Supporting grocery shopping for students with intellectual disability:a preliminary study.

PURPOSE: Decades of research exist supporting various types of self-operating prompting systems, including picture, audio and video to help students with disabilities acquire skills, especially to teach life skills. While many facets of life skills are important to target for instruction for secondary students with intellectual disability, one receiving declining attention is grocery shopping. METHOD: Using a single subject alternating treatment design with two high school students with intellectual disability, the authors analysed the impact of three self-operating prompts systems - picture, audio and video - on students' successful selection of grocery items, independence in completing the task (i.e., percent of steps not prompted), and task completion time. RESULTS: Results showed video prompting to be most successful prompting system for both students for selecting grocery items. However, independence and task completion time varied significantly for the students across the prompting systems. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to match the correct prompting system to individual students' skills, needs and preference, but also to balance efficiency - both for educators and students. Implications for Rehabilitation Video prompting is an effective instructional strategy, but must be considered in light of time and skill to create the video prompts as well as social stigmatization of use in natural community settings. It is important to match the correct prompting system to each student, but also to balance efficiency - both for educators and students.

Comparing a number line and audio prompts in supporting price comparison by students with intellectual disability.

BACKGROUND/AIMS/METHODS: Price comparison is an important and complex skill, but it lacks sufficient research attention in terms of educating secondary students with intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder. This alternating treatment design study compared the use of a paper-based number line and audio prompts delivered via an audio recorder to support three secondary students with intellectual disability to independently and accuracy compare the price of three separate grocery items. PROCEDURES/OUTCOMES: The study consisted of 22 sessions, spread across baseline, intervention, best treatment, and two different generalization phases. Data were collected on the percent of task analysis steps completed independently, the type of prompts needed, students' accuracy selecting the lowest priced item, and task completion time. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: With both intervention conditions, students were able to independently complete the task analysis steps as well as accurately select the lowest priced item and decrease their task completion time. For two of the students, the audio recorder condition resulted in the greatest independence and for one the number line. For only one student was the condition with the greatest independence also the condition for the highest rate of accuracy. IMPLICATIONS: The results suggest both tools can support students with price comparison. Yet, audio recorders offer students and teachers an age-appropriate and setting-appropriate option.