Comparing Self-Management Strategies Delivered via an iPhone to Promote Grocery Shopping and Literacy

Four students with moderate intellectual disabilities used electronic lists delivered on an iPhone to assist them in skills related to community-based grocery shopping. An alternating treatments design was used to assist in comparing the effectiveness and efficiency of three different types of lists (Text Only, Audio - Text, and Picture - Text). Data gathered during Experiment 1 indicated that the use of pictorial lists delivered via the iPhone interface appeared to be the most effective and efficient prompting system for all participants. The iPhone based pictorial list prompting system was further evaluated to determine whether or not it would assist students to incidentally learn to read the words after multiple presentations of the picture and text. Data gathered during Experiment 2 indicated that one student learned all of the target words incidentally while another student learned most of the words as a result of using the iPhone based system alone. Two other students required use of a computer-based instructional program with simultaneous prompting to assist them in learning the target words.