The researchers of the Penn State College of Education they found that the augmentative and alternative communication (CAA) which makes use of the video technology can help communication for adolescents with ASD providing relevant vocabulary, concrete discussion topics and integrated tips for communicating. This will help ASD teens overcome the daily challenges in social interactions with their peers and these challenges are intensified for those with even limited language.
The results of the Research have been published in the scientific journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
AAC: video technology for inclusion
“Research shows us that students with autism and complex communication needs can be physically included in a classroom or seated next to their peers, but there is very little interaction with their classmates”, he has declared Salena Babb, assistant professor of education (special education). “Teens with ASD, their parents, their classmates and their teachers, all want to see more communication taking place. We clearly knew this was a great area of need ”.
According to the researchers, teens with ASD experience challenges with three key social interaction skills: share information about a past or future event; use the relevant vocabulary at the right time; and take appropriate conversation turns within interactions. Difficulties with any of these skills can negatively impact interactions with peers.
“Individuals with autism are five times more likely (than individuals without ASD) to describe themselves as often or always as lonely “, he said McNaughton. “It’s heartbreaking. We need to find new ways to support communication and interaction ”.
In their article, the authors state that “The challenges of social interaction are further intensified for those adolescents with ASD who also have complex communication needs“. Scientists cited research showing that around 30 percent of children with ASD do not develop speech (or demonstrate only limited language) by age 9, and many of these individuals continue to experience severe language difficulties during adolescence and adulthood.
“As a result, adolescents with ASD have limited success in communication opportunities in educational, professional and recreational activities and often report feelings of social isolation And depression“, the researchers wrote.
According to the researchers, AAC can help communication for teens with ASD. To support peer interactions, AAC faces three key challenges: 1) Provide linguistic and cognitive support to discuss past events, if necessary; 2) Provide easy access to topic-specific vocabulary; and 3) Support the individual with ASD in recognizing and taking a communicative turn within a frenetic social exchange.
A VSD video approach is a new AAC tool that meets these challenges. Using a VSD video approach, a person-relevant video is added to a VSD video app. The video is paused at the moments of greatest interest, creating a photographic scene that captures the moment.
Hotspots are added by drawing on the image and recording a message related to the scene, creating a VSD. When the video is displayed, it automatically stops at each VSD, giving you the opportunity to communicate.
The VSD technology used in the study was developed by RERC on AAC, a collaborative center committed to the advancement of knowledge and the production of innovative engineering solutions in augmentative and alternative communication. According to McNaughton, many leading AAC companies have now added a VSD approach to their AAC products.
“Our role with the RERC on AAC is to come up with new ideas and then share that information with industry. Our goal is for the AAC industry to collect these new ideas and include them in their AAC devices and apps“, he has declared.
The researchers’ paper builds on previous research conducted by Caron on how AAC can help people with ASD participate more successfully in communicating with others.
“What was truly groundbreaking in what Salena did was wanting these teens with ASD to interact with their peers without disabilities.McNaughton said. “In the past, it was often an adult professional who tried to teach social skills to the individual with ASD: teens need time to be with teens!”
The aim of the researchers’ study was to investigate the impact of VSD videos on communication during interactions between adolescents with ASD and peer peers. Four adolescents with ASD and complex communication needs were taught to use VSD videos, presented on a tablet-based app, during social interactions with partners in a high school setting. The VSD videos used during the interactions were selected (and programmed with vocabulary) based on the interests of the adolescent with ASD and their partner.
“We wanted to find a shared activity “, Babb explained. “We didn’t want to just put them in a room together and say, ‘to communicate‘. What do I see all the high school kids doing? Look at their phones when they are in the hallway! We decided to really provide a context to support peer interaction using favorite videos ”.
To determine which videos to use for the VSD study, the researchers looked at the interests of ASD students and found common themes in areas including sports, makeup tutorials, cooking, and humor. One of the most important services they were trying to provide was easy access to vocabulary at the time.
“If students are using communication devices, they have a lot of preprogrammed words, but that doesn’t mean the words will match the video. We wanted them to be able to have access to the exact words they needed for a particular video segment and to be able to add new words on the spot if they need new vocabulary.“Specified Babb.
At the start of the study, Babb and colleagues provided brief training to teach participants how to create and use VSD videos. They measured the frequency of communication shifts taken by the participants before and after the introduction of the VSD video intervention.
During the basic phase, participants watched videos that did not contain VSDs with hotspots. During this phase, both the participants with ASD and their peers did very few communication shifts. Then, participants were given brief training on VSD video creation.
“Basically, it’s an app that while watching the video, you can pause the video and say: ‘Put a hotspot here ‘“, McNaughton said. “You can draw a circle on the screen and record the speech within the app. The next time the video is displayed, when they touch that point, the speech is produced ”.
The researchers found that during the intervention phase, all participants with ASD and all peers immediately increased the number of communication shifts they took while watching videos together. They continued to demonstrate increased shifts during the intervention period.
“It is simply incredibly simple and intuitive to useBabb said. “It really became a collaborative process where (participants and peers) added vocabulary and created communication opportunities together, then used hotspots to communicate with each other. “
The use of VSD video has been effective in facilitating communication between teens with ASD and their peers for several reasons, Babb and McNaughton said. For starters, it has given individuals with ASD a clear and supported context for communication, something they often struggle with alone.
It’s almost like looking at a photo album with a family member “McNaughton said. “It can be difficult for anyone, and especially an individual with ASD, to describe past events. When you have that kind of visual support, it makes communication a lot easier when you know you are both talking about the same thing. “
Babb added that the business format created opportunities for natural conversation, which made both parties more engaged in the interaction, rather than just passively watching videos.
“After adding hotspots, the next time (the couple) watched the video, the video would automatically stop wherever a hotspot was created”, he said. “We found that it created a beautiful and naturalistic place for conversation.”
Regarding areas for future research, McNaughton and Babb said they are interested in implementing the study at the classroom or classroom level. And instead of using Internet videos, Babb added, students could capture their own videos to add hotspots to.
In addition to helping teens with ASD interact with their peers, McNaughton said, VSD video technology can also help those individuals communicate with their parents on school-related topics.
“As a tool to support communication between environments, it is a very interesting application“, he has declared. “We know that more than 30 percent of people with autism will not be able to rely on speech to meet their communication needs as they grow into adulthood. High school is a very important time for intervention and learning; we have to make sure people leave high school with AAC supports that they can use as adults to fully participate in society. “
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