Teaching Sight Words to Elementary Students With Intellectual Disability and Autism: A Comparison of Teacher-Directed...

Area of Science:

• Special Education
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Educational Technology

Background:

• Effective sight word instruction is crucial for early literacy development in students with intellectual disability.
• Simultaneous prompting is an evidence-based strategy for teaching new skills.
• Comparing traditional and technology-based interventions can inform pedagogical practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of teacher-directed simultaneous prompting versus computer-assisted simultaneous prompting for teaching sight words.
• To determine student preference between the two instructional methods.
• To analyze the efficiency of each approach in an educational setting.

Main Methods:

• An adapted alternating treatments design was employed to compare two conditions.
• Three elementary school students with intellectual disability participated in the study.
• Sight words were taught using either traditional flashcards (teacher-directed) or Intellitools software (computer-assisted).

Main Results:

• All participants acquired sight words in both teacher-directed and computer-assisted conditions.
• Each participant demonstrated superior performance in the teacher-directed condition or expressed a preference for it.
• Computer-assisted instruction was found to be more efficient when performance was comparable.

Conclusions:

• Teacher-directed simultaneous prompting appears more effective for sight word acquisition in this student population.
• While technology can be efficient, direct teacher instruction may yield better learning outcomes for students with intellectual disability.
• Future research should explore optimal integration of technology and teacher-led instruction.