A Tablet Computer-Assisted Motor and Language Skills Training Program to Promote Communication Development in Children with Autism: Development and Pilot Study (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016 International Conference on Interactive Technologies and Games (ITAG), 2016
Our and others' research indicates that in fully a third of people with autism who lack communicative speech, the communication deficit may actually be a deficit in motor skills necessary to move the mouth and the vocal tract. These individuals have difficulties in fine, gross and especially oral motor skills, and a disparity between impaired expressive language and relatively intact receptive language: that is to say, they can listen but not speak. Because involvement in research and receipt of the fullest educational, occupational and other services demands ability to interact verbally and to control one's movements and actions, these people get the short end of the stick when it comes to scientific enquiry and pedagogic and therapeutic practice. Point OutWords, tablet-based software designed in collaboration with autistic clients and their communication therapists, exploits the autistic fascination with parts and details to motivate attention to learning manual motor and oral motor skills essential for communication. Along the way, autistic clients practise pointing and dragging at objects, then pointing at sequences of letters on a keyboard, and even speaking the syllables represented by these letters. Whereas many teaching and learning strategies adapted from methods for non-autistic people end up working against autistic cognition by asking people with autism to do what they cannot easily do, Point OutWords works with autistic cognition, by beginning from the autistic skill at manipulating parts and details. Users and their parents or guardians can opt into collection of data on motor interactions with Point OutWords; these internal measures of motor skills development are complemented by external, standardised tests of motor, oral motor and communicative development. These quantitative measures are collected alongside reports on Point OutWords's acceptability to users, and users' fidelity to a recommended treatment regime, so as to evaluate feasibility of a larger randomised controlled trial.
Trials
Background Point OutWords is a caregiver-delivered, iPad-assisted intervention for non-verbal or minimally verbal children with autism. It aims to develop prerequisite skills for communication such as manual and oral motor skills, sequencing, and symbolic representation. This feasibility trial aims to determine the viability of evaluating the clinical efficacy of Point OutWords. Methodology We aim to recruit 46 non-verbal or minimally verbal children with autism and their families, approximately 23 per arm. Children in the intervention group will use Point OutWords for half an hour, five times a week, for 8 weeks. Children in the control group will have equal caregiver-led contact time with the iPad using a selection of control apps (e.g. sensory apps, drawing apps). Communication, motor, and daily living skills are assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Parents will keep diaries during the intervention period and will take part in focus groups when the intervention is complete...
Human computer interfaces for autism
CHI '05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '05, 2005
Several experimental studies have shown the usefulness of computers for autism, but software design remains poorly documented. Our multidisciplinary research focuses on educational HCI for autism. We compared two domains of learning: social dialogue understanding and spatial planning, our hypothesis being that people with autism will be less skilful in the first than in the second domain. Two sets of exercises were designed for each domain: one for training purposes and the other for performance assessment before and after training. We also tested the influence of the following output modalities: text, images, speech synthesis, visual and auditory feedback. Each exercise produced log files informing on duration, number of trials and successes. So far, eight teenagers with autism have completed a 13 week training program with one session a week. First analysis of log files suggests a significant progression in dialogic understanding but not in spatial planning; nor was significant influence of output modalities found.
MATEC Web of Conferences
This paper aims to examine the potentials of the multi-purpose touch screen technology application which utilizes a sound articulation point software called "TALKING PHONICS FOR AUTISM"as an alternative method of teaching phonics to autistic children. "TALKING PHONICS FOR AUTISM"is developed via a collaborative effort between the Centre of International Languages (CIL) and the School of Human Development and techno Communication (iKOM), University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP). The reading skills of autism children are developed intofive (5) levels ofMalay reading comprehension skills. The first level consists of open syllables - vowels and consonants. The following consecutivethree levels comprised of closed syllables. The fourth level introduces vocal sequence while the fifth level constitutes of Malay language loans. The Malay-language dialect phonological theory by Tajul Aripin Kassin (2000) which is based on Clements &Keysher's (1980) Generative Booking Gener...
Using Tablet Applications for Children With Autism to Increase Their Cognitive and Social Skills
Journal of Special Education Technology
Several researchers along with technicians have been developing software and hardware to support and/or replace the standard method of teaching for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and/or other developmental disabilities. Moreover, computer-based intervention and electronic tablets have shown benefits for people with special needs increasing their independence, academic and cognitive skills, social communication, and leisure time. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to evaluate the effectiveness of three tablet applications created to enhance specific abilities of children with ASD (attention, vocabulary, and imitation), who followed applied behavior analysis treatment (ABA) compared with the internal control group (CG). Training lasted 4 weeks for 15 children selected in a randomized way, while the CG followed only the behavioral therapy. To sum up, we want to respond to three questions: (1) whether the experimental group (EG) using the applications obtains gre...
2005
Several experimental studies have shown the usefulness of computers for autism, but software design remains poorly documented. Our multidisciplinary research focuses on educational HCI for autism. We compared two domains of learning: social dialogue understanding and spatial planning, our hypothesis being that people with autism will be less skilful in the first than in the second domain. Two sets of exercises were designed for each domain: one for training purposes and the other for performance assessment before and after training. We also tested the influence of the following output modalities: text, images, speech synthesis, visual and auditory feedback. Each exercise produced log files informing on duration, number of trials and successes. So far, eight teenagers with autism have completed a 13 week training program with one session a week. First analysis of log files suggests a significant progression in dialogic understanding but not in spatial planning; nor was significant influence of output modalities found.
A Communication System on Smart Phones and Tablets for Non-verbal Children with Autism
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012
We designed, developed and evaluated an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system, AutVisComm, for children with autism that can run on smart phones and tablets. An iterative design and development process was followed, where the prototypes were developed in close collaboration with the user group, and the usability testing was gradually expanded to larger groups. In the last evaluation stage described here, twenty-four children with autism used AutVisComm to learn to request the desired object. We measured their learning rates and correlated them with their behavior traits (as observed by their teachers) like joint attention, symbolic processing and imitation. We found that their ability for symbolic processing did not correlate with the learning rate, but their ability for joint attention did. This suggests that this system (and this class of AACs) helps to compensate for a lack of symbolic processing, but not for a lack of joint-attention mechanism.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1995
This article investigated the effectiveness of Computer-aided instructions (CAI) that utilize a high interactive and motivating multimedia settings in teaching reading and writing skills to students with autism. Specifically, this article investigated using "an interactive and child-initiated microcomputer program (Alpha)" in teaching students with autism reading and writing skills (p.459). this program "use on-screen animations as well as videodisc material that gives the child an immediate feedback" and "each noun or verb is immediately animated during sentence creation, and after completion the whole sentence is shown in text and as an animation" (p.462). Moreover, the teacher provides the student with promoting atmosphere by asking questions that can help the student to learn new structure of language.
Efficacy of Handheld Electronic Visual Supports to Enhance Vocabulary in Children With ASD
Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 2013
Although electronic tools such as handheld computers have become increasingly common throughout society, implementation of such tools to improve skills in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities has lagged in the professional literature. However, the use of visual scripts for individuals with disabilities, particularly those with autism spectrum disorders, has been demonstrated to be effective, though frequently in static formats. Thus, this study involved the implementation of an alternating-treatment design to investigate the effects of tablet computer-based visual scripts on vocabulary use in three 8- to 14-year-old children with autism. Results indicated that all the participants showed increased use of verbs or nouns with the treatment materials, all the participants required less invasive prompts as the project progressed, and one participant had mixed results in the spontaneous use of nouns, increasing in their use in treatment and nontreatment conditions.
The development of various features and user-friendly visual display in mobile devices and tablet computers, has led to greater use for autistic person, especially those who have difficulties in verbal communication or verbal limitation, in enhancing and facilitating communication. This paper is a part of preliminary research in purpose for developing Vicara, a mobile application for creating picture cards with text and sounds, that could be used as a communication and education tools for children to learn about object and activities in their daily lives. For this purpose, interviews with 3 parents of autistic individuals (2 children and 1 adult) were conducted to explore how they were using mobile apps for facilitating communication with their children.