W4 a 2012_buzzi

ABCD SW: Autistic Behavior & Computer-based Didactic Software

Maria Claudia Buzzi - CNR/IIT Marina Buzzi - CNR/IIT Davide Gazzè - CNR/IIT Caterina Senette - CNR/IIT Maurizio Tesconi - CNR/IIT

W4A 2012 Microsoft Accessibility Challenge

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Pervasive development disturbance • Difficulty/inability to communicate • Impaired social integration

ASD includes: Autism, Asperger syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, etc.

alarming trend: from 1/2.000 in 1980

to 1/150 in 2007

W4A 2012 Microsoft Accessibility Challenge – Lyon 16 April 2012

Conventional educational techniques are often not effective:

• difficulty understanding spoken language • different sensorial perception (noise, contact, etc….) • difficulty concentrating • inability to communicate needs • difficulty/inability to accomplish tasks => (provoking frustration and “problem behaviors”)

These numerous problems and needs require a

personalized educational approach to best exploit the child’s abilities


Early and intensive intervention (beginning in preschool for at least 6 hours a day) produce significant improvement in knowledge and skills high-functioning children with development

corresponding to the normotype ABCD SW is specifically developed for kindergarten and

primary school children


Didactic software for low-functioning autistic children based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

The application has been split into 2 independent parts that may run on different devices:


ABCD SW is a Web application coded in PHP and AJAX

HTML5 Client

The SW relies on the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) Advantages : data organization scalability db population native support for Multilanguage …

Distributed Web architecture: anytime, anyplace, any pace


• Accessible and Adaptive (perceivable, operable, comprehensible) – AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) – DTT (Discrete Trial Training ) – Changes according to child’s abilities: non-receptive

and/or non-verbal • Simple/natural

– A dedicated touch-screen device for the child – Similar to face-to-face sessions


• Flexible (as required by psychologists and ABA tutors) – The SW guides ABA tutors in configuring the best

intervention following the ABA principles – BUT it allows to make other configurations

– if the Tutor wants to follow a different order in the Programs/Levels proposed


• Simple to configure – The system randomly select distractors discarding

elements similar in color and form – The R key allows to change distractors if not suitable

• Fast – The tutor evaluates each trial pressing one key

– 1-5: levels of prompt (0-100%) – C: child error – N: no collaboration – S: self stimulation

– The tutor activates the reinforcement (0 key) and writes comments


• Fast

– No time required to realize teaching materials – Easy trial’s set up

Further Advantages – The Sw records all the data related to the child’s

interaction – Fastly exchange of sessions’ information – Better monitoring of child’s progress – Possibility to realize epidemiology studies (anonymized data)


• Open Source

Together we are stronger…

Join us!

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqa-enVAfjg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqa-enVAfjg�

Demo

http://abcdsw.iit.cnr.it

http://abcdsw.iit.cnr.it/�

http://abcd.iit.cnr.it/

http://abcd.iit.cnr.it/�

W4 a 2012_buzzi

Technology

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