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Fostering Real-World Interaction in Autistic Pupils with Digital Technology: Design Recommendations from Practitioners in Special Education
Technology is widely used by autistic children, and is increasingly used to develop skills in language, communication, curriculum learning and the social domain. However, alongside the demonstrated benefits of educational technology for autistic children, there is ongoing concern from parents and practitioners that technology is socially isolating, and prohibits real-world interaction. It is essential to understand this point of view in order to create, implement, and evaluate technologies for use by autistic children.
Objectives:
To draw on practitioner experiences to determine how technology might influence real-world interaction in autistic children, i.e. what types of interaction have the potential to be impeded / fostered by technology, and what technologies inhibit / promote interaction.
Methods:
186 education practitioners (including teachers, educational assistants, therapists and psychologists) completed a survey about technology use in autism education. We collected information about demographics, pupil profiles, technology use (hardware, software, purpose) and attitudes to technology. Subsequently, two focus groups with class teachers at different schools were conducted (n = 11), in which the impact of digital technologies on social interaction was discussed.
Results:
For most practitioners, socially interactive uses of technology were not overtly considered or prioritised, and instead, technology was most frequently used to support learning and communication. In the survey, practitioners were almost evenly split between strongly agreeing and strongly disagreeing that technology contributed to social isolation, producing extremely mixed results, and practitioners provided anecdotal experiences of both scenarios in open-ended questions. In the focus groups, most practitioners felt that technology could discourage social interaction amongst their pupils, particularly screen-based medias such as mobile tablets. However, the same practitioners also reported many scenarios and examples of where technology encouraged and fostered interaction amongst their pupils. These interactions ranged from simple to complex, and included tolerating others, sharing space, verbal communication, turn-taking, and forming relationships through shared interests, with interactions directed towards both staff and peers. From the focus groups, factors related to the individual child, the technological hardware, the software, and the environment emerged as influential to technology’s impact on social behaviour. Features related to digital technologies that had most influence on social interaction, according to practitioners, included physical affordances, customization and flexibility, context of technology use, and collaborative opportunity.
Conclusions:
Technology has the potential to foster real-world interaction in children with autism, according to education practitioners. Social interaction via technology is an unexpected benefit, rather than an intended outcome, despite the importance of developing social skills in autistic children. The data will be interpreted and presented as a set recommendations for practitioners and tech developers, to derive design criteria that can maximise opportunities for social interaction in autistic children using technology.