Computer-Based Video Instruction to Teach Students with Intellectual Disabilities to Use Public Bus Transportation

This study investigated the effectiveness of computer-based video instruction (CBVI) to teach three young adults with moderate intellectual disabilities to push a “request to stop bus signal” and exit a city bus in response to target landmarks. A multiple probe design across three students and one bus route was used to evaluate effectiveness of the CBVI program. All instructional sessions occurred in simulation with generalization and maintenance measures conducted in-vivo on a public bus route. Results indicate that CBVI was an effective means for creating a simulation to teach the bus route to all three students. Students were able to generalize the skill to the actual bus route with no in-vivo instruction. Maintenance measures further indicate that students were able to maintain the skill across time. It is recognized that in addition to living, working, recreating, and accessing community services, community integration also includes movement in and around urban settings using public transportation (Taber, Alberto, Hughes, & Seltzer, 2002). The ability to safely move about one’s community can increase independence for adults with disabilities by offering more employment opportunities and means to access community settings such as shopping malls, grocery stores, restaurants, and places for recreation. Because many do not have the cognitive ability to obtain a drivers license and drive a car, persons with intellectual disabilities are limited to walking, riding a bicycle, or being transported by others if they do not learn to access public transportation when it is available. Although students have been shown to acquire safe pedestrian skills (Branham, Collins, Schuster, & Kleinert, 1999; Horner, Jones, & Williams, 1985; Matson, 1980; Page, Iwata, & Neef, 1976; Spears, Rusch, York, & Lilly, 1981; Vogelsburg & Rusch, 1979), walking may limit them to employment within walking distance to their home; living directly next to a shopping center; or not being able to access recreational facilities (i.e. attending a professional baseball game) that are not within walking distance. Early studies teaching use of public transportation for community mobility occurred in the 1970s and 1980s when persons with disabilities were exiting institutional settings and an emphasis was being placed on preparing them to function in communities (Coon, Voglesberg, & Williams,1981; Kubat, 1973; LaDuke & LaGrow, 1984; Marchetti, Cecil, Graves, & Marchetti, 1984; Marholin, O’Toole, Touchette, Berger, & Doyle, 1979; Neef, Iwata, & Page, 1978; Robinson, Griffith, McComish, & Swashbrook, 1984; Sowers, Rusch & Hudson, 1979; Welch, Nietupski, & Hamre-Nietupski, 1985). Of the nine studies identified, six studies relied on some type of classroom or simulated instruction. These studies demonstrated that simulated practice may be a means for teaching transportation skills, but will unlikely result in generalization of skills to natural environments without inclusion of community-based instruction (Snell & Brown, 2006; Westling & Fox, 2004). Preferably, community skills are taught as much as possible in the natural environments where they will be used, however community-based instruction can be more expensive and limited due to travel time to sites, money for purchasing and accessing community activities, availability of transportation to and from Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Linda Mechling, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Department of Education of Young Children and Special Education, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28404-5940. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2010, 45(2), 230–241 © Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities 230 / Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-June 2010 sites, and staff availability. Because of these constraints and limited resources, teachers continue to find themselves challenged when providing community-based instruction and finding realistic means to simulate these environments in the classroom setting. Teaching public bus transportation poses additional challenges when trying to teach in-vivo. Trials are often limited to one per route due to time constraints and the inability of bus drivers to allow repeated practice for skills such as boarding the bus, signally the driver to stop, and exiting the bus. In addition, instruction will likely be limited to one trial per route and one route per day due to the amount of time it requires to wait for a bus, arrive at a destination, re-board the bus and return to the original bus stop. Use of simulation is a means to balance the challenges of providing community-based instruction with the need for teaching skills that will generalize to the natural environments in which they will be used. While research by Neef et al. (1978) found simulation to be as effective as in-vivo instruction, they also report that in-vivo instruction was more time consuming and expensive than simulation. In early studies, slide presentations were frequently used as a form of technology for providing realistic simulations. Slides were used to simulate boarding of a bus, riding the bus, signally the bus driver to stop (pulling the cord), and exiting the bus (Coon et al., 1981; Marchetti et al., 1984; Neef et al.; Robinson et al., 1984; Sowers et al., 1979). Of the five studies using slides as simulation, four reported that students were unable to generalize all skills until instruction in the natural environment was included. LaDuke and LaGrow (1984) also reported that one of four students in their study had difficulty generalizing identification of the correct destination in the community when using photograph albums to prompt step completion of the bus riding task analysis. Similarly, Welch and others (1985) reported 3 of 6 students were unable to generalize to community bus stops until in-vivo training was included for using schedule cards. In particular, the studies found that students frequently committed errors when looking for landmarks in community settings (to determine when to signal the driver to stop) and actually pulling the cord at the correct time. Although community mobility skills are considered critical for accessing community settings such as shopping malls, grocery stores, and restaurants (Welch et al., 1985) and a primary barrier to accessing and maintaining competitive employment for persons with moderate to severe disabilities (Hutchins & Renzaglia, 1998), teaching these skills has received little to no research attention over the past two decades. Due to new technologies such as video modeling, computer-based instruction, virtual reality, and portable hand held devices, practitioners may wish to revisit research for teaching use of public transportation which incorporates innovative technologies. A number of studies have evaluated the use of computer-based video instruction (CBVI) and video instruction to teach community skills. These skills have included: vocational skills (Mechling & Ortega-Hurndon, 2007); grocery shopping (Alcantara, 1994; Mechling & Gast, 2003); operation of a debit card machine (Mechling, Gast, & Barthold, 2003) or ATM machine (Alberto, Cihak, & Gama, 2005); ordering at fast food restaurants (Mechling, Pridgen, & Cronin, 2005); and purchasing (Ayres & Langone, 2002), yet none have been used to teach bus transportation skills. Because city buses are likely one of the most common forms of public transportation used by persons with intellectual disabilities (LaGrow, Wiener, & LaDuke, 1990), the purpose of the current study was to investigate use of computerbased video instruction (CBVI) to create a “lifelike” public bus riding scenario in a simulated environment to teach city bus transportation skills to persons with intellectual disabilities. The study focused on students’ abilities to generalize bus riding skills to a real-life bus route when only simulated instruction was provided. The primary question addressed was: “Will CBVI be effective in teaching students to push the “request to stop” signal at a specific landmark and exit a public bus system?”