The Use of Activity Schedules Among those with Autism within the School Setting: A Literature Review

Abstract

Parents of children diagnosed with autism often report that their children lack the independent skills that typically developing children have that can help them succeed on their own throughout life, especially into adulthood. To increase task and daily independence and to decrease dependence on adults, and other people, there are a wide variety of interventions that can be implemented. This systematic literature review evaluated studies that had incorporated activity schedules; these activity schedules were implemented among those diagnosed with autism within the school setting and between the ages of three and twenty-one. Twenty-nine studies were included and analyzed to determine the most frequently used type of activity schedule format and why it is implemented, reasons an activity schedule may be chosen for implementation, and evaluated whether social validity is a frequently used tool of measurement for studies implementing an activity schedule. Percent rigor for more than half of the studies included concluded that those studies had the components to identify a quality study, and those that fell below the necessary criteria lacked measurements of social validity or procedural fidelity. The results showed that a photographic activity schedule is the most commonly used type of schedule and it is used to teach a child to independently complete an activity or a sequence of activities; theses skills have been shown to generalize and be maintained over periods of time, across settings, and researchers.