Using iPads to Increase the Language Skills of Students With Language-Based Disabilities

• In Event: Technology Use in Teaching Students With Disabilities

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated the effects of a language building iPad application on the language skills (i.e., receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and sentence formation) of young children with language-based disabilities. Participants were 30 first through third grade students with identified language-based disabilities. Students were assigned to two groups for the 8-week intervention. This study utilized a pretest-postest control group design. Students in the treatment group used the iPad language building application, Language Builder, for 30 minutes a day. Data indicated that students in the treatment group made significantly greater gains in the area of sentence formation than the control group. Results revealed no significant difference between the two groups in the areas of expressive and receptive vocabulary.

Authors

• Therese Marie Cumming, University of New South Wales

• Cathi Draper Rodriguez