Comparison of tablet-delivered and instructor-delivered teaching on receptive identification in children with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to compare the effectiveness of tablet- and instructor-delivered teaching (i.e., prompting and reinforcement) on the receptive identification of one-word concepts in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). To this end, we embedded a multielement design within a multiple probe design to compare the effectiveness of the two instructional modalities in seven participants. Two of the seven participants showed generalization on all concepts in fewer instructional trials following instructor-delivered teaching, whereas the remaining five participants had mixed results depending on the concept. In total, the participants showed more rapid generalization with the instructor for 14 of the 19 concepts taught. Our results suggest that tablets should not systematically replace instructor-delivered prompting and reinforcement, but that they may be used to provide supplementary teaching to children with ASD.