A Comparison between iPad-Assisted and Teacher-Directed Reading Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

We conducted an alternating treatment research design to investigate the effects of a multicomponent reading comprehension intervention on reading comprehension performance and task refusal behavior of three elementary students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study also sought to investigate the effects of utilizing teacher-directed instruction (TDI) in comparison to iPad® -assisted instruction (IAI) as the primary mode of instructional delivery during reading sessions. The multicomponent intervention during the TDI sessions consisted of teaching text preview strategy (i.e., looking at text and picture, making predictions), identifying the main idea of each paragraph using a graphic organizer, and the use of a token economy system. Whereas IAI treatment sessions consisted of the use of an iPad® application that focused on identifying main idea paired with implementing a token economy system for task completion. Three elementary students identified with ASD participated in this study. Results indicate that the multicomponent intervention implemented during both conditions was associated with improved performance on curriculum-based measure (CBM) probes during TDI and IAI treatments, with an indication that the TDI treatment was more effective in increasing accuracy of responding on CBM probes in comparison to the IAI condition. Findings from this study also indicate that both treatment conditions (TDI and IAI) were associated with a reduction of task refusal for the three participants with fewer occurrences of the challenging behavior during IAI in comparison to TDI treatment.