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Within the US there are over 300 postsecondary education (PSE) programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). College students enrolled in PSE programs for students with IDD often require support in using assistive technology (AT) to complete living, learning, and working tasks. To date, there is no systematic review or meta-analysis that examines interventions within these programs that integrate AT to teach these skills. We systematically reviewed 43 intervention studies that targeted 235 students' use of AT to complete living, learning, and working tasks. The average age of students was 21.5 yrs (R = 18.7 to 27.5). Most studies used mobile devices and applications to target living (44.2%), learning (37.2%), and working (18.6%) skills. Forty-two of 43 studies used visual cues and systematic prompting and/or systematic instruction. On average, interventions were 10 sessions. Eighty-seven percent of studies reported treatment fidelity, 94% reported interobserver agreement, and 67% reported social validity. Most studies used correct number of responses or task analysis steps completed as the dependent variable. The meta-analytic results indicated interventions were overall effective at improving student outcomes. An analysis of moderators revealed a significant difference for study quality but no significant difference for disability type, study duration, and area targeted.

The authors in this study used a pre-posttest experimental design with random assignment to treatment or control group to assess the use of an electronic editing cognitive strategy. The participants were 16 college students with intellectual and developmental disabilities enrolled in a 2-year postsecondary program at a Midwestern institute of higher education. Students who were taught the strategy received eight 50-minute lessons once a week for eight weeks. Each strategy lesson was driven by the strategy mnemonic and incorporated an explicit instruction format with modeling, guided practice with feedback, and independent practice. Strategy instruction included students using desktop PCs and Microsoft Word to identify and correct editing errors in electronic passages. Posttests revealed a significant difference in favor of the treatment group for total editing errors corrected and specific error types corrected for spelling, punctuation, and substance. No significant difference was found for overall appearance and capitalization errors. Two weeks following posttest, a maintenance probe revealed that students in the treatment group corrected a significantly higher number of editing errors than those in the control group.

We examined the efficacy of a combined electronic essay writing and editing mnemonic driven strategy with 24 college students in a two-year postsecondary program for students with developmental disabilities. We used a pre-posttest experimental design with random assignment to treatment/control groups. During 26 sessions each consisting of 50 min., students in the treatment group received essay writing and editing mnemonic-driven instruction that included explicit instruction and graphic organizers. Students used PCs and Microsoft Word to analyze essay-test questions, complete pre-writing planning, construct essay responses, and edit their work. Univariate analysis of posttests revealed a significant positive difference for the treatment group in using the essay writing and editing strategy steps, and in constructing essay responses. Following the end of the intervention, students responded to an essay prompt. The treatment group significantly outperformed the control group in applying strategy steps and produced better quality essays for ideas/organization, length, and spelling errors.

Behavior-specific praise is a research-based classroom management strategy that promotes appropriate student behaviors. Praise specificity, however, may not be the only characteristic of praise that enhances efficacy. The current study examined teacher's natural use of specific, contingent, and varied praise to understand additional qualities of praise. Praise statements of inservice special education (n = 12), inservice general education (n = 13), and dual special education/general education preservice (n = 17) teachers were observed in natural elementary school settings. Statistical results did not indicate differences between teacher groups and praise characteristics; however, descriptive results demonstrate all teacher groups delivered low rates of general and specific praise. Percentages of praise contingency (average range = 59%-91.2%) suggest teachers did not deliver sufficient praise statements contingent on student behavior. Furthermore, percentages of praise variety (average range = 44.5%-57.7%) show use of repetitive praise statements that may reduce efficacy on student behaviors. These findings and other implications are discussed in the context of future praise research.

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often have difficulties with self-management skills such as scheduling daily tasks for educational, vocational, and leisure purposes. In this study, we used a multiple probe across participant design to evaluate the effects of constant time delay in teaching young adults with IDD the necessary steps to schedule events and set reminders using the Calendar application (app). Three students with IDD in a postsecondary education setting participated in this study and acquired the steps required for programming events and their reminders in the Calendar app. In addition, two participants independently attended the scheduled events without additional reminders from adults. Limitations, future research, and practical implications are discussed.

This study examined the efficacy of an electronic essay-writing strategy to improve the expository writing skills of 20 young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities enrolled in a program at an institute of higher education in the midwest. A pretest and posttest experimental design with random assignment to treatment or control group was used to investigate the mnemonic-driven electronic writing strategy. The writing strategy supported students' construction of essay responses using a computer. Students used the strategy and a computer word program to examine an electronically presented essay test question, plan through the construction of an electronic outline, and create and revise an electronic essay response. Pretest and posttest essay responses were evaluated through proximal and distal rubrics. Results revealed a significant positive effect for the treatment group when compared to the control group for overall essay quality including use of ideas and content, and word choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]