etadd_46(4) - Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities

sual and auditory cues on an Axim 30 handheld
computer by Dell. In the first study four
students completed four separate communitybased
tasks (i.e., stocking milk, making subrolls)
with each subsequent task increasing in
the number of steps required for completion.
The PDA, used in conjunction with a least-tomost
prompting system delivered by the instructor,
was an effective tool for delivering
prompts to students and task performance was
maintained up to 9 weeks. In the second
study, four of the same tasks were used from
the first study, along with six additional tasks,
to evaluate independent transitions between
tasks by four students with moderate to severe
intellectual disabilities. Similar results indicated
that the handheld prompting system
was an effective tool for increasing independent
task transitions and skills were once
again maintained for up to 9 weeks.
In summary, although similar to picturebased
booklets, the presentation of pictures
on electronic PDAs, may provide a more efficient
and effective means for delivering
prompts whereby students may find the traditional
form of presentation to be more cumbersome
to manipulate and may lose their
place in the sequence (Lancioni et al., 2000).
Electronic picture-based systems with and
without voice recordings were both found to
be effective in this review. In light of research
which indicates that students with ASD may be
stronger visual than auditory learners (Quill,
1995; West, 2008), what remains unanswered
is whether it is necessary to include voice recordings
in conjunction with pictures. In addition
to examining the need for voice recordings,
future research should also continue the
line of investigation initiated by Lancioni et al.
concerning clustering multiple pictures into
fewer pictures (2000) and clustering individual
verbal prompts of steps into longer
streams of auditory recordings (2001) as tasks
are acquired. Research will need to examine
not only students’ abilities to use these features,
but the flexibility of systems for making
these adjustments with regards to preparation
time. The line of research initiated by Davies
et al. (2003) into the capabilities of PDAs to
function in a non-linear format also warrants
more attention. With such programming, pictures
on one screen can be linked to a different
sequence of pictures depending on the
choice or decision made by the user (i.e.,
which recipe to cook, laundry load size for a
washing machine).
PDA with video cues and handheld video players.
In a recent literature review of assistive technology
devices (including PDAs) used as selfmanagement
tools for prompting students
with ID, no studies were available (through
2005) evaluating the use of video presented
on handhelds (Mechling, 2007). The current
review identified eight studies between the
years 2007 and 2010 addressing use of video
modeling or prompting presented on portable
handheld devices as intervention tools for
students with moderate ID and ASD.
Video modeling, watching an entire video
recording demonstrating how to perform a
task prior to completing the task, was used in
three of the eight identified studies utilizing
video on handheld devices. Van Laarhoven,
Van Laarhoven-Myers, and Zurita (2007)
worked with two high school aged males with
mild and moderate intellectual disabilities in
two employment settings (Red Robin and
Applebee’s) using video modeling presented
on an HP iPAQ hg2700 series Pocket PC. Each
student completed three different tasks (i.e.,
rolling silverware, portioning recipes) using
video modeling and video feedback (re-watching
the video after errors occurred) in conjunction
with a least-to-most prompting system
delivered by the instructor. Both students
demonstrated an increase in independent responding
and a decrease in external adult
prompting while using the device.
Taber-Doughty, Patton, and Brennan
(2008) used a 30GB Apple video iPod (Figure
6) to deliver simultaneous prompting in a
library whereby students watched an entire
video task chain, with audio instructions,
while simultaneously completing each step.
This format was used for locating books and
DVDs and using a computer to obtain call
numbers by three middle school students with
moderate intellectual disabilities. This study
compared simultaneous video modeling and
delayed video modeling in which a student
watched a video model at least one hour prior
to traveling to the library and locating the
items. The delayed video modeling was presented
on a VCR/DVD player. Both systems
were found to be effective and students were
able to generalize the skills to a second library,
Twenty-First Century Portable Electronic Devices / 491