Assisting people with developmental disabilities to improve pointing efficiency with an Automatic Pointing Assistive Program

This study evaluated whether two children with developmental disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through an Automatic Pointing Assistive Program (APAP) and a newly developed mouse driver (i.e. a new mouse driver replaces standard mouse driver, and is able to intercept mouse click action). Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When her performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Data indicated that both participants: (a) improved their pointing efficiency with the use of APAP and (b) remained highly successful through maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.