Mental Disorders and Treatment

Variability on the Spectrum: A Self-Monitoring Single-Case Design Study for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attentional Deficits

Abstract

Kristie Asaro-Saddler, Bruce Saddler, Mariola Moeyaert, Diana Akhmedjanova, David M Bogin and Timothy McLaughlin

This study investigated the differential effect of two treatments, namely self-monitoring of attention and selfmonitoring of performance on spelling accuracy using a multiple-baseline design across participants. Three fifth- and sixth-grade male upper-elementary school children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in two suburban, public elementary schools in upstate New York were taught a simple spelling strategy. Performance was selfmonitored through the use of a graph, wherein after each session, each student recorded the number of words they spelled correctly. Attention was self-monitored through the use of a MotivAider, a device that vibrated at certain timeintervals. Both visual and regression-based analyses indicated that neither intervention produced a statistically significant treatment effect, with respect to the percentage of words spelled correctly for all participants. However, it seemed that self-monitoring of attention worked slightly better for some of the students. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.