Evaluation of Multimedia-Based Intervention for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study

Abstract

This pilot study evaluated the possible risks and prospects of a multimedia-based intervention in improving the social and adaptive skills of students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thirty Filipino special education teachers served as evaluators and teacher-respondents. Using a validated and reliability-tested evaluation grid, they evaluated the intervention using the following constructs: alignment and appropriateness, utility and relevance, visual appeal, and overall engagement. The findings of this preliminary study indicate that the overall evaluation of this relatively unexplored multimedia-based intervention was favourable (M = 4.502); in other words, teacher-respondents found that the intervention has the potential to enhance the social and adaptive skills of students on the spectrum, including their attention, task performance, social learning, and engagement. Furthermore, the findings highlight the positive perception of the multimedia-based intervention among the participating teachers and suggest that its potentiality was contingent neither on their number of years in the field nor the number of students with ASD enrolled in their classes (p-values > 0.05). The results of both descriptive and inferential statistics, in conjunction with valuable recommendations from the teacher-respondents, led to the formulation of a targeted action plan for enhancing the efficacy of the proposed multimedia-based intervention.