The Effect of Choice of IPad-Delivered Math Independent Practice of Elementary Grade Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Characteristics

A choice-making strategy is an antecedent control that has proven to be effective for students with problem behaviors. Because students with Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may display disruptive behaviors and show poor academic performance, it has been suggested that incorporating choice-making strategies into academic instruction could serve to increase academic engagement and task accuracy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of iPad-based choice-making opportunities during math independent practice on each participant\u27s task engagement, time required to complete task, task accuracy, and task completion, as well as the teacher and participants perceptions of social validity of the intervention. A single-subject reversal design ABAB and its counterbalancing BABA design were used to examine the effects of iPad-based choices during independent work time on math performance and behavioral responses of four participants. Visual analysis and two non-parametric overlap methods (i.e., percent of non-overlapping data [PND] and percent of data points exceeding the median line [PEM]) were employed to determine treatment effect on each dependent variable and for each participant. The results of this study were mixed. As evidenced by overall PND and/or PEM calculation estimates, there was an effect of the intervention on: (a) task engagement for Participant One, Participant Two, and Participant Four; (b) time required to complete task for all four participants; and (c) task accuracy for Participant One and Participant Three. No functional relation was established between the intervention and participants task completion. The teacher and three participants reported that the intervention was socially valid on most of the items in the social validity assessments. Potential explanations of the reported results, study limitations, and implications for future research are discussed