Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling

Department name when degree awarded

Special Education and Rehabilitation

Committee Chair(s)

Thomas Higbee

Committee

Thomas Higbee

Committee

Barbara Fiechtl

Committee

Robert Morgan

Abstract

The process researchers use to determine what children with disabilities like and dislike is called preference assessment. Studies have been conducted with preference assessments using different types of materials (e.g., food, toys, music). In this study, we used a preference assessment on the iPad for children with autism. The purpose was to see if iPad applications (apps) could be used to increase responding. The preference assessment ranked iPad apps for each participant in order of most-preferred to leastpreferred. Participants’ responding increased when they could receive the most-preferred iPad app for completing the task (i.e., stringing beads). These results show that the preference assessment can be used to rank preference of iPad apps and, therefore, show which apps are most-preferred and least-preferred. Findings also add to the research by showing that the apps the participants liked the most were generally more effective by increasing rates of responding. Teachers can use this information by using the apps their students like the most for completion of harder tasks.

Checksum

d8d31cb3edec4fabeeba22ec11536e31

Download

Included in

Education Commons

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .