11,393 research outputs found
Acceptability of the transitional wearable companion â+meâ in typical children: a pilot study
This work presents the results of the first experimentation of +me-the first prototype of
Transitional Wearable Companionârun on 15 typically developed (TD) children with ages
between 8 and 34 months. +me is an interactive device that looks like a teddy bear that
can be worn around the neck, has touch sensors, can emit appealing lights and sounds,
and has input-output contingencies that can be regulated with a tablet via Bluetooth.
The participants were engaged in social play activities involving both the device and
an adult experimenter. +me was designed with the objective of exploiting its intrinsic
allure as an attractive toy to stimulate social interactions (e.g., eye contact, turn taking,
imitation, social smiles), an aspect potentially helpful in the therapy of Autism Spectrum
Disorders (ASD) and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). The main purpose
of this preliminary study is to evaluate the general acceptability of the toy by TD children,
observing the elicited behaviors in preparation for future experiments involving children
with ASD and other PDD. First observations, based on video recording and scoring,
show that +me stimulates good social engagement in TD children, especially when their
age is higher than 24 months
Impact of classroom design on interactive whiteboard use in a special needs classroom
The physical environment of a classroomâhow space is organized and controlledâimpacts the use of technology within that setting. This paper presents the initial rationale for choosing an interactive whiteboard (IWB) as the platform for software designed to encourage play in primary students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. An observational study of normal classroom practice and of an installed version of the software uncovered factors in the physical installation of the IWB and its pedagogical use that negatively affect its potential use
A Pilot Study with a Novel Setup for Collaborative Play of the Humanoid Robot KASPAR with children with autism
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.This article describes a pilot study in which a novel experimental setup, involving an autonomous humanoid robot, KASPAR, participating in a collaborative, dyadic video game, was implemented and tested with children with autism, all of whom had impairments in playing socially and communicating with others. The children alternated between playing the collaborative video game with a neurotypical adult and playing the same game with the humanoid robot, being exposed to each condition twice. The equipment and experimental setup were designed to observe whether the children would engage in more collaborative behaviours while playing the video game and interacting with the adult than performing the same activities with the humanoid robot. The article describes the development of the experimental setup and its first evaluation in a small-scale exploratory pilot study. The purpose of the study was to gain experience with the operational limits of the robot as well as the dyadic video game, to determine what changes should be made to the systems, and to gain experience with analyzing the data from this study in order to conduct a more extensive evaluation in the future. Based on our observations of the childrensâ experiences in playing the cooperative game, we determined that while the children enjoyed both playing the game and interacting with the robot, the game should be made simpler to play as well as more explicitly collaborative in its mechanics. Also, the robot should be more explicit in its speech as well as more structured in its interactions. Results show that the children found the activity to be more entertaining, appeared more engaged in playing, and displayed better collaborative behaviours with their partners (For the purposes of this article, âpartnerâ refers to the human/robotic agent which interacts with the children with autism. We are not using the termâs other meanings that refer to specific relationships or emotional involvement between two individuals.) in the second sessions of playing with human adults than during their first sessions. One way of explaining these findings is that the childrenâs intermediary play session with the humanoid robot impacted their subsequent play session with the human adult. However, another longer and more thorough study would have to be conducted in order to better re-interpret these findings. Furthermore, although the children with autism were more interested in and entertained by the robotic partner, the children showed more examples of collaborative play and cooperation while playing with the human adult.Peer reviewe
The use of joint attention in the naturalistic setting in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
This study investigates the deficits in the quantity
and quality of joint attention in children with Autism Spectrum
Disorder (ASD). To obtain a holistic measure of joint attention,
the following four aspects were considered: a) the quantity of Initiation
Joint Attention (IJA) and Response Joint Attention (RJA),
b) non-verbal behaviours which were atypically used during joint
attention, c) the quality of joint attention and d) the association
between quality and quantity of joint attention in children with
ASD. These aspects were measured in three children with ASD
and three typically-developing children (TDC). Measures were derived
from 30-minute video recordings of a play session between
each child and his/her caregiver and compared. This study established
that there was a statistically significant difference in the
quantity of joint attention in both IJA and RJA. The difference
in the quality of joint attention was not statistically significant.
However, when analysing children with ASD individually, a deficit
in the quality of joint attention was identified in two of the three
subjects. Compared to TDC, children with ASD engaged significantly
less in IJA through manipulation of objects and eye-gaze
and significantly more in IJA and RJA through challenging behaviour.
In addition, there was no association between the deficits
in quality and quantity of joint attention within individuals with
ASD, as the three subjects portrayed diverse profiles. Children
with ASD exhibited atypical joint attention skills when compared
to the control group. Moreover, the frequency of initiations of
joint attention bids was the most negatively affected aspect in
children with ASD. Quality of joint attention is rarely researched
and to the researchersâ knowledge, no other study has measured
both quality and quantity of joint attention in children with ASDpeer-reviewe
Using social robots to study abnormal social development
Social robots recognize and respond to human
social cues with appropriate behaviors.
Social robots, and the technology used in their
construction, can be unique tools in the study
of abnormal social development. Autism is a
pervasive developmental disorder that is characterized
by social and communicative impairments.
Based on three years of integration
and immersion with a clinical research
group which performs more than 130 diagnostic
evaluations of children for autism per
year, this paper discusses how social robots
will make an impact on the ways in which we
diagnose, treat, and understand autism
Parent Interaction Between an Infant with a Cochlear Implant and Additional Disabilities
Pediatric hearing loss has many spoken language learning issues that can impact parent-infant interaction. Moreover, additional disabilities are likely to increase stress, which could have cascading effects on communication. The purpose of the study was to examine interactions between mother- and father-child dyads with and without hearing loss and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), and global delay. Recordings of the parents speaking with six infants in the study were analyzed: an infant with cochlear implants and ASD (low socioeconomic status, SES), two infants with cochlear implants and normal development (high SES and low SES), one infant with a cochlear implant and CMV (average SES), one infant with a cochlear implant and global delay (average SES), and one infant who was typically developing and had normal hearing (high SES). After analyzing the results for communication measures, such as vocalization attempts, turn-taking in utterances, mean-length of utterances, and type-token ratio, it was concluded that maternal and paternal interaction was negatively affected due not only to the difficulty of the hearing loss and/or additional disability, but rather due to a combination of factors, including the disability, SES, maternal and paternal education, and the home environment
Prediction of 7-year psychopathology from mother-infant joint attention behaviours: a nested caseâcontrol study
<br>Background: To investigate whether later diagnosis of psychiatric disorder can be predicted from analysis of mother-infant joint attention (JA) behaviours in social-communicative interaction at 12 months.</br>
<br>Method:
Using data from a large contemporary birth cohort, we examined 159 videos of a mother-infant interaction for joint attention behaviour when children were aged one year, sampled from within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort. Fifty-three of the videos involved infants who were later considered to have a psychiatric disorder at seven years and 106 were same aged controls. Psychopathologies included in the case group were disruptive behaviour disorders, oppositional-conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, pervasive development disorder, anxiety and depressive disorders. Psychiatric diagnoses were obtained using the Development and Wellbeing Assessment when the children were seven years old.</br> <br>Results: None of the three JA behaviours (shared look rate, shared attention rate and shared attention intensity) showed a significant association with the primary outcome of caseâcontrol status. Only shared look rate predicted any of the exploratory sub-diagnosis outcomes and was found to be positively associated with later oppositional-conduct disorders (OR [95% CI]: 1.5 [1.0, 2.3]; pâ=â0.041).</br><br>Conclusions: JA behaviours did not, in general, predict later psychopathology. However, shared look was positively associated with later oppositional-conduct disorders. This suggests that some features of JA may be early markers of later psychopathology. Further investigation will be required to determine whether any JA behaviours can be used to screen for families in need of intervention.</br>
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