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An Evaluation of a Mobile Application Designed to Teach Receptive Language Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a mobile application, Camp Discovery, designed to teach receptive language skills to children with autism spectrum disorder based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. Participants (N = 28) were randomly assigned to an immediate-treatment or a delayed-treatment control group. The treatment group made significant gains, p < .001, M = 58.1, SE = 7.54, following 4 weeks of interaction with the application as compared to the control group, M = 8.4, SE = 2.13. Secondary analyses revealed significant gains in the control group after using the application and maintenance of acquired skills in the treatment group after application usage was discontinued. Findings suggest that the application effectively teaches the targeted skills.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Claire Burns, Jasper Estabillo, Jina Jang, Kathryn Marucut, Lauren Whitlock, and Nicholas Marks for their assistance collecting data for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Autism and Related Disorders, 21600 Oxnard Street, Suite 1800, Woodland Hills, California, 91367, USA

    Marlena N. Novack, Esther Hong, Dennis R. Dixon & Doreen Granpeesheh

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  1. Marlena N. Novack
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  2. Esther Hong
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  3. Dennis R. Dixon
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  4. Doreen Granpeesheh
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Correspondence to Dennis R. Dixon.

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The authors work at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, the developer of Camp Discovery.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Novack, M.N., Hong, E., Dixon, D.R. et al. An Evaluation of a Mobile Application Designed to Teach Receptive Language Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Behav Analysis Practice 12, 66–77 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00312-7

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