Previous researchers conducted activity schedule studies and used them on unstructured areas such as the playground. This study investigates the ability of fading procedures on the effects of using activity schedules on the playground. This study displayed that fading procedures can be used and determined based on the level of the individual. The results showed that two participants were able to fade to more portable forms of activity schedules from the typical activity schedule binder. This study provides many possibilities for conducting future research involving the use of fading procedures on activity schedules.

Young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) demonstrate behavioral deficits and excesses that can adversely affect their play skills. Teaching children with ASD to use activity schedules with embedded scripts have led to increased appropriate game play with other children with autism and typically developing peers; however, there is sparse research on promoting more dynamic social play in children with ASD. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teaching the use of activity schedules with embedded scripts on the sociodramatic play of preschoolers with ASD with their typically developing peers. We also examined the extent to which we could remove scripts and schedule components and continue to observe appropriate sociodramatic play. Two participants with ASD quickly demonstrated high levels of sociodramatic play with their typically developing peers compared to baseline, and an additional participant with ASD demonstrated similar increases with procedural modifications. The participants also continued to show these increased levels after all scripts and nearly all components of the activity schedules were systematically removed, including during 1-and 2-week follow-up sessions. In addition, all participants engaged in additional unscheduled, yet contextually appropriate, sociodramatic play behaviors.

Research suggests teaching adults and children with disabilities to follow pictorial cues increases home life skills, vocational skills and on-task behavior. Activity schedules use pictorial cues to prompt individuals to complete behavioral sequences. The purpose of this study was to examine if, after training, adults with intellectual disabilities completed a series of behaviors using an activity schedule. The dependent variable is percent of components completed independently. Three individuals with mild to severe intellectual and physical disabilities receiving services from a private provider day program participated. Each participant used an activity schedule to complete a skill set during training. The results show that, for all participants, an activity schedule increased independently completed steps of the skill set, typing on a computer, as compared to when the activity schedule was not present.

Some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle to perform a series of academic tasks, like academic worksheets, independently. Photographic activity schedules are one technique that has been demonstrated to promote independent behavior in individuals with ASD. This study used a multiple baseline design across participants to examine how activity schedules impacted the accurate and independent completion of a series of academic tasks (i.e., worksheets) for young children with ASD. Participants included three young children with ASD 6 and 7 years old who performed a series of academic tasks in the presence of an adult, but struggled to display those concepts accurately in the absence of an adult. Procedures involved training participants to use activity schedules through graduated guidance until participants used activity schedules to accurately complete three academic tasks without additional assistance. Completing these worksheets using schedules not only improved student accuracy but also provided more opportunities for students to learn in an environment with their typically developing peers.

TITLE: EFFECTS OF COMBINING A WEARABLE VISUAL SCHEDULE AND A CLASS-WIDE TOKEN ECONOMY ON SELF-INITIATED TRANSITIONSMAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Natalie F. Williams AwodehaProblem behaviors in young children are associated with long-term academic and social struggles. Moreover, the prevalence is expected to increase with the implications of the coronavirus pandemic of 2019 (COVID-19). As a result, implementing positive behavior techniques early on will reduce the likelihood of problem behavior. A [BL] [ X] [Y] [BL] [XY] component analysis was used to study the individual components: Visual activity schedules (VAS), ClassDojo®, and the results of combining interventions on self-initiated transitions in a bilingual preschool classroom. Participants were 4 to 5 years old, in a general education who displayed difficulty transitioning. First, the study observed participants transitioning without added assistance. After, participants were to wear an Octopus watch® and then participate in a class token economy with recorded self-initiated transitions. A return to baseline followed, and lastly, a combined VAS and ClassDojo® intervention was implemented to see its impact on transitions. The results found a socially significant improvement from baseline compared to combined components across all participants in the study. Results supported combining VAS with a token economy using effective reinforcers to improve self-initiated transitions among preschoolers in the public-school setting. However, future replications with limitations addressed in this study will be needed to back claims.

Research demonstrates that video modeling and visual activity schedules have been effective in teaching students with disabilities a variety of skills. However, the instructional procedures used to teach students to acquire the necessary skills to perform the tasks can take time for the students and the instructors. A behavior skills training package was investigated within a multiple probe design across students to determine if four elementary aged students with intellectual disability, with and without autism spectrum disorder, could acquire self-instructional skills. The dependent variables in the study were the effects of behavior skills training on the acquisition of self-instructional skills and the effects of video activity schedules on the acquisition of novel skills. The independent variable was behavior skills training. Three students were able to acquire the self-instruction skills in an effective and efficient manner using behavior skills training. After learning how to navigate the video activity schedules, three students were able to generalize and maintain the self-instruction skills to learn novel tasks. The results suggest that behavior skills training may be an effective instructional strategy for teaching self-instructional skills to students with intellectual disability.

The question of the quality of life, such as the ability to complete the routine skills independently has been widely debated in the special education field. However, perspectives have not adequately addressed the various outcomes of electronic visual activity schedule via iPad (First Then App) on assisting the individual with severe disabilities completing routine skills independently. This study aims to investigate the effects of using electronic visual activity schedules with special attention to learning routine skills and communication skills for students with severe disabilities. The following questions will be examined during the research period: What is the effect of visual activity schedules via an iPad First Then App, on the percentage of steps completed for routine tasks for students with severe disabilities? 2. What is the level of perceived student engagement when using the app vs. typical instruction? 3. What is the effect of the First Then App on the communication skills when completing daily life skills and school routines? 4. What value do the teacher and students place on the use of an electronic VAS to teach daily life and school routines? The study will take place in a suburban elementary classroom for a student with significant disabilities, and who match the inclusion criteria.The data will be collected via single-subject multiple baselines across skills (ABAB design). Participating student will be asked to complete routine skills without (baseline data) and with (intervention data) the technology-based intervention. The least to most intrusive prompts will be consistent with the First Then the application, and the positive reinforcement will be included to prevent behavioral challenges. A member of the research team will collect the interobserver agreement and procedural fidelity. As a result, the researchers will expect to see the independent variable, the app with systematic instruction, to have an impact on the dependent variable, overall skill acquisition of the targeted life skill and increases in overall communication. Also, We expect to have a functional relation between the independent variable and dependent variable. This paper sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged issue of using electronic visual activity schedules for students with severe disabilities to learn routine skills and communication skills.

Tolerating transitions between activities and locations is an essential daily-living skill, as transitions are inevitable in most typical settings. However, for some individuals, requests to transition may occasion problem behavior which can interfere with daily routines and result in a more restrictive lifestyle. The unpredictability of transitions is often assumed to be aversive and functionally related to transition-related problem behavior. As a result, advance notice procedures are often recommended to reduce problem behavior during transitions. However, Brewer et al. (2014) found mixed results for the use of advance notice highlighting some studies where advance notice procedures reduced problem behavior and others where the procedures were inefficacious. In this study, we reviewed the relevant literature between 1994 and 2020, including studies reviewed by Brewer et al. (2014) and extended Brewer et al.’s (2014) review in a number of ways. We first summarized the current literature, including new studies published since Brewer et al.’s (2014) review, which included a total of 28 applications of advance notice published in 14 papers. Next, we identified key features of each study, including the presence or absence of demonstrated functional relations, inclusion of additional antecedent or consequent interventions, and evaluation and control of the effects of pre- and post-transition reinforcers on responding. Then we identified gaps in current knowledge regarding predictability and made research recommendations for addressing these gaps. Finally, we discuss practice recommendations for transition-related problem behavior based on current research.

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Students with disabilities often face difficulty throughout their lives. One of these common challenges for students with severe disabilities is they often struggle with routine skills — for example, significant time spent helping students transition to activities throughout the day. The student's performance to complete required daily school routines increased when the researcher applied the picture activity schedules. Also, one strategy to enable students with disabilities to increase independence is through assistive technology. Therefore, many studies support the use of technology-based visual supports to teach daily school routines. Teachers increasingly have started to adopt an electronic visual activity schedule (eVAS) as a means to provide clear and consistent support for students with disabilities. Although the above studies are positive, there is still a need to more fully examine the various outcomes of eVAS. Therefore, this study is to investigate the effects of using eVAS (i.e., FIRST THEN application) on the latency period that the student spends for checking the schedule independently and prompts needed to transition throughout the day. Also, the value that the teacher and student place on the use of an eVAS to teach daily life and school routines instead of using typical instruction (e.g., traditional visual schedule), and the student’s ability to generalize the use of the eVAS across instructors and materials (display). The participant was a 10-year-old male in the fifth grade with intellectual disability and autism. This study was conducted in an intermediate school in the southeastern United States. An ABAB single case design was used to investigate the effects of the app. The dependent variables (DV) included: 1) The percent of independent correct responding to the natural cue “timer went off, or the teacher said: “Time to Switch”; 2) The amount of time the participant took to respond to the natural cue and check a schedule. The independent variable (IV) was applying the system of least prompts (SLP) along with the First Then application on iPad. Both DV and IV were collected five sessions in five days, during the transition period between activities in each baseline, intervention, maintenance, and generalization phases. The second observer recorded 25% of the data collection of the inter-observer agreement and procedural fidelity. By the end of the study, the social validity survey was provided one for the teacher and another one for the participant. The result indicated a functional relation between DV and the IV. Also, the limitation and the suggestion for future research were discussed. In conclusion, this study extended the result of prior studies by emphasizing the effectiveness of using the eVAS with students to independently complete the routine skills and applying SLP to give the student the opportunity to do the task with less prompts. The study will guide teachers use of such support tool and apply the intervention in the classroom with students with disabilities.