A Comparison of the iPad-Assisted and Traditional Flashcard Instruction for Learners With Autism

This applied dissertation study compared the effectiveness of the iPad-assisted and traditional flashcard-assisted instruction for teaching receptive labeling skills to learners with autism. A lack of access to certified service providers and insurance coverage and the inability to receive a diagnosis of autism prevent families from accessing applied behavior analysis (ABA) services. The problem addressed in this applied dissertation was a lack of access to ABA services for children with autism. Two school-aged learners with a medical diagnosis of autism served as participants in this study. The study utilized an adapted alternating treatments design to compare the effectiveness of the iPad app-assisted and flashcard-assisted instructions in the following dimensions: rate of the acquisition of the receptive labeling skills, generalization and maintenance of the receptive labeling skills, frequency of the prompts needed to acquire the skill, and frequency of the challenging behaviors associated with each intervention. The study included a baseline phase, instructional phase, generalization phase, final probe phase, and a maintenance phase. A visual analysis of the data was used to compare the effectiveness of the interventions. Also, the researcher compared the data between the two interventions using the nonoverlapping data (PND) points. Results indicated iPad-assisted instruction was associated with lower rates of challenging behaviors, lower rates of prompts, and a slightly higher rate of acquisition of the receptive labeling skills when compared to the traditional flashcard-assisted instruction. Furthermore, the results showed iPad-assisted instruction took a shorter time to implement when compared to traditional flashcard instruction. The results of the study have implications on the effectiveness of the instruction, potential time and cost efficiency for the practitioners and caregivers, and an improvement of the quality of life for individuals with autism