Teaching spatial concepts to children with intellectual disabilities: A comparison of simultaneous prompting presented via tablets and visual cards

This study aims to compare the efficacy of simultaneous prompting presented via tablets and visual cards in the instruction of spatial concepts to students with intellectual disabilities. A mobile learning software was developed within portable devices by using simultaneous prompting method to teach spatial concepts. The adapted alternating treatments design which is one of the single-subject research methods was used in the study. The dependent variables of the research are left-right, near-far, up-down concepts and independent variables are simultaneous prompting presented with tablet and simultaneous prompting presented with visual cards. A total of 3 students, 1 girl and 2 boys, studying at a private special education school participated in this research. Teaching sessions were held in an individual teaching arrangement. Results were analyzed by graphical analysis. According to the results of the research, it was concluded that there are different levels of effectiveness between teaching with simultaneous prompting presented with tablets and visual cards. It has been found that simultaneous prompting presented with tablets is more efficient than teaching with simultaneous prompting presented with visual cards. Two of the participants were found to have retained the concepts after 1, 3, and 5 weeks.