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Smart objects to support the discrimination training of children with autism

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Abstract

Teachers spend considerable amount of time keeping students with autism “on task” giving away prompts and rewards and maintaining a detailed record of students’ progress during the object discrimination training. We hypothesize that tangible computing, in particular smart objects, could help teachers cope with the problems faced during the object discrimination training of students with autism. In this paper, we describe design principles for smart objects to support the object discrimination training and present several example prototypes. First, we present the design and implementation of “Things that think” (T3), a smart device that converts traditional objects into smart objects that promote interactivity with a playful and engaging interaction, and are capable of the automatic recording of students’ progress. Then, we present four T3 smart objects assembled in a board. The results of a 7-week deployment study of the use of such smart objects in three classrooms of students with autism (n = 25, 7 teachers and 18 students with autism) demonstrate T3 smart objects reduce the workload of teachers, ease the record-keeping and increase its reliability, and reduce students’ behavioral problems while improving their cognitive efficacy. We close discussing directions for future work.

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Notes

  1. CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.

  2. http://www.livescribe.com.

  3. http://www.pasitos.org.

  4. Although we were interested in understanding the impact of the T3Board on students and teachers, teachers were mainly interviewed as proxies [24]. Tang and McCorkle [24] to gather the information from non-verbal students with autism.

  5. The student file is a record storing clinical and behavioral information about a particular child including his/her diagnosis, goals, and interests.

  6. Participants’ quotes were translated from Spanish to English, and some were adjusted to fit English grammar conventions.

  7. http://www.bu.mp.com.

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Acknowledgments

We thank to Pasitos A.C. for their support. This work was funded through Lizbeth Escobedo’s and Catalina Ibarra’s CONACYT fellowships and through the UCMexus Grant #634-237 and CONACYT Grant #10256.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), Ensenada, Mexico

    Lizbeth Escobedo & Catalina Ibarra

  2. Softek, Ensenada, Mexico

    Jehu Hernandez

  3. Cetys Universidad, Mexicali, Mexico

    Mariana Alvelais

  4. Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE), Ensenada, Mexico

    Monica Tentori

Authors
  1. Lizbeth Escobedo
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  2. Catalina Ibarra
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  3. Jehu Hernandez
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  4. Mariana Alvelais
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  5. Monica Tentori
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Correspondence to Lizbeth Escobedo.

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Escobedo, L., Ibarra, C., Hernandez, J. et al. Smart objects to support the discrimination training of children with autism. Pers Ubiquit Comput 18, 1485–1497 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-013-0750-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-013-0750-3

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