Using a Personal Digital Assistant to Enhance the
Independence of an Adolescent with Asperger Syndrome
Heather Ferguson, Brenda Smith Myles, and Taku Hagiwara
University of KansasAbstract: The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), while in use in the mainstream population, is not generally utilized by individuals with disabilities. Using a multiple-baseline design across settings we tested effectiveness of using a PDA to increase the independence of an adolescent with Asperger Syndrome (AS). Results indicated use of the PDA was effective in decreasing the student’s reliance on adults to complete tasks at home and at school.
According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 and the Technology-related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988 as Amended in 1994, school districts must provide technology and related services to support students with disabilities in the general education curricu-lum (Mirenda, Wilk, & Carson, 2000). This act introduced assistive technology as a means of helping individuals with disabilities overcome the obstacles that inhibit them from fully tak-ing part in activities at school, home and the community, including enhancing tasks that involve memory and organization skills (Bremer & Rauch, 1998; Bull, Bull, Garofalo, & Harris, 2002; Lewis, 1998, 2000).
Assistive technology includes a variety of supports ranging from augmentative commu-nication devices to more commonly used desktop and laptop computers. One device that appears promising for students with dis-abilities is the PDA (Swan, Swan, & Van Hover, 2002). The PDA, a handheld computer that mainly serves as a personal information orga-nizer, allows data input via an on-screen key-board or handwriting recognition program us-ing a stylus. With multimedia capabilities, it is capable of playing both sound and video clips. Pictures and other visual representations are
vivid and precise due, in part, to the high-resolution color screens. In addition, the PDA can be hooked up to a computer to synchro-nize information and connected to network systems, including the Internet for exchang-ing e-mails and explorexchang-ing the World Wide Web. In addition, portable keyboards can con-nect to the Pocket PC to create a discrete word-processing system, enabling information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, dates, and personal schedules to be stored for easy access and retrieval. Scheduling and time management programs are included as de-fault functions in the PDA (Lewis, 1998; Swan et al.).
Despite their use in the mainstream, few studies have been conducted on the impact of PDAs. Nevertheless, the following has been established to date. For individuals without disabilities, the PDA has assisted students in organizing classroom notes and preparing for tests (Norris & Soloway, 2003). PDAs have also been used to support individuals with special needs in career and leisure activities (Furniss et al., 2001) and to increase independence and self-determination (Davies, Stock, & Wehmeyer, 2002). Davies et al. found that persons with disabilities who used PDAs func-tioned more independently, learned more, and required less assistance from support per-sonnel.
The purpose of this study was to add to the literature base on PDA use with students with special needs. Specifically, this study was de-signed to determine whether a PDA could Correspondence concerning this article should
be addressed to Brenda Smith Myles, Department of Special Education, University of Kansas, Joseph R. Pearson Building, 5thFloor, 1122 W. Campus Road, Lawrence, KS 66045-3101. E-mail: [email protected]
Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 2005, 40(1), 60 – 67
enhance the independence of an adolescent with AS at home and at school.
Method
Participant
Kent, a Caucasian male in his final year of public middle school in the Midwestern United States was the participant. He was 14-years old, and had a diagnosis of AS made by a medical professional using criterion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – 4thEdition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Kent’s intelligence quo-tient was in the above average range and his grades were average. He had considerable dif-ficulty with his handwriting, finding it both tiresome and tedious.
A Behavior Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992) was adminis-tered to Kent’s resource room teacher, his mother, and Kent himself. His teacher re-ported that Kent was rated “At-Risk” in Atten-tion Problems, and was identified as “Clini-cally Significant” in Anxiety, Atypicality, and Withdrawal. Kent’s mother classified him as “At-Risk” in Hyperactivity, Anxiety, School Problems, Learning Problems, Withdrawal, Adaptive Skills, and Behavioral Symptom In-dex; he received “Clinically Significant” scores in Atypicality and Attention Problems. The discrepancy in responses between Kent’s teacher and mother appears consistent with other reports by educators and parents ad-dressing the characteristics of a child with AS (Barnhill et al., 2000; Myles, Ferguson, & Hagiwara, 2003). Kent rated himself as “At-Risk” in Anxiety and Atypicality; other areas fell in “Average” or above ranges in his report. An Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (Brown & Dunn, 2002) was also completed by Kent. This measure indicated that Kent avoided sensation much more than most peo-ple, was more sensitive to sensory stimuli than most people, and exhibited registration and sensory seeking behaviors in a manner similar to most people.
Setting
The study took place in Kent’s math and social studies classes, and in his home. Kent’s math
instruction occurred in the resource room in a small group setting that included two other students, and his social studies class was held in a general education classroom with 20 other students.
Target Behavior
Kent relied heavily on prompts from his par-ents and teachers to complete his daily activi-ties. Without multiple prompts from his mother to finish routine daily tasks, for exam-ple, Kent would become distracted and stop his routine. In school, Kent’s teachers prompted him to gather the appropriate ma-terials before class, pay attention during class, submit his homework, record his homework assignments, and transition to his next class. Kent needed to function more independently to complete routine daily tasks, especially as demands for greater independence increase by age and grade level. Thus, the behavior targeted for this study was to increase Kent’s independence during morning home activi-ties, school tasks, and evening home activities by decreasing his dependence on the adults in his life.
Instruments
A Hewlett Packard Jornada 560 Personal Dig-ital Assistant (Hewlett-Packard, 2001) with Mi-crosoft Windows for Pocket PC Software 2002 (Microsoft, 2002) was introduced to increase Kent’s independence when completing early morning, school, and evening tasks. Kent, his mother, and resource room teacher received training on the PDA. In essence, the PDA remained the same as the product available to the general public. The calendar and alarm functions that are a part of the Microsoft Win-dows for the Pocket PC were used in imple-menting the intervention.
A data collection sheet was designed to out-line the four morning tasks and desired times when Kent needed to complete each task ev-ery morning in his home. A second data sheet, created using the same format, listed four evening activities. The data collection form listed each task and its start time on the left. Three additional columns on the right al-lowed Kent’s mother to indicate (a) if he pleted the task independently, (b) if he
com-pleted the task with prompts, and (c) the time when the task was completed. Kent’s mother completed this form. A similar data sheet list-ing six tasks durlist-ing social studies and math over a 50-minute period was used in the school setting and was completed by the first author. Figures 1, 2, and 3 present the morn-ing, school, and evening data sheets, respec-tively.
Procedure
A multiple-baseline design across settings was used to evaluate the effectiveness of using a
PDA to improve the time management and task completion rate of a junior high student with AS. Settings were morning tasks, school tasks, and evening tasks.
During the baseline phase, Kent was given a list of tasks and associated times for the fol-lowing activities: (a) in the morning as he was getting ready for school; (b) at school during math and social studies classes; and (c) in the evening prior to going to bed. A task was considered completed independently if Kent finished the task within two minutes of the time listed on his task list. Each of these tasks were known to Kent prior to the study and had
been a part of the expected routine for several months.
During the intervention phases, an alarm was set on the PDA to alert Kent to start each of the targeted tasks. The alarm sounded au-dibly and also flashed visually. Kent’s mother recorded the number of morning tasks he completed independently with the support of his PDA, and the number of tasks that she needed to prompt him to complete, along with the time that each task was completed. The first author recorded the number of school tasks Kent completed independently with the support of his PDA, the number of tasks that he required prompts to complete,
and the time that each task was completed. The number of tasks Kent completed inde-pendently was divided by the total number of tasks to arrive at a percent of tasks completed. Reliability
Interobserver reliability, assessed on 20% of data days by Kent’s paraprofessional, was 100%.
Results
As illustrated in Figure 4, during baseline, Kent completed 0% of his morning and
evening tasks independently, and 63% of his school tasks without prompts. During the in-tervention phases, using the PDA as a primary prompt, Kent independently completed a mean of: 47% of morning tasks, 87% of school tasks, and 33% of his evening tasks. The study was carried out over a 20-day period. Data were taken for 15 days at school because the school year ended. The break in the data lines during the morning and evening activities on Day 15 represents the transition between the last day of school and the start of summer vacation.
Discussion
The purpose of this investigation was to deter-mine if a PDA could assist an adolescent in completing home- and school-based tasks in-dependently. Results should be interpreted carefully with limitation considerations given
to the length of intervention and use of single-subject design procedures.
Conclusions
Results of this study could, in part, be attrib-uted to the novelty of the PDA. This device appeared to appeal to Kent and may have helped to ease the transition into the interven-tion. He quickly learned how to manipulate the PDA and required reminders to maintain the settings during the intervention phases and not “adjust” them. While Kent required little training to use the PDA, by comparison, his teacher and mother experienced difficulty learning how to use the technology, even after multiple training sessions. This is significant in that technology use in educational settings can only be successful when adequate support provided (Mirenda et al., 2000).
Kent’s data indicate that generalization may have occurred across settings. That is,
pendent task completion increased during baseline in the third setting before the PDA was introduced and after the intervention had been introduced in other settings. This find-ing appears consistent with the investigations by Bock (1994, 1999) who found a similar pattern of generalization when teaching cate-gorization strategies to students with autism spectrum disorders.
Kent’s mother commented that during the intervention phase Kent checked the time the and announced, “Come on! It’s time to go [to school]!” This was significantly different from his mother’s prior reports that she had to continuously cajole and argue with her son to get him to leave the house to go to school on time each morning. In addition, Kent used his PDA to record his appointments and personal information. He also set his PDA so that an alarm sounded and a light at the top of the device flashed. The light and alarm would alert Kent to open the PDA, where his re-minder would be displayed visually on the screen. Perhaps, given Kent’s sensory issues, the stimulation of multiple senses allowed him to begin his tasks independently (Dunn, Myles, & Orr, 2002).
Similar to studies by Davies et al. (2002) and Norris and Soloway (2003), the PDA was ef-fective in addressing a student’s target behav-ior. Although few studies have been con-ducted with PDAs, cautious optimism exists regarding the use of this technology. In par-ticular, the PDA and similar technology may be a viable tool for individuals with special needs. Positive aspects of palmtop computers include their portability, small size, and in-creasing popularity among the general public. Thus, the inconspicuous nature of the PDA allows users to support themselves in a variety of settings without calling attention to any additional differences. Use of this type of tech-nology to render assistance to individuals with disabilities, including those with AS, may assist in increased levels of participation in the com-munity (Davies et al.; Norris & Soloway).
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Using a pocket personal computer to improve homework recording in an adolescent with Asperger Syndrome.
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Received: 7 August 2003
Initial Acceptance: 6 October 2003 Final Acceptance: 15 February 2004
