Evaluating the Effects of Utilizing a Mobile Device by Transitioning High School Students with Intellectual Disability to Locate Items from a Grocery List and Improve their Independence

Authors

Vanessa GilFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Major/Program

Exceptional Student Education

First Advisor's Name

Kyle D. Bennett

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Patricia Barbetta

Second Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Andy Pham

Third Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Linda Blanton

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Keywords

exceptional student education

Date of Defense

3-21-2018

Abstract

Individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID) struggle to learn daily living skills (DLS) required for independent living. One specific skill set that is challenging for individuals with ID is grocery shopping. The current study is one of two investigations that have been undertaken entirely in the community and without the use of booster session simulations in a classroom.

This study investigated the effects of using least-to-most prompting and mobile technology as a tool to assist 18 to 22-year-old adult students with ID to find six items from a grocery-shopping list. Dependent measures included the number of task steps completed correctly, selecting the correct items from the shopping list, and the duration of shopping. Sessions were conducted twice a week in a community grocery store. A single subject, multiple probe design across participants was employed. There were three phases in this study. The phases included: (a) teaching an initial grocery list, (b) teaching a re-sequenced grocery list, and (c) teaching a replacement grocery list.

Overall, the participants demonstrated improvements in their ability to complete the task steps and locate grocery items during the intervention condition in phase one. Two of the three participants’ duration of shopping also improved over the course of the intervention in phase one. However, only one participant advanced to phases two and three of the study as the others did not meet the criterion of achieving 85% or better on the task analysis, which was needed to advance to the subsequent phases of the study.

The results of this study suggest that the use of mobile devices used with least-to-most prompting can have a degree of positive effect on the acquisition of functional skills such as locating grocery items by 18 to 22-year-old students with ID. However, for some students either additional weekly sessions in the community setting or classroom simulations are needed. Alternatively, researchers and practitioners might consider pairing mobile technology with different prompting and prompt fading systems (e.g., most-to-least prompting) for students struggling to acquire this skill set in a community setting.

Identifier

FIDC004081

ORCID

0000-0002-6492-1795

Recommended Citation

Gil, Vanessa, "Evaluating the Effects of Utilizing a Mobile Device by Transitioning High School Students with Intellectual Disability to Locate Items from a Grocery List and Improve their Independence" (2018). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3682.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3682