Using Electronic Activity Schedules to Teach Adults With Disabilities to Ask for Assistance When Needed in a Single-Case Research Design

Individuals with developmental disabilities sometimes lack functional skills such as asking for help. Sometimes these deficits can extend into the adult years. Although there is an abundance of research on teaching such skills to children, there is a dearth of such research involving adults. Three adult participants diagnosed with disabilities that impaired independent functioning were taught to request help when needed using an electronic activity schedule using a multiple-baseline across participants design conducted in the U.S. state of New York. Each participant was given two electronic activity schedules delivered via PowerPoint on an iPad tablet. The activity schedules were based on tasks that resulted in naturally occurring reinforcers for the participants. While participants independently navigated the activity schedules and completed steps in the activities, they did not request help during steps when materials were unavailable. The addition of interactive prompts to the activity schedules increased help requests from all participants. These prompts consisted of questions with interactive choices for answers that lead to prompts to ask for help as needed. Generalization of asking for help was shown across tasks for one participant, and within tasks for two participants. The implications for continued future research on using electronic activity schedules to present choices for greater independent functioning are discussed.