A Conceptual Approach in Designing Interactive Multimedia Application for Children With ASD

The purpose of this article is to create a suitable treatment program for autistic children that is based on the use of many media formats. This research utilizes a review of the relevant literature, an examination of the issue in the field, interviews, and surveys in order to obtain the data that is needed for the study. A concept to slightly practical approach has been taken to develop the app in a way that makes it possible for them to fit the strategies and lesson plans that are used throughout the treatment process for people who have autism. This has been carried out in a way that has been carried out in a way that makes it possible for them to fit these strategies and lesson plans. Children who have autism may benefit from interactive treatment programs that can be developed with the help of the Lovaas approach. These programs can make use of modern computer technology in addition to different forms of multimedia. These programs would be tailored to meet the needs of autistic children and adolescents

Tangible tabletop-based educational resource editor for inclusive education

O uso de interfaces tangíveis para fins educacionais apresenta consideráveis vantagens e pode proporcionar um incremento no engajamento e motivação dos estudantes, sendo um recurso inovador para todos e um instrumento de tecnologia assistiva adequado para a educação inclusiva. Este trabalho apresenta a criação e análise de uma ferramenta de autoria para produção de recursos educacionais com mesas tangíveis e em computadores, tablets e smartphones. O editor disponibilizadiversas características importantes apresentadas em trabalhos relacionados e evidencia vários recursos inovadores, podendo ser utilizado de modo intuitivo e interativo pelos próprios educadores para criar as aplicações.The use of tangible interfaces for educational purposes has considerable advantages and can provide an increase in student engagement and motivation, being an innovative resource for all and suitable assistive technology toolfor inclusive education. This work presents the creation and analysis of an authoring tool for the production of educational resources with tangible tabletops and on computers, tablets and smartphones. The editor provides several important features presented in related works and also presents several innovative resources, being able to be used in an intuitive and interactive way by the educators themselves to create the applications

Editor de Recursos Educacionais para Educação Inclusiva Baseado em Mesa Tangível

O uso de interfaces tangíveis para fins educacionais apresenta consideráveis vantagens e pode proporcionar um incremento no engajamento e motivação dos estudantes, sendo um recurso inovador para todos e um instrumento de tecnologia assistiva adequado para a educação inclusiva. Este trabalho apresenta a criação e análise de uma ferramenta de autoria para produção de recursos educacionais com mesas tangíveis e em computadores, tablets e smartphones. O editor disponibiliza diversas características importantes apresentadas em trabalhos relacionados e evidencia vários recursos inovadores, podendo ser utilizado de modo intuitivo e interativo pelos próprios educadores para criar as aplicações

Toward emotional interactive videogames for children with autism spectrum disorder

Technology and videogames have been proven as motivating tools for working attention and complex communication skills, especially in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this work, we present two experiences that used interactive games for promoting communication and attention. The first game considers emotions in order to measure children’s attention, concentration and satisfaction, while the second uses tangible tabletops for fostering cognitive planning. The analysis of the results obtained allows to propose a new study integrating both, in which the tangible interactive game is complemented with the emotional trainer in a way that allows identifying and classifying children’s emotion with ASD when they collaborate to solve cognitively significant and contextualized challenges. The first application proposed is an emotional trainer application in which the child can work out the seven basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise and neutral). Further, a serious videogame is proposed: a 3D maze where the emotions can be captured. The second case study was carried out in a Special Education Center, where a set of activities for working cognitive planning was proposed. In this case, a tangible interactive tabletop was used to analyze, in students with ASD, how the communication processes with these interfaces affect to the attention, memory, successive and simultaneous processing that compose cognitive planning from the PASS model. The results of the first study, suggest that the autistic children did not act with previous planning, but they used their perception to adjust their actions a posteriori (that explains the higher number of collisions). On the second case study, the successive processing was not explored. The inclusion of the mazes of case study 1 to a semantic rich scenario could allow us to measure the prior planning and the emotions involved in the maze game. The new physiological sensors will also help to validate the emotions felt by the children. The first study has as objective the capability to imitate emotions and resolve a maze without semantic context. The second study organized all the actions from a semantic context close to users. The attention results presented by the second study are coherent with the first study and complement it showing that attention can be receptive or selective. In the first study case, the receptive attention was the focus of analysis. In the second case, both contributed to explain and understand how it can be developed from a videogame

Aplicaciones de las tecnologías en personas con TEA

El Trastorno de Espectro Autista (TEA) supone deficiencias persistentes en la comunicación e interacción social. Este trastorno está cada vez más presente en la escuela y la sociedad, debido a la integración escolar y social de este colectivo. También, se ha incrementado la presencia de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TICs) en la educación, por lo que es imprescindible conocer profundamente este trastorno y las aplicaciones de las TICs en la intervención con esta población. El objetivo de este trabajo es conocer los diferentes usos de la tecnología para trabajar con las personas con TEA y los beneficios que éstas tienen para mejorar su calidad de vida. Para ello se realizó una revisión bibliográfica utilizando las siguientes palabras clave: “technologies ASD”, “autismo tecnología”, “tecnología TEA”, “nuevas tecnologías en personas con TEA”, mediante distintos buscadores o bases de datos (Punto Q, Dialnet, Google Académico y Scopus). Lo resultados señalan que las TICs, con un enfoque educativo adecuado, han demostrado que los escolares con TEA mejoran sus habilidades sociales y de lenguaje, les proporcionan un entorno controlado y agradable en el que trabajar, descienden su ansiedad e incrementan su predisposición a colaborar en la tarea.Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) involves persistent deficiencies in communication and social interaction. This disorder is increasingly present in school and society, due to the school and social integration of this group. The presence of Information and Communication Technologies (ITCs) in education has also increased, which is why it is essential. The objective of this study is to know the different uses of technology to work with people with ASD and the benefits they have to improve their quality of life. For this, a bibliographic review was made using the following keywords: “ASD technologies”, “autism technology”, “TEA technology”, “new technologies in people with ASD”, through different search engines or databases (Punto Q, Dialnet, Google Scholar and Scopus). The results indicate that ICTs, with an adequate educational focus, have shown that school children with ASD improve their social and language skills, provide a controlled and pleasant environment in which to work, reduce their anxiety and increase their willingness to collaborate with the task

Phase 3 diagnostic evaluation of a smart tablet serious game to identify autism in 760 children 3–5 years old in Sweden and the United Kingdom

Acknowledgments We are grateful to the children, their parents, teachers and clinicians who have worked so hard to make this study possible, both in its design and in its implementation. Funding This work was subcontracted to the University of Strathclyde by Harimata sp. z o.o. as an integral part of a Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, grant number 756079. Prepublication history for this paper is available online. To view these files, please visit the journal online (http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026226).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Digital tools for direct assessment of autism risk during early childhood: A systematic review

Current challenges in early identification of autism spectrum disorder lead to significant delays in starting interventions, thereby compromising outcomes. Digital tools can potentially address this barrier as they are accessible, can measure autism-relevant phenotypes and can be administered in children’s natural environments by non-specialists. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify and characterise potentially scalable digital tools for direct assessment of autism spectrum disorder risk in early childhood. In total, 51,953 titles, 6884 abstracts and 567 full-text articles from four databases were screened using predefined criteria. Of these, 38 met inclusion criteria. Tasks are presented on both portable and non-portable technologies, typically by researchers in laboratory or clinic settings. Gamified tasks, virtual-reality platforms and automated analysis of video or audio recordings of children’s behaviours and speech are used to assess autism spectrum disorder risk. Tasks tapping social communication/interaction and motor domains most reliably discriminate between autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups. Digital tools employing objective data collection and analysis methods hold immense potential for early identification of autism spectrum disorder risk. Next steps should be to further validate these tools, evaluate their generalisability outside laboratory or clinic settings, and standardise derived measures across tasks. Furthermore, stakeholders from underserved communities should be involved in the research and development process

NIDABA : plataforma digital para produção de recursos educacionais inclusivos baseados em mesa tangível

A utilização de ferramentas tecnológicas na educação é bastante disseminada no Brasil e no mundo, porém, quando envolve educação inclusiva, especialmente com crianças com deficiência intelectual ou autismo, existem poucas soluções e recursos tecnológicos disponíveis. O uso de interfaces tangíveis para fins educacionais apresenta consideráveis vantagens e pode proporcionar um incremento no engajamento e motivação dos estudantes e se revelando um recurso de tecnologia assistiva adequado para a educação. Um dos principais problemas encontrados para a utilização de mesas tangíveis no ambiente educacional é a ausência de softwares para a sua programação e uso que atendam às necessidades educacionais e que sejam fáceis de utilizar, especialmente por educadores que não dominam a lógica de programação. A presente tese tem por objetivo criar uma plataforma digital para produção de recursos educacionais baseados em mesa tangível, que atendam à diversidade para a educação inclusiva. Para isso, um levantamento de necessidades pedagógicas e as questões de acessibilidade para a interação tangível no contexto inclusivo são analisadas e é desenvolvido um editor intuitivo e de fácil utilização para criação de recursos educacionais, juntamente com um player para executar as aplicações em mesas tangíveis e que permite a simulação em computadores, tablets e smartphones. Uma avaliação da usabilidade do editor e do player com as aplicações para mesa tangível e a viabilidade e utilidade da proposta é realizada e é apresentada uma especificação para a construção e montagem de uma mesa de baixo custo. Assim, este estudo apresenta uma proposta de uso da mesa tangível na educação inclusiva, juntamente com uma ferramenta de autoria para a construção de aplicativos e a plataforma necessária para sua execução, desenvolvidos especificamente para este propósito. Esta plataforma pode ser utilizada como um instrumento de mediação tecnológica, de forma interativa e intuitiva por educadores e estudantes, para o desenvolvimento e utilização de atividades pedagógicas num contexto inclusivo. A plataforma desenvolvida e o editor reúnem, numa única ferramenta, diversas características importantes apresentadas em trabalhos relacionados e apresenta, ainda, vários recursos inovadores para a produção de aplicações para mesa tangível.Use of technological tools in education is widespread in Brazil and in the world, however when it involves inclusive education, especially with children with intellectual disabilities or autism, there are few technological solutions and resources available. Tangible interfaces use for educational purposes has considerable advantages and can provide an increase in student engagement and motivation, and have proved to be suitable for assistive technology resources for education. One of the main problems found for the use of tangible tabletops in the educational environment is the absence of software for their programming and use that meet educational needs and that are easy to use, especially by teachers who do not master the programming logic. This thesis aims to create a digital platform for the production of educational resources based on a tangible tabletop, to contemplate diversity for inclusive education. For this, a survey of pedagogical needs and accessibility issues for tangible interaction in the inclusive context are analyzed and an intuitive and user-friendly editor is developed for creating educational resources, along with a player to run the applications on tangible tabletop and that allows simulation on computers, tablets and smartphones. An evaluation of the editor and player usability with the tangible tabletop applications and the feasibility and usefulness of the proposal is carried out and is presented a specification for the construction and assembly of a low-cost table. Thus, this study presents a proposal for using the tangible table in inclusive education, together with an authoring tool for building applications and the platform needed for its execution, developed specifically for this purpose. This platform can be used as an instrument of technological mediation, in an interactive and intuitive way by teachers and students, for the development and use of pedagogical activities in an inclusive context. The developed platform and the editor bring together in a single tool, several important features presented in related works and also presents several innovative resources for the production of applications to a tangible tabletop

Implementation and Evaluation of Computer-Assisted Science Vocabulary Modules With Students With an Intellectual Disability and Autism: An Action Research Study

Students with disabilities are struggling to meet expectations in science at the national and local level. Many studies have linked difficulties with science content to difficult and technical vocabulary, and this has been evident at the local level, too. To try to improve science instruction for students with disabilities, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of computer-assisted science vocabulary modules with students with an intellectual disability and autism in an adapted environmental science class. This study aimed to answer how the implementation of computer-assisted vocabulary modules, which adhere to evidence-based practices of special education vocabulary instruction, affected the acquisition and application of science vocabulary terms with students with an intellectual disability and autism in an adapted environmental science class, as well as how the students were engaged in the computer-assisted instruction activities. This study implemented an action research design. The participants in this study included three students (n = 3) who were diagnosed with a moderate intellectual disability, autism, and a speech/language impairment who attended a weekly adapted environmental science class at their self-contained school. The students participated in computer-assisted vocabulary modules which included computer-assisted instruction features, vocabulary strategies including keyword mnemonics and graphic organizers, and the special education evidence-based practice of explicit instruction. The modules were developed surrounding the topic of photosynthesis, using Gagne’s nine events of instruction, psycholinguistic/schema theory, and dual coding theory, as well as South Carolina-Alt performance level descriptors. The effectiveness of the computer-assisted vocabulary modules was measured through data collection which included a pre- and posttest, formative assessments in each module, the Classroom Measurement of Achievement Engagement, and a researcher’s journal. The data collected were analyzed using a convergent parallel mixed methods design. The findings of this study suggested the use of computer-assisted instruction and evidence-based explicit vocabulary instruction could improve science vocabulary acquisition and active engagement in instruction for students with an intellectual disability and autism