Cognality VR: Exploring a Mobile VR App with Multiple Stakeholders to Reduce Meltdowns in Autistic Children

Many autistic children can have difficulty communicating, understanding others, and interacting with new and unfamiliar environments. At times they may suffer from a meltdown. The major contributing factor to meltdowns is sensory overwhelm. Technological solutions have shown promise in improving the quality of life for autistic children-however little exists to manage meltdowns. In this work with stakeholders, we design and deploy a low cost, mobile VR application to provide relief during sensory discomfort. Through the analysis of surveys from 88 stakeholders from a variety of groups (i.e., autistic adults, children with autism, parents of autistic individuals, and medical practitioners), we identified three key features regarding ways to manage meltdowns: escape, distract, and wait it out. These insights were implementation in a system, then was then remotely deployed with 6 families. Findings and future steps are discussed

Leveling the Playing Field: Supporting Neurodiversity via Virtual Realities

Neurodiversity is a term that encapsulates the diverse expression of human neurology. By thinking in broad terms about neurological development, we can become focused on delivering a diverse set of design features to meet the needs of the human condition. In this work, we move toward developing virtual environments that support variations in sensory processing. If we understand that people have differences in sensory perception that result in their own unique sensory traits, many of which are clustered by diagnostic labels such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Sensory Processing Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Rett syndrome, dyslexia, and so on, then we can leverage that knowledge to create new input modalities for accessible and assistive technologies. In an effort to translate differences in sensory perception into new variations of input modalities, we focus this work on ASD. ASD has been characterized by a complex sensory signature that can impact social, cognitive, and communication skills. By providing assistance for these diverse sensory perceptual abilities, we create an opportunity to improve the interactions people have with technology and the world. In this paper, we describe, through a variety of examples, the ways to address sensory differences to support neurologically diverse individuals by leveraging advances in virtual reality

Paper Prototyping Comfortable VR Play for Diverse Sensory Needs

We co-designed paper prototype dashboards for virtual environments for three children with diverse sensory needs. Our goal was to determine individual interaction styles in order to enable comfortable and inclusive play. As a first step towards an inclusive virtual world, we began with designing for three sensory-diverse children who have labels of neurotypical, ADHD, and autism respectively. We focused on their leisure interests and their individual sensory profiles. We present the results of co-design with family members and paper prototyping sessions conducted by family members with the children. The results contribute preliminary empirical findings for accommodating different levels of engagement and empowering users to adjust environmental thresholds through interaction design

A Virtual Reality System for Practicing Conversation Skills for Children with Autism

We describe a virtual reality environment, Bob’s Fish Shop, which provides a system where users diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can practice social interactions in a safe and controlled environment. A case study is presented which suggests such an environment can provide the opportunity for users to build the skills necessary to carry out a conversation without the fear of negative social consequences present in the physical world. Through the repetition and analysis of these virtual interactions, users can improve social and conversational understanding

Wearable assistive technologies for autism : opportunities and challenges

Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. Challenges with typical social engagement, common in the autism experience, can have a significant negative impact on the quality of life of individuals and families living with autism. Recent advances in sensing, intelligent, and interactive technologies can enable new forms of assistive and augmentative technologies to support social interactions. However, researchers have not yet demonstrated effectiveness of these technologies in long-term real-world use. This paper presents an overview of social and sensory challenges of autism, which offer great opportunities and challenges for the design and development of assistive technologies. We review the existing work on developing wearable technologies for autism particularly to assist social interactions, analyse their potential and limitations, and discuss future research directions.PostprintPeer reviewe

Supporting Self-Regulation of Children with ADHD Using Wearables: Tensions and Design Challenges

The design of wearable applications supporting children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) requires a deep understanding not only of what is possible from a clinical standpoint but also how the children might understand and orient towards wearable technologies, such as a smartwatch. Through a series of participatory design workshops with children with ADHD and their caregivers, we identified tensions and challenges in designing wearable applications supporting the self-regulation of children with ADHD. In this paper, we describe the specific challenges of smartwatches for this population, the balance between self-regulation and co-regulation, and tensions when receiving notifications on a smartwatch in various contexts. These results indicate key considerations—from both the child and caregiver viewpoints—for designing technological interventions supporting children with ADHD

Designing and Evaluating Alternative Channels: Visualizing Nonverbal Communication through AR and VR Systems for People with Autism

Social communication is one of the key components of successful interaction. People with autism can have significant challenges with social communication, resulting in some of the highest rates of depression and anxiety. In fact, young adults with autism have suicide rates that are 28 times higher than the general population. Thus, supporting social skills of people with autism could have a positive impact on both the social and mental wellbeing of individuals with autism. Although much research has focused on supporting social skills broadly, little attention has been paid to developing effective nonverbal behaviors, which are necessary to initiate, maintain, and gracefully terminate a social interaction.The aim of the dissertation work is to design and evaluate the effect of realtime visualizations of prosody and proximity. To this end, the research questions are: 1. Does visualizing nonverbal behavior increase the percent of intervals users demonstrate normative proximity and prosody during neurodiverse interactions, and 2. What factors surrounding technological social skills intervention impact its efficacy and acceptance? These research questions are answered through three lab-based experiments that include measuring prosody and proximity in controlled and experimental conditions, as well as interviewing the participants and family members about their experience with these novel technologies.By using sensory perceptual strength associated with an autistic profile, (i.e., superior visual perception regarding details), I have designed and evaluated three technological systems to assist people with autism to engage in socially expected behavior during a brief conversation in a laboratory setting. The single-case experiments show that visualizations of real time feedback improve nonverbal communication during social interactions for close to half of the participants (i.e., young adults and children with autism). The results from the interviews with participants and parents about their experiences highlight issues of usability, learnability, and comfortability of the systems. Deeper analysis of these combined findings culminates in an assistive technology design concept-Sensory Accommodation Framework-which provides four strategies for supporting sensory perception differences through computation. The contributions to this work are: the empirical findings from the three evaluation studies, the design guidelines from the design activities, and the conceptual framework

Social Compass Curriculum

The Social Compass Curriculum (SCC) was investigated for its effectiveness in improving core social skills in three descriptive case studies of students with autism. Treatment fidelity of the SCC was also measured in the school setting. The Social Responsiveness Scale and the Autism Social Skills Profile were completed by parents to measure pre- and postintervention social skills for three students aged 8 to 11 years who participated in the present multisite pilot study. Fidelity of implementation data were collected via a checklist during observations for three educators who implemented the intervention. Results indicate that the SCC improved core social deficits based on standardized rating scales measures. Fidelity observations revealed that 83% of teaching components were completed correctly after 3 hr of training. The results of this study aligned with the National Autism Center’s call for ongoing research of school-based interventions and school-friendly interventions for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

Social Compass Curriculum: Three Descriptive Case Studies of Social Skills Outcomes for Students With Autism

The Social Compass Curriculum (SCC) was investigated for its effectiveness in improving core social skills in three descriptive case studies of students with autism. Treatment fidelity of the SCC was also measured in the school setting. The Social Responsiveness Scale and the Autism Social Skills Profile were completed by parents to measure pre- and postintervention social skills for three students aged 8 to 11 years who participated in the present multisite pilot study. Fidelity of implementation data were collected via a checklist during observations for three educators who implemented the intervention. Results indicate that the SCC improved core social deficits based on standardized rating scales measures. Fidelity observations revealed that 83% of teaching components were completed correctly after 3 hr of training. The results of this study aligned with the National Autism Center’s call for ongoing research of school-based interventions and school-friendly interventions for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

Counterventions: A Reparative Reflection on Interventionist HCI

Research in HCI applied to clinical interventions relies on normative assumptions about which bodies and minds are healthy, valuable, and desirable. To disrupt this normalizing drive in HCI, we define a “counterventional approach” to intervention technology design informed by critical scholarship and community perspectives. This approach is meant to unsettle normative assumptions of intervention as urgent, necessary, and curative. We begin with a historical overview of intervention in HCI and its critics. Then, through reparative readings of past HCI projects in autism intervention, we illustrate the emergent principles of a counterventional approach and how it may manifest research outcomes that are fundamentally divergent from dominant approaches. We then explicate characteristics of “counterventions” – projects that aim to contest dominant sociotechnical paradigms through privileging community and participants in research inquiry, interaction design, and analysis of outcomes. These divergent research imaginaries have transformative implications for how interventionist HCI might be conducted in future