Promoting independent task performance by persons with severe developmental disabilities through a new computer-aided system

This study involved two experiments. In Experiment 1, a computer-aided syst em for promoting task performance by 6 persons with severe developmental di sabilities was compared with a card system. The computer-aided system was p ortable and presented pictorial task instructions tone instruction per step ) and prompts. In Experiment 2, the same system was used, but the number of instruction occasions was reduced. In one condition, the system presented all the instructions used in Experiment 1 but mostly in clusters rather tha n individually. In another the system presented part of the Experiment 1 in structions. Three Experiment 1 participants also served in Experiment 2. Ex periment 1 results indicated all 6 participants had higher percentages of c orrect steps with the computer system and preferred it to the card system. Experiment 2 results indicated that the condition in which the instructions were clustered was more effective for maintaining correct task performance . Implications of the findings were discussed.