Abstract

Teaching students to self-monitor their attention or on-task behavior has a robust history of success in school and has been an effective strategy for students of all ages, including those with and without disabilities. However, this strategy has not made use of advances in technology in order to collect and record performance data. In this study, an eight year old male with emotional and behavior disorders (EBD) was taught to self-monitor his on-task behavior during a one hour reading period in a self-contained classroom using a mobile handheld computer. An A-B-A-B withdrawal design was used to collect observational data on the student's attention to task. The results of this empirical study showed that the student was able to use a handheld computer to self-monitor his behavior and increase his on-task behavior. Future use of this new technological innovation for self-monitoring will be discussed.

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