Brief Report: Using iPads for Self-Monitoring of Students with Autism.

Four students with autism used iPads loaded with short self-modeling videos. The videos showed each student staying on-task during class work. Students tapped the screen to record their own on-task behavior every few minutes. The researchers removed and re-added the iPads to test if the tool really worked.

On-task behavior rose every time the iPads were available. When the iPads were taken away, focus dropped. The same jump happened again when the iPads came back. The pattern showed the tool, not chance, caused the change.

Rosenbloom et al. (2019) later swapped Choiceworks for the I-Connect phone app and saw the same gain with adolescents. Fiene et al. (2015) got similar results using a vibrating watch instead of an iPad. The device changes, but self-monitoring keeps working.

Ledbetter-Cho et al. (2018) reviewed 19 tablet studies and found student-run devices beat teacher-run ones. Strang et al. (2017) lines up with that: the kids tapped the screen themselves.

Sulu et al. (2023) tried the same self-monitoring steps with Turkish students who had ADHD, not autism. Their gains were large too, showing the tactic crosses diagnoses when you match the tool to the learner.

You can set this up in under an hour. Record a 10-second clip of the learner working well. Drop it into Choiceworks or any free self-monitoring app. Let the student tap yes/no each interval. The kid becomes their own coach, and you get steady on-task jumps without extra staff.