‘AReal-Vocab’: An Augmented Reality English Vocabulary Mobile Application to Cater to Mild Autism Children in Response towards Sustainable Education for Children with Disabilities

Abstract

The American Psychiatric Association defines autism spectrum disorder as a neurological illness, in which children with the disorder have trouble communicating socially or have a set of behaviours that are recurrent or restricted. Autism learners are mostly visual method learners who learn best through pictures and visuals. Most learners with autism struggle to learn new terminology due to their cognitive difficulties, and with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, technology is no longer a foreign concept in the educational sphere. The usage of augmented reality technology has proven to be beneficial in offering more relevant learning sessions for autism learners. As a result, underpinned by the learning theories of behaviourism, constructivism, connectives and cognitivism, altogether with the theory of mind and Frame model, an augmented reality smartphone application, called ‘AReal-Vocab’, was created to assist children with mild autism in acquiring English vocabulary. The design and development research approach was employed in this study, in which later, the developed mobile augmented reality application was then tested on six mildly autistic youngsters to see how well the designed and developed augmented reality mobile application aided them in acquiring the English language. The AReal-Vocab mobile application, which was planned and built, has had an impact on the English-vocabulary learning of children with moderate autism, according to the findings. Not only has AReal-Vocab helped mildly autistic children learn English vocabulary in a more engaging and meaningful way, sparking their interest in the language learning process, but it also serves as a platform for instilling leisure learning at home, as well as stimulating pronunciation skills and language articulation. The findings of this study are expected to benefit all parties involved, particularly children with autism, autism educators, and parents of children with autism.

The Usefulness of Augmented Reality in Enhancing English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners’ Vocabulary Acquisition: A Systematic Review (2018-2022)

“…Recalling the intricacies of the AR environment in these instances indicates how pupils had been able to construct genuine, long-lasting links between vocabulary terms and meaning and the AR reality in which they have been obtaining their fresh insights. Aside from the beneficial findings of this research, the implementation of such an AR environment had several other beneficial initiatives in place for pupils in their classes (Hashim et al, 2022). Since their usual diversions were reduced, learners seem to have been completely focused and involved in whatever they were discovering.…”

“…Although certain words' interpretations are conveyed explicitly, implying word definitions from contextual continues to be a major aspect of vocabulary acquisition. Adopting an AR method to vocabulary instruction assists kids in inferring lexicon word definitions through contexts by generating their links of the redefinition to a location in the AR environment (Hashim et al, 2022). Learners might be empowered to attach new knowledge in a manner that complements their reasoning by seeing and hearing that word being used perspective using AR.…”

Extended Reality–Based Mobile App Solutions for the Therapy of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Systematic Literature Review

“…A total of 25% (7/28) of the publications [ 28 , 30 , 33 , 36 , 40 , 49 , 52 ] focused on improving communication skills such as English vocabulary learning [ 28 ]; word learning using automatic object recognition through an app based on the TensorFlow library that can be used either when connected to the internet or offline [ 29 ]; speaking, reading, and associating images using an app that allows for customization of lessons by parents or therapists [ 33 ]; and communication and socialization by delivering certain cues through smart glasses [ 49 ]. Textbox 3 details the skills targeted in the studies.…”

“…Hashim et al [ 28 ]: communication skills; learning English vocabulary, pronunciation, and articulation skills…”

“…After reviewing the full texts, 3 publications were found to be not written in English, and in other publications, ASD was not addressed (only mentioned), other technologies were addressed, or the proposed solution was not clearly described and the results were inconclusive (see the sample in Figure 2 ; the entire table is available in Multimedia Appendix 2 [ 28 - 104 ]).…”