Self-Control Training Using an iPad with a Third Grade Student

The use of technology has become increasingly prevalent in schools, from elementary school to high school. This school-based project explored the intervention of self-control training with a third grade student who has a previous technology addiction to increase her ability to wait, and eventually complete nonpreferred tasks, before playing on the iPad. It also aimed to decrease the time in which she gave the iPad back after playing and to reduce problem behaviors when asked to give it back. The student was asked to choose between two wait times and play lengths on the iPad (e.g. wait for 1 minute, play for 2 minutes or wait for 2 minutes, play for 5 minutes), with the goal of her choosing the longer wait time. Once her play time was up, the latency time from asking for the iPad back and her giving it back was recorded, with the goal of it decreasing over the length of the intervention. Over the course of the intervention, the wait times increased. During longer wait times, eventually, self-control instruction would be introduced. Due to the few number of trials we had, it is unclear if the intervention was effective