This study evaluated Mind Reading, an interactive systematic guide to emotions, for its effectiveness in teaching adults with Asperger syndrome ~AS! and high-functioning autism ~HFA! to recognize complex emotions in faces and voices. Experiment 1 tested a group of adults diagnosed with AS0HFA ~n 19! who used the software at home for 10–15 weeks. Participants were tested on recognition of faces and voices at three different levels of generalization. A matched control group of adults with AS0HFA ~n 22! were assessed without any intervention. In addition, a third group of general population controls ~n 24! was tested. Experiment 2 repeated the design of Experiment 1 with a group of adults with AS0HFA who used the software at home and met in a group with a tutor on a weekly basis. They were matched to a control group of adults with AS0HFA attending social skills training and to a general population control group ~n 13 for all three groups!. In both experiments the intervention group improved significantly more than the control group on close, but not distant, generalization tasks. Verbal IQ had significant effects in Experiment 2. Using Mind Reading for a relatively short period of time allows users to learn to recognize a variety of complex emotions and mental states. However, additional methods are required to enhance generalization.

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Systemizing empathy: Teaching adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism to recognize complex emotions using interactive multimedia

This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of technology-based intervention studies for children with autism spectrum disorders. We conducted a systematic review of research that used a pre-post design to assess innovative technology interventions, including computer programs, virtual reality, and robotics. The selected studies provided interventions via a desktop computer, interactive DVD, shared active surface, and virtual reality. None employed robotics. The results provide evidence for the overall effectiveness of technology-based training. The overall mean effect size for posttests of controlled studies of children with autism spectrum disorders who received technology-based interventions was significantly different from zero and approached the medium magnitude, d = 0.47 (confidence interval: 0.08-0.86). The influence of age and IQ was not significant. Differences in training procedures are discussed in the light of the negative correlation that was found between the intervention durations and the studies' effect sizes. The results of this meta-analysis provide support for the continuing development, evaluation, and clinical usage of technology-based intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Innovative technology-based interventions for autism spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis

A growing number of studies have investigated diverse applications of technology-based interventions with children with autism. The purpose of this paper is to review the growing empirical support for the efficacy of technology-based interventions with children with autism and to recommend future directions for research. This review will focus on five examples of technology introduced as a temporary instructional aid to be removed once the goal of behavior change has been met: (a) tactile and auditory prompting devices, (b) video-based instruction and feedback, (c) computer-aided instruction, (d) virtual reality, and (e) robotics. Future directions for research and practice with each technology are discussed. Keywords: autism; technology-based interventions; computer-aided instruction; virtual reality; robotics. ********** A growing number of studies have investigated diverse applications of technology-based interventions with children with autism. The popularity of technology in the field of psychology is evidenced by the development of new journals in the area (e.g., the Journal of Special Education Technology, the Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, etc.). In addition, clinical psychology journals are recognizing the importance of technology in service delivery and devoting special issues to the topic (e.g., Newman, 2004). Parents and clinicians regularly report that children with autism are drawn to technological devices and researchers have noted the importance of devising treatments that take advantage of this fascination (Colby, 1973). The purpose of this paper is to review the growing empirical support for the efficacy of technology-based interventions with children with autism and to recommend future directions for research. A review of technology-based interventions must first clarify the use of the word technology. The term is broadly defined as "the practical application of knowledge" or "the specialized aspects of a particular field of endeavor" (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 1994, p. 1210). This broad definition encompasses virtually any information or object that has been used in application to a field of study. For example, the application of stimulus control is technology to a behavioral clinician. A more specific use of the term refers to use of mechanical or electromechanical processes that often increase productivity and reduce or eliminate manual operations or operations done by older technologies. In the twenty-first century, technology commonly denotes a variety of popular electromechanical devices such as cell phones, video recording equipment, and hand-held, desktop, and laptop personal computers. It is the use of these tools with children with autism that will be the subject of this review paper. Some technology-based interventions are designed for indefinite use as an assistive tool (e.g., voice-output augmentative communication devices, microswitches, etc.) while others are introduced as a temporary instructional aid to be removed once the goal of behavior change has been met. This review will focus on five examples of the second category: tactile and auditory prompting devices, video-based instruction and feedback, computer-aided instruction, virtual reality, and robotics. Research support for the use of each technological advancement with children with autism will be reviewed, and directions for future research and practical application will be discussed. Mechanical Prompts Individuals with autism often need external stimulus prompts to initiate, maintain, or terminate a behavior. Commonly used prompts include vocal, gestural, physical, written/pictorial, and signed prompts, and each modality has been demonstrated effective for multiple purposes (MacDuff, Krantz, & McClannahan, 2001). Technological advancements in the last decade have created cost-effective automated prompting devices with the ability to deliver the same level of prompting with less human interaction and obtrusiveness and often less human effort in managing prompt delivery (e. …

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Use of Technology in Interventions for Children with Autism

This study assessed the efficacy of FaceSay, a computer-based social skills training program for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This randomized controlled study (N = 49) indicates that providing children with low-functioning autism (LFA) and high functioning autism (HFA) opportunities to practice attending to eye gaze, discriminating facial expressions and recognizing faces and emotions in FaceSay’s structured environment with interactive, realistic avatar assistants improved their social skills abilities. The children with LFA demonstrated improvements in two areas of the intervention: emotion recognition and social interactions. The children with HFA demonstrated improvements in all three areas: facial recognition, emotion recognition, and social interactions. These findings, particularly the measured improvements to social interactions in a natural environment, are encouraging.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10803-011-1179-z.pdf

Avatar assistant: improving social skills in students with an ASD through a computer-based intervention.

The potential of virtual environments for teaching people with autism has been positively promoted in recent years. The present study aimed to systematically investigate this potential with 12 participants with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), each individually matched with comparison participants according to either verbal IQ or performance IQ, as well as gender and chronological age. Participants practised using a desktop 'training' virtual environment, before completing a number of tasks in a virtual cafe. We examined time spent completing tasks, errors made, basic understanding of the representational quality of virtual environments and the social appropriateness of performance. The use of the environments by the participants with ASDs was on a par with their PIQ-matched counterparts, and the majority of the group seemed to have a basic understanding of the virtual environment as a representation of reality. However, some participants in the ASD group were significantly more likely to be judged as bumping into, or walking between, other people in the virtual scene, compared to their paired matches. This tendency could not be explained by executive dysfunction or a general motor difficulty. This might be a sign that understanding personal space is impaired in autism. Virtual environments might offer a useful tool for social skills training, and this would be a valuable topic for future research.

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The use and understanding of virtual environments by adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders.

Children with autism have difficulty in solving social problems and in generating multiple solutions to problems. They are, however, relatively skilled in responding to visual cues such as pictures and animations. Eight distinct social problems were presented on a computer, along with a choice of possible solutions, and an option to produce alternative solutions. Eight preschool children with autism and eight matched normal children went through 10 training sessions interleaved with 6 probe sessions. Children were asked to provide solutions to animated problem scenes in all the sessions. Unlike the probe sessions, in the training sessions problem solutions were first explained thoroughly by the trainer. Subsequently these explanations were illustrated using dynamic animations of the solutions. Although children with autism produced significantly fewer alternative solutions compared to their normal peers, a steady increase across probe sessions was observed for the autistic group. The frequency of new ideas was directly predicted by the diagnostic category of autism. Results suggest young children with autism and their normal peers can be taught problem-solving strategies with the aid of computer interfaces. More research is required to establish whether such computer-assisted instruction will generalize to nontrained problem situations in real-life contexts.

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Sharul Nakhoda-Sapuan

Papers

Enhancing social problem solving in children with autism and normal children through computer-assisted instruction.