Using multimedia to reveal the hidden code of everyday behaviour to children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs)

Abstract

This paper describes a framework which was developed for carers (teachers and parents) to help them create personalised social stories for children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). It explores the social challenges experienced by individuals with ASDs and outlines an intervention aimed at revealing the hidden code that underpins social interactions to them. It focuses on how technology can facilitate the implementation of this intervention by utilising multimedia-authoring tools. Findings from a case study, involving seven carers over a five-month period, are encouraging revealing that the participants quickly learned the basics of the intervention and either adapted or created social stories. They found the framework easy to use and sufficiently flexible to cater for children with social interaction, communication and behaviour problems.Keywords: authoring tools and methods, media in education, teaching/learning strategies. IntroductionDue to their social-cognitive learning disabilities individuals with ASDs are unable to develop social skills and interpret the social nuances of those around them. The foregoing brings deep and lifelong challenges that impact their lives in multiple ways. For instance, when these children are not able to read social cues, their personal safety and decision making can be at risk (Smith Myles et al, 2004). Consequently, children with ASDs need to be taught particular skill sets to survive in ways that cater for their learning difficulties and perception of the world (Jordan & Powell, 1995).Rather than merely diagnosing the condition by identifying clusters of behaviours (Smith, 2003), current approaches attempt to understand the thinking and emotional processes that underlie the way in which children with autism perceive the world and behave. Several prominent models of autism such as: triad of impairments (an absence of social interaction, communication and development of imagination) (Wing & Gould, 1979); theory of mind (Happé & Frith, 1994;Baron-Cohen, 2000); central coherence (Frith, 1989); executive function (Ozonoff et al, 2005); joint attention (Bigelow et al, 2004;Dawson et al, 2004;Mundy & Burnette, 2005); and personal autobiographical memory (Jordan & Powell, 1995) underpin the conceptual framework of the present research.An intervention to teach social skills to children with ASDs should recognise individual differences and be informed on sound principles. Thus, unlike existing commercial social skills packages (Smith, 2003), social skills tools should be flexible and adaptable to cater for the idiosyncratic and individual nature of each child"s difficulties. For instance, children with ASDs generally have a visual learning style (Kuttler et al, 1998;Grandin, 2006) and display good visuo-spatial skills that do not involve language (Wing, 2002). Furthermore, a wide range of intellectual ability among children on the autistic spectrum exists. According to Baron-Cohen (2008) up to twenty-five per cent of M A N U S C R I P T 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11...

VLEs, social stories and children with autism: A prototype implementation and evaluation

“…Moreover, there are a few multimedia tools presenting personalized SS for children with ASC that have been implemented with success (Doyle and Arnedillo-Sánchez 2011). Despite the extent of the aforementioned literature, there is very limited research, which combines VLEs and SS for developing social problem solving skills in children with ASC.…”

ICTs and Music in Special Learning Disabilities

“…Learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorders In this paper a framework is introduced to help teachers create personalized social stories for children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) [14]. It outlines an intervention to reveal the hidden code that underpins social interactions to them.…”

“…After the implementation of the used procedure the findings revealed an individualization of social stories. Finally, the fact that children with ASDs are visual learners makes the social stories an ideal approach due to the use of visual information to emphasize the meaning [14].…”

“…A framework was developed for carers (teachers and parents) to help them create personalized social stories for children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) [14]. The use of iPad2® for students with autism runs on a 10-step task analysis, which examines the effects of systematic instruction [15].…”

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

“…This framework helped to heighten the awareness of carers to the needs of the children and this seemed to improve the response from the latter. Further training of carers, who encounter difficulties, would enable them to use the framework to its full potential [28].…”