The Effect of Choice of IPad-Delivered Math Independent Practice of Elementary Grade Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Characteristics

THE EFFECT OF CHOICE OF IPAD-DELIVERED MATH INDEPENDENT PRACTICE OF ELEMENTARY GRADE STUDENTS WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY Nora A. Altaweel Old Dominion University, 2018 Director: Dr. Robert Gable A choice-making strategy is an antecedent control that has proven to be effective for students with problem behaviors. Because students with Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may display disruptive behaviors and show poor academic performance, it has been suggested that incorporating choice-making strategies into academic instruction could serve to increase academic engagement and task accuracy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of iPad-based choice-making opportunities during math independent practice on each participant's task engagement, time required to complete task, task accuracy, and task completion, as well as the teacher and participants perceptions of social validity of the intervention. A single-subject reversal design ABAB and its counterbalancing BABA design were used to examine the effects of iPad-based choices during independent work time on math performance and behavioral responses of four participants. Visual analysis and two nonparametric overlap methods (i.e., percent of non-overlapping data [PND] and percent of data points exceeding the median line [PEM]) were employed to determine treatment effect on each dependent variable and for each participant. The results of this study were mixed. As evidenced by overall PND and/or PEM calculation estimates, there was an effect of the intervention on: (a) task engagement for Participant One, Participant Two, and Participant Four; (b) time required to complete task for all four participants; and (c) task accuracy for Participant One and Participant CHOICE AND STUDENTS WITH ADHD ii Three. No functional relation was established between the intervention and participants task completion. The teacher and three participants reported that the intervention was socially valid on most of the items in the social validity assessments. Potential explanations of the reported results, study limitations, and implications for future research are discuss CHOICE AND STUDENTS WITH ADHD iii DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my beloved and supportive mother, Tarfah Alsalem, who passed away a year before I started my PhD journey. She first taught me to approach every day as the day to make a positive difference in someone's life, as a learning experience to improve, and as a gift to be wrapped successfully. Your supportive words and prayers lie deep within me, especially throughout this PhD journey. I am sure you are smiling down on this. Thankfully, I have been surrounded by a great system of family support, making my writing process less daunting. My Father, Abdulaziz Altaweel, is my inspiration to pursue my doctoral degree and my constant source of encouragement and support throughout my career path. I know you waited through this stage with anxiety, especially during my final months of dissertation project, so I hope this work makes you immensely proud. Thanks also extend to my considerate sister, best friend, and supportive colleague, Nouf, for her immense impact on enabling this journey to be fun and less stressful. My sister Najla, too, has a huge part in this journey. She has never left my side through the PhD years; traveling countless hours from Riyadh to Norfolk and at the expense of her own responsibilities. I am also indebted to my youngest sister and daughter, Deema, for her patience over the course of being separated from a real family and home at the time of this journey. This distance has not lessened her unwavering love and support. Finally, my brother, Abdurrahman, was my right hand at the earlier stages of living abroad in a way that began my PhD story smoother and stronger. I would also give special thanks to my dissertation committee members: Dr. Robert Gable, Dr. Peggy Hester, and Dr. Jo Hendrickson. Each of the committee members has expertly CHOICE AND STUDENTS WITH ADHD iv and extensively guided me through the process of writing, implementing, and defending my dissertation study. Thank you Dr. Gable and Dr. Hester for your consistently open doors and support toward my questions, concerns, and "panics" during the dissertation process. Thank you Dr. Hendrickson for joining this from afar and providing very generous and worthwhile feedback. CHOICE AND STUDENTS WITH ADHD v