1. Teaching Children With Autism To Follow Activity Schedules on an iPad 3 Using Manual Prompts and Edible Reinforcement Mark Mautone 1, Kenneth F. Reeve 1, Sharon A. Reeve 1, & Kevin J. Brothers 2 1 Caldwell College 2 Somerset Hills Learning Institute Teaching Children With Autism To Follow Activity Schedules on an iPad 3 Using Manual Prompts and Edible Reinforcement Mark Mautone 1, Kenneth F. Reeve 1, Sharon A. Reeve 1, & Kevin J. Brothers 2 1 Caldwell College 2 Somerset Hills Learning Institute Background Results & Discussion Participants Three children aged 3-4 who were diagnosed with autism participated. Gavin, Cole, and Jacob all attended a public school ABA program. None had been previously exposed to schedule following. Each participant was competent in picture-object correspondence as evidenced by their school program data. All participants had previous exposure using an iPad ® prior to the onset of the study, but not for activity schedule following. Setting and Materials  Sessions were conducted in the participants’ public school classroom.  Activity schedules were presented on an Apple iPad 3 ® using the Keynote ® application.  Activities for the participants to complete were stringing beads, completing a jigsaw puzzle, matching peg puzzle pieces to a corresponding puzzle board, a Lego ® model, and colored bears. Method Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of activity schedules in notebook form to promote peer interaction, increase self-help, independence, play skills, and task completion. For example, MacDuff, Krantz, and McClannahan (1993) investigated whether on- task and on-schedule behavior could be increased using a notebook photo activity schedule. Although effective, the use of an activity schedule in a notebook format may be viewed as more stigmatizing by some than activity schedules presented on portable electronic devices (Carlile, Reeve, Reeve, & DeBar, in press). To date, no published research has investigated the use of photographic activity schedules on an iPad 3 ® for children with autism. The purpose of the present study was to investigate this with children who had not been previously exposed to teaching of schedule following. Dependent Variables & Experimental Design On task behavior was defined as the percentage of 30-s momentary time samples in which participants visually attended to the iPad 3 ® and manipulated the materials when completing the activities. Percentage of completed components was defined as the number of components of the schedule correctly completed out of the total divided by 100. There were 15 components to be completed, which included steps to turn on the iPad, access the schedule, complete the activity, and close out the presentation software. A multiple-probe-across-participants design was used to assess the effects of the treatment procedure. The presentation order of the photos of activities to be completed was counterbalanced across sessions to reduce the likelihood of order/sequence effects. Generalization of activity following was assessed with activities and settings not used during training. Procedure Baseline. Participants were escorted into the room in front of a table with an iPad 3 ® on it. The iPad 3 ® was preloaded with picture prompts of each activity for the child to complete. The activities were placed on a shelf about 1 m behind the participants. During baseline all participants were given the vocal instruction “Do your schedule.” No prompts or reinforcement were provided. When a participant incorrectly responded, or did not respond within 5 s of each step, the experimenter turned the participant away from the activity and completed the current step in the schedule. The participant was then turned back around to continue. Edibles were delivered into a cup for remaining on-task and independently initiating steps. Edible reinforcers were accessed after the completion of each activity. Intervention. Similar to baseline, the participants were brought into the room, stood at the table with the iPad 3 ® present and loaded with pictures. The participant was physically prompted if he did not initiate a step of the schedule within 5 s of an opportunity. References The top figure shows that Gavin and Cole learned to independently follow photographic activity schedules on an iPad 3 ® in the absence of manuals prompts and reinforcement. This skill generalized to home and a novel classroom with activities not used during training. Jacob did not meet criterion for following his activity schedule and did not complete the study due to time constraints. The bottom figure shows that on-task behavior moderately increased during intervention for Gavin, Cole, and Jacob. The high levels of on- task behavior during baseline may suggest that the iPad itself contributed to on-task behavior. This is the first study to show that preschool children with autism can learn to follow an activity schedule using an iPad 3 ®. Unlike previous studies, the participants in this study were not previously exposed to schedule following. Future research using the iPad should examine reducing stereotypic behavior, and increasing social and play skills. Carlile, K., Reeve, S. A., DeBar, R. M., & Reeve, K. F. (in press). Teaching leisure skills with an iPod touch© activity schedule. Education and Treatment of Children. MacDuff, M. T., Krantz, P. J., & McClannahan, L. E., (1993). Teaching children with autism to use photographic activity schedules: Maintenance and generalization of complex response chains. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26, 89-97. Manual prompts were no longer delivered for a step when a participant independently completed the step with 90% accuracy. Reinforcement was thinned from FR1 to FR2 to FR4 to no reinforcement after each participant met criterion for two sessions during the delivery of reinforcement that occurred following the last level. Social Validity One parent of each participant completed a survey which indicated approval of the intervention, cost, and effectiveness of the procedures although the intervention was rated as difficult to implement in a typical classroom. Social validity measures showed results similar to Carlile et al. (in press) in which mobile technology was rated as more socially acceptable than photographic activity schedules in binders. Interobserver Agreement / Treatment Integrity IOA data were collected for 50% of sessions. Mean IOA was 96% (range 90-100%) across the 3 participants. Treatment integrity was recorded for 50% of sessions and was 100%. IOA for treatment integrity was also 100%.