Date of Award

December 2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Roger O Smith

Committee Members

Kris Barnekow, Tom Keating

Keywords

Accessibility, Assistive Technology, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Children's Museum, QR Codes, Video Modeling

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to perform an exploratory study to determine if the ScanDo! app intervention is an assistive technology that increases interaction for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a museum setting. The ScanDo! app intervention presented a video demonstration that modeled the interaction for each learning station by scanning the QR code attached to the station. Using a naturally occurring baseline single-subject design with ABA and reversed ABA phases, two children with ASD and their parents visited the grocery store exhibit at a children’s museum. Observers of the trials and questionnaires completed by parents before and after each trial documented play behaviors and location. We hypothesized that the intervention would increase quality interactions and length of play. Dependent variables were the location of the child and the quality of play for each ten seconds during the trial. The results showed that during the ScanDo! app intervention, both participants had a more even distribution of time spent at each station, increased transitions between stations, and decreased amount of time at stations where participants demonstrated unproductive play. These findings suggest that the ScanDo! App intervention helps increase transitions for children with ASD to provide more learning environments and productive play opportunities.

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