Didactic Software for Autistic Children

In this paper we describe the aims and requirements of a project devoted to designing and developing Open Source didactic Software (SW) for children in the autism disorder spectrum, conforming to the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) learning technique. In this context, participatory design with therapists and child?s parents is necessary to ensure a usable product that responds to these children?s special needs and respects education principles and constraints of the ABA methodology

Icanlearn: A Mobile Application For Creating Flashcards And Social Stories\u3csup\u3etm\u3c/sup\u3e For Children With Autistm

The number of children being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is on the rise, presenting new challenges for their parents and teachers to overcome. At the same time, mobile computing has been seeping its way into every aspect of our lives in the form of smartphones and tablet computers. It seems only natural to harness the unique medium these devices provide and use it in treatment and intervention for children with autism. This thesis discusses and evaluates iCanLearn, an iOS flashcard app with enough versatility to construct Social StoriesTM. iCanLearn provides an engaging, individualized learning experience to children with autism on a single device, but the most powerful way to use iCanLearn is by connecting two or more devices together in a teacher-learner relationship. The evaluation results are presented at the end of the thesis

Testing literacy educational software to develop design guidelines for children with Autism

Multimedia computer programs have been found to facilitate learning in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, the effectiveness of these resources is limited due to poor design or a lack of consideration of the ASD cognitive profile, particularly at the lower-functioning end of the spectrum. This paper attempts to tackle the problem of the lack of design guidelines, with the aim of facilitating the development of effective educational programs for children with severe ASD. The case study reported here evaluated two literacy educational computer programs, by observing five low-functioning children with ASD, compared to five neurotypical children (control cases). The two types of reading-support software contrasted in the study presented different characteristics. The children’s data analysed here concern observations of child-software interactive sessions based on video recordings and coded for attention deployment to each program, including motivation and engagement indicators. The results identify different patterns in the responses of the children with ASD when using the two types of software. On the basis of this case study and work by other authors, a set of guidelines is proposed, that are intended to help in designing effective educational programs for children with severe ASD. The guidelines emphasize a multi-disciplinary framework using methodologies from various research areas including software engineering, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Child Computer Interaction (CCI), mental health, education and neuropsychology

Assisting Children Action Association Through Visual Queues and Wearable Technology

Autism Spectrum Disorder makes it difficult to for a child communicate, have social interactions and go through daily life. Visual cues are often used to help a child associate an image with an event. With technology becoming more and more advanced, we now have a way to remind a child of an event with wearable technology, such as a watch. This new technology can help a child directly with the Visual Scheduling Application and various other applications. These applications allow children and their families to be easily able to keep track of the events on their schedule and notify them when an event occurs. With the Autism Management Platform and related website, a parent can easily create events to help a child throughout the day. The child can associate an image with events, allowing for a clearer understanding of what to do when an event occurs. Wearable technology has become a new way to interact with the user in a very unobtrusive manner. With this new technology, we can help associate a visual event to a child’s schedule and interrupt when needed to help make the child’s life easier on a daily basis

Android Maze Game for Children as an Autism Therapy

Smartphone technology is increasingly used to help things in everyday life and becoming more sophisticated in mobile application. Nowadays it use to handling children with special needs, particularly children with autism. A game application could provide the therapist with game module and approach that is suitable for them to conduct the therapy. This study identify an alternative option of edutainment design that may be usable for ASD's children. The study in an autism therapy field can be improved in this research by using motion sensors on mobile devices tools to facilitate them. Therefore, we have develop an android application of a maze game that are suitable to use as a medium for play therapy specially for children with autism. The game is simple, easy to use and integrates interactivity and fun activities where user can learn more than just a common game

Beyond The ‘Untold’ Encountering Autism: Situated Insights On Ways To Enable Participation In Design

The number of people who experience autism is constantly increasing. In 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention determined that, every year, approximately 1 out of 54 children is diagnosed with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the last years, the number of research and studies dedicated to children with autism has increased; however, scarce attention was paid to research on adults with autism, particularly those on the severe end of the spectrum (low-functioning autism), who have limited verbal abilities and non-normative communication. Consequences of this include issues of social inclusion, lack of services, work opportunities, social and civil rights, to mention a few, which are not yet sufficiently explored nor implemented for this specific group of people. This thesis employs Participatory Design to explore novel ways to engage with people on the autistic spectrum, in the attempt to understand what processes and participatory dynamics become enacted in acknowledging them as equal, valuable presences in the constitution of our collective existence and society. In particular, the research looks at processes and activities that can lead to a collaboration between designers and adults with severe autism and non-normative communication abilities, and their active participation within the research process. By theoretically drawing from traditions of Feminist Theory and Participatory Design, this thesis considers one single case study, where collaboration with the participant is achieved by means of a situated approach to design research. My standpoint and philosophical positioning here are to acknowledge that there are multiple realities through which one can make sense of the world: this research envisions that each person constructs her or his own reality through their personal experiences. Such philosophical perspective aims at emphasising and valuing subjectivity, and the consequent, intrinsic partiality that constitute our human experience. Personalised and situated research objects are also used across the thesis as methodological elements, oriented to explore the potential of triggering participation, crossing the boundaries between different communication abilities and achieving mutual understanding between designer and participant. The contribution to knowledge provided from this research is three fold: first, it provides new insights about the creation of research objects that result from a situated and process-oriented approach to Participatory Design; second, it extends knowledge concerning design practices that involve the collaborative participation of people experiencing the severe 4 end of the autistic spectrum; third, it contributes to provide new narratives concerning peoplewith non-normative communication abilities and autism