Comparison of picture cards and augmented reality in teaching auditory-visual conditional discrimination to students with ASD

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of using picture cards and augmented reality (AR) as comparison stimuli in teaching auditory-visual conditional discrimination (AVCD) skills to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Method: Participants of the study were three boys aged 3-6 years with ASD. The teaching and data collection processes of the research were carried out in the homes of the participants. In the study, adapted alternating treatments design embedded in a multiple baseline across participants was used. Results: The findings show that all participants were able to acquire the skill in the AR condition, generalize the acquired knowledge to different instruction sets, and maintain it two and five weeks after the instruction. In the picture card condition, only one participant skill was successful in acquisition, generalization and maintenance . The other two participants did not acquire the target skill in the picture cards condition. Conclusion and Suggestions: The findings obtained in the study show that the use of teaching sets prepared with AR content can accelerate the learning of AVCD skills to children with ASD, that it can facilitate the learning of children who have difficulties in acquiring AVCD skills with traditional picture cards for any reason, and that the use of AR in AVCD teaching may have higher social validity than the use of picture cards. In further studies, it is recommended to examine the use of AR in teaching expressive language skills as well as receptive language skills. In addition, it is suggested that the production and dissemination of mobile applications with rich content that can provide the teaching of large word pools can facilitate the teaching of AVCD, a functional skill that will support the progress of children with ASD in many developmental areas.