Author(s)

Isabela Zaine¹, Priscila Benitez², Kamila Rios da Hora Rodrigues^1,3, Maria da Graça Campos Pimentel¹

¹Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil.
²Center for Mathematics Computing and Cognition, Federal University of ABC, São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil.
³Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil.

Parental involvement in interventions based on Applied Behavior Analysis for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is encouraged to increase learning opportunities at home. The use of technologies increases the extent of interventions that occur outside therapeutic settings. Thus, our main goals were: 1) to compare the effect of the use of a mobile application—ESPIM—on the frequency of conducting complementary educational activities by parents at home, to traditional strategies (verbal and written instructions); 2) to analyze the strategies used by the parents and the reliability of the performance registry; 3) to analyze the viability of adoption of a software solution as support for parents. Three families and their children with ASD participated. The results indicated that the use of the application proved to be effective to increase parental engagement in conducting the complementary educational activities at home with reliable registry. The technological support seemed to be a viable solution to increase parental engagement, as it was easily and readily adopted and as it was perceived by parents as useful.

ABA, ESPIM, Complementary Educational Activities, Home-Based Interventions, Mobile Application, Parents, Autism Spectrum Disorder

Zaine, I. , Benitez, P. , Rodrigues, K. and Pimentel, M. (2019) Applied Behavior Analysis in Residential Settings: Use of a Mobile Application to Support Parental Engagement in At-Home Educational Activities. Creative Education, 10, 1883-1903. doi: 10.4236/ce.2019.108136.