Comparing self-management strategies delivered via an iPhone to promote independent grocery shopping and acquisition of incidental information

Abstract

Four students with moderate intellectual disabilities used electronic lists delivered on an iPhone to assist them in skills related to grocery shopping. An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of three different types of lists (text only, audio + text, and picture + text). Data gathered during the initial investigation indicated that the use of pictorial lists delivered via the iPhone interface appeared to be the most effective and efficient prompting system for all participants. This prompting system was further evaluated to determine whether or not it would assist students to incidentally learn to read the words after multiple presentations of the picture and text. Data gathered during study 2 indicated that two students learned the target words incidentally as a result of using the iPhone based system alone while two other students required use of a computer-based instructional program with simultaneous prompting to assist them in learning the words.