Guidelines for supporting children with disabilities' play: methodologies, tools, and contexts

All children want to play. This is also true for children with disabilities. Facilitating their engagement in play, whatever children’s capacities, is a central premise of people who view play as fundamental for their development and well-being. Play for the sake of play, just for recreational pleasure and enjoyment, without any secondary goal. In this book you’ll find guidelines to support children with disabilities’ play. They can be a useful tool for ensuring that children with disabilities can fully enjoy their right to play, for improving the quality of children’s play, enhancing their play satisfaction and participation, and reducing play deprivation. Written in a lay-person language, providing ready-to-use information, this book is for parents, teachers, rehabilitation professionals, toy manufacturers, policy makers and in general for all of those interested in the topic of play for children with disabilities. This publication results from the research and work of a transdisciplinary team, all participants in the COST Action “LUDI - Play for Children with Disabilities”.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perspectives and research on play for children with disabilities: collected papers

This book includes eight chapters reflecting various approaches towards the theme of play for children with disabilities that characterised the work of the members of the COST Action TD1309 "LUDI-Play for Children with Disabilities". Alongside these multifaceted points of view, some theoretical aspects emerged as a common background: the ICF-CY theoretical perspective, the vision of "play for the sake of play" and play as a fundamental right

Perspectives and research on play for children with disabilities. Collected papers

This book includes eight chapters reflecting various approaches towards the theme of play for children with disabilities that characterised the work of the members of the COST Action TD1309 “LUDI–Play for Children with Disabilities”. Alongside these multifaceted points of view, some theoretical aspects emerged as a common background: the ICF-CY theoretical perspective, the vision of “play for the sake of play” and play as a fundamental right

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

Assistive Technology to Improve Collaboration in Children with ASD: State-of-the-Art and Future Challenges in the Smart Products Sector

Within the field of products for autism spectrum disorder, one of the main research areas is focused on the development of assistive technology. Mid and high-tech products integrate interactive and smart functions with multisensory reinforcements, making the user experience more intuitive, adaptable, and dynamic. These products have a very significant impact on improving the skills of children with autism, including collaboration and social skills, which are essential for the integration of these children into society and, therefore, their well-being. This work carried out an exhaustive analysis of the scientific literature, as well as market research and trends, and patent analysis to explore the state-of-the-art of assistive technology and smart products for children with ASD, specifically those aimed at improving social and communication skills. The results show a reduced availability of products that act as facilitators of the special needs of children with ASD, which is even more evident for products aimed at improving collaboration skills. Products that allow the participation of several users simultaneously through multi-user interfaces are required. On top of this, the trend toward virtual environments is leading to a loss of material aspects in the design that are essential for the development of these children

PENGEMBANGAN MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN PENGENALAN BANGUN DATAR UNTUK ANAK TUNAGRAHITA BERBASIS AUGMENTED REALITY DENGAN PENDEKATAN THINK-PAIR-SHARE

"Tunagrahita merupakan anak berkebutuhan khusus yang memiliki kekurangan dalam kecerdasan intelektual yang dibawah rata-rata. Pendidikan anak tunagrahita berbeda dengan anak normal karena harus menggunakan guru yang khusus yang dapat menerjemahkan sebuah perintah ke anak tunagrahita. Pembelajarannya harus bersifat interaktif karena anak tunagrahita daya tangkap yang lemah. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah mampumenghasilkan aplikasi yang dapat membantu dalam pengenalanbangun datar kepada anak tunagrahita yang dapat diterapkan di kehidupan sehari-hari. Uji coba dalam penelitian menggunakan mirip One group Pretest-posttes design (Sugiono). Dalam one group pretest-posttest design mengunakan pengujian pretest dilanjutkan treatment dilanjutkan posttest, sedangkan pada penelitian menggunakan treatment dengan metode pembelajaran konvensional, dilanjutkan dengan pretes, dilanjutkan dengan treatment dengan metode yang diusulkan yaitu Think-share-pair. Pemilihan metode uji ini bertujuan untuk membandingkan hasil dari treament pembelajaran dengan metode konvensional dengan treament pembelajaran dengan metode Think-share-Pair dengan bantuan aplikasi. Kesimpulan yang dapat ditarik dari hasil penelitian yang telah dilakukan yaitu dari hasil analisis uji beda (uji-t) dalam media pembelajaran berbasis Augmented reality dengan pendekatan think-pair-share pengenalan bangun datar mengunakan metode think-pair-share untuk meningkatkan daya tangkap dan cognitive anak tunagrahita adalah signifikan. Nilai pretest rata-rata sebesar 78,778 dan nilai posttest 80,444 yang berarti bahwa rata-rata penggunaan Augmented reality dengan pendekatan think-pair-share pengenalan bangun datar mengunakan metode think-pair-share untuk meningkatkan daya tangkap dan cognitive anak tunagrahita lebih tinggi dan signifikan dibandingkan dengan media konvensional (pretest). Kata kunci: Augmented reality, think-pair-share, daya tangkap, cognitive, anak tunagrahita

The integration of children with Autism in the Egyptian society by the use of ICT tools

Autism has been discussed through the fields of medicine, sociology or psychology all over the past decades. Today, however it is being discussed through a different lens: „Communication‟. Being privileged by so many virtues, the Mass communication field not only spreads information, news and discusses views but also bonds people together. In that sense, Children with Autism should be part of this dynamic sphere, with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools, integrating those suffering from autism within the Egyptian society. A Descriptive Survey research clarifies the actual use of children with autism to ICT tools through the perspectives of their parents and their caregivers. A comparison between both views interweaving with various demographic criteria clarifies a larger outlook of the issue. The topic was explored through the Uses & Gratification and Digital Divide theories and further added the Laswell Model to elucidate possible clarifications to realize the integration of children with autism in the Egyptian society through the use of ICT tools. „Who, says what to whom‟ principle is scrutinized to identify the best mode to address the information to the children with Autism and make it reach them, based on research and experience. Although the innate limitations of children with Autism can impede integration willingness, the role of ICT can be shaped to serve the parents and caregivers with valid ideas, information and handling mechanisms with the aim of supporting the children with Autism to develop improved behavioral patterns. These techniques will help people affected with autism to be more accepted within the society‟s social code of conduct, and consequently more integrated. High importance is given to early intervention that avoids the hassle of unlearning negative traits. iii The research proved that neither the standard of education nor the financial capabilities of the parents, directly affects the child with Autism‟s acquisition of ICT tools thus the integration within the society. Computer tablets in particular and various ICT tools in general are provided, but the main issue is the awareness and training of the parents and caregivers to know that the child‟s use should be accompanied and tutored for best outcomes. A further step in the research focuses on the correct choice and use of the applications installed on the computer tablets and assistive ICT tools to be tailored to help each child‟s personalized need

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program