Teaching Executive Function and Social Cognition Using a Kinect-Based Intervention Tool

Background:  Although many studies have demonstrated success in teaching social skills through various behavioral, developmental, and psychological approaches, these interventions are typically costly and/or are not available in many communities.  In addition, social skills groups or teaching social skills in busy, social settings such as school may be overwhelming to some children and may impact the child’s ability to learn the skills being taught.  The majority of the social skills interventions that have shown success do not necessarily include access to neuro-typical peers or even measure the generalizability to their peers.  To successfully learn social skills, certain cognitive skills such as planning, memory, and flexible thinking (i.e. executive function skills) may be necessary.  Few social skills interventions consider this prerequisite and this may affect outcomes for some students.

Objectives:  While decreasing cost and increasing accessibility, the objectives of this project are to: 1) develop a KINECT-based game that effectively teaches executive function and social skills while keeping motivation for learning high and sustainable; 2) measure the effectiveness of the game in teaching the target skills with school-age ASD children who do not have intellectual impairment; 3) assess the usability of the system in the home environment with parent implementation; and 3) measure the generalization of the skills being taught in typical peer interactions.

Methods:  A single subject, multiple baseline design was implemented with 8 children in 1-4 week baselines.  Each child received the intervention in the home via the KINECT system for 20 minutes/session for 5 sessions each week for 6 weeks for a total of 10 hours of intervention.  During baseline and following the intervention, participants were observed in a naturalistic gaming sessions with neurotypical peers, with parents, and alone to test the generalization of the skills learned through the gaming system.

Results:  Data are being analyzed to assess the effectiveness of the intervention including standardized measures of executive function and social skills, and behavioral observations coded by blind raters.  Data will also look for strong indicators of characteristics of children and parents who may be best suited for this type of intervention.

Conclusions:  If executive function and social understanding can be taught in an efficient, effective, motivating, generalizable and feasible way using technology, this could have huge implications for how treatment is delivered.  This kind of technology could allow individuals with ASDs, and potentially other populations, to practice and learn social rules in a safe and predictable environment, and then practice the skills with peers in the natural environment.  Results from our research, video clips of children using the game, and an interactive display of the KINECT game will be demonstrated.