Since the individuals in need of special education have difficulty in learning due to cognitive,physical and emotional barriers, they are usually able to gain the skills through additional supports. It is reported that it is essential to have the knowledge of the levels of children in regard to their developmental areas in order to ensure the efficiency of such activities or additional supports (Ergul,2011;Gunter, Callicott,Denny ve Gerber,2003). In this regard,it is stated that implementation schedules are necessary for the efficiency and effectivity of the process (Buzhardt, etc.,2010).

It is observed that home-visit models are common in order to ensure that early intervention to be performed in the progress monitoring and evaluating the developments, can be provided in a natural environment. It is also remarkable that the coding and interpretation of the monitoring data on development are generally performed in the office of service provider and shared with the family or caregivers in the next home visit. In this process, experts use paper and pen to record,monitor and evaluate the data on the developmental areas of the individuals in need of special education (Gregg,2009). However,it leads to some problems in regard to progress monitoring and evaluating in that a time-consuming and challenging evaluation process may create a delay in the start of the intervention (Buzhardt, Walker, Greenwood ve Heitzman-Powell,2012).  The rapid development of children in this period and the impact of their development on subsequent periods, point out how indispensable it is to evaluate their development timely,accurately and systematically (Kan,2007).

There are various approaches to facilitate early intervention in the special education in early childhood. Among them, evidence-based early intervention approach is notable. An evidence-based approach in the process of intervention is defined as the use of empirical data in the performance history in order to provide an insight for the future decisions of practitioner (Kientz, Boring, Abowd ve Hayes, 2005). There is a decision-making process based on data on the basis of a evidence-based approach. It is reported that a decision on an evidence-based intervention is of importance in the individualization of services provided to children (Chard, etc.,2008).  The key elements of the progress monitoring (Buzhardt, et al.,2010;Chard, etc.,2008):

• To identify children in need of support,
• To decide on an individual intervention for each child in line with the evidences,
• To evaluate and monitor the impact of additional supports and interventions offered to children,
• To report the changes in intervention for the children who do not show improvement.

Given limited resources, rising costs and increased demand for services, there have been attempts to find various ways for an evidence-based early intervention in the special education in early childhood (Buzhardt, Walker, Greenwood ve Heitzman-Powell,2012). In that regard it might be argued that technology serves as an important facilitator in the progress monitoring and recording the developmental data of children, which underlies the decision-making approach based on evidence-based intervention.

Thus, this study aims to design and develop a mobile-based system to monitor and report the progress of the children aged between 0-3 with developmental retardation in different developmental areas as a part of the early childhood special education (ECSE).

Research Questions

How is the process of designing and developing the mobile-based system to be created as a part of the program of ECSE?

1. What are the opinions of teachers, managers and parents in regard to the design and use of the system?
2. How is the usability of the system?

How is

1. The effectiveness of the system?
2. The efficiency of the system?
3. The satisfaction of users in regard to the system?

What are the improvements performed in the process in this mobile-based system?

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