The effect of systematic teaching with augmented reality technology on joint attention in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of the graduated guidance procedure presented with augmented reality in teaching initiating joint attention to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and determining social validity of the study by investigating the opinions of special education teachers. The participants of the study were four 4-5 years old children. The design of the study was a multiple probe design with probe trials across participants. The independent variable of the study was the graduated guidance, one of the errorless teaching methods, provided with an augmented reality application presented through a tablet. Treatment integrity and inter-observer reliability data were collected at each stage of the research, which was carried out with the graduated guidance. Following the completion of the teaching sessions, generalization across individuals and follow-up sessions were conducted after 7, 15, 30 and 60 days. The results showed that the graduated guidance procedure presented through augmented reality was effective in teaching initiating joint attention skills of the participants. In addition, participants maintained the target skills 7, 15, 30, and 60 days after the completion of the intervention. They also generalized the target skill to novel persons. When the social validity findings are examined, it is seen that special education teachers reported positive opinions about the systematic teaching package presented through augmented reality application. In conclusion, the graduated guidance presented through an augmented reality application is effective in teaching initiating joint attention skills to children with ASD. The results of the current study points out that future research could apply augmented reality applications in teaching different behaviors such as social skills. In addition, different augmented reality applications provided with different response prompting procedures could also be investigated in teaching both initiating and responding to joint attention skills.