Transition to College for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Needs and Facilitation Strategies. Is Virtual Reality a Useful Tool in the Transition Process?

The number of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) postsecondary students going to University is increasing. Nonetheless, these students face more difficulties than their neuro-typical peers, due to their communication and behaviour impairments. This fact is widely recognized worldwide, and there is an increasing concern in providing them with adequate support both in their transition and beyond. The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to provide an overall summary of the general requirements of ASD students in the postsecondary education transition with strategies for facilitation, and, secondly, to analyse the possibilities of Virtual Reality (VR) as a support instrument in the transition process. We rely on a brief review of the literature to summarize the main needs and current strategies. In spite of the increasing concern, there is room for establishing general protocols to help the transition process. The use VR in fulfilling this task appears limited, but it seems to be promising

EFL classrooms in the new millennium : selected papers from the 40th FAAPI conference

The following themes are well represented in this collection: • Global citizenship, diversity, and interculturality • Multimodality: information literacy and multiliteracies • ICT in education • Latest trends in teaching EFL, ESP, and EAP • Distance education, blended learning, and autonomy Such topics illustrate the prism that ELT has become in our country and the different levels and situated narratives of expertise and lived experiences found across our country and beyond. ELT and EFL in the new millennium demand and generate not only new skills, new questions, new concerns, but also the opportunity for us to look at the past and reflect on the present in order to create a future collaboratively

VLEs, social stories and children with autism: A prototype implementation and evaluation

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) have been successfully used in educational interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) for overcoming their persistent differences related to social communication and imagination. This paper investigates the potential of VLEs presenting Social Stories, as an advantageous pathway for the development of social problem skills in children with ASC. To this end, it presents the design and development of VLSS (Virtual Learning Environment with Social Stories), a prototype three-dimensional VLE for children with ASC. Overall, the evaluation of VLSS by 40 experts (special education teachers) was very positive, indicating that VLSS has the potential to be a beneficial and easy-to-use educational tool for enhancing social problem solving in children with ASC. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York

VLEs, social stories and children with autism: A prototype implementation and evaluation

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) have been successfully used in educational interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) for overcoming their persistent differences related to social communication and imagination. This paper investigates the potential of VLEs presenting Social Stories, as an advantageous pathway for the development of social problem skills in children with ASC. To this end, it presents the design and development of VLSS (Virtual Learning Environment with Social Stories), a prototype three-dimensional VLE for children with ASC. Overall, the evaluation of VLSS by 40 experts (special education teachers) was very positive, indicating that VLSS has the potential to be a beneficial and easy-to-use educational tool for enhancing social problem solving in children with ASC. © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New Yor

VLSS - Virtual learning and social stories for children with autism

This paper presents the design, implementation and educational use of a virtual learning environment which supports children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to learn to solve social problems presented in the format of Social Stories. The pilot evaluation revealed that the environment has the potential to be a beneficial and easy-to-use educational tool for teaching social problem solving to children with ASD. © 2014 IEEE