Teaching profession names to individuals with intellectual disabilities with animation supported augmented reality application

The primary goal of education is to enable individuals to live productively and independently. Just as for typically developing students, it is essential to create environments for individuals with special needs that minimize their limitations and maximize their performance throughout their educational processes. With the influence of current technologies, various educational opportunities are provided to individuals with special needs. Consequently, it is observed that various assistive technologies are used in different subject areas in special education. Research indicates that highly interactive, concretizing, and reality-enhancing educational technologies, such as augmented reality and animations, which use dynamic visuals, have significant potential in the education of individuals with special needs. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of an animation-supported augmented reality application prepared for special needs individuals with intellectual disabilities at the primary school level on learning, generalizing, and retaining professions through the simultaneous prompting method. For this purpose, illustrated profession booklets containing two-dimensional video animations and an augmented reality mobile application designed for teaching professions were presented using the simultaneous prompting method. The study employed a multiple probe design across participants, which is one of the single-subject experimental designs. The participants of the study consisted of a total of four students aged 9-10 with mild intellectual disabilities, including one girl and three boys. The results of the 11-week application showed that the teaching method was effective in helping students learn the professions. The findings from the follow-up sessions conducted one, three, and five weeks after the application process indicated that the students maintained their learning skills at a high level. Furthermore, the findings from the generalization sessions revealed that the students were able to generalize their learning skills to a different environment at a high level. According to the social validity data obtained from the participant students and teachers at the end of the study, the teaching method received positive feedback. Considering that augmented reality can produce effective results for other special education groups as well, suggestions for various studies on similar topics were presented.