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

Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas.Final Published versio

Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas

Inductive mechcharger: mechanical phone charging dock using faraday's law

Energy and the environment are the key issues of the world in recent decades Requests for the quest for alternative energy sources has become a response to rising energy sources science and technology one of the top priorities. Over 90% of the global population power produced is based on electromagnetic induction laws from faraday. Thus, Free Energy / Electricity interests are becoming popular. The definition of free energy is a misconception. Nothing like free energy is there. But if we use tools like Solar, Wind, Tidal, and Hydro-Electric to produce it, Geothermal is free of charge only after the initial cost of capital. After the fact, the produced energy is free, that the electricity created by these unorthodox methods of electrical power generation must not be compensated for. Therefore, for some time, the idea of electricity generation with magnets has been around. They are used to generate energy through their magnetic fields. These magnets are mounted in engine and generator cores. The basic theory of power generation lies in the magnetic effect. "When the vehicle rotates in a magnet field, a voltage is generated in the car." [1,2

FaceSnap: Game-based Courseware as a Learning Tool for Children with Social Impairment

Nowadays, computer games have been seen not just as a form of entertainment but also as a source of education. Gaming has been viewed as a way of making education fun and is able to engage children in the learning process longer. Games do not only help normal children but also children with disabilities. The objective of this project is to find the most suitable game-based method for children with social impairment and to develop the courseware to see its effectiveness. This courseware will help the children to Jearn facial expression and social behaviour targeting children with Asperger's Syndrome. The methodology used in this project is Rapid Application Development (RAD) and the tools used for the courseware development are Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Soundbooth. Six children are tested playing this game to see whether there is any improvement in their score. These children are divided into Asperger' s Syndrome group and control group which consist of normal children to see their comparison. The result shows that there is improvement in their scores which indicates that this courseware is effective in helping children with social impairment to learn about facial expressions and social behaviour

The effects of using Smartboard and interactive games to improve reading comprehension of secondary students with moderate cognitive disabilities

This study investigated the effects of using the Smartboard and interactive games to improve reading comprehension skills of secondary students with moderate cognitive disabilities. A total of 11 9th and 10th graders in a special services school participated in the study. A single subject design of ABC phases was used. During the baseline (Phase A), student listening comprehension was evaluated by their scores of correct responses to Wh questions on their paper. During intervention (Phase B), the teacher used the Smartboard and Boardmaker software to present fiction and nonfiction stories. Each session included the student listening to the story, read by the voice embedded in the Smartboard, and visual images with a game format. During the maintenance (Phase C), students were evaluated using the same procedures as that of the intervention. At the end of the study, students\u27 opinions about using the Smartboard and interactive games were surveyed. The results showed that 9 out of 11 students increased scores, 1 out of 11 students maintained their score, except one. After completing the study, students responded to a survey on using the Smartboard and interactive games. The results showed that all students enjoyed using the Smartboard and the games in their learning

The use of tablets to encourage the development of joint attention skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this research was to explore ways in which iPads and other mobile tablets can be used in the classroom and home environment to support children with autism spectrum disorder in the area of joint attention skills. It focused on understanding the nature and importance of these skills in children with autism according to the participants’ experiences and on investigating the use and potential of mobile tablets in contributing to the development of joint attention skills. The research drew upon the transactional model of child development and followed an action research design. Reflection on the initial findings generated plans for change, which then shaped the next stages of the research. Interviews, observations, focus groups studies were carried out to investigate the level of understanding of joint attention skills and how their development is currently supported in the classroom and home environment; and to observe such support in the classroom especially when mediated through iPads. These studies, together with focus groups with key stakeholders led to the development of guidelines on how teachers and parents can use mobile tablets to support the development of joint attention skills in home and primary schools (Reception-Key Stage 2). These were developed and refined in consultation with teachers, parents, children and academics. This was the first study that measured the number of times children initiated and responded to joint attention and the number of times teachers used strategies to gain, sustain and redirect a child’s attention with and without the use of technology in a school setting.The findings showed that children were more times engaged in joint attention when using the iPads than without. The participants were not familiar with the term joint attention but used the term social communication to refer to the child’s ability to share interest, keep eye contact, take turns in an interaction or game, follow gaze and pointing, understand other’s feelings and interact with others by using symbols, speech or gestures. Both parents and teachers used evidence based strategies when interacting with the children but the need for guidance on how to use the mobile tablets was highlighted. The proposed guidelines include evidence based strategies, tablet based activities, and criteria on how to select mobile applications. They aim to help teachers reflect on and improve their teaching practice, as well as urge parents to use the tablet with their child in more collaborative ways. It is suggested that future studies should focus on bridging the gap between theory and practice by investigating the practitioners’ perspectives and experiences in developing joint attention and social communication skills in children with autism with the use of mobile interactive technologies in naturalistic settings

Educational E-book For Children With and Without Developmental Disorders

In the last decade, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prevalence rate has signifcantly increased, which consequently led to the expansion of research and expenditure in the feld,predominantly focusing on searching for the cause. In a typical classroom scenario, working with children with ASD very often requires 1:1 teacher to child ratio, which makes it very expensive and difcult to implement. Serious games have been utilised as a medium for teaching various developmental skills, such as social interaction, speech, motor skills development, emotion recognition, and other basic concepts. Designing serious games for ASD population difers from other games and even other serious games signifcantly. It requires a holistic approach with extensive knowledge and expertise from felds other than computer science, such as psychology, sociology and cognitive science. However, once harnessed correctly, such games can be used by children with ASD on their own time, with or without supervision and they can be educational. In addition, they can adjust the appropriate pace while at the same time providing feedback in form of reinforcement and correction. Applying the rules of science of learning and teaching, one can design games that are educational for all types of learners, including children with ASD. In this paper, two independent user studies have been conducted, demonstrating how serious gaming and e-learning principles can be harnessed in order to intervene, develop or strengthen pivotal developmental skills, like learning novel vocabulary, counting, identifying numbers and colours, and responding to inference questions. We have tested the educational e-book with children diagnosed with ASD and with typically developing children to assess skill acquisition in native language for children with ASD and in English, a foreign language, for typically developing children to demonstrate the educational aspect of the game for all types of learners. We showed that the same e-book in two languages can be used for teaching diferent types of learners through a fun and engaging medium

The use of Analog and Digital Games for Autism Interventions

Many interventions that target improvements in social communication and other cognitive, learning, and physical issues have been developed to help autistic people. The gamification of interventions offers an alternative approach to fostering and assessing desired behaviors and cognitions in a more naturalistic and emergent setting. In this scoping review aimed at educators, practitioners, and parents of those with autism, we detail studies that have tested game-based approaches to improving the lives of autistic children, adolescents, and adults, focusing on how research into gamification and autism can both progress and can be progressed and implemented. We offer parents, professionals and academics resources to incorporate game-based psycho-educational programs into their current practice