The Use of iPads to Enhance Joint Attention Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Background: iPads are increasingly used in primary schools with reported benefits in communication, independent learning and creativity. Children with autism spectrum disorder have an affinity with mobile technology, which is recognised by the autism research community with many studies emerging in this field. Joint attention (JA) is an essential life skill which can indicate the later development of social communication and language acquisition. It is usually absent or impaired in children with autism, which means that they often find it difficult to share attention with an adult or peer about a toy or activity by keeping eye contact and pointing, but also showing interest to the other person. Research on the use of iPads to develop JA skills in autism is still in infancy.Objectives: This qualitative study aims to explore primary school teachers’ and parents’ perspectives and experiences of developing JA skills in children with autism using iPads.Methods: Semi structured interviews with 16 school staff members and nonobtrusive observations of 12 pupils interacting with their teacher using iPads were held in three UK schools. Also, parents of children with autism aged 4-11 years old are currently being interviewed to investigate parents’ practice of developing JA beyond school hours and exploring the iPad’s benefits in promoting JA in different contexts.Results: All teachers used teaching strategies to promote JA on a daily basis but a few used iPads in their classroom. Participants expressed different opinions about the effectiveness of teaching strategies and iPad use in developing JA. The observations showed that teachers used a variety of evidence based strategies to engage their pupils with autism in JA opportunities but that there was little use of iPads. The iPad was mainly used as a reward, a motivator to direct and sustain pupils’ attention, to practice turntaking and waiting skills and to teach the curriculum. Preliminary findings derived from the semi structured interviews with parents have shown that parents use a variety of social activities to boost their child’s joint attention skills. Their views though were contradictory regarding the iPadTM’s contribution in developing JA skills, with a few parents mentioning that the iPad can be a solitary device that can further isolate their child from daily human interactions while other parents have mentioned that the iPad is a motivating tool used to grasp their child’s attention and teach them JA. Parents have also mentioned that they wish to have stronger links with their child’s school.Conclusions: The research concludes that schools would benefit from teacher training and dissemination of good practice on how to use iPads for JA purposes. Parents are also interested in discovering how they can best address their children’s needs in cooperation with the schools. To that end, the future steps of this research include creating guidelines about the way to develop JA opportunities at home and school with the use of the iPad as an engaging educational device

Actomyosin-Dependent Cortical Dynamics Contributes to the Prophase Force-Balance in the Early Drosophila Embryo

embryo mitotic spindle during prophase depends upon a balance of outward forces generated by cortical dynein and inward forces generated by kinesin-14 and nuclear elasticity. Myosin II is known to contribute to the dynamics of the cell cortex but how this influences the prophase force-balance is unclear. mutants displaying abnormally small actin caps but normal prophase spindle length in late prophase, myosin II inhibition produced very short spindles.These results suggest that two complementary outward forces are exerted on the prophase spindle by the overlying cortex. Specifically, dynein localized on the mechanically firm actin caps and the actomyosin-driven contraction of the deformable soft patches of the actin cortex, cooperate to pull astral microtubules outward. Thus, myosin II controls the size and dynamic properties of the actin-based cortex to influence the spacing of the poles of the underlying spindle during prophase

Harnessing the NEON data revolution to advance open environmental science with a diverse and data-capable community

It is a critical time to reflect on the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) science to date as well as envision what research can be done right now with NEON (and other) data and what training is needed to enable a diverse user community. NEON became fully operational in May 2019 and has pivoted from planning and construction to operation and maintenance. In this overview, the history of and foundational thinking around NEON are discussed. A framework of open science is described with a discussion of how NEON can be situated as part of a larger data constellation—across existing networks and different suites of ecological measurements and sensors. Next, a synthesis of early NEON science, based on >100 existing publications, funded proposal efforts, and emergent science at the very first NEON Science Summit (hosted by Earth Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder in October 2019) is provided. Key questions that the ecology community will address with NEON data in the next 10 yr are outlined, from understanding drivers of biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales to defining complex feedback mechanisms in human–environmental systems. Last, the essential elements needed to engage and support a diverse and inclusive NEON user community are highlighted: training resources and tools that are openly available, funding for broad community engagement initiatives, and a mechanism to share and advertise those opportunities. NEON users require both the skills to work with NEON data and the ecological or environmental science domain knowledge to understand and interpret them. This paper synthesizes early directions in the community’s use of NEON data, and opportunities for the next 10 yr of NEON operations in emergent science themes, open science best practices, education and training, and community building

The Design of Guidelines for Teachers and Parents in the Use of iPads to Support Children with Autism in the Development of Joint Attention Skills

Children with autism have an affinity with technologies, which imposes the need to keep abreast of new digital technologies [1]. The benefits of mobile devices and interactive technologies in providing structure and predictability [2] and the vast variety of apps that can facilitate social communication makes it imperative to effectively incorporate iPads in the teaching of joint attention. Despite the increase use of mobile devices there is a lack of guidance for parents and teachers on how to use these devices in home and school environments for young children with autism. This study fills this gap. This paper reports on one of the final stages of the project, in which focus groups with teachers, parents, academics and children were conducted to discuss the development of guidelines on how to use the iPads with children with autism to improve their joint attention skills

Teachers’ Experiences of Developing Joint Attention Skills in Children with Autism Using iPads

Mobile devices such as tablets are increasingly used in primary schools with reported benefits in communication, independent learning and creativity (Clarke and Svanaes 2014). Children with autism spectrum disorder have an affinity with tablets (Sampath et al. 2012), which is recognised by the autism research community with many studies gradually emerging in this field (Boucenna et al. 2014). This qualitative study aims to explore primary school teachers’ opinions and experiences in developing joint attention skills in children with autism spectrum disorder with the use of teaching strategies and iPads. Joint attention can be defined as the act of sharing, sustaining and shifting attention between two social partners and an object, activity or another person (Bruinsma, Koegel, and Koegel 2004, Patten and Watson 2011). Joint attention skills are usually absent or impaired in children with autism, which means that they often find it difficult to share attention with an adult or peer about a toy by following gaze, pointing and alternating gaze, but also showing interest to the other person (Dawson et al. 1998, Leekam and Lopez 2000). Joint attention difficulties can be a prognostic indicator of autism (Bruinsma, Koegel and Koegel 2004) and can have an impact on language development, communication and behaviour (Patten and Watson 2011). Research on the use of tablets to develop skills in autism is limited with no empirical data to support the appropriate use of mobile devices (Hourcade et al. 2013). In order to understand the current situation, semi structured interviews with 16 school staff members and non-obtrusive observations of 12 pupils interacting with the teacher using iPads were held in three UK schools (one mainstream and two special). All teachers mentioned that they used teaching strategies to promote joint attention along with other skills on a daily basis, while a few used targeted interventions for joint attention and even less used iPads in general in their classroom. Participants expressed different opinions about the effectiveness of teaching strategies and iPad use in developing joint attention skills since it depends on the teachers’ ability to implement them appropriately and their knowledge of each child. The observations showed that teachers used a variety of evidence-based strategies to engage their pupils with autism in joint attention opportunities but that there was little use of iPads. However, teachers were observed using the iPad as a reward, a motivator to direct and sustain pupils’ attention, to practice turn-taking and waiting skills and to teach the curriculum. The findings of the study suggest that schools need ongoing guidance on how to use tablets to teach joint attention skills and there is a need for teachers to share knowledge with colleagues and parents so that they can work together