A Review of Technology-Based Interventions to Teach Academic Skills to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 43; no. 11; pp. 2628 - 2648
• Main Authors: Knight, Victoria, McKissick, Bethany R., Saunders, Alicia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.11.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic Ability; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Autistic children; Autistic spectrum disorders; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Best Practices; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child clinical studies; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - rehabilitation; Children; Developmental disorders; Education; Education of Intellectually Disabled - methods; Educational Technology; Evidence; Evidence-Based Practice; Health education; Humans; Infantile autism; Intervention; Interventions; Literature Reviews; Medical sciences; Methods; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Pediatrics; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public Health; Skill Development; Students; Students with Disabilities; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Technology; Technology Uses in Education; United States; Individuals with autism spectrum disorder; Evidence-based practices; Technology; Human; Autism; Pervasive developmental disorder; Evidence-based practice; Developmental disorder; Review; Student; Academic ability; Autism spectrum disorder
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-013-1814-y

A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted for articles published between 1993 and 2012 to determine the degree to which technology-based interventions can be considered an evidence-based practice to teach academic skills to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Criteria developed by Horner et al. (Except Child 71:165–178, 2005 ) and Gersten et al. (Except Child 71:149–164, 2005 ) were used to determine the quality of single-subject research studies and group experimental research studies respectively. A total of 25 studies met inclusion criteria. Of these studies, only three single-subject studies and no group studies met criteria for quality or acceptable studies. Taken together, the results suggest that practitioners should use caution when teaching academic skills to individuals with ASD using technology-based interventions. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.