Designing for interaction immediacy to enhance social skills of children with autism

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder often require therapeutic interventions to support engagement in effective social interactions. In this paper, we present the results of a study conducted in three public schools that use an educational and behavioral intervention for the instruction of social skills in changing situational contexts. The results of this study led to the concept of interaction immediacy to help children maintain appropriate spatial boundaries, reply to conversation initiators, disengage appropriately at the end of an interaction, and identify potential communication partners. We describe design principles for Ubicomp technologies to support interaction immediacy and present an example design. The contribution of this work is twofold. First, we present an understanding of social skills in mobile and dynamic contexts. Second, we introduce the concept of interaction immediacy and show its effectiveness as a guiding principle for the design of Ubicomp applications

Brain–computer interface game applications for combined neurofeedback and biofeedback treatment for children on the autism spectrum

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show deficits in social and communicative skills, including imitation, empathy, and shared attention, as well as restricted interests and repetitive patterns of behaviors. Evidence for and against the idea that dysfunctions in the mirror neuron system are involved in imitation and could be one underlying cause for ASD is discussed in this review. Neurofeedback interventions have reduced symptoms in children with ASD by self-regulation of brain rhythms. However, cortical deficiencies are not the only cause of these symptoms. Peripheral physiological activity, such as the heart rate, is closely linked to neurophysiological signals and associated with social engagement. Therefore, a combined approach targeting the interplay between brain, body and behavior could be more effective. Brain-computer interface applications for combined neurofeedback and biofeedback treatment for children with ASD are currently nonexistent. To facilitate their use, we have designed an innovative game that includes social interactions and provides neural- and body-based feedback that corresponds directly to the underlying significance of the trained signals as well as to the behavior that is reinforced

SynApps: Children’s ASD Management Through A Mobile Application and An Interactive Biofeedback Exercise

This thesis explores how to provide better access to alternative treatment options through an immersive biofeedback exercise and mobile application for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This thesis also seeks to connect children with ASD to medical professionals and treatment facilities. This is done through a motion graphics piece depicting an abdominal breathing exercise and correlating mobile application. Users participate in biofeedback exercises in which their real-time biofeedback is monitored, transmitted to the mobile application, and reflected to the user. The mobile application analyzes and identifies physiological signals and detects what feedback is most useful to help the individual meet goals of increased vagal tones. Increased vagal tones correlates with high frequency heart rate variability. The game promotes self-awareness and self-regulation through abdominal breathing, heart rate variability, and mindfulness. If done consistently, biofeedback exercises may help re-train the body’s response to stressful situations, leading to function and behavioral improvements in everyday life. Additionally, this treatment application aims to be a preventative health option for children with ASD as a means to hopefully diminish the lifetime costs of care. This topic is important to the field of design and the broader community because it utilizes the power of design, motion, and interactive technology to potentially bring about improvements to the lives of children with ASD. Furthermore, this thesis unifies design with science as a means to bring better health care access and support services to people with ASD

Implementing Augmented Reality (AR) on Phonics-based Literacy among Children with Autism

The implementation of Augmented Reality (AR) technology in education has created an interesting approach to enhance the effectiveness and attractiveness of teaching and learning for students in real-life scenarios. This medium offers unique affordances, combining physical and virtual worlds, with continuous and implicit user control of the point of view and interactivity. This paper introduces the technology of augmented reality and its capabilities in facilitating children with autism. AR is a technology that overlays digital information on a live view of the physical world to create a blended experience. AR provides unique experiences and opportunities to learn and interact with information in the physical world. Hence, AR can be one of the effective technologies available in developing tools for teaching and learning with the combination of the virtual world and real objects such as transportation, fruits, numbers, and alphabets. This will facilitate the autistic child to recognize the abstract concepts of the real objects and their descriptions. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the use of AR on mobile devices in fostering literacy in academic and learning skills for children with autism using the phonics learning method. This prototype helps the autistic child to capture and associate the graphics or pictures of the surrounding objects so as improving the literacy and learning skills of the children. The results show that the children can pronounce and to distinguish between vowels “a”, “i” and “u”. The children are also able to answer most of the questions in the exercises provided. The interactivity between the children and the application raises their attention and focus mainly in literacy and learning skills

EFFECTS OF A PARENT-IMPLEMENTED INTERVENTION ON PRESCHOOL CHILDREN’S ENGAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTIVE PLAY IN HOME SETTINGS

Constructive play is a creative process-oriented activity that promotes engaged learning through building and designing with materials. This study explores a parent-implemented intervention to promote active engagement in constructive play for preschool-aged children who are at risk for developmental delay and answers the research question: Do parent-implemented environmental support strategies improve the child’s active engagement in constructive play in the home? The research methodology utilized is a single-subject multiple baseline across-participants design with four participants. Visual analysis of the data supports a functional relation between the temporal, physical, and social-emotional environmental supports provided by the parents and the children’s active engagement in constructive play. Social validity was strong as parents described this intervention as meaningful to their lives. These outcomes provide evidence supporting the importance of centering and working with parents in their home environment, and evidence that empowering parents facilitates their child’s active engagement in constructive play

An examination of collaborative strategic reading-high school (CSR-HS) intervention in students with ASD

textThis study investigates the effects of implementing Collaborative Strategic Reading–High School (CSR–HS) on reading comprehension and challenging behavior outcomes for three high school students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using a combined single subject research design consisting of a delayed, concurrent multiple-baseline and an alternating treatments with reversal, three high school students with ASD were paired with neurotypical reading partners to learn and use reading strategies with informational text two to three times per week. The alternating treatment conditions were CSR-HS with choice of text (i.e., CSR-HS-C) and CSR-HS without the opportunity to choose the reading text (i.e., CSR-HS-NC). Daily comprehension checks were collected and visually inspected along with data on occurrences of various challenging behaviors exhibited by each participant during intervention. Fidelity of implementation was also measured. Increased reading comprehension scores and decreased incidences of challenges behaviors were detected for the three participants upon implementation of intervention conditions. As for the influence of the choice component on the measured outcomes, no clear differentiation between conditions was observed in terms of reading comprehension gains and reduction in challenging behavior across the three participants, suggesting that the addition of choice did not show an added value to CSR-HS intervention.Special Educatio

Planning and Implementing Interventions for Students with Communication Disorders: An Integrated Framework with Perspectives from Cognitive, Developmental, & Behavioral Psychology, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Linguistics

Special education teachers are called upon to address a myriad of special educational needs. We are trusted to design and implement interventions tailored to each individual student with the overarching goal of equipping the student for success in education and ultimately in life. We must bring theory and research, from various child centered fields of study, directly into the real life of the classroom and, by association, the family, community, and society. We use Evaluation and Reevaluation Reports (ERs & RRs), Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs), and other records and reports that accompany a student entering our classroom to identify strengths and needs. We employ activities and methods to help the student meet the needs, use the strengths and progress toward achieving the IEP goals. The information and accountability of these reports is our starting place in programming for the individual student, but it is not the limit of our responsibility to engage the student in learning across all possible content. The overarching goal of creatively engaging students and equipping them for success as lifelong learners should include all students of all abilities. One of the more challenging situations encountered in special education is teaching students with little or no effective communication skills. Their negative behaviors may be the first, most observable, most disruptive challenge. Looking past the obvious behaviors, frustration and anxiety are often present for the student without means to express even simple wants and needs. The student may be in a state of trauma from experiencing aggressive behavior, consistent frustration and the personal consequences of negative behaviors (Bath, 2008). Improvements in communication can result in decreased negative behavior and increased engagement in learning activities, and greater compliance with tests or probes used to track progress toward goals (Durand, 2001; Mancil, 2006; Tiger, 2008). This paper attempts to create a positive framework for an effective multidisciplinary intervention design to address special needs of students with communication disorder