Assisting students with autism to actively perform collaborative walking activity with their peers using dance pads combined with preferred environmental stimulation

The purpose of this study was to provide students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) the opportunity to cooperate with their peers. This experiment was designed so that students with ASD and their partners were required to perform the collaborative walking activity using dance pads combined with preferred stimulation. With the foot-pressing position detection program (FPPDP) software, standard dance pads could be used as foot-pressing position detectors to detect participants’ collaborative walking activities. An ABAB design was adopted in this experiment, where A represented baseline phases, and B represented intervention phases. The experimental results show that the participants increased their willingness to perform the assigned task and the actual amount of collaborative walking activity also increased during the intervention phases compared to the baseline phases. Practical and developmental implications of the findings are discussed.     

Assisting people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior to improve computer pointing efficiency through a mouse wheel

This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior would be able to improve their pointing performance using finger poke ability with a mouse wheel through a Dynamic Pointing Assistive Program (DPAP) and a newly developed mouse driver (i.e., a new mouse driver replaces standard mouse driver, changes a mouse wheel into a thumb/finger poke detector, and intercepts mouse action). Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When his performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Both participants improved their pointing efficiency with the use of DPAP and remained highly successful through maintenance phase. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

An adaptive dynamic pointing assistance program to help people with multiple disabilities improve their computer pointing efficiency with hand swing through a standard mouse

The latest research adopted software technology to redesign the mouse driver, and turned a mouse into a useful pointing assistive device for people with multiple disabilities who cannot easily or possibly use a standard mouse, to improve their pointing performance through a new operation method, Extended Dynamic Pointing Assistive Program (EDPAP), where the user can swing his hand on the desktop to quickly move the cursor to a target.However, EDPAP has lower pointing efficiency due to the cursor jumping in sequence amongst the targets once there are many targets on the screen. This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through a new target acquisition technique based on EDPAP, Adaptive Dynamic Pointing Assistive Program (ADPAP), where the cursor movement path is selected adaptively by users’ hand swing direction, as opposed to being sequential. This study used multiple probe design across participants. Participants typically received three 30-min ADPAP training sessions per week, for a period of about 6–7 weeks. Initially, both participants had their baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant. When his performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant. Finally, both participants were exposed to the maintenance phase, in which their pointing performance improved significantly. Data indicated that both participants improved their pointing efficiency with the use of ADPAP and remained highly successful through the maintenance phase. Results of this study showed that, with the assistance of ADPAP, participants can acquire targets quickly, easily, and accurately, thus helping the disabled to solve their pointing problems.     

Teaching two teenagers with autism spectrum disorders to request the continuation of video playback using a touchscreen computer with the function of automatic response to requests

This study used a standard touchscreen computer with a newly developed Communication Request and Automatic Response Assistive Program (CRARAP) software package to evaluate whether two people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) would be able to actively perform communication requests to continue their preferred environmental stimulation. The CRARAP software was specifically developed for this study to combine the functions of a standard touchscreen computer with a speech-generating device (SGD) and the feature of automatic response to requests. A multiple probe design across participants was adopted in this study. The results show that both participants significantly improved their target responses in terms of performing the correct alternative communication request during the intervention phase, and retained this effective performance in the maintenance phase. The practical and developmental implications of the findings are discussed.     

Assisting obese students with intellectual disabilities to actively perform the activity of walking in place using a dance pad to control their preferred environmental stimulation

This study used a standard dance pad with a newly developed foot-pressing position detection program (FPPDP) software program. FPPDP is a new software program which was used to turn a standard dance pad into a foot-pressing position detector to evaluate whether two people with intellectual disabilities would be able to actively perform the activity of walking in place in order to control their preferred environmental stimulation. This study was performed according to a multiple baseline design across participants. The data showed that both participants were more willing to perform the activity of walking activity to activate the environmental stimulation during the intervention phases than in the baseline phase, and retained this effective performance in the maintenance phase. The practical and developmental implications of the findings are discussed.     

Assisting people with multiple disabilities to improve computer typing efficiency through a mouse wheel and On-Screen Keyboard software

The main purpose of this study was to find out whether three students with multiple disabilities could increase their keyboard typing performance by poking the standard mouse scroll wheel with the newly developed Dynamic Typing Assistive Program (DTAP) and the built-in On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) computer software. The DTAP is a software solution that allows users to complete typing tasks with OSK software easily, quickly, and accurately by poking the mouse wheel. This study was performed according to a multiple baseline design across participants, and the experimental data showed that all of the participants significantly increased their typing efficiency in the intervention phase. Moreover, this improved performance was maintained during the maintenance phase. Practical and developmental implications of the findings were discussed.     

Telepractice parent-implemented training and coaching in a rural area in the UK: Impact on mothers and their children with autism

BackgroundParent-implemented interventions are reported to have positive outcomes for both children with autism and their parents. Online parent training and coaching have been increasingly used as an effective alternative or supplemental to traditional face-to-face services, especially after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which parents of children with autism can implement a set of newly acquired strategies and the impact these had on their children’s communication skills.MethodFour mother–child dyads from a rural area in the UK participated in the study following a multiple-baseline design across strategies. Asynchronous training and synchronous coaching were provided, all online.ResultsThe present study extended the results of the original US based study it replicated (Meadan et al., 2016). Mothers learned to use the targeted naturalistic teaching strategies they were trained and coached in (i.e., i-PiCS- internet-based Parent-implemented Communication Strategies) and their children’s responsiveness and initiations of communication increased and were mostly maintained after the end of the study. Changes in the mothers’ use of strategies were observed in many cases even after training only, and the strategy of time delay was linked to increases in the children’s initiations of communication.ConclusionsThis replication study showed that i-PiCS is an appropriate intervention to use with mothers of children with autism in the UK and telepractice training and coaching can be a feasible and effective service delivery method.