Non-verbal Communication with Autistic Children Using Digital Libraries

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has become one of the most prevalent mental disorders over the last few years and its prevalence is still growing. The disorder is characterized by a wide variety of symptoms such as lack of social behavior, extreme withdrawal, and problems communicating. Because of the diversity in symptoms and the wide variety in severity for those, each autistic child has different needs and requires individualized therapy. This leads to long waiting lists for therapy

Library Programming for Autistic Children and Teens

This second edition provides key information, updated program ideas, and practical tips that will help library workers feel more prepared to serve members of this prevalent population. Since the first edition of this landmark guide was published, there has been increased interest in services for library patrons on the autism spectrum; indeed, more people of all ages now self-identify as autistic. Those who understand the unique characteristics of autistic young people know that ordinary library programming guides are not up to the task of effectively serving these library users. Well qualified to speak to this need, Anderson is an educator, library researcher, and former public librarian who has helped to develop two IMLS funded initiatives that train library workers to better understand and serve autistic patrons. … [Amazon.com]https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/stemps_books/1003/thumbnail.jp

Affective Medicine: a review of Affective Computing efforts in Medical Informatics

Background: Affective computing (AC) is concerned with emotional interactions performed with and through computers. It is defined as “computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotions”. AC enables investigation and understanding of the relation between human emotions and health as well as application of assistive and useful technologies in the medical domain. Objectives: 1) To review the general state of the art in AC and its applications in medicine, and 2) to establish synergies between the research communities of AC and medical informatics. Methods: Aspects related to the human affective state as a determinant of the human health are discussed, coupled with an illustration of significant AC research and related literature output. Moreover, affective communication channels are described and their range of application fields is explored through illustrative examples. Results: The presented conferences, European research projects and research publications illustrate the recent increase of interest in the AC area by the medical community. Tele-home healthcare, AmI, ubiquitous monitoring, e-learning and virtual communities with emotionally expressive characters for elderly or impaired people are few areas where the potential of AC has been realized and applications have emerged. Conclusions: A number of gaps can potentially be overcome through the synergy of AC and medical informatics. The application of AC technologies parallels the advancement of the existing state of the art and the introduction of new methods. The amount of work and projects reviewed in this paper witness an ambitious and optimistic synergetic future of the affective medicine field

The design principles of edutainment system for autistic children with communication difficulties

The number of children with autism is increasing worldwide. Children with autism face three major problems; socializing, communicating, and behaviour. Approximately 50% of all individuals with autism have difficulties in developing functional language owing to communication deterioration. Mobile devices with installed educational games help these individuals feel more comfortable and relaxed doing such activities. Although numerous mobile applications are available for individuals with autism, they are difficult to use; particularly in terms of user-interface design. This study analysed the existing apps in order to determine the design principles applicable to the Edutainment App being studied. Five applications were involved in this analysis. As outlined in the objectives of this study, identifying these design principles is important in designing the app. The analysis identified fifteen suggestions for the design principles. These suggestions addressed, simple interfaces; image size; number of pictures; home page icon; colour; having images identical to real life objects; the use of caregivers; navigation; password-protection; audio appropriate to the images; the app language used; evaluating parameters to measure the child’s growth; option for photo loading; PECS-based communication; and sentence pronunciation function. These recommendations are offered by this study towards designing and developing a prototype app for autistic children. This study introduces an edutainment-system design principle formulated to help develop the communication skills of children with autism-spectrum disorders. This study also describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of the ICanTalk app-a mobile edutainment app that can be used to improve users’ understanding and communication skills and help them to connect with society and the surrounding environment particularly for autistic children with communication difficulties. This app allows caregivers to create personalized content using pictures and audio on their mobile devices (tablets). The evaluation of the app by teachers suggests that it is useful and easy-to-use. In conclusion, based on the evaluation results, it is found that the ICanTalk app is effective in helping autistic children with communication difficultie

The effect of music therapy on depression and anxiety in institutionalized adolescent females

This study examined the effect of music therapy on the reduction of depression and anxiety in adolescent females. A literature review with a focus on music therapy is presented. In this study music therapy consisted of weekly group sessions in which subjects selected, listened to, and discussed pieces of music according to a particular theme assigned by the experimenter. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design was utilized. Pre- and post-test measures consisted of the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. A final questionnaire measuring subject opinion regarding music therapy was administered to the experimental group. No significant difference was found on either of the measures between the experimental and the control groups. Possible limitations of the study are discussed

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

Creating am Inclusive Media Center for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The purpose of this research is to investigate how school librarians can help support students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The research questions that were addressed in this paper are: 1. What strategies can library media specialists use to make the school library environment inclusive for students with autism spectrum disorder? 2. How can librarians help reduce student anxiety when entering the library? The methods used for this research was an evaluation of selected research articles that were collected from EbscoHost, the Illinois Library Association, School Library Journal, and Google Scholar. Keywords and phrases that were used for this research were “Autism Spectrum Disorder and libraries”, “Autism and school libraries” and “librarians and patrons with autism”. Research was scarce of this subject. The results show the importance of having a spaced that was universally designed to support all learners with thoughtful consideration to lighting, the physical space and clear signage. Having library staff that was trained with assistive technology and communication skills was also significant in the findings. Having a media program that was inclusive was also pivotal. The research also shows a strong need for professional development opportunities for all media center staff on how to best support a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the media center. The concluded results of the analysis of research available affirms the importance of having a school media center that is inclusive to all students by having a trained Library Media Specialist on staff that has a range of skills to help create an environment that is supportive to students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Robots and autistic children: a review

In accordance with the advancement in robotics and the scholarly literature, the extents of utilizing robots for autistic children are widened and could be a promising method for individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) treatments, where the different form of robot (humanoid, non-humanoid, animal-like, toy, and kits) can be employed effectively as a support tool to augment the learning skills and rehabilitate of the individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Thus, the robots were exploited for ASD children in different aspects namely; modelling, teaching, and skills practicing; testing, highlighting and evaluating; providing feedback or encouragement; join Attention; eliciting social behaviours; emotion recognition and expression; imitation; vocalization; turn-taking; and diagnostic. The related literature published recently in journals and conferences is taken into account. In this paper, we review the use of robots that help in the therapy of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The articles on using robots for autistic children rehabilitation and education which reported results of experiments on a number of participants were implicated. After looking in digital libraries under this criteria, and excluding non-related, and duplicated studies, 39 studies have been found. The findings were focused mainly on the social communication skills of autistic children and how the extent of the robots mitigate their stereotyped behaviours. Deeper research is required in this area to cover all applications of robotic on autistic children in order to design feasible and low-cost robots that ensure provide high validity