A meta-analysis of single-case research on the use of tablet-mediated interventions for persons with ASD

There is a growing amount of single-case research literature on the benefits of tablet-mediated interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). With the development of tablet-based computers, tablet-mediated interventions have been widely utilized for education and treatment purposes; however, the overall quality and evidence of this literature-base are unknown.

This article aims to present a quality review of the single-case experimental literature and aggregate results across studies involving the use of tablet-mediated interventions for individuals with ASD.

Using the Tau nonoverlap effect size measure, the authors extracted data from single-case experimental studies and calculated effect sizes differentiated by moderator variables. The moderator variables included the ages of participants, participants' diagnoses, interventions, outcome measures, settings, and contexts.

Results indicate that tablet-mediated interventions for individuals with ASD have moderate to large effect sizes across the variables evaluated. The majority of research in this review used tablets for video modeling and augmentative and alternative communication.

To promote the usability of tablet-mediated interventions for individuals with ASD, this review indicates that more single-case experimental studies should be conducted with this population in naturalistic home, community, and employment settings.