Encouraging overweight students with intellectual disability to actively perform walking activity using an air mouse combined with preferred stimulation

• Standard high-tech products can be used as high performance assistive technology devices.
• An air mouse can be used as a walking activity detector.
• Four overweight students with intellectual disability can actively perform walking activity by using an air mouse combined with their preferred stimulation.

This study continues the research on using an air mouse as a physical activity detector. An air mouse is embedded with a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) gyro sensor, which can measure even the slightest movement in the air. The air mouse was strapped to one of each participant’s calves to detect walking activity. This study was conducted to evaluate whether four students with intellectual disability who were overweight and disliked exercising could be motivated to engage in walking actively by linking the target response with preferred stimulation. Single-subject research with ABAB design was adopted in this study. The experimental data showed substantial increases in the participants’ target responses (i.e. the performance of the activity of walking) during the intervention phases compared to the baseline phases. The practical and developmental implications of the findings are discussed.