STAK : Social skills training for autistic kids: a personalised dual-adaptive learning system for caregivers

Abstract

The aim of this research is to design, develop and evaluate a personalised dual-adaptive learning system for caregivers1 to help them meet the challenge of teaching social interaction skills to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Due to their social-cognitive learning disabilities children with ASDs are unable to develop social skills or interpret the social nuances around them. The need for caregivers to tackle the issue of social competence is important for the overall development of children with ASDs to allow them to participate fully in school life and later in society. A review of sixty existing social skills interventions indicates that these interventions are used mainly to teach language, pragmatics, and communication skills. This approach does not deal adequately with the social deficit in ASDs as it assumes that specific social skills can be taught in isolation from other aspects of social development. Furthermore, since each child with autism is unique, interventions which recognise their individual differences tend to be more effective. This thesis is a qualitative multiple case study which explores the research question: how a dual-adaptive learning system matches child profiles with appropriate educational resources and teaching strategies, while providing caregivers with support using those recommended strategies at levels consistent with their own profiles, to enable them to develop social skills in children with ASDs. To achieve this aim an investigation was conducted in two stages: (a) an iterative design process to determine the most appropriate support for both caregiver and child, involving 3 exploratory case studies with 20 participants; (b) the evaluation of the personalised dual-adaptive learning system, STAK (Social Skills Training for Autistic Kids) resulting from the first stage of the research, through 3 explanatory case studies conducted with 38 participants. Data was collected using online questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, database logs, telephone conversations and field notes. The objective of the evaluation was to examine caregivers’ opinions regarding how technology could be used to assess the child’s individual needs and the caregiver’s support requirements for the purposes of selecting appropriate resources to meet their particular needs and to investigate the design implications for the building of dualadaptive learning systems to support caregivers teaching social skills to children with ASDs to inform the design of future applications.The aim of this research is to design, develop and evaluate a personalised dual-adaptive learning system for caregivers1 to help them meet the challenge of teaching social interaction skills to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Due to their social-cognitive learning disabilities children with ASDs are unable to develop social skills or interpret the social nuances around them. The need for caregivers to tackle the issue of social competence is important for the overall development of children with ASDs to allow them to participate fully in school life and later in society. A review of sixty existing social skills interventions indicates that these interventions are used mainly to teach language, pragmatics, and communication skills. This approach does not deal adequately with the social deficit in ASDs as it assumes that specific social skills can be taught in isolation from other aspects of social development. Furthermore, since each child with autism is unique, interventions which recognise their individual differences tend to be more effective. This thesis is a qualitative multiple case study which explores the research question: how a dual-adaptive learning system matches child profiles with appropriate educational resources and teaching strategies, while providing caregivers with support using those recommended strategies at levels consistent with their own profiles, to enable them to develop social skills in children with ASDs. To achieve this aim an investigation was conducted in two stages: (a) an iterative design process to determine the most appropriate support for both caregiver and child, involving 3 exploratory case studies with 20 participants; (b) the evaluation of the personalised dual-adaptive learning system, STAK (Social Skills Training for Autistic Kids) resulting from the first stage of the research, through 3 explanatory case studies conducted with 38 participants. Data was collected using online questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, database logs, telephone conversations and field notes. The objective of the evaluation was to examine caregivers’ opinions regarding how technology could be used to assess the child’s individual needs and the caregiver’s support requirements for the purposes of selecting appropriate resources to meet their particular needs and to investigate the design implications for the building of dualadaptive learning systems to support caregivers teaching social skills to children with ASDs to inform the design of future applications.