Satsangi et al. [45]	High	Random order of: TI phase (concrete manipulative); control phase (app-based manipulatives); NI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	Value-added
				Causal effect
Bouck et al. [46]	Not acceptable	TI group	Not applicable	No value-added
				No causal effect
Satsangi and Bouck [47]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Flores et al. [79]	High	TI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Fuchs et al. [48]	Not acceptable	TI group (on the measurement interpretation of fractions, with manipulatives); control group (on the part-whole interpretation of fractions, with manipulatives)	Random assignment to groups	No value-added
				Causal effect^a
Yang et al. [49]	Not acceptable	TI group; TI group without difficulties; TI group with low-SES children	Nonrandom assignment to groups	No value-added
				No causal effect
Fuchs et al. [50]	High	TI group (on the measurement interpretation of fractions, with manipulatives); TI group with no difficulties; control group (on the part-whole interpretation of fractions, with manipulatives)	Random assignment to groups	No value-added
				Causal effect^a
Watt [51]	High	TI group with targeted intervention; NI group	Random assignment to groups	No value-added
				Causal effect
Mancl et al. [52]	High	TI phase	Baseline with 3 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Sealander et al. [53]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Strickland and Maccini [54]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 3 to 4 data points (depending on the child)	No value-added
				Causal effect
Miller and Kaffar [55]	Acceptable	TI group; TAU group	Nonrandom assignment to groups	No value-added
				No causal effect
Flores [56]	High	TI phase	Baseline with 3 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Powell and Fuchs [57]	High	TI group (on word problem solving and equal-sign, with manipulatives); TI group with no difficulties; control group (intervention on word problem solving, with manipulatives)	Nonrandom assignment to groups	No value-added
				No causal effect
Flores [58]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 3 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Scheuermann et al. [59]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 3 to 5 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Smith and Montani [60]	Not acceptable	TI group	Not applicable	No value-added
				No causal effect
Tournaki et al. [61]	Not acceptable	TI group; TAU group; control group	Random assignment to groups	Value-added
				Causal effect
Witzel [62]	Not acceptable	TI group (CRA); control group (RA)	Nonrandom assignment to groups	Value-added
				No causal effect
Butler et al. [63]	Not acceptable	TI group (CRA); control group (RA)	Nonrandom assignment to groups	Value-added
				No causal effect
Cass et al. [64]	High	TI phase	Baseline with 3 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Witzel et al. [65]	Not acceptable	TI group (CRA); TAU group	Nonrandom assignment to groups	No value-added
				No causal effect
Wisniewski and Smith [66]	Not acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 1 data point	No value-added
				No causal effect
Maccini and Hughes [67]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Maccini and Ruhl [68]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Jordan et al. [69]	Not acceptable	TI group (CRA); TAU group	Nonrandom assignment to groups	No value-added
				No causal effect
Miller et al. [70]	Not acceptable	TI group	Not applicable	No value-added
				No causal effect
Marshe and Cooke [71]	Acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 5 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Harris et al. [72]	High	TI phase	Baseline with 4 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Miller and Mercer [73]	Not acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 3 to 10 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Mercer and Miller [74]	Not acceptable	TI group	Not applicable	No value-added
				No causal effect
Miller et al. [75]	Not acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 1 data point	No value-added
				No causal effect
Peterson et al. [76]	Not acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 3 to 10 data points	No value-added
				Causal effect
Hudson et al. [77]	Not acceptable	TI phase	Baseline with 1 data point	No value-added
				No causal effect
Peterson et al. [78]	Not acceptable	TI group (CRA); control group (A)	Nonrandom assignment to groups	No value-added
				No causal effect

Note. Studies are inversely chronologically ordered. The group studies are in nonitalics, while the single-case studies are in italics. The quality ratings were established according to Gersten et al. [82] for group studies and Horner et al. [83] for single-case studies. TI group/phase = targeted intervention group/phase. NI group/phase = nonintervention group/phase. Control group/phase = a comparable group/phase with a comparable intervention without manipulatives. TAU group/phase = treatment-as-usual group/phase. CRA = concrete-to-representational-to-abstract. RA = representational-to-abstract. A = abstract. ^aThe causal effect was not on the use of manipulatives, but on the content focus of the intervention (i.e., measurement interpretation of fractions).