Effects of a smartphone‐based picture activity schedule on self‐checkout skills of students with autism spectrum disorder

Dong et al. (2025) put a picture schedule on a high-schooler’s own phone. The app showed each step of grocery self-checkout with photos and check marks.

Three students with autism used the phone while shopping. Researchers tracked how many steps they did alone across baseline, training, and follow-up.

All three teens quickly learned to scan, bag, and pay without help. Skills stayed strong two weeks later and showed up in new stores.

Parents and teachers said the kids felt proud and needed fewer prompts.

Akers et al. (2016) first showed that printed photo schedules help preschoolers play alone on the playground. Yang moves the same idea to a phone and to older kids buying groceries.

Brodhead et al. (2018) embedded a schedule inside an iPad so kids would switch apps instead of looping on one. Yang keeps the personal device but swaps the goal from play variety to checkout steps.

Hsu et al. (2014) used a phone app for money math at checkout. Yang drops the math and focuses on the sequence of scanning and bagging, making the tool useful even when prices change.

If you support teens with autism, load a free picture-sequence app on their own phone. Let them tick off each checkout step while they shop. You may see faster independence and less hand-over-hand help, just like Yang’s team did.