Using an iPad Application to Promote Early Literacy Development in Young Children With Disabilities

Abstract

This investigation evaluated the effects of using an iPad application to teach young children with developmental delays to receptively identify initial phonemes through 0- to 5-s constant time delay procedures in the context of a multiple-probe design across three sets of behaviors and replicated across three students. The dependent variable was the percentage of unprompted correct receptive identification responses for target phonemes during instruction and probes. All students mastered their target phonemes, generalized the skills across materials, and maintained the skills at or above 50% of accuracy 4 and 7 weeks after the intervention was completed. This study expands the knowledge on using touch screen iPad application for early literacy instruction of young children with disabilities.