Stimulating intellectual activity with adaptive environment (SMILE)

© 2017 Association for Computing Machinery. As of 2016, 47.5 million people have dementia worldwide according to the World Health Organization, and it is expected that this number will nearly double every 20 years, reaching 100 million sooner than 2030. The goal of the SMILE concept is to help the elderly to live independently and to prevent/delay dementia. It should improve the quality of life of elderly by introducing healthy habits and a lifelong involvement in mentally and socially stimulating activities. It should reduce social isolation, i.e. high degree of loneliness, dissatisfaction with social contacts, and decreased social network. The focus is on prevention of gradual decline in memory function and planning ability, as well. Applying social network concepts provides easier social interaction for older people. Using stimulating and interactive environment enhances and maintains brain plasticity through social interaction. So far there are no published articles or projects that are targeted at the same goal to develop a self-care social interactive TV system as a Service, which is the aim of the SMILE concept. There are a lot of projects and papers about the relevant technologies, however not the integrated approach, which is the key innovation in this concept

Ontology of laughter: social-ethical aspects

Laughter is very important emotional manifestation for human being. The understanding of laughter’s nature and the determination of its main characters can’t be ignored because laughter is the ability that characterizes and determines the very human way of seeing and understanding the world and the person himself. As a result of the critical analysis, such laughter features as paradoxicality, distancing, openness, freedom, sociality, connection with the sphere of morality are noted and simultaneously indicate the internal unity of consciousness and laughter nature. Laughter built into the structure of human consciousness, and therefore it acquires an ontological character. The article focuses on the social nature of laughter and its educational function. Gradually and consistently, the chain of “consciousness-conscience-laughter-shame” was built during this research. As laughter sometimes can be put in pair with evil, very often the researchers consider it sinful. It was shown that the roots of evil lie not in laughter, but in the person who manipulates its inner abilities

Adaptive surfing: leisure, competition or therapy?

Adaptive surfing is an outdoor sports activity which is practice in a natural, dynamic and high challenging environment. The moving waves, rip currents, tides and the beach appears as an innovative approach if compared to other traditional adaptive water sports (such as swimming, rowing or sailing). In this basis we can divide adaptive surfing in three major types of interventions: as recreative/leisure activity and play, as sportive competition and high-performance sports; or as therapeutic technic or with rehabilitation proposes. Nowadays adaptive surfing is finally being considered as highly important not only by surfers, therapists and social workers but also by the general public and a number of politicians as a crucial instrument for social inclusion worldwide. We hope to see more adaptive surfing programs and projects worldwide in the next years and hope it will gain more attention from governmental and non-governmental organizations in order to obtain more funding to support these programs. More funding would enable researchers to conduct this kind of work more often and produce more extensive data to support the case for the usefulness of adaptive surfing

A Case Study: Use of Applied Behavior Analysis with an Austistic Adolescent

Socialization between individuals is an important characteristic in human development. In individuals with autism, there is a profound deficit with social skills and with social reciprocity. Interventions and techniques are utilized to help enhance these skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects that Applied Behavior Analysis using discrete trials can have on the ability to elicit a spontaneous greeting in various settings by an adolescent male diagnosed with autism. This study analyzed data collected during a ten week intervention program. Behavior ratings reflected some uneven progress over the ten weeks, but significant improvements in the targeted social behaviors were exhibited by the tenth week of training. The behavior checklist appeared to be an effective tool for assessing the social behavior of an adolescent male diagnosed with autism

Enhancing the Teaching of Lawyering Skills and Perspectives Through Virtual World Engagement

Educators from around the globe are rapidly utilizing and transforming virtual worlds, such as Second Life, with innovative teaching strategies. Mediation and dispute resolution, and associated communication and problem-solving skills, are particularly well suited for developing in virtual worlds, as are other lawyering skills such as, interviewing, counseling, and trial advocacy. The opportunities for students and faculty to engage in cross-cultural exchange and networking are another selling feature of virtual world engagement. Virtual worlds offer particular promise for those seeking innovative and cost-effective ways to integrate more professional training and skills development into the law school curriculum. Moreover, as more and more people enter virtual worlds and other forms of online social engagement, there is increasing need to offer innovative online opportunities for student learning. This article uses a project on teaching dispute resolution skills to law students conducted in the virtual world as a medium within the law school curriculum

Giving a voice to the hard to reach: Song as an effective medium for communicating with PMLD children who have low social tolerance

Common practice in special schools is to sing rather than speak to children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), in order to initiate and maintain interactions; however, there is little formal evidence to support this practice. This study explored the extent to which singing is effective with this ‘hard to reach’ cohort. Five pupils participated, who had PMLD and low social tolerance. These individuals do not like to be touched, talked to or to be in close proximity with other people. This research set out to explore the effectiveness of different sorts of interactive approaches, notably singing or speaking, as a starting point for building an evidence base to underpin practice. The study used a single subject research methodology, with an adult as a communication partner who initiated interactions, and responded to the behavioural cues of the child. Interactions were video recorded. A system to code participants’ responses to different interactions was developed, based on detailed descriptions of each individual’s behaviour on three major dimensions: Attention Focus, Social Proximity, and Facial Expression. Pupils’ vocalisations and coordinated actions were also recorded. Events were presented graphically; statistical analyses explored the effectiveness of different interaction approaches; sessions were described qualitatively. The research revealed consistent communicative behaviours (and a means to identify these) in individuals with PMLD and poor social tolerance. Participants were able to express their internal states through consistent patterns in their eye gaze, social proximity, facial expression, and vocal behaviours. The communication partner played a critical role in structuring and directing the interactions; interactions were shaped and influenced by both environment and context. Simple behavioural descriptors are insensitive to context. The research showed that, used on their own, they can lead to misinterpretations of events, and so must be complemented by qualitative descriptions. Nevertheless, the microanalysis of behaviours revealed ‘moments of wonder’ which overturned expectations about who was leading interactions; none of the participants was thought (by staff) to be capable of the secondary intersubjectivity and attention directing behaviours that were documented. There were individual differences in response to singing: however, overall, singing was associated with more positive facial expressions (smiles), higher levels of social tolerance (to touch and proximity), and improved communicative responses (eye contact, vocalisations, and coordinated actions). This provides evidence to support current practices of singing to children with PMLD. This thesis modelled a strategy for collating a profile of communicative behaviours. A practical outcome of the research was that details of the communicative behaviours of participants were circulated via a ‘communication passport’ for each participant, and shared with parents and carers. The use of song became a more explicit part of the daily routine and a planned element in lessons. Findings are related to research on mother-infant communication and infant development, and on the role of music in emotional regulation, and the psychology of music. Directions for future research are discussed

Sensory Integration: Helping Students with Autism Incorporate Sensory Integration Techniques

The present study focused on which sensory integration techniques are effective for students with autism and sensory processing disorder (SPD). Data from this study was gathered from observing four students who have autism and SPD, as well as interviewing the students’ special education teacher and occupational therapist. The findings of this study demonstrate that sensory integration can support students with autism and SPD; however, professionals need to determine which strategies best support each students’ needs. Hence, the findings impact special education teachers, occupational therapists, and parents/guardians of students with autism and SPD. Limitations of this study consist of time (lack of time) and a small number of participants, who were all attending a special education school