Estratégias & tecnologias digitais para a integração do Autismo

The number of people with Autism spectrum disorders is increasing significantly. The purpose of this literature review is to contribute to the integration of autistic people in the educational context with the help of technological means. Educators' views on the education they should provide to students so that autistic people feel accepted by their peers and have equal and inclusive opportunities are listed. People on the Autism spectrum have difficulties in important pillars such as communication, memory, and attention. Strategies are presented for teachers to achieve the inclusion of students and the role of assistive technology, and its benefits are identified for people with Autism with the main benefit being the improvement of communication skills, the improvement of organization activities, memory, and attention.El número de personas con trastornos del espectro autista está aumentando significativamente. El objetivo de esta revisión bibliográfica fue contribuir a la integración de las personas autistas en el contexto educativo con la ayuda de medios tecnológicos. Se enumeran las opiniones de los educadores sobre la educación que deben ofrecer a los alumnos para que las personas autistas se sientan aceptadas por sus compañeros y tengan oportunidades equitativas e inclusivas. Las personas en el espectro del autismo tienen dificultades con pilares importantes como la comunicación, la memoria y la atención. Se presentan estrategias para que los docentes logren la inclusión de los estudiantes y el rol de la tecnología asistiva, y se identifican sus beneficios para las personas con autismo, siendo el principal beneficio la mejora de las habilidades comunicativas, la mejora de las actividades de organización, memoria y atención.O número de pessoas com transtornos do espectro do Autismo está aumentando significativamente. O objetivo desta revisão de literatura foi contribuir para a integração de pessoas autistas no contexto educacional com o auxílio de meios tecnológicos. São listadas as opiniões dos educadores sobre a educação que devem oferecer aos alunos para que os autistas se sintam aceitos por seus pares e tenham oportunidades iguais e inclusivas. As pessoas no espectro do Autismo apresentam dificuldades em pilares importantes como comunicação, memória e atenção. São apresentadas estratégias para os professores conseguirem a inclusão dos alunos e o papel da tecnologia assistiva, e são identificados seus benefícios para pessoas com autismo sendo o principal benefício, a melhora das habilidades de comunicação, a melhora das atividades de organização, memória e atenção

Insights from mechanistic and digital intervention approaches

Eine effektive Förderung des Sozialverhaltens autistischer Kinder erfordert ein tiefgehendes Verständnis der Ursachen maladaptiver Reaktionen und die Bereitstellung eines leicht verfügbaren Förderangebots. Hier haben digitale Angebote ein großes Potential. Ebenso wie bei der Ursachenforschung mangelt es jedoch an Forschungsansätzen, welche eine Vielzahl an kognitiven und emotionalen Prozessen in die digitale Förderung integrieren. Dementsprechend untersuchte die Dissertation zunächst das Zusammenspiel verschiedener Ursachen aggressives Sozialverhaltens anhand eines etablierten Modells der sozial-kognitiven Informationsverarbeitung. Durch die Integration verschiedener Facetten der Empathie und deren zugrundeliegende Kompetenzen in ein digitales Förderangebot sollte im zweiten Schritt eine Verbesserung des Sozialverhaltens autistischer Grundschüler:innen erreicht werden. Es zeigte sich, dass Emotionsdysregulation verschiedene Formen aggressiven Sozialverhaltens und damit assoziierte feindselige Attributionen verstärkt. Letztere stand vor allem mit verbalen und verdeckten Aggressionsformen sowie mit guten Emotionserkennungsfertigkeiten im Zusammenhang. Eine Verbesserung des Sozialverhaltens und der Emotionsregulation konnte mittelfristig durch das sechswöchige, eltern-begleitete eLearningprogramm „Zirkus Empathico“ erreicht werden. Die multizentrische, randomisiert kontrollierte Studie ergab zudem kurzfristige und moderate Interventionseffekte für Empathie und Emotionserkennung als primäre Endpunkte. Insgesamt unterstreicht die Dissertation die Validität etablierter Modelle der sozialen Informationsverarbeitung sowie die Relevanz, diese zukünftigen Forschungs- und Interventionsansätzen zugrunde zu legen. Durch die Integration verschiedener sozio-emotionaler Kompetenzen scheint die digitale Intervention Zirkus Empathico prosoziales Verhalten autistischer Kinder auf effektive und praktikable Weise zu fördern.Effective training of autistic children`s social behavior requires an in-depth understanding of the causes of maladaptive responses and the provision of easily accessible support services. In this context, digital interventions have great potential. However, there is a lack of research approaches that integrate a variety of cognitive and emotional processes into both, explanation and digital support. The present dissertation first examined the interplay of different causes of aggressive social behavior by applying an established model of social-cognitive information processing to a sample of autistic elementary school students. Second, by integrating different facets of empathy and their underlying competencies into a digital program, the social behavior of autistic elementary school children should be improved. First, it was shown that emotion dysregulation strengthens various forms of aggressive social behavior and associated hostile attribution biases. The latter was mainly related to verbal and covert forms of aggression and good emotion recognition skills. Second, the parent-assisted eLearning program "Zirkus Empathico" led to a medium-term improvement in social behavior and emotion regulation after a six-week training. In addition, the multicenter randomized controlled trial showed moderate intervention effects on empathy and emotion recognition as primary outcomes, which were no longer detectable three months later. Overall, the dissertation highlights the validity of established models of social information processing and the relevance of using them as a foundation for future research and intervention. By integrating various socio-emotional competencies, the digital intervention Zirkus Empathico seems to strengthen autistic children’s prosocial behavior effectively and feasibly

The Development and Evaluation of a Mobile App to Facilitate Public Transport Use for Individuals on The Autism Spectrum: A Co-Production Approach

Mortaza developed and evaluated the first evidence-based, autism-specific trip-planning mobile application to facilitate public transport use for autistic people in the Australian context. This tool was co-produced with individuals on the autism spectrum and was effective in making public transport less stressful. The outcome can improve their quality of life, as the ability to independently use public transport can present individuals on the autism spectrum new opportunities for employment, education and social interaction

Educational mobile game design for children learning mathematics

Children can learn while playing computer educational games. Therefore, it is important that educational games for children are well designed and usable. This study proposes an educational mobile game design for children to learn mathematics. Based on the design, a low fidelity and high fidelity prototypes called PreMath Operations were designed and developed. A usability evaluation was conducted on the prototypes by observing children playing with the games. The result of the evaluation suggested that PreMath Operations prototypes is usable and can help children to learn math while playing. This study provides a design strategy of mathematic educational game for children to learn in a fun and interestin

Integrated Web Accessibility Guidelines for Users on the Autism Spectrum - from Specification to Implementation

This research presented a compendium of web interface design guidelines and their implementation on a transport-planning website based on the needs and preferences of users on the autism spectrum. Results highlighted the importance of having simple navigation and meaningful headings, icons, labels and text to facilitate understanding and readability; these findings offer guidelines for the design of web user interfaces to continue improving the web experience of autistic users, and therefore of the whole community

Virtual reality and naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder

© 2021 The Author(s).Background: Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI) have been evaluated as the most promising interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder. In recent years, a growing body of literature suggests that technological advancements such as Virtual Reality (VR) are promising intervention tools. However, to the best of our knowledge no studies have combined evidence-based practice with such tools. Aim: This article aims to review the current literature combining NDBI and VR, and provide suggestions on merging NDBI-approaches with VR. Methods: This article is divided into two parts, where we first conduct a review mapping the research applying NDBI-approaches in VR. In the second part we argue how to apply the common features of NDBI into VR-technology. Results: Our findings show that no VR-studies explicitly rely on NDBI-approaches, but some utilize elements in their interventions that are considered to be common features to NDBI. Conclusions and implications: As the results show, to date, no VR-based studies have utilized NDBI in their intervention. We therefore, in the second part of this article, suggests ways to merge VR and NDBI and introduce the term Virtual Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (VNDBI). VNDBI is an innovative way of implementing NDBI which will contribute in making interventions more accessible in central as well as remote locations, while reducing unwanted variation between service sites. VNDBI will advance the possibilities of individually tailoring and widen the area of interventions. In addition, VNDBI can provide the field with new knowledge on effective components enhancing the accuracy in the intervention packages and thus move forward the research field and clinical practice.publishedVersio