Award Date

8-1-2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational & Clinical Studies

First Committee Member

Susan P. Miller

Second Committee Member

Peggy Schaefer-Whitby

Third Committee Member

Sherri Strawser

Fourth Committee Member

Catherine Lyons

Fifth Committee Member

Kendall Hartley

Number of Pages

158

Abstract

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently display an inability to self-regulate (use materials appropriately and refrain from self-stimulatory behavior) and self-monitor (complete each step in a task before continuing to the next step) their behavior and therefore experience a great deal of failure within their respective school and home environments and frequently end up receiving instruction in restrictive, self-contained classrooms. Visual schedules have been used to help students with ASD self-regulate their behaviors in academic and community settings (NPDC, 2010; NSR, 2009). The purpose of this study was to determine whether high-tech visual schedules increase the self-regulation and transition behaviors of young children with ASD. Specifically, on-task and on-schedule behaviors were addressed along with the satisfaction of the stakeholders with the high-tech visual schedule intervention. A multiple-baseline across academic tasks (reading, writing, and math) was used to determine the effectiveness of a visual schedule delivered via an iPod touch on on-task and on-schedule behaviors. The participants included three elementary students who were receiving special education services under the category of autism. There were three males (one African American third grader, and two Hispanic fourth graders). The participants were provided with visual schedules for three academic tasks (reading, writing, and math) delivered via an iPod touch. Given the variability in the data it cannot be said that the visual schedule had an impact on on-task and on-schedule behaviors. The visual schedules did however, generalize to the general education setting and were effective in maintaining on-task and on-schedule behaviors across participants. Additionally, the teaching staff indicated a high level of satisfaction with the implementation of the visual schedule indicated by ongoing use after completion of the study.

Keywords

App; Application software; Autism; Children with autism spectrum disorders; iPod; On-schedule; On-task; Pocket computers; Portable media players; Scheduling; Self-control in children; Time management; Visual schedule

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Special Education and Teaching

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS