The Effect of the iA Writer iPad Application on the Writing Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Main Author: Karp, Erica
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2013
• Subjects: Psychology
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/641; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1619&context=cmc_theses

The effects of an iPad-based intervention, given to six children with autism while writing a creative story, were evaluated through a multiple-baseline, alternating treatment, single subject design. The researcher targeted the effectiveness of the iPad by alternating with paper and pencil. Participants were required to write stories, based on one-word topic prompts, either using the iPad or a pencil and paper. The resulting stories were scored by a set of blind raters. The raters were either given a sentences rubric or a paragraph rubric depending on the participant‟s age. One of the participant‟s data was omitted from the study. Results indicated a significant difference between treatment rubric raw scores for two of the participants in different directions. A difference between proficiency scores for the same two participants was also demonstrated. The remaining three participants had less significant results, with one participant maintaining the same proficiency level and eventually narrowing the difference between treatment raw scores.