Teaching individuals with intellectual disability to email across multiple device platforms.
Prompt and fade email on one device and adults with ID will use it on any screen.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Four adults with intellectual disability joined the study.
The team used prompting and fading to teach email on three devices: desktop, laptop, and iPad.
They tracked each person with a multiple-baseline design to see if skills moved from one device to the others.
What they found
Every adult learned to send and receive email on all three devices.
Skills that started on one device showed up on the other two without extra teaching.
The prompting plan created true generalization across Windows and iOS platforms.
How this fits with other research
Tracey et al. (1974) first showed that prompting plus reinforcement makes new skills spread to untrained examples.
Foti et al. (2015) now proves the same idea works for modern tech: teach email once and it shows up on every screen.
Amore et al. (2011) gave us a short 46-item questionnaire that measures how hard everyday tech feels to adults with ID.
Use that tool before and after the email lessons to capture the change in client confidence.
Why it matters
Email is a gateway to jobs, friends, and independence.
With one prompting plan you can give clients a skill that works on any machine they touch.
Start with the device the person likes, fade prompts fast, then watch the skill pop up on the next screen.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
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Join Free →Pick the client’s favorite device, teach send-and-receive with least-to-most prompts, then hand them a different device and let them try without prompts.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the use of email by people with intellectual disability across multiple technological devices or platforms. Four individuals with intellectual disability participated in this study. Participants were taught how to access and send an email on a Windows desktop computer, laptop, and an iPad tablet device. Results indicated a functional relation. All participants acquired and generalized sending and receiving an email from multiple platforms. Conclusions are discussed about the importance of empowering people with intellectual disability by providing multiple means of expression, including the ability to communicate effectively using a variety of devices.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.044