Effects of a Photo Activity Schedule Book on Independent Task Changes by Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Community and School Job Sites

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a photo activity schedule book to increase independent transitioning between vocational tasks inside a school cafeteria and at a community job site. Three students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities, enrolled in a self-contained classroom in a public high school, participated. A withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the photo activity schedule book on the number of independent task changes performed per session by each participant. The results of the study indicated that independent task changes were higher when the photo activity schedule book was used than when if was not used. Independent task changes also remained at high levels when the photo activity schedule book was used with novel photos to complete non-training tasks. This expands the current literature base by demonstrating the effectiveness and portability of photo activity schedules for community settings. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)