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A phonics-based reading curriculum in which students used an iPad to respond was created for students with developmental disabilities not able to verbally participate in traditional phonics instruction due to their use of augmentative and assistive communication. Time delay and a system of least prompts used in conjunction with text-to-speech software enabled students to participate in phonics instruction that included segmenting, decoding, sight words, and comprehension after reading a decodable short passage. Students were randomly assigned to a treatment group who received the phonics instruction or a control group who received sight word instruction on the iPad. A repeated-measures ANOVA found that students who received the iPad-based phonics curriculum outperformed the control students. Hierarchical linear model (HLM) analysis supports a two-level model with a time by group membership interaction effect, the inclusion of studentlevel variables was not statistically significant.

Abstract:A survey was conducted with 86 teachers across 10 states regarding their students' ease of use of physical manipulatives incorporated with implementing evidence-based early numeracy instruction. The majority of respondents indicated significant student accessibility barriers. Specifically, 75% of respondents had students with tactile defensiveness or lack of gross motor skills; 85% had students with weak to no fine motor skills; and 83% had students who lost track of the math objectives while manipulating materials, making the use of manipulatives difficult or impossible. Ninety-four percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the use of manipulatives are valuable for students to gain early numeracy concepts; however almost half indicated difficulty using them within math instruction. Finally, respondents overwhelmingly noted their student engagement with technology (e.g., iPad, Smart Board) to support learning. Overall, survey results and the need for future research, including the use of virtual manipulatives, are discussed.

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