Using Wearable Biomarker Technology to Determine the Effectiveness of Assistive Technology Supports on the Anxiety and Writing Outcomes of Students with Disabilities

The purpose of this Capstone project is to determine the effects writing has on stress levels of students with anxiety-related disorders and to investigate the effectiveness of technology-based writing interventions to reduce anxiety and increase writing output when being utilized by students. One male and three females between the ages of 14-17 participated in the research. Each participant wore a biomarker device that allowed the researchers to track the participants' levels of anxiety. The levels transmitted by the biomarker would indicate a state of calm, focused, tense and neutral. Baseline involved observing students writing without technology supports. Upon completion of a baseline period, two writing interventions (i.e., Chromebook or Read & Write) were implemented into the educational procedures. The effectiveness of the interventions was tracked by collecting data regarding the students' anxiety levels as evidenced by the biomarker technology and direct observation, as well as by comparison of writing samples collected during the baseline period of the research with the samples collected during intervention phases. Sample lesson plans have been created based on the results of this research Although results were not significant, the interventions did result in limited success for some of the participants. The resulting data collected implies that further research would be beneficial to this study.B.S. (Bachelor of Science