Collaborative virtual environment to facilitate game design evaluation with children with ASC

Involvement of children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) in the design of new educational technology is becoming more prevalent. Despite potential barriers due to communication and ideation difficulties for children with ASC, adapted participatory design methods can successfully facilitate their direct involvement. Nonetheless, methods requiring face-to-face communication can still be difficult for children with ASC and research suggests that technology mediation could facilitate their contribution. This study explores the use of collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) as a medium through which students evaluated existing computer games and offered suggestions for game development. CVEs in which the users were represented by (a) avatars and (b) video-pods were compared to a face-to-face condition. Twelve typically developing (aged 8-9 years), 12 higher ability ASC (12-14) and 4 lower ability ASC children (12-14) participated. All student groups preferred the video-pod CVE and students with ASC were generally better able to contribute effectively through this medium than face-to-face

Blending human and artificial intelligence to support autistic children’s social communication skills

This paper examines the educational efficacy of a learning environment in which children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) engage in social interactions with an artificially intelligent (AI) virtual agent and where a human practitioner acts in support of the interactions. A multi-site intervention study in schools across the UK was conducted with 29 children with ASC and learning difficulties, aged 4-14 years old. For reasons related to data completeness and amount of exposure to the AI environment, data for 15 children was included in the analysis. The analysis revealed a significant increase in the proportion of social responses made by ASC children to human practitioners. The number of initiations made to human practitioners and to the virtual agent by the ASC children also increased numerically over the course of the sessions. However, due to large individual differences within the ASC group, this did not reach significance. Although no evidence of transfer to the real-world post-test was shown, anecdotal evidence of classroom transfer was reported. The work presented in this paper offers an important contribution to the growing body of research in the context of AI technology design and use for autism intervention in real school contexts. Specifically, the work highlights key methodological challenges and opportunities in this area by leveraging interdisciplinary insights in a way that (i) bridges between educational interventions and intelligent technology design practices, (ii) considers the design of technology as well as the design of its use (context and procedures) on par with one another, and (iii) includes design contributions from different stakeholders, including children with and without ASC diagnosis, educational practitioners and researchers

The use of Analog and Digital Games for Autism Interventions

Many interventions that target improvements in social communication and other cognitive, learning, and physical issues have been developed to help autistic people. The gamification of interventions offers an alternative approach to fostering and assessing desired behaviors and cognitions in a more naturalistic and emergent setting. In this scoping review aimed at educators, practitioners, and parents of those with autism, we detail studies that have tested game-based approaches to improving the lives of autistic children, adolescents, and adults, focusing on how research into gamification and autism can both progress and can be progressed and implemented. We offer parents, professionals and academics resources to incorporate game-based psycho-educational programs into their current practice

Reflections on the role of the ‘users’: challenges in a multi-disciplinary context of learner-centred design for children on the autism spectrum

Technology design in the field of human–computer interaction has developed a continuum of participatory research methods, closely mirroring methodological approaches and epistemological discussions in other fields. This paper positions such approaches as examples of inclusive research (to varying degrees) within education, and illustrates the complexity of navigating and involving different user groups in the context of multi-disciplinary research projects. We illustrate this complexity with examples from our recent work, involving children on the autism spectrum and their teachers. Both groups were involved in learner-centred design processes to develop technologies to support social conversation and collaboration. We conceptualize this complexity as a triple-decker ‘sandwich’ representing Theory, Technologies and Thoughts and argue that all three layers need to be appropriately aligned for a good quality ‘product’ or outcome. However, the challenge lies in navigating and negotiating all three layers at the same time, including the views and experiences of the learners. We question the extent to which it may be possible to combine co-operative, empowering approaches to participatory design with an outcome-focused agenda that seeks to develop a robust learning technology for use in real classrooms

XR, music and neurodiversity: design and application of new mixed reality technologies that facilitate musical intervention for children with autism spectrum conditions

This thesis, accompanied by the practice outputs,investigates sensory integration, social interaction and creativity through a newly developed VR-musical interface designed exclusively for children with a high-functioning autism spectrum condition (ASC).The results aim to contribute to the limited expanse of literature and research surrounding Virtual Reality (VR) musical interventions and Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) designed to support individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions. The author has developed bespoke hardware, software and a new methodology to conduct field investigations. These outputs include a Virtual Immersive Musical Reality Intervention (ViMRI) protocol, a Supplemental Personalised, immersive Musical Experience(SPiME) programme, the Assisted Real-time Three-dimensional Immersive Musical Intervention System’ (ARTIMIS) and a bespoke (and fully configurable) ‘Creative immersive interactive Musical Software’ application (CiiMS). The outputs are each implemented within a series of institutional investigations of 18 autistic child participants. Four groups are evaluated using newly developed virtual assessment and scoring mechanisms devised exclusively from long-established rating scales. Key quantitative indicators from the datasets demonstrate consistent findings and significant improvements for individual preferences (likes), fear reduction efficacy, and social interaction. Six individual case studies present positive qualitative results demonstrating improved decision-making and sensorimotor processing. The preliminary research trials further indicate that using this virtual-reality music technology system and newly developed protocols produces notable improvements for participants with an ASC. More significantly, there is evidence that the supplemental technology facilitates a reduction in psychological anxiety and improvements in dexterity. The virtual music composition and improvisation system presented here require further extensive testing in different spheres for proof of concept

Effects of Computerized Emotional Training on Children with High Functioning Autism

An evaluation study of a serious game and a system for the automatic emotion recognition designed for helping autistic children to learn to recognize and express emotions by means of their full-body movement is presented. Three-dimensional motion data of full-body movements are obtained from RGB-D sensors and used to recognize emotions by means of linear SVMs. Ten children diagnosed with High Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome were involved in the evaluation phase, consisting of repeated sessions to play a specifically designed serious game. Results from the evaluation study show an increase of tasks accuracy from the beginning to the end of training sessions in the trained group. In particular, while the increase of recognition accuracy was concentrated in the first sessions of the game, the increase for expression accuracy is more gradual throughout all sessions. Moreover, the training seems to produce a transfer effect on facial expression recognition

Special Issue on Designing With and For Users on the Autism Spectrum

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people, and to the world around them. It is estimated that around 1 in 68 people are autistic (Christensen et al., 2016 Christensen, D. L., Baio, J., Van Naarden Braun, K., Bilder, D., Charles, J., Constantino, J. N., … Yeargin-Allsopp, M. (2016). Prevalence and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years

ASEAN 4 KIDS: AN INTERACTIVE APPLICATION FOR LEARNING ASEAN CULTURE

With three years to the implementation of ASEAN Community in 2015, knowledge about ASEAN is the basic fundamental building block to the success of the ASEAN Community. A research has revealed that currently there is still a significant knowledge gap about ASEAN among young generation. Therefore, this project aims to fulfill this gap by designing and developing an interactive application for learning ASEAN culture named “ASEAN 4 KIDS”. Objective of this project are to develop an interactive application that encourages young children especially primary school students to learn some basic knowledge about ASEAN and culture of each member countries. The project also aims to raise awareness and understanding of ASEAN, its people and cultures to the target users through ICT. Additionally, the objectives are to explore the use of game-based approach in promoting culture learning as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the application in learning ASEAN culture. Currently in the market, there are limited numbers of culture teaching applications that integrate various aspects of culture. Furthermore, the products that actually focus on teaching ASEAN Culture are very scarce. Using Flash and Augmented Reality, the system exposes the young children to the technology while they learn from the animation lessons and play the interactive games which are the mechanism to teach about ASEAN and deliver the educational content. Besides, the proposed system, this project also involves the study of how culture is being taught in school and the study of young children nature. As a result, the lessons and games are age-appropriate and match the abilities of the children. As a consequence the system is not only creating a joyful learning for the children but also help create awareness and understanding about ASEAN among them. The prototype system was tested with 5 primary school children aged between nine to twelve years old under the instruction of the developer and parents. The result of the testing showed the excitement of the children towards the system which is a good sign for the implementation in the real learning environment later on