Parents’ experiences in using mobile tablets with their child with autism to encourage the development of social communication skills: the development of a parents’ guide

Autism is a lifelong condition that affects how individuals interact with others and make sense of the world around them. The two core difficulties associated with autism are difficulties in social communication and interaction, and the manifestation of restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour. However, children with autism may also have many talents and special interests among which is their affinity with digital technologies. Despite the increasing use of mobile tablets in schools and homes, and the children’s motivation in using them, there is limited guidance on how to use the tablets to teach children with autism specific skills. This study aims to fill this gap in knowledge by providing guidelines about the ways in which iPads and other tablets can be used by parents/carers and their child at home to support the development of social communication skills. Semi-structured interviews with 10 parents of primary school aged children (4-11 years old) with autism were conducted with the aim to explore their experiences in using mobile devices, such as iPads and android tablets, and social activities with their children to create opportunities for social communication development. The interview involved questions about the parents’ knowledge and experience in autism, their understanding of social communication skills, the use of technology at home, and their links with the child’s school. Qualitative analysis of the interviews showed that parents used a variety of strategies to boost their child’s social communication skills. Among these strategies were: a) the use of communication symbols, b) the use of the child’s special interest as motivator to gain their attention, and c) allowing time to their child to respond. It was also found that parents engaged their child in joint activities such as cooking, role play and creating social stories together on the device. Seven out of ten parents mentioned that the tablet is a motivating tool that can be used to teach social communication skills, nonetheless all parents raised concerns over screen time and their child’s sharing difficulties. The need for training and advice as well as building stronger links with their child’s school was highlighted. In particular, it was mentioned that recommendations would be welcomed about how parents can address their child’s difficulties in initiating or sustaining a conversation, taking turns and sharing, understanding other people’s feelings and facial expressions, and showing interest to other people. This is the first study to date that resulted in the development of a parents’ guide informed by evidence-based practice and the participants’ experiences and concerns. The proposed guidelines aim to urge parents to feel more confident in using the tablet with their child in more collaborative ways. In particular, the guide offers recommendations about how to develop verbal and non-verbal communication, gives examples of tablet based activities to interact and create things together, as well as it offers suggestions on how to provide a worry free tablet experience and how to connect with the school

Navigating the Digital Wild West of Apps: How Can Teachers and Parents Find Suitable Apps for their Children with Autism to Improve their Social Communication Skills?

BackgroundSince the launch of the iPad in 2010, schools have been increasingly using the devices and their associated applications for teaching children with developmental disabilities (Kagohara et al. 2013). In addition, 54% of households in the UK have a tablet computer and 61% use their mobile phone to access the Internet (Ofcom 2015). The Apple app store provides over 75,000 educational mobile applications (Apple 2016) with over 345 apps specifically for individuals with autism (Fletcher-Watson 2014). Looking for appropriate applications can often be a daunting experience for parents and teachers. There is a lack of standardisation to signal which apps are truly educational on the market, therefore new apps are daily released that are unregulated and untested (Kim 2017).ObjectivesThis study aims to provide a state of the art review of mobile applications for iOs and Android tablets for chil- dren aged 4 to 11 years old that can foster the development of social communication skills. The app reviews aim to help teachers and parents choose the most appropriate applications for their children and to offer recommendations to app developers when deciding to design educational apps for children with autism to target social communication skills.MethodsSemi structured interviews and focus groups with parents, teachers, children and academics were conducted that led to the development of guidelines and a list of questions on how to use the tablets and choose appropriate apps for social communication purposes (Mangafa et al. 2016). In this study, particular apps are reviewed against this list of questions in order to be used by children with autism and their teachers or par- ents/carers to support the development of skills, such as turn-taking, sharing, verbal and non-verbal communi- cation and empathy. The app reviews are based on the UDL framework (CAST 2011), Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and SAMRmodel. The selection criteria were apps that a) can be used by children aged 4-11, b) cost less than £10, c) are popular among UK special and mainstream schools, d) are research informed or have received awards and good parent/teacher reviews and e) can be used to foster social communication and shared engagement.ResultsThe app reviews (n=60) are reviewed under the broad categories of education, fun, social skills and emotions. The education category includes applications that are designed to teach academic skills. The fun category includes applications that are primarily games, which provide enjoyment and sensory stimulation. In the social skills category, the applications aim to help children practice social skills, such as sharing, waiting for a turn, sustaining a conversation, joint attention and attending to people. In the emotions category, the applications mentioned teach about emotion recognition and facial expressions.ConclusionsParents, teachers and app developers should consider that the content of the app should be developmentally appropriate, customisable, engaging, and linked to school curriculum and prior knowledge. The app should be based on research evidence, designed in consultation with end users and researchers and be rigorously evaluated. It is recommended that schools should collaborate with parents to evaluate and recommend mobile applications that they have been using with the children, as this can also contribute to stronger links between school and home

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

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

An Experimental Investigation of ‘Drill-and-Practice’ Mobile Apps and Young Children

The choice of mobile applications (apps) for learning has been heavily relied on customer and teacher reviews, designers’ descriptions, and alignment with existing learning and human-computer interaction theories. There is limited empirical evidence to advise on the educational value of mobile apps as these are used by children. Understanding the impact of mobile apps on young children’s learning is timely given the lack of evidence-based recommendations that could guide parents and teachers in selecting apps for their children. In this paper, we present the results of a series of Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) with 376 children aged 5 to 6 years old who interacted with two maths apps in three schools in the UK. Pre/post-test comparisons revealed learning gains in both the control and intervention groups, suggesting that the selected applications are equally good to standard maths practice. Implications for the selection and use of mobile apps are discussed

Scholarly insight Spring 2018: a Data wrangler perspective

In the movie classic Back to the Future a young Michael J. Fox is able to explore the past by a time machine developed by the slightly bizarre but exquisite Dr Brown. Unexpectedly by some small intervention the course of history was changed a bit along Fox’s adventures. In this fourth Scholarly Insight Report we have explored two innovative approaches to learn from OU data of the past, which hopefully in the future will make a large difference in how we support our students and design and implement our teaching and learning practices. In Chapter 1, we provide an in-depth analysis of 50 thousands comments expressed by students through the Student Experience on a Module (SEAM) questionnaire. By analysing over 2.5 million words using big data approaches, our Scholarly insights indicate that not all student voices are heard. Furthermore, our big data analysis indicate useful potential insights to explore how student voices change over time, and for which particular modules emergent themes might arise. In Chapter 2 we provide our second innovative approach of a proof-of-concept of qualification path way using graph approaches. By exploring existing data of one qualification (i.e., Psychology), we show that students make a range of pathway choices during their qualification, some of which are more successful than others. As highlighted in our previous Scholarly Insight Reports, getting data from a qualification perspective within the OU is a difficult and challenging process, and the proof-of-concept provided in Chapter 2 might provide a way forward to better understand and support the complex choices our students make. In Chapter 3, we provide a slightly more practically-oriented and perhaps down to earth approach focussing on the lessons-learned with Analytics4Action. Over the last four years nearly a hundred modules have worked with more active use of data and insights into module presentation to support their students. In Chapter 3 several good-practices are described by the LTI/TEL learning design team, as well as three innovative case-studies which we hope will inspire you to try something new as well. Working organically in various Faculty sub-group meetings and LTI Units and in a google doc with various key stakeholders in the Faculties, we hope that our Scholarly insights can help to inform our staff, but also spark some ideas how to further improve our module designs and qualification pathways. Of course we are keen to hear what other topics require Scholarly insight. We hope that you see some potential in the two innovative approaches, and perhaps you might want to try some new ideas in your module. While a time machine has not really been invented yet, with the increasing rich and fine-grained data about our students and our learning practices we are getting closer to understand what really drives our students

Enable-ASC: Enabling collaboration in the ASC classroom with young children and touchscreen devices

Young children with autism have many talents and special interests among which can be their affinity with digital technologies (Porayska-Pomsta et al. 2012). Despite the increasing use of mobile tablets in schools, and the motivation of the children to use them, there is limited guidance and research on how teachers use touchscreen technologies in the classroom to support children with autism develop specific skills, such as social communication (Kagohara et al. 2013). Specifically, the literature about the impact of teacher training on developing social communication skills in class is scarce (Mangafa et al. 2016). This study explored the effectiveness of iPad teacher training on improving teachers’ practice and interactive style and the child’s behaviour and engagement in joint interactions. An action research methodology was followed at a primary special school in England, UK. Video recordings and semi structured interviews were used to collect data. Video recordings of four children with autism aged 10-11 were conducted as they interacted with iPads over a period of five weeks.Interviews with teachers were carried out to explore their experiences of teaching autistic children and using new technologies in their teaching. Teachers also participated in a training workshop to share experiences and learn about new ways of using touchscreen technologies in class. Children were more actively engaged in joint interactions when using iPads with their teachers than without the use of technology. During the training workshop, teachers mentioned that discussions about iPad use and autism strategies grew their confidence and helped them reflect on their practice. Following the workshop, teachers were found to adjust their communicative style (e.g. by allowing time for the child to respond), make changes to the environment (e.g. by minimising distractions) and use resources (e.g. by using symbols/pictures) to engage with young children while using the iPad. Teacher training on iPad use and autism specific teaching strategies is an effective approach that can improve teachers’ confidence in using mobile devices in the classroom in more collaborative and engaging ways. Future studies should incorporate the active involvement of school staff and investigate their personal experiences in developing social communication skills in autistic children for the use of touchscreen technologies in real world settings

An Experimental Investigation of ‘Drill-and-Practice’ Mobile Apps and Young Children

The choice of mobile applications (apps) for learning has been heavily relied on customer and teacher reviews, designers’ descriptions, and alignment with existing learning and human-computer interaction theories. There is limited empirical evidence to advise on the educational value of mobile apps as these are used by children. Understanding the impact of mobile apps on young children’s learning is timely given the lack of evidence-based recommendations that could guide parents and teachers in selecting apps for their children. In this paper, we present the results of a series of randomised control trial (RCTs) with 376 children aged 5 to 6 years old who interacted with two maths apps in three schools in the UK. Pre/post-test comparisons revealed learning gains in both the control and intervention groups, suggesting that the selected applications are equally good to standard maths practice. Implications for the selection and use of mobile apps are discussed.