Technology and Movement; Teaching Learners with Autism

Over the past decade, the use of technology has rapidly spread throughout classrooms with the hope of enhancing a child’s ability to learn, specifically in the area of special education. Students with special needs, such as autism, have shown signs of increased attentiveness and growth with the use of technology. It is known that students with autism have special challenges due to decreased social skills and the inability to stay focused and attentive for extended periods of time. In this research project, learning through the use of technology acts as a replacement for social interaction. It was hypothesized that the use of technology in the classroom would increase attentive behavior in students with autism. A technological teaching method, video-modeling, was chosen to observe and determine whether or not students with autism displayed more attentive behavior watching a video lesson versus a lesson presented face-to-face by an instructor. The study provided evidence that students with autism were more engaged and attentive through the use of video-modeling lessons as opposed to a live presentation by an instructor