Creating activity schedules using Microsoft Powerpoint

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JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 2004, 37, 115–128 NUMBER 1 (SPRING 2004)

CREATING ACTIVITY SCHEDULES USINGMICROSOFTt POWERPOINTt

RUTH ANNE REHFELDT

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

ELISABETH M. KINNEY

BANCROFT NEUROHEALTH MAINE PROGRAMS

SHANNON ROOT

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

AND

ROBERT STROMER

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SCHOOL,

SHRIVER CENTER

We describe how PowerPointt presentation software can be used to create computeractivity schedules to teach individuals with special needs. Presented are the steps involvedin creating activity schedules with close-ended and open-ended activities, and for pre-paring schedules that include photos, sounds, text, and videos that can be used to occasionan individual’s engagement in a variety of learning activities.

DESCRIPTORS: activity schedules, autism, computers, PowerPointt

A substantial body of research illustratesthe use of activity schedules in teaching chil-dren and adults with autism (e.g., Krantz,MacDuff, & McClannahan, 1993; Mac-Duff, Krantz, & McClannahan, 1993;McClannahan & Krantz, 1999; Mc-

Preparation of this article was supported in part bya New Faculty/Creative Research Grant awarded bythe Office of Research Development and Administra-tion at Southern Illinois University. Preparation of thispaper also received support from the National Insti-tute of Child Health and Human Development(Grants HD32506 and HD25995) and the Massa-chusetts Department of Mental Retardation (Contract100220023SC). Some of the present methods wereincluded in workshops on how to construct computeractivity schedules in PowerPointt (e.g., Stromer &Kinney, 2002).

Correspondence can be addressed to Ruth AnneRehfeldt, Rehabilitation Services Program, Rehabili-tation Institute, Southern Illinois University, Carbon-dale, Illinois 62901-4609 (e-mail: [email protected]),or Robert Stromer, Psychological Sciences, Universityof Massachusetts Medical School, Shriver Center, 200

Clannahan, MacDuff, & Krantz, 2002).Typically, activity schedules consist of a se-quence of pictures, words, or symbols thatoccasion a chain of activities. These cues areoften presented in notebooks or on placards.A proficient schedule user is an individualwhose completion of and transition betweenactivities is occasioned by the visual cues pre-sented in his or her schedule. Activity sched-ules may thus facilitate the completion oflengthy response chains and independenttransition from one activity to the next (seeMacDuff et al.; Krantz et al.). They also pro-vide a context for teaching leisure, social,and communication skills (Krantz & Mc-

Trapelo Road, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254 (e-mail:[email protected]). Reprints and a com-pact disk containing the computer activity scheduleillustrated in Figure 1 and the sounds, pictures, andmovies used in the schedule are available from eitherauthor.

116 RUTH ANNE REHFELDT et al.

Clannahan, 1993, 1998; McClannahan etal.; Stevenson, Krantz, & McClannahan,2000). As such, activity schedules often havea valuable role in child and adult education(McClannahan & Krantz; McClannahan etal.; Rehfeldt, 2002).

The use of computer activity schedules isa way to teach functional skills by integrat-ing multimedia technology with notebookor placard schedules. Previous research (e.g.,Dixon, 2003) has described methods inwhich relatively common computer pro-grams have been used to develop useful toolsfor behavior analysts. We have used Micro-softt PowerPointt to make computer activ-ity schedules for children diagnosed with au-tism spectrum disorders (Kimball, Kinney,Taylor, & Stromer, 2003a, 2003b; Stromer,Kinney, Taylor, & Kimball, in press). Suchcomputer schedules are relatively easy toconstruct and have been found to be effec-tive in teaching basic repertoires of indepen-dent schedule following to children (aged 3to 8 years) in home and classroom settings(Kimball et al., 2003a; and see Figure 1).Afterwards, such schedules may be expandedto teach more complex skills (Dauphin, Kin-ney, & Stromer, in press; Kinney, Vedora, &Stromer, 2003). For example, the boy withautism in Dauphin et al. learned sociodra-matic play routines modeled in embeddedvideos showing what to say and do with thematerials scheduled for the activities. After-wards, the boy was able to perform the sameplay routines in the presence of still photo-graphs that appeared in his notebook sched-ules.

The goal of blending computer and note-book schedules can be achieved by establish-ing computer then notebook schedules(Dauphin et al., in press; Kimball et al.,2003a) or by establishing notebook thencomputer schedules (Kinney et al., 2003).Currently, for individuals new to schedules,we recommend establishing an initial com-puter schedule after a standard notebook

schedule has been established using the pro-cedures suggested by McClannahan andKrantz (1999). After doing so, the notebookcontent—its activities, photographs, andcorresponding sounds and video clips (seebelow)—can be imported into the comput-er. It is also beneficial for the learner to havemastered specific skills prior to learning touse activity schedules. These include dis-criminating pictures from their back-grounds, matching identical objects, pic-ture–object correspondence skills, and tol-erance for manual guidance (see Mc-Clannahan & Krantz). For computerschedules, the learner should also be accus-tomed to making perceptual contact with vi-sual stimuli presented on the computerscreen, and should be comfortable operatinga computer mouse.

The purpose of this article is to describehow PowerPointt can be used to create com-puter activity schedules. We have chosenPowerPointt because it is widely availableand is compatible with other Microsoftt au-thoring tools. PowerPointt also has manysupport materials commercially available andallows the user great flexibility. Directionsare provided for creating activity schedulesusing PowerPointt 2000 SR-1 andPowerPointt 2002 (included with OfficeXP). Unless specified, the directions provid-ed are appropriate for both versions of theprogram and will work with Windows 98,Windows 2000, and Windows XP operatingsystems. The directions will also be usefulfor Macintosht users, although there may besubtle variations in the steps.

Figure 1 illustrates components of a com-puter schedule using known content. Thisschedule begins with the textual and audi-tory cue, ‘‘Let’s do your activity schedule’’(Photo 1). Clicking on the ‘‘page turner’’(the square with an arrowhead) produces theactivity picture (Photo 2) along with its label(e.g., ‘‘Coloring’’). In most instances, activitypictures show only the object or materials

117COMPUTER-ENHANCED ACTIVITY SCHEDULES

Figure 1. Photos show components of one of the activities in a computer schedule (coloring).

involved on a common background. Click-ing on the picture produces a second, ex-panded label (e.g., ‘‘Coloring is fun’’), fol-lowed by a 15-s video clip of the child doingthe activity (Photo 3). After watching thevideo, the child clicks the page turner of themovie slide and the cue-to-play slide appears(Photo 4). The cue to play is a contextualpicture, here showing the child engaged withthe activity. The child then obtains the col-oring materials (Photo 5), completes the ac-tivity (Photo 6), and puts the materials away

(Photo 7). Afterwards, the child returns tothe computer that shows the cue-to-playslide with a page turner (Photo 8). (Thispage turner appears 10 s after the childleaves the computer to do the activity.)Clicking the page turner starts the next ac-tivity in the schedule. Closed activities, suchas coloring and writing one’s name, endwhen the child completes the task. Thecomputer times open activities (e.g., playingbasketball): When the clock times out, a re-cording says, ‘‘Time to pick up.’’


Figure 2 shows a Slide Sorter view of the12 slides that make up the three-item com-puter schedule described above. In this ar-rangement, after the opening ‘‘Let’s do youractivity schedule’’ slide, the first activity iswriting one’s name: Slides 2, 3, and 4 showthe activity picture, video, and cue to play,respectively. The basketball activity is next (atimed activity), then coloring. The scheduleends with the textual slide (‘‘I did my sched-ule’’), and clicking the page turner producesa photo of a special end-of-schedule activi-ty—playing a compact disk on the teacher’slaptop computer. The figure also shows thesound, picture, and movie files involved inthe schedule. The order of the activities inthe schedule will change every day to ensurethe child’s attention to the events associatedwith an activity.

MATERIALS NEEDED ANDSYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

To create computer activity schedules us-ing the instructions provided, we suggest thefollowing minimum system requirements:133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatibleCPU, at least 64 MB of RAM, 2 GB with650 MB available hard-disk space, VGA orhigher resolution monitor, keyboard, mouse,and speakers. For optimal use, we suggestthe following: 300 MHz or higher processorclock speed, at least 128 MB of RAM, 1.5GB of available hard-disk space, and SuperVGA (800 3 600) or higher resolution vid-eo adapter and monitor. Also needed is Log-itecht QuickCam Pro 3000 or ClickSmart510 for creating sounds, pictures, and vid-eos.

PICTURE ACTIVITYSCHEDULES WITH

CLOSE-ENDED ACTIVITIESCREATING SOUNDS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND

VIDEOS

Of the many options for digitizing audi-tory and visual content, we describe how

photographs, sounds, and videos can be re-corded using Logitecht QuickCam Pro3000 and ClickSmart 510. The accompa-nying software must be installed on thecomputer. We focus on these tools becausethey are easy to use, reliable and inexpensive,and produce acceptable results. Informationon taking pictures and sound recording isalso widely available. For examples, Mc-Clannahan and Krantz (1999, pp. 26–27)offer suggestions on basic photography, andbooks by Dowrick (1991), Neumann (1999)and Rubin (2002) are useful guides for pro-ducing videos.

Recording Sounds with the Webcam

1. Go to the desktop and open SOUNDRECORDER (may be found by navigatingfrom START to PROGRAMS to ACCES-SORIES to ENTERTAINMENT toSOUND RECORDER).

2. Hook up a microphone to the com-puter, and click RECORD on the SOUNDRECORDER (red button on right). Speakinto the microphone.

3. Click STOP (square button secondfrom right end) to stop the recording, andclick PLAY to listen to the recorded sound(center button).

Saving Sound Files

1. In sound recorder, click FILE and clickSAVE AS (—).

2. Click down arrow, and double clickMY DOCUMENTS. Double click MYPICTURES. To save sounds in QuickCam,double click QUICKCAM. Double clickALBUM. Double click SOUNDS. Type infile name. Click SAVE.

Inserting and Formatting New SoundFiles in PowerPointt

1. Click on the slide on which you wishto have sound. Click INSERT.

2. Scroll to MOVIES AND SOUNDS.Click SOUND from FILE. Click MY


Figure 2. Slide sorter view of a three-item computer activity schedule (writing, basketball, and coloring),and movie, sound, and picture files.


DOCUMENTS. Click MY PICTURES.Click QUICKCAM. Click ALBUM. ClickSOUNDS. Double click FILE OFCHOICE. Click YES when asked, ‘‘Do youwant your sound to play automatically in theslide show?’’

Figure 2 shows an example of the soundfiles involved.

Animating Sounds1. Click once on slide to highlight it.

Click SLIDE VIEW. Click SLIDE SHOW.Click CUSTOM ANIMATION.

2. Click HIDE WHILE NOT PLAYING(so that the user cannot repeatedly play thesound). Click OK.

Taking Pictures with Webcam1. Open Logitech QuickCam. Click

CANCEL when prompted to connect to theInternet. Click CREATE (light blue buttonon top left of menu).

2. Focus camera. Click TAKE A PIC-TURE beneath screen view of picture. Closethe picture window. Picture will be auto-matically saved in pictures and movies fold-ers, as shown in Figure 2.

Inserting New Pictures into PowerPointt1. Click once on activity picture slide.

Click SLIDE VIEW. Click INSERT.2. Scroll to and click on PICTURE. Click

PICTURE FROM FILE. Click MY DOC-UMENTS. Click QUICKCAM. Click AL-BUM. Click PICTURES AND VIDEOS.Click PICTURES. Double click desired pic-ture.

The pictures of the paper and pencil, bas-ketball hoop, coloring book and crayons,and laptop computer shown in the schedulein Figure 2 are all examples of pictures thathave been captured and inserted accordingto these instructions.

Recording Videos with Webcam1. Double click Launch Logitech

QuickCam. Click CANCEL when prompt-

ed to connect to the Internet. Click CRE-ATE (light blue button on top left of menu).

2. Focus camera. Click RECORD AVIDEO to start recording. Click RECORDA VIDEO again when finished recording.

Inserting Videos into PowerPointt

1. Click once on video slide. Click SLIDEVIEW. Click INSERT. Scroll to and clickon MOVIES AND SOUNDS. Click MOV-IE FROM FILE. Click MY DOCU-MENTS. Click QUICKCAM. Click AL-BUM. Click PHOTOS AND VIDEOS.Click VIDEOS. Double click on desiredvideo.

2. Click YES when asked, ‘‘Do you wantyour movie to play automatically in the slideshow?’’

The third, sixth, and ninth slides shownon the schedule in Figure 2 play videos thathave been created and inserted intoPowerPointt following these instructions.Figure 2 also shows the movie files involvedin this particular schedule.

Opening PowerPointt

Click on the START menu bar in thelower left corner of the screen. Scroll toPROGRAMS. Click on PowerPointt (redicon to the left).

Creating Files

1. Click on FILE. Select NEW. SelectBLANK PRESENTATION. Click onBLANK PRESENTATION LAYOUT andclick OK.

2. Click on FILE. Click on SAVE AS.Select directory in which to save file. InFILE NAME, type ‘‘Activity Schedule.’’Click SAVE.

Establishing Slide Background

1. The storyboard is located in the lowerleft corner above the DRAW toolbar. Clickon SLIDE SORTER VIEW.

2. Click once on the slide to highlight it.


Figure 3. Establishing a page turner to navigatebetween slides and hyperlinking a page turner to thenext slide.

Click FORMAT. Click BACKGROUND.Click the down arrow and select a dark colorof your choice. (In the activity scheduleshown in Figure 2, a black background waschosen.) Click APPLY.

Inserting Duplicate SlidesClick on SLIDE SORTER VIEW in the

storyboard. Click EDIT. Click DUPLI-CATE. Click REPEAT DUPLICATE, forthe number of desired slides.

Establishing the Initial Instruction Slide1. Click Slide 1. Click NORMAL VIEW

in the storyboard. Click INSERT. ClickPICTURE. Click WORDART. Click yourchoice of designs. Click OK.

2. Click the down arrow on FONT. Scrollto and click on your choice. Click the downarrow on SIZE. Scroll to 72. Highlight‘‘YOUR TEXT HERE’’ and type, ‘‘Time foryour.’’ Hit enter and type ‘‘activity sched-ule.’’ Click OK.

(The initial instruction slide is the firstslide shown on the schedule in Figures 1 and2.)

Inserting Page Turners to Navigatebetween Slides

1. Click on AUTOSHAPES in the lowerleft corner. Select ACTION BUTTONS.Click arrow facing right for forward or nextaction button (see Figure 3). Click bottomright corner of the slide.

2. Drag to create a square, approximately1 inch by 1 inch. The action settings boxwill immediately open, with HYPERLINKTO NEXT SLIDE selected (see Figure 3).Click OK. To reposition the action button,click once on it. Drag the mouse until actionbutton is in desired position. (In Figure 2,the page turners are all in the lower rightcorner of Slides 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11.)

Inserting Pictures1. Click Slide 2. Click INSERT. Scroll to

and click on PICTURE. Click FROM FILE

to select a picture from the files. Click onthe directory in which the picture is located.Double click on the desired file. Figure 2shows examples of picture files used in theschedule shown.

2. To insert ClipArt pictures installed on


Figure 4. Framing a picture.

your computer with PowerPointt 2000,click CLIPART. Type the name of the pic-ture for which you wish to search in the text-box, SEARCH FOR CLIPS. Hit ENTER.Select a picture by double clicking on it.Close the INSERT CLIPART box by click-ing on the red X.

3. To insert ClipArt pictures installed onyour computer with PowerPointt 2002,click CLIPART. Type the name of the pic-ture for which you wish to search in the textbox. Under SEARCH IN, hit the down ar-row. Make sure that the box marked EV-ERYWHERE is checked. Click SEARCH.Double click the picture that you wish toinsert. Close the INSERT CLIPART box bydouble clicking on the black X in the upperright corner of the box.

Resizing Pictures

Click on the lower left corner of the pic-ture. Drag the mouse away from the pic-ture’s center until it is the desired size. Tomove the picture to the center of the screen,click in the center of the picture and dragthe mouse until picture is positioned as de-sired.

Framing Pictures

Click on the picture. Click FORMAT (inPowerPointt 2002, click PICTURE). ClickCOLORS AND LINES. Click down arrowon LINE COLOR. Select the box color ofchoice that will create a contrast betweenpicture and slide. Click up arrow onWEIGHT. Select LINE WEIGHT of atleast 1 point (see Figure 4). Click OK. (Theactivity picture slides shown in the schedulein Figure 2 all have a white frame surround-ing the pictures.)

Animating Pictures Using PowerPointt 2000

Click on the picture. Click SLIDESHOW. Click CUSTOM ANIMATION.Click the down arrow in ENTRY ANIMA-TION AND SOUND and select an entry

animation. Under CHECK TO ANIMATESLIDE OBJECTS, check the slide objectyou wish to animate (e.g., Picture Frame 1).Click OK.

Animating Pictures Using PowerPointt 2002Click on the picture. Click SLIDE

SHOW. Click CUSTOM ANIMATION.Click ADD EFFECT. Click ENTRANCE,EMPHASIS, EXIT, or MOTION PATHSto select an effect for entrance, and selecteffect of your choice (one or all effects canbe selected for your picture). To remove aneffect, click REMOVE. To preview the ani-mation, click PLAY. To stop the preview,click STOP.

Repeat steps for inserting, resizing, fram-ing, and animating pictures for the remain-ing four or five activity picture slides.

Action Settings for PicturesYou may want the learner to advance from

slide to slide by clicking the mouse on thepage turner inserted into the lower right cor-ner of the activity picture slide, as previouslydescribed. Another possibility is for thelearner to click the mouse on the picture toadvance to the next slide. This would ensure


that the individual is visually oriented to thepictures in his or her schedule and is anal-ogous to McClannahan and Krantz’s (1999)requirement that the individual touch eachpicture in a handheld schedule before com-pleting the activity. To create action settingsfor pictures, right click on the picture. Goto ACTION SETTINGS. Click HYPER-LINK TO NEXT SLIDE. Click OK.

Viewing the Slide Show

After you have constructed a scheduleconsisting of an initial instruction slide andseveral activity picture slides, you may wishto view the slides as they would appear tothe learner. To do this, click on SLIDESHOW. Click on VIEW SHOW. Click themouse anywhere on the slide to advancefrom one slide to the next. To exit the showat any time, hit ESC.

Setting Up Contingent Navigation

Navigation through the slide show mustbe arranged so that it is contingent on thelearner’s clicks to specific action buttons,pictures, movies, or text. To do this, click onSLIDE SHOW. Click on SET UP SHOW.Click on BROWSE AT KIOSK (FULLSCREEN). Click OK. View the slide showagain with clicks on specific stimuli to notethe restrictions.

ADDING A TIMER FOROPEN-ENDED ACTIVITIES

PowerPointt makes it possible to time ac-tivities using computer schedules, which, asdiscussed by McClannahan and Krantz(1999), affords the learner a number of ad-vantages. For example, Slides 5, 6, and 7 ofthe schedule shown in Figure 2 include atimed activity, basketball. Slide 7 includes aclock that is programmed to time 120 s, af-ter which time a chime will sound, signalingthe individual to put the materials away andreturn to the schedule.

To extend the first activity schedule to in-clude timed activities, follow the directionsoutlined above for inserting duplicate slides.Also follow the directions for adding a pageturner to the new slides to navigate betweenslides, or for creating action settings on pic-tures so that the individual must orient tothe pictures to advance from one slide to thenext. If you wish to create an entirely newschedule for timed activities only, follow thedirections outlined above for creating theinitial instruction slide and activity pictureslides.

Creating the Clock

1. Click once on a blank slide. Click SlideView.

2. Click the TEXT BOX button in theDRAW toolbar in the lower portion of thescreen. Or click INSERT, click TEXT BOX(for those who do not have the DRAW tool-bar activated). Click and drag on one of thefour corners of the slide.

3. Type the number you want your timerto begin with (e.g., 60). Highlight the textand click the down arrow for FONT SIZEat the top of the screen (click FORMAT,then FONT for those who do not have theFORMATTING toolbar activated). Select96.

4. Click on the text box and move themouse cursor to the edge of the text boxuntil a four-directional arrow appears. ClickAGAIN. Click EDIT. Click DUPLICATE.Highlight the text in the new text box andchange it so that it is one integer lower thanthe previous number (e.g., 59). You maywant to move the new text box over slightlyso it is easier to read while changing the text.Repeat this process for all the numbers youplan to use in your countdown (e.g., 58 to1). Create the numbers in descending orderbut do not worry about their exact place-ment on the slide.

5. Once all of the numbers are on the newslide, click EDIT. Click SELECT ALL.


Click on DRAW on the DRAW toolbar.Click ALIGN or DISTRIBUTE. ClickALIGN LEFT or ALIGN RIGHT. ClickDRAW, and click ALIGN or DISTRIB-UTE. Click ALIGN TOP, ALIGN MID-DLE, or ALIGN BOTTOM. The text boxesshould now be on top of each other, and thenumbers should be unreadable.

Animating the Clock UsingPowerPointt 2000

1. Click on EDIT and click on SELECTALL to select all of the text boxes again.

2. Click on SLIDE SHOW. Click onCUSTOM ANIMATION. Click on theORDER & TIMING tab. All of the textboxes will be listed; make sure that they arein the ascending order in which they werecreated (e.g., Text 1 to 60). Animate all ofthe text boxes by clicking next to them inthe window: CHECK TO ANIMATESLIDE OBJECTS.

3. Select AUTOMATICALLY in theSTART ANIMATION window. Set thetime to 00:01 seconds after previous event.Click on the EFFECTS tab. Choose AP-PEAR from the ENTRY ANIMATIONAND SOUND dropdown list. Click HIDEAFTER ANIMATION from the AFTERANIMATION dropdown list. Click OK.

4. Click on SLIDESHOW. Click onSLIDE TRANSITION. Leave NO TRAN-SITION as the selection in the EFFECTdropdown list. Deselect ADVANCE ONMOUSE CLICK, and select AUTOMATI-CALLY after 00:01 seconds.

5. Click on the SLIDE SORTER on thestoryboard. Click on the slide immediatelyfollowing the slide with the timer. Click onSLIDE SHOW and click on SLIDE TRAN-SITION. Click the arrow in the dropdownbox under SOUND to select a sound to playwhen the timer is finished counting down,to signal the end of the activity. Click AP-PLY.

Animating the Clock UsingPowerPointt 2002

1. Click on EDIT and click on SELECTALL to select all of the text boxes again.Click on SLIDE SHOW. Click on CUS-TOM ANIMATION. Click on ADD EF-FECT. Click on ENTRANCE and selectAPPEAR. Click on ADD EFFECT again.Click on EXIT and select DISAPPEAR.

2. Click on the dropdown box for all ofthe text boxes. Click on TIMING. SelectSTART AFTER PREVIOUS. Select delay of1 second. Click OK.

3. In the animation box, all of the ani-mations selected for each shape are listed.Click on the row for the exit animation forthe first Text Box. A red star symbolizes exitanimation. Drag the mouse to move the exitanimation for the first text box directly un-der the entrance animation for that sametext box. A green star symbolizes entranceanimation. Repeat this process for each textbox. When you are finished, the animationbox should list entrance, followed by exit,animation for each text box.

4. Click on SLIDESHOW. Click onSLIDE TRANSITION. Leave NO TRAN-SITION as the selection. Deselect AD-VANCE ON MOUSE CLICK, and selectAUTOMATICALLY after 00:01 seconds.

5. Click on the slide immediately follow-ing the slide with the timer. Click on SLIDESHOW and click on SLIDE TRANSI-TION. Click the arrow in the dropdownbox under SOUND to select a sound to playwhen the timer is finished counting down,to signal the end of the activity.

ADDING SOUND FILESTO ACTIVITY SCHEDULES

There are a number of advantages to in-corporating sound in an existing activityschedule (see McClannahan & Krantz,1999, pp. 33–34, 93–96; see also Stevensonet al., 2000).


Adding Sounds to Activity Picture Slides

1. Click on the picture on the slide whilein slide view. To insert sounds from yourown files, Click INSERT. Click MOVIESAND SOUNDS. Click SOUND FROMFILE. Click on down arrow to obtain thedesired file. When asked, ‘‘Do you wantyour sound to play automatically in the slideshow?’’ click YES. Click SLIDE SHOW.Scroll to and click on CUSTOM ANIMA-TION. Click HIDE WHILE NOT PLAY-ING in the multimedia tab. Click OK. (Fig-ure 2 shows examples of the sound files in-volved in the activity schedule shown.)

2. To select a sound that was installed onyour computer with PowerPointt usingPowerPointt 2000, click SLIDESHOW af-ter clicking on the picture. Click CUSTOMANIMATION. Click down arrow in soundbox under ENTRY ANIMATION ANDSOUND. Scroll down and select desiredsound. Click OK.

3. To select a sound that was installed onyour computer using PowerPointt 2002,click INSERT MOVIES AND SOUNDS.Click SOUND FROM CLIP ORGANIZ-ER. Select sound clip by double clicking.Click YES when asked if you want thesound to play automatically in the slideshow. Close the insert sound clip box byclicking the black X in the upper right cor-ner.

Adding Sounds to Slide Transitions

1. Click SLIDE SHOW. Click SLIDETRANSITION. Click the down arrow un-der SOUND. Select desired sound, or clickOTHER SOUND and select desired soundfrom your own files by double clicking.

2. Using PowerPointt 2002, click PLAYto preview the sound and STOP to stop thepreview.

3. Click APPLY TO ALL.

ADDING TEXT TOACTIVITY SCHEDULES

It may be desirable to enhance an existingactivity schedule with text for a number ofreasons (see Krantz & McClannahan, 1993,1998). To fade pictures systematically, it ispossible to begin with a compound stimulusrepresentation of the picture with its corre-sponding printed word embedded within.One can prepare multiple compound stimuliby hand, with the size of the picture grad-ually faded across stimuli until only the tex-tual cue remains (see McClannahan &Krantz, 1999, p. 85). You can then photo-graph the stimuli and insert them into yourschedule. A second possibility is to insert atext box into PowerPointt on top of the pic-ture, and as the compound stimulus acquirescontrol over the individual’s behavior, de-crease the size or brightness of the picture.(Some users may find the preparation ofmultiple compound stimuli laborious. Itmay also be advantageous to teach the in-dividual conditional discriminations be-tween the picture and its correspondingprinted word outside the context of activityschedule teaching, and then substitute theprinted word for the picture within theschedule; see Lalli, Casey, Goh, & Merlino,1994; Rehfeldt, 2002).

Inserting Text on Activity Picture Slides

1. Click on activity picture slide in slideview. Click on text box in DRAW toolbar(white box with ‘‘A’’ and several lines). Inserttext box in desired location on slide by click-ing and dragging on top of picture for es-tablishing a textual schedule.

2. Type name of activity or script in textbox after positioning cursor in it. To changethe font of the text, highlight the text withthe mouse. Click FORMAT. Click FONT.Scroll down to and click on desired font size.To change the color of the text, click thedown arrow under COLOR and select a col-


Figure 5. Inserting movies from file.

or that will show up on the dark back-ground. You may also wish to use boldfacefor the text if it appears on top of a picture.Click OK.

3. To lengthen text box, move mouse overright corner, click and drag mouse to right.

Figure 2 shows an example of text thatwas created in this manner on Slide 12,where the text box beneath the picture reads,‘‘Miss Lisa, can I play with the computer?’’

ADDING MOVIE FILESTO ACTIVITY SCHEDULES

Computer schedules created in Power-Pointt provide the exciting possibility ofembedding video modeling training proce-dures (see Rehfeldt, Dahman, Young, Cher-ry, & Davis, 2003; Rehfeldt, Latimore, &Stromer, 2003; Taylor, Levin, & Jasper,1999) within the activity schedule.

Inserting Video

Click on VIDEO SLIDE in slide view.Click INSERT. Scroll to MOVIES ANDSOUNDS. Click MOVIE FROM FILE (seeFigure 5). Locate file in appropriate direc-tory. Double click on file to select desiredfile. When asked ‘‘Do you want your movieto play automatically in the slide show?’’click YES. (Figure 2 shows the movie filesfor basketball, coloring, and writing namethat are used in the schedule shown.)

Animating Movies

Click once on VIDEO SLIDE to high-light it. Click SLIDE SHOW. Click CUS-TOM ANIMATION. Click HIDE WHILENOT PLAYING. Click OK.

ADVANCED CAPABILITIESAND FUTURE RESEARCH

The directions we have provided are suf-ficient for creating any of the basic activityschedules we have described in this paper.

There are other possibilities that an ad-vanced PowerPointt user may wish to ex-plore. First, an individual may be taught tosequence the activities in his or her scheduleby reordering the activity picture slides. Sec-ond, videos, animation clips, cartoons, andgames can be programmed as reinforcers inan individual’s schedule, and an individualcan be taught to deliver his or her own re-inforcers. Third, a schedule follower can betaught to choose activities or reinforcers inhis or her schedule from a pool of activitypicture or video slides. Fourth, you maywish to program discrete-trial discriminationor conditional discrimination tasks in the ac-tivity schedule, in which case it may be im-portant to record the learner’s responses. Mi-crosoftt Visual Basict can be used to controlPowerPointt macros such that with the cor-rect code, the user’s responses will be record-ed. The reader will find a number of com-mercially available support resources thatmay be useful in creating these and otherelaborations.

Potential drawbacks to the use of com-


puter activity schedules warrant mention:First, unlike handheld notebooks, computerschedules are not easily portable. It may becumbersome for the learner who completesactivities in several different rooms of his orher home to have to return to one locationbefore going on to the next activity. More-over, unless the appropriate equipment isavailable in multiple settings, generalizationof schedule-following skills across settingscannot be ensured. One promising solutionmay be the use of Microsoft Pocket PCs,which would provide the learner with ahandheld computer schedule that could beeasily transported from one setting to thenext. A second drawback concerns the learn-ing opportunities that may be lost in theevent of mechanical failure. A possible so-lution to this barrier may be for the learnerto have a handheld notebook schedule con-sisting of slide printouts from the computerschedule to use as a back-up when necessary.A final concern regarding the use of com-puter schedules is that many families or ed-ucational settings are unlikely to have thefinancial resources necessary to provideequipment with optimal system require-ments. It is hoped that as computer tech-nology advances and prices become more af-fordable, the availability of computers withminimum or optimal system requirementswill become more widespread.

Future research should evaluate the degreeto which skills acquired via a computerschedule will generalize across settings. Itmay also be important to assess the learner’spreference for using computer schedules ver-sus handheld notebook schedules, as well asparent, teacher, or staff acceptability of anindividual’s use of computer schedules.Comparisons of training time and engage-ment time between handheld notebookschedules and computer schedules will be ofvalue. Finally, it may be worthwhile to ex-amine whether reductions in aberrant or ste-reotypic behaviors can be established follow-

ing the use of a computer schedule (see Lalliet al., 1994).

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Received January 28, 2003Final acceptance November 11, 2003Action Editor, David Wacker

Documents

Creating activity schedules using Microsoft Powerpoint