Comparing Teacher-Directed and Computer-Assisted Constant Time Delay for Teaching Functional Sight Words to Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of teacher-directed and computer-assisted constant time delay strategies for teaching three students with moderate intellectual disability to read functional sight words. Target words were those found in recipes and were taught via teacher-delivered constant time delay or through a PowerPoint presentation set up with a delay interval followed by a controlling prompt. These conditions were compared using an alternating treatments design. For the purposes of generalization, students were given the task of following recipes for snacks containing previously targeted sight words. Results indicated both strategies were effective; however, the teacher-directed strategy was slightly more efficient in terms of trials to criterion. The findings are encouraging given that students with moderate intellectual disability often depend on one-on-one instruction and may benefit from instruction with PowerPoint software.