Reduced preference for social rewards in a novel tablet based task in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Atypical responsivity to social rewards has been observed in young children with or at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These observations contributed to the hypothesis of reduced social motivation in ASD. In the current study we develop a novel task to test social reward preference using a tablet computer (iPad), where two differently coloured buttons were associated with a social and a nonsocial rewarding image respectively. 63 young children, aged 14–68 months, with and without a diagnosis of ASD took part in the study. The experimental sessions were also recorded on video, using an in-built webcam on the tablet as well as an external camera. Children with ASD were found to show a reduced relative preference for social rewards, indexed by a lower proportion of touches for the button associated with the social reward image. Greater social preference as measured using the tablet-based task was associated with increased use of social communicative behaviour such as eye contact with the experimenter and social smile in response to the social reward image. These results are consistent with earlier findings from eye-tracking studies, and provide novel empirical insights into atypical social reward responsivity in ASD

Lack of privileged access to awareness for rewarding social scenes in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Reduced social motivation is hypothesised to underlie social behavioural symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The extent to which rewarding social stimuli are granted privileged access to awareness in ASD is currently unknown. We use continuous flash suppression to investigate whether individuals with and without ASD show privileged access to awareness for social over nonsocial rewarding scenes that are closely matched for stimulus features. Strong evidence for a privileged access to awareness for rewarding social over nonsocial scenes was observed in neurotypical adults. No such privileged access was seen in ASD individuals, and moderate support for the null model was noted. These results suggest that the purported deficits in social motivation in ASD may extend to early processing mechanisms

Digital story telling in Industrial Design

With the massification of higher education (HE) globally, widening access to education has changed the face of the student population. Post-apartheid South Africa in particular has seen a rapid increase in so-called Non-Traditional Students (NTSs). These students are often first-generation HE matriculants, mature, juggling work, family and academic responsibilities, and viewed as academically underprepared. Most suggestions for dealing with NTSs are based on a deficiency model—offering remedial and additional support to struggling students. The authors suggest a move away from this deficit approach to one that focuses on designing and offering innovative teaching and learning practices that are meaningful and accessible to all students, including NTSs. This study examined how digital storytelling would mediate some of the challenges NTSs in a first-year Industrial Design course face. How did the digital storytelling practice help the students deal with some of the challenges they face? In particular, the elements of collaboration and flexibility stood out in terms of mediating the challenges the students reported. Instead of negatively labelling NTSs as problematic, the authors call for disrupting current teaching and learning, concluding that learning activities should be designed to engage all students, offer inclusivity, flexibility and choice