Association for Behavior Analysis International

This literature review examined the extent and effectiveness of technology delivered self-monitoring programs implemented with students with ASD. A necessary skill for academic success is the ability to remain academically engaged in the classroom; all successful students have the ability to monitor and evaluate his or her own progress. Self-monitoring within a larger self-management program has demonstrated effectiveness in increasing behaviors such as being “on-task”. Eleven articles with a total of 16 participants between the ages of seven and 17 were reviewed. Study experimental designs ranged from ABAB withdrawal to changing criterion Average Tau-U scores were calculated demonstrated small to medium effect sizes. However Tau-U scores for technology- delivered prompts were small, whereas effect sizes for those that used a traditional auditory prompt and paper/pencil recording method were medium. Results indicate that while technology may increase social validity of interventions, traditional methods of implementation may yield better results at less cost. Limitations and implications for future research will be discussed.

Young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience barriers to competitive employment. The use of video modeling (VM) is presented as one on-the-job method to enhance employment experiences for this population. The current study evaluated a VM intervention to increase customer service skills of five young adults with ASD, ages 18-26, in community employment settings. A multiple baseline across behaviors design was used with verbalization of greeting, service, and closing phrases contextualized to the employment settings serving as the target behaviors. Co-workers, job coaches, and supervisors were trained to implement the VM intervention during the generalization condition. Maintenance probes were conducted at two and four weeks. Results indicated a functional relation between the VM intervention and verbalization of job-specific customer service phrases for all participants. Young adults reported high satisfaction with the VM intervention. Implications related to the competitive employment of young adults with ASD is discussed.

In conducting assessments, using technology offers many benefits, such as assessment quality improvement, fast transmission and access to information, efficiency of data entry, and reducing costs associated with conducting traditional face-to-face assessments. This presentation describes a 2-phase study that validated and evaluated the feasibility of a web-based electronic behavior assessment system, ‘eBA’, designed to facilitate collaboration between caregivers and service providers (behavior analysts) during indirect functional behavior assessment (FBA). In Phase 1, the content and the web architecture of the eBA were validated and refined through a formative evaluation by five behavior analysts. In Phase 2, the eBA system was pilot tested with 10 service providers and 10 caregivers using a post-test only control group design to examine the efficiency and quality of the system. The results indicated that the eBA system components were appropriate to conduct indirect FBA and useful for use by service providers and caregivers collaboratively, gathered quality information, and showed higher levels of caregiver and service provider satisfaction, compared to traditional paper-pencil format of assessment. This presentation will provide for discussion on how the eBAS can be beneficial to service providers and caregivers and implications for future research.