Autism news winter´11

Winter 2011 Volume 6, Issue 1

Cover artwork created by Nathaniel Mackin

2 Autism News of Orange County – RW Winter 2011

C O V E R F E AT U R E

Editorial TeamVera Bernard-Opitz, Ph.D., EditorGinny Mumm, Associate Editor

Editorial BoardNicole Gage, Ph.D. Wendy Goldberg, Ph.D.Gillian Hayes, Ph.D.Leslie Morrison, Ph.D.Christina McReynolds, Ed.S., MS, BCBA.Janis White, Ed.D.

Executive BoardCarol Clayman Valerie K. deMartino, EsqJoe Donnelly, M.D.Dennis Roberson Janis B. White, Ed.D.

Advisory BoardLOCALValerie K. deMartino, Esq.

Long Beach, CaliforniaWendy Goldberg, Ph.D.

University of California, IrvineBeth Huntley-Fenner

Irvine, CaliforniaBelinda Karge, Ph.D.

Cal State University, FullertonConnie Kasari, Ph.D.

University of California, Los AngelesJennifer McIlwee Myers

Orange County, CaliforniaEmily Rubin, MS, CCC-SLP

Communication Crossroads, MontereyBryna Siegel, Ph.D.

Dept. of Psychiatry, University of California, San FranciscoMarian Sigman, Ph.D.

University of California, Los AngelesBecky Touchette

Saddleback Valley Unified School District

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONALBarbara Bloomfield, M.A., CCC-SLP

Icon Talk, Goshen, New York

Marjorie H. Charlop-Christy, Ph.D.Claremont McKenna College and The Claremont Autism Center

V. Mark Durand, Ph.D.University of South Florida, St. Petersburg

Patricia Howlin, Ph.D.St. Georges’s Hospital London, England

David Leach, Ph.D.Murdoch University, Australia

Gary Mesibov, Ph.D.University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Division TEACCH

Salwanizah Bte Moh.SaidEarly Intervention, Autism Association, Singapore

Friz Poustka, M.D.University of Frankfurt, Germany

Diane Twachtman–Cullen, Ph.D., CCC–SLPADDCON Center, Higganum, Connecticut

Pamela Weolberg, Ph.D.San Francisco State University

We are pleased to feature one of our local artists, NathanielMackin. Read more about Nathaniel on page 14.

Mission StatementAutism News of Orange County & the Rest of the World

is a collaborative publication for parents and professionalsdedicated to sharing research-based strategies, innovativeeducational approaches, best practices and experiences inthe area of autism.

Submission PolicyThe Autism News of Orange County–RW is available free

of charge. The opinions expressed in the newsletter do notnecessarily represent the official view of the agencies involved.

Contributions from teachers, therapists, researchers andrelatives/children of/with autism are welcome. The editorsselect articles and make necessary changes.

Please submit articles in Microsoft Word using font size12, double spaced, and no more than four pages in length(2600 words). Photos are encouraged and when submittedwith articles the permission to include is assumed.

Please E-mail all correspondence to: Dr. Vera Bernard-Opitz

[email protected] visit our website: www.autismnewsoc.org

C O N T E N T S

EditorialLatest Technologies............................................... 3

ResearchTeaching Persistence in Social Initiations ............. 5

Education/Therapy Interactive and Collaborative Visual Supports ..... 9 Technology in Therapy ..................................... 15Computer-Assisted Instructional Program ......... 17Keeping up with Technology...............................21Touch2Learn Program ....................................... 23Technology Employment .................................. 25

Parent/FamilyGrace App ......................................................... 26Rethink Autism ................................................. 30Assistive Technology .......................................... 31

News/HighlightsCover Artist: Nathaniel Mackin ........................14Supportors/Sponsorships/Donations ..................20Upcoming Seminars ...........................................36

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Winter 2011 Autism News of Orange County – RW 3

The latest technologies sure are exciting for us all,but for individuals with autism and their parents, fam-ilies, friends and involved professionals these advancesoften constitute a true “blessing.” All of a sudden kidsequipped with iPod touch and iPad are the stars inrecess instead of being outsiders because of some cum-bersome communication device. Many teachers andtherapists welcome apps, which allow their fingers toheal from endless work on teaching material with“good old” Velcro. Organizations like “Mothers withApps” have started lucrative companies, based on suc-cessful development of applications, which in mostcases started with their own child.

In addition, training in the field is also undergoinga silent revolution. While face-to-face contacts in con-sultation sessions, workshops or other training pro-grams used to be the main avenue for acquiring relevantknowledge and training experience, web-seminars,video-training-programs and tele-consultations noware available often 24 hours a day, from every part ofthe world with fast Internet access.

Will puzzles, lottos, dominos, board games andself-made TEACCH material soon be a thing of thepast, just like books, replaced by electronic versions?How about good old teaching using textbooks andblack-/whiteboards? We must admit that even the mostanimated teacher or enthusiastic parent has a hard timebeating a fast-paced computer game. Will family time,student-teacher or peer interaction increasingly bereduced because emailing and online courses are somuch easier to fit into busy schedules? Who wants totake photos, laminate, label, cut and paste picturedschedules, if an application can be downloaded for lit-tle money and in no time? Thousands of electroniclearning programs, games, pictures or visual displays arenow available on increasingly smarter devices. Voice-to-Speech programs make typing unnecessary and Text-to-Speech options allow text to be read with the tip of thefinger. Children can now film their weekend with aniPod touch and present it to their class on Monday withadded text or speech on a large Smart Board.

For some of us these developments sound like the“Brave New World,” which comes too fast and chal-

lenges our familiar ways of being. In an earlier issueon Technology and Play (Autism News, Fall 2007)we discussed the need for establishing a balancebetween technological advances, hands-on learningand play activities as well as personal face-to-faceinteractions. Whether books, games, schools andseminars can survive is a decision families, teachers,therapists, and administrators face. If technology isused for the right individual at the right time – and“dosage” – for the right purpose, it sure can be a hugeblessing, especially for kids with autism. On the otherhand there is the risk that the virtual world takes overand that individuals with autism are even less exposedto regular social interactions, face-to-face interactiveplay, haptic experiences, sensori-motor or self-helpdemands. This population surely needs our help, beit through traditional play and teaching material, acool communication device with the latest app, acaring parent, excellent teachers or therapists, aclose network of peers or a supportive community.

E D I T O R I A L

EditorialBy Vera Bernard-Opitz

“It’s such a great resource for the parents Iwork with with kids with autism!”

“I am thrilled to receive it.”

“Found great pleasure reading because itshows hopes and light in helping and

supporting people with autism.”

“Excellent collection of practical articles–full of helpful suggestions–I have

recommended this to parents and students,and have received much positive feedback. I haven’t found anyone who didn’t like it.”

“It is very important for parents of autisticchildren to get information. The Autism

News is a valuable support.”

“I love it, look forward to it and like to seethe local news and latest info.”

a few comments from our readers...


The current focus issue of the Autism News OCsummarizes some of the exciting recent develop-ments. We thank our authors, reviewers and support-ers for all their good effort.

A small word of warningFor the last two years the Autism News of Orange

County has struggled with lack of adequate financialsupport, since the former sponsors (RCOC, OCDE,CEC and For OC Kids) are no longer able to contributefinancially. Though the work of soliciting articles,reviewing and coordinating the newsletter currently hasto be done on a volunteer basis, we need some funds toprovide for Web publishing, proofreading and layout.Without your donations the current issue will be thelast of a series which started in 1992. We urgently needand very much appreciate your support.

With thanks to all our supporters and best wishes,

Vera Bernard-Opitz, Ph.D.Clin. Psych, BCBA-DEditorWebsite: www.verabernard.orgE-mail: [email protected]

E D I T O R I A L

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the daily lunch menu is announced with picturesand a talking Big Button Mack.

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For most of us, the iPod touch is a fun gadget toplay with, surf the Web, or watch videos. But for achild with autism, it has the potential to be so muchmore: A device like the iPod touch can be pro-grammed as a “learning toy” for important behaviorssuch as communication or social skills. The iPodtouch can therefore have a dramatic effect on the tra-jectory of the child’s treatment. Modern day treat-ment procedures for the problems children withautism continue to face are now incorporating tech-nology such as the iPod touch.

From the first coining of the term “infantileautism” by Leo Kanner in 1943 (Kanner, 1943),marked deficits in social skills were noted in affectedchildren. Indeed, children with autism have difficul-ties with many social behaviors ranging from eyecontact, turn taking, and smiling to more sophisti-cated social skills such as social conversations. Thesocial skill deficit that we will be focusing on is per-sistence in pursuing a playmate. This complex socialskill involves a child asking successive peers to playafter one or two attempts have failed. To illustrate,

think back to when you were a child and wanted toplay with others. Most people report that if onechild didn’t want to play, they would typically move

on and ask another. This is common for most chil-dren, yet persistence in social initiations is a majordeficit for children with autism.

R E S E A R C H

If At First You Don’t Succeed…: Teaching Persistence in Social Initiations to Children with Autism Using a Portable Video Modeling InterventionBy Denise Grosberg & Marjorie H. Charlop

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Nathaniel Mackin having fun with his iPod touch



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R E S E A R C H

Persistence in social initiations can be challeng-ing for children with autism for several reasons:Typically, these children have difficulty interactingwith peers for extended periods of time; they gener-ally make and accept few social initiations frompeers; and they usually prefer to play alone (Koegel,Koegel, Frea, & Fredeen, 2001). These social deficitscan determine whether a child with autism will ulti-mately integrate effectively with his or her classmatesor remain a social outsider. The question thenbecomes, how can we effectively motivate childrenwith autism to learn a complex social skill that theycan practice on the playground with their peers?

The iPod touch is a clear choice for several rea-sons. First, the general appeal of technologicaldevices for children with or without autism is evi-dent in today’s society. Second, we can leverage achild with autism’s inherent strengths using visual

media as well as the portability of an electronicdevice. The use of visual technology has a history ofsuccess in teaching children with autism a variety ofsocial skills. For example, video modeling (in whichchild learns by observing a videotaped model) hasbeen extremely effective in using the inherent visualstrengths and interest of children with autism intechnology to teach a number of socially relevantbehaviors including conversational speech, perspec-tive taking, and social initiations (Charlop &Milstein, 1989; Charlop-Christy & Daneshvar,2003; Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2004). The progres-sion of visual technology represented by devices likethe iPod touch allows for a natural extension of thisresearch. Today, it is possible to extend the benefitsof video modeling beyond the therapy room andinto the lives of children with autism.

The introduction of devices like the iPod touchhas made video modeling methods mobile and capital-izes on the prevalence of this technology among today’schildren. For instance, according to a report by TheAdAge Group (Bulik, 2008), an online resource for

marketing and media communities, 31% of childrenaged six through ten now use digital music players,with the iPod and iPod touch being the most popularbrand at 54%. The iPod touch ranks high as a poten-tial learning tool for children with autism because of itsportability, ease of operation, and “coolness” factor foruse around neurotypical peers. The time has come totake advantage of this novel, portable visual technolo-gy platform so that it can have a meaningful impact forthe children that need it the most.

In a recent study conducted by The ClaremontAutism Center at Claremont McKenna College inSouthern California, a Portable Video ModelingIntervention (PVMI) was used to teach persistencein social initiations to high functioning childrenwith autism. The study was constructed based on evi-dence suggesting that the mobility, simplicity, andpopularity of the iPod touch would contribute to par-ticipants’ learning to persist in social initiations in sev-eral ways. First, it allowed children with autism to usethe intervention tool independent of adult assistance.Second, because of the compact size of a portabledevice, the potential for learning could reach beyondthe traditional therapy setting and into the communi-ty. Lastly, and arguably most important, social skillstraining with neurotypical peers would be less stigma-tizing for the children with autism based on the pop-ularity of the iPod touch among children today.

In our study, three children aged 6-9 participat-ed in weekly sessions at our afterschool behavioraltreatment program. Before the study began, none ofthe children interacted effectively with typical peersor persisted in their social initiations. For the study,the child watched three different clips visible on thescreen of the iPod touch. The order in which thechild saw the clips varied so that s/he did not learnto socially initiate in a specific sequence (known as achained behavioral sequence). Instead, the child hadto learn to respond appropriately to each separatesocial situation with his or her peer.

All the clips used four student therapists asactors. Three of the actors were engaged in play activ-ities (i.e., board games, imaginary play with tools) indifferent areas of an outdoor playground, while thefourth actor approached these “peers” to play. In the

Persistence in social initiations is a major deficit for children with autism.


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first clip, the actor approached a peer with a ball andasked, “Will you play with me?” The peer said, “Yes,I’ll play with you” and the two actors began to playwith the ball. In the second clip, the actorapproached a peer with a board game and asked,“Will you play with me?” The peer responded, “No,I’m busy.” The actor then had to walk across the play-ground to a second peer and ask, “Will you play withme?” This time, the peer said “Yes, let’s play” and thetwo actors began to play the board game. In the thirdclip, the actor’s play request was declined on her firstand second social initiation attempt. This meant thatthe actor had to approach a third peer and ask her toplay before being socially accepted.

Then it was the child’s turn. The experimenter said,“Now it’s time to play, pick a toy and choose a friend toplay with.” The child was then filmed for one session(consisting of three trials lasting three minutes each) inan outdoor play setting with at least three neurotypicalpeers. If a child with autism asked a peer to play, theneurotypical peer was prompted by a student therapistto either accept or reject the social initiation request.Sometimes the first peer said “yes” when a child withautism asked him to play, other times the child withautism had to approach two or three peers to be social-ly accepted. By varying the occurrence of a peer accept-ing or declining the initiation attempt over the three tri-als, the child with autism learned that although hissocial initiation to a peer may not initially be accepted,his play request could be accepted on a second or thirdattempt. The child was considered to have learnedthe behavior once he or she was able to persist inasking up to three friends to play over two consecu-tive sessions (this would equate to 100% accuracy). Ifthe child could not successfully ask up to three peers toplay over the three trials, s/he received the PVMI again.

To demonstrate generalization, the child wasgiven one session (three trials), to persist in askingup to three friends to play in an indoor communityrecreation room with familiar peers and also at acommunity park with unfamiliar peers. After a one-month period, the child was then assessed to see ifs/he remembered how to persist in social initiations.This was done to demonstrate that the behavior hadbeen maintained over time and therefore that the

intervention was successful.

All three children learned persistence in socialinitiations using the PVMI. Moreover, these chil-dren generalized their persistence in social initiationbehavior with a minimum 66% success rate (askingup to two friends to play) in at least one untrained set-ting (park or community recreation room) and main-tained the target behavior at follow-up one monthafter the intervention was over. This research providessome initial evidence of the success of a PVMI toteach persistence in social initiations to children withautism. The next logical progression in this research isto examine whether the PVMI protocol can be repli-cated with other skills, in other settings, and be imple-

mented by different instructors like peers or parents

As new generations of children become familiarwith advances in technology, researchers and clinicianshave the opportunity to modify and use these tools todesign effective interventions for children with autism.For example, researchers could collaborate with engi-neers to help adapt and create new technologies specifi-cally targeted to better serve children with autism. Thereare currently many applications for the iPod touch thatare designed to help children with autism learn lan-guage, communication, and social skills. Unfortunately,many of these applications are designed to generate salesas commercial products and are not grounded in evi-dence-based research. Since these applications are soeasily accessed and utilized by the general public, it isimperative that researchers and clinicians empiricallytest the effectiveness of these applications so that par-ents and providers can select appropriate technologi-cal aids for the child.

Our study is one step in empirically testing a newtechnology that demonstrates the effectiveness ofdevices like the iPod touch as an intervention tool.Clearly, the ability to persist in social initiations is sig-nificant not only for the immediate social benefits fora child with autism, but also increases opportunitiesfor friendships, responsiveness to others, and successful

Devices like an iPod touch have made video modeling methods mobile


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adult relationships in the future. More importantly,we can use this technology to capitalize on the child’sexisting strengths and teach skills that can significant-ly impact the quality of life of a child with autism.

It has been said that one can never keep up withtechnology, and this is probably true. However, thepoint of our research is to demonstrate the useful-ness of certain technologies that are motivating forchildren with autism and make treatment easier.Some types of technological advances designed forchildren with autism are so confusing that parentsand teachers can’t figure them out, or the child justdoesn’t bother with them. That is why we recom-mend that technology should be easy to use and evi-dence-based protocols developed for ease of imple-mentation with the child and other stakeholders.Also, these technologies should be designed toincrease motivation for use with the children. Welook forward to new advances that keep user andchild friendly technology in mind.

For further information please contact:

Denise Grosberg Claremont Graduate UniversityE-mail: [email protected] Marjorie H. CharlopE-mail: [email protected] Autism Center, Claremont Graduate University, and Claremont McKenna College

References• Bulik, B. (2008). Little Ears Are Big Bucks for Music

Players. The AdAge Group. Retrieved from http://adage.com/.• Charlop, M. H., & Milstein, J. P. (1989). Teaching autistic

children conversational speech using video modeling.Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 22, 275–285.

• Charlop-Christy, M., & Daneshvar, S. (2003). Using videomodeling to teach perspective taking to children withautism. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 5, 12–21.

• Kanner, L (1943) Autistic disturbances of affective contactNervous Child, 2, 217-250.

• Koegel, L. K., Koegel, R. L., Frea, W. D., & Fredeen, R. M.(2001). Identifying early intervention target for childrenwith autism in inclusive school settings. BehaviorModification, 25, 754–761.

• Nikopoulos, C. K., & Keenan, M. (2004). Effects of videomodeling on social initiations by children with autism.Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37, 93-96.

www.rethinkautism.com

www.newportlanguage.com



ºFor the last several years, I have been conduct-ing research on how we can use novel interactive andcollaborative technologies to support the educationof children with autism (e.g., Hayes et al. 2004,Hayes and Abowd 2006, Hayes et al. 2010). Here atUC Irvine, I have a great team of students andresearch assistants focused on creating and evaluat-ing novel visual supports for children with autism.Visual supports include everything from body lan-guage to natural cues within the environment totools explicitly created to support individuals whomay have trouble interpreting naturally occurringvisual cues. These constructed artifacts sometimesuse images or tangible objects to represent simpleeveryday needs and elements of basic communica-tion (Cohen and Sloan 2007) and can reduce thesymptoms associated with ASD (Hodgdon 1999).

Despite their benefits, use of visual supportscontinue to be difficult for many teachers, parents,and other caregivers. There are significant challengesto the use of these analog, and largely paper-based,tools. First, these tools must provide support forchildren with ASD to improve their communicationskills and social skills. Second, they must be flexibleenough to support each unique child now and as thechild develops. Finally, caregivers often struggle tocreate, use, and monitor the effectiveness of thesetools. Thus, these tools must support the childrenfor which they are designed, with minimal burden tocaregiver and support the caregivers in accomplish-ing their goals as well.

Over the last three years, our team has spent asubstantial amount of time conducting fieldwork inschools, interviewing parents, students, and teachers,and designing and developing new technologies.What we present here is just a quick sampling ofsome of these projects. In particular, this articleoverviews some of the systems we have designed anddeveloped. We encourage interested readers to readour scientific publications to get a better sense of theresearch we do.

Mocotos: Mobile Communication ToolsCurrent analog visual communications tools

vary greatly from classroom to classroom, and evenfrom child to child. Visual communication toolstake a variety of forms, from small single picturelow-tech cards to advanced computational systemsthat perform text to speech functionality. A massivearray of material, devices and methods surroundthese analog methods for visual communication.Unfortunately, there are many problems inherent tothe cards themselves. Teachers and caregivers oftenstruggle to manage the large number of cards beingused. Likewise, they must invest significant effort tocreate the cards. Commercial vendors, such asBoardMaker™ sell sets of pre-fabricated cards, butthese are not flexible enough to meet the needs ofmany of the caregivers with whom we worked, whoinstead often opted to create custom cards fromphysical artifacts or digital imagery. Finally, thesepaper-based visual tools often have to be used inconjunction with particular devices. Each deviceoften serves a different purpose, operates differently,and can require custom configuration.

There are several advanced digital technologiesfor augmentative communication (e.g., GoTalk,Tango, Dynavox, Activity Pad). The teachers andexperts we interviewed listed a variety of concernswith these technologies, from usability to lack of flex-


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Interactive and Collaborative Visual Supports for Children with AutismBy Gillian R. Hayes

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ibility. Furthermore, these devices typically requireprofessional training and expertise, making it difficultfor many parents to use them at home. In our designs,we were focused on reducing the barrier to entry forthese technologies by using familiar platforms, likethe mobile phone, and simple end user programmingto create flexible but customized interfaces.

Mocotos are augmentative communicationdevices that support visual communication, such asthe Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)(Bondy and Frost 2001). Our prototype systemincludes a portable device not much larger than popu-lar cell phones, such as the Nokia N800. Both childrenand adults can use the touch screen on the device forinteractions. Adults can also use a computer-basedinterface for organizing images, uploading new images,and generally managing the library on the device.

The primary interface metaphor consists of virtu-al picture cards. Mocotos come with a preinstalledcomprehensive library of cards. These cards includethe standard iconography used throughout PECSand other visual communication strategies. UsingMocotos, caregivers can also add custom cards to theinterface by taking pictures using the built-in camera,importing digital images from a standard memorycard, or by tethering the device to a computer. Cardscan have multiple audio cues assigned to them; thesecues may be either recorded through the on-boardmicrophone, or be synthesized using the built-intext-to-speech function. Each card includes both aname and other customizable meta-data, whichenables categorization, searching and management,

providing rapid access to the library of virtual cardsand real-time and ad hoc setup of new activities.

vSked: Interactive and Intelligent Visual SchedulesIn schools, visual schedules can assist students

with transitioning independently between activitiesand environments by telling them where to go andhelping them to know what they will do when theyget there (Cohen and Sloan 2007). By providingstructure, visual schedules reduce anxiety and sup-port behavior intervention plans focused on studentswith severe behavior problems. Because the informa-tion must be kept up to date and the schedules them-selves tend to be more effective when they are engag-ing to the individuals using them, the traditional penand paper “low tech” assistive technology approachcan be improved.

vSked is an interactive system that augments andenhances visual schedules. The vSked system assiststeachers in managing their classrooms by providinginterfaces for creating, facilitating, and viewingprogress of classroom activities based around aninteractive visual schedule. vSked includes threedifferent interfaces: a large touch screen displayviewable by the entire classroom, a teacher–centricpersonal display for administrative control, and astudent-centric hand-held device for each student.The large touch screen, placed at the front of theclassroom, acts as a master timetable containing visu-al schedules for all students. The current activity canbe activated by the teacher, which in turn starts theactivity on the networked students’ hand-helddevices in the form of choice boards. Students


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During caregiver-initiated communication, caregivers set up communication choices using the library of “cards” andcan offer as few as one choice for directed instruction or as many as eight choices for advanced children (left). The studentsthen make their choices by pushing the appropriate card, which then invokes sound output and optional visual output(center with four choices and right with six).

responding incorrectly or not responding at allreceive a prompt to help them identify the correctresponse. Upon successful completion of a task, eachstudent is presented with a reward, such as an anima-

tion of fireworks. Using a combination of sharedlarge displays for the whole class and smaller net-worked displays for individual children, new interac-tion models are enabled in classrooms, includingsocial and peer learning as well as more efficient andrapid feedback for students and staff about individ-ual progress and abilities. For example, studentprogress and rewards are echoed on the shared dis-play, thereby alerting students and teaching staffalike to students who may be struggling so they canbe proactive with help. vSked has been in use in oneschool off and on for over a year. We have seenreductions in the amount of effort classroom staffhave to put forth to help students transition and gen-eral acceptance of the system (Hirano et al. 2010).However, more work needs to be done to make iteasy for teachers to use every day, including helping

troubleshoot both the hardware and the software onthose days when the computers don’t want to work.

SenseCam: Automatic Recording of Everyday ImagesThe Microsoft

SenseCam provides anideal platform forexploring the potentialfor automatically gen-erated, situated andcontextualized picture-based communicationand therapy. SenseCamis a wearable digitalcamera designed to takephotographs of every-day life without userintervention. It is acti-vated by a variety ofsensors while it is beingworn (Hodges et al.2006). Images of every-day activities from theperspective of the indi-vidual wearing thecamera can be usefulvisual supports.

We developed anintervention in which

children wear SenseCam for all or part of a typicalday. Parents and caregivers at home can then reviewphotographs captured during private therapies or intheir own or other people’s homes, and teachers andschool staff can review photographs captured outsideof school. Additionally, children and caregiversreview images together to aid in creating visual socialstories that are a part of communication and speechtherapy (Gray 1998). Caregivers make use of theSenseCam viewing interface to pause the picturestream, ask questions, and so on. In this way, therecorded pictures both serve as a type of log,enabling improved communication between homeand school, and as a platform through which to con-duct communication therapy with the child.

Three families used SenseCam for three to five


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(left) A student sits at his desk during individual work time, while the large display indicatatesthat everyone is working. (top-right) The large classsroom display showing multiple children’s sched-ules at once. In this case, the schedules are are the same, but that is not necessarily true in all cases.(button right) As individual student’s vSked device showing the first activity of the day, picking areward toward which the child will work.

weeks each. During that time, SenseCam was used toprovide a “voice” for a child who cannot speak, aswell as additional information to support communi-cation among caregivers and their children. Thesecase studies provide information about how thesetypes of technologies can be incorporated into every-day life, revealing the potential benefits, costs, andrisks across stakeholder groups. These considera-tions are fundamental for the design and develop-ment of novel ubicomp assistive technologies. Theyalso demonstrate how caregivers can creatively makeuse of flexible capture and access technologies for avariety of purposes.

The results of this work indicate promise for theuse of novel technologies for augmentative communi-cation and other related uses. Their applicability andpotential for adoption over long-term use, however,should be investigated further. Given the creativity

with which the caregivers made use of SenseCam,they might develop more elaborate interventionsthemselves given more time. Furthermore, the clini-cal efficacy of such user-designed interventions—inaddition to those created by researchers, educators,and therapists—should be investigated with a largerpopulation over an extended period of time.

iSoC: Interactive Social CompassThe Social Compass is a social skills curriculum

based on cognitive and behavioral theory (Baron-Cohen 1991). This curriculum was developed byautism experts in Southern California over the last tenyears and has been tested with thousands of students.The majority of the students enrolled in the SocialCompass intervention are diagnosed as high function-ing. The Social Compass curriculum includes 26lessons divided into four modules: NonverbalCommunication; Emotion; “We” Skills; and Social

Problem Solving. The four modules, like acompass that guides North, East, West, andSouth serve to “steer the child in the rightdirection” (Charlop-Christy, et al. 2004).

Each lesson is composed of eight steps.The materials for each lesson includeinstructions, a story, a visual support, a read-ing comprehension worksheet, a self-moni-toring data sheet, and a parent follow-uppage. These tools help students associate sto-ries with visual cues to learn particular socialskills. The goal of the lessons and associatedmaterials is to help students gain a deeperunderstanding of the use of the newlylearned skill in different social contexts.


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The SenseCamform factor (left) issmall enough to becomfortably worn bya child (center). Achild-friendly viewinginterface allows chil-dren to review photoswith their parents,teachers, and othercaregivers (right).

The various parts of the iSoC system. (a) A child could use thesystem to identify potential interaction partners. (b) Select an avatarand configure his or her profile (c) Discover social cues when inter-acting with others (d) Consult detailed information associated withthe social cue learned in the social compass class.


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The iSoC system is a mobile-phone based aug-mented reality system that supports the Social Compasscurriculum (Tentori and Hayes 2010). Students, boththose with ASD and neurotypical, can use it to detectpotential interaction partners, get helpful social cues,and tag memories to reflect later. We will be testing thisapplication this fall and winter in a school already usingthe Social Compass curriculum.

A child could use the iSoC system to (a) Identifypotential interaction partners (b) Select an avatar andconfigure his or her profile (c) Discover social cueswhen interacting with others (d) Consult detailedinformation associated with the social cue learned inthe social compass class.

ConclusionVisual supports can enable children with ASD to

communicate and to learn more easily. Traditionaltools, however, are challenging to create, use, andmaintain. Furthermore, they provide little or noability to document and monitor use and progressover time. Our goal in this work was to understandthe design space surrounding visual interventions forchildren with autism so as to develop new tools thatcombine the strengths of the analog tools with thepotential for new ubicomp solutions.

Through fieldwork, design activities, and focusgroup discussions surrounding these interventions,we have uncovered the ways in which advancedinteractive visual supports can engage students andsupport caregivers simultaneously. This focusbrought to the forefront specific design requirementsfor new assistive technologies in this space: flexibil-ity, communication and collaboration capabilitiesfor both children and caregivers, and caregiver sup-port for programming and documentation of use.In an iterative process, we developed three prototypevisual interventions that support these goals.Through focus group discussions with autismexperts and educators, we then evaluated the proto-types and redesigned them based on this feedback.

There are still a multitude of technical challengesto be considered in this work. A substantial themeduring the focus group discussions centered on theneed for an end user programming

environment–though the educators and autismexperts did not use that particular phrasing–for care-givers to create and to share materials with oneanother. As these materials are developed either col-lectively or within individual schools and greater andgreater numbers of images and lesson plans areincluded in the systems, another substantial chal-lenge arises: how to catalog, search, and browse largequantities of media. We leave these challenges openand hope that in the future these tools can incorpo-rate the best practices and algorithms from the searchand collective intelligence research communities.

AcknowledgmentsThis work was supported by a grant from

AutismSpeaks, NSF CAREER Award #0846063,an equipment donation from Nokia Research PaloAlto. We thank the participants from across multi-ple Orange County school districts and the ForOC Kids Neurodevelopmental Center. Thisresearch was conducted as a team effort withLouAnne Boyd, Meg Cramer, Sen Hirano,Gabriela Marcu, Mohamad Monibi, DavidNguyen, and Monica Tentori.


Gillian R. HayesDepartment of InformaticsDonald Bren School of Information and Computer SciencesUniversity of California, IrvineE-mail: [email protected]

References• Baron-Cohen, S., Precursors to a theory of mind:

Understanding attention in others. In A. Whiten (Ed.),Natural theories of mind: Evolution, development and simula-tion of everyday mindreading. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1991.

• Bondy, A. and Frost, L. A Picture’s Worth: PECS and OtherVisual Communication Strategies in Autism. WoodbineHouse, Bethesda, MD, USA, 2001.

• Charlop-Christy, M.H., Carpenter, M., Le, L., LeBlanc,L.A., and Kellet, K. Using the picture exchange communi-cation system (PECS) with children with autism: assess-ment of PECS acquisition, speech, social-communicativebehavior, and problem behavior Journal of Applied BehaviorAnalysis. 35(3), 213-231, 2002.

• Cohen, M.J. and Sloan, D.L. Visual Supports for Peoplewith Autism: A Guide for Parents and Professionals.


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Woodbine House, USA, 2007.• Gray, C.A. Social Stories and Comic Strip Conversations

with Students with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism. Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism?, edited by Schopler et al. PlenumPress, 1998.

• Hayes, G.R. and Abowd, G.D. 2006. Tensions inDesigning Capture Technologies for an Evidence-BasedCare Community. In Proc. CHI 2006, 937–946.

• Hayes, G.R., Gardere, L.M., Abowd, G.D. and Truong,K.N. CareLog: A Selective Archiving Tool for BehaviorManagement in Schools. In Proc CHI 2008, 685-694, 2008.

• Hayes, G.R., Hirano, S., Marcu, G., Monibi, M., Nguyen,D.H., and Yeganyan, M. Interactive Visual Supports forChildren with Autism. Personal and UbiquitousComputing. 14(7): 663-680. 2010.

• Hayes, G.R., Kientz, J.A., Truong, K.N., White, D.R.,Abowd, G.D., and Pering, T. Designing CaptureApplications to Support the Education of Children withAutism. In Proc. UbiComp 2004, 161-178, 2004.

• Hirano, S., Yeganyan, M., Marcu, G., Nguyen, D., Boyd,

L.A., Hayes, G.R. vSked: Evaluation of a System to SupportClassroom Activities for Children with Autism. In Proc CHI2010. April 12-15, 2010. Atlanta GA USA, 1633-1642.

• Hodgdon, L. A. Visual strategies for improving visual com-munication: Volume I: Practical support for school and home.Quirk Roberts Publishing, 1999.

• Hodges, S., Williams, L., Berry, E., Izadi, S., Srinivasan, J.,Butler, A., Smyth, G., Kapur, N. and Wood, K. SenseCam:A Retrospective Memory Aid. In Proc. UbiComp 2006,Springer, 177-193, 2006.

• McClanahan, L.E., and Krantz, P.J. Activity Schedules forChildren with Autism: Teaching Independent Behavior.Woodbine House, 1999.

• Tentori, M. and Hayes, G.R. Designing for InteractionImmediacy to Enhance Social Skills of Children with Autism.Proc Ubicomp 2010. Copenhagen, Denmark. September26-29, 2010. 51-60.

Nathaniel Mackin is an 8-year-old video-gameaficionado who enjoys playing Lego Batman andMario in his spare time. He is also an up-and-com-ing comic book writer, inspired by the book series“Captain Underpants.” He loves writing and draw-ing pictures, especially of the two characters he’screated: “Mechanic Man” and “Fix It Boy”! WhenNate isn’t playing video games or drawing, he is onthe move, playing soccer and learning how to ridehis new skateboard around town. Nate is very excit-ed to see his technology drawing in the newslet-ter…he enjoys drawing almost as much as playingthe latest video game with his brother, Jay!

Cover Artist: Nathaniel Mackin

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Although ASD receives much attention in themedia, there is little practical support available tofacilitate everyday activities and encourage integra-tion into the community. Existing research projectsand associated funding sources focus chiefly on dis-covering genetic causes or evaluating the impact ofdrugs, genetics and nutrients. Although these areextremely valuable projects, finding a cure is proba-bly still years away. Parents and children need helpnow. Furthermore, most of the existing technologyinterventions are intended for high functioning orolder children. There is a dearth of support for theyoung children and those with severe autism. Weaim to address this gap by focusing on an immediatetechnological solution for these children.

Autism is a devastating diagnosis. It is somethingnobody is ready for. Caring for children with autismcan be overwhelming and sometimes frustrating. Thisis what a group of information technologists is learningas they work with parents and teachers on better infor-mation technology for children with autism. GondyLeroy (Claremont Graduate University) and GianlucaDe Leo (Old Dominion University) developed PixTalk,software for communicating for use on mobile devices(see Figure 1). PixTalk’s development was funded byMicrosoft Research and it is available free of chargeat www.CommunicationAutism.org. More than 400images can be downloaded free of charge and free ofcopyright from the website. PixTalk can be used in asimilar fashion as a paper-based Picture ExchangeCommunication Systems (PECS) but it eliminates theneed to print, cut, or laminate. Children choose imagesby touching them on the mobile device. Sentences canbe built, which convey a message (Figure 1a & 1b).

The software mimics PECS use and is intention-ally very simple so that it can become a steppingstone to other software applications and to mobilephones. Similar to PixTalk are Grace apps,Look2Learn and other AAC applications in thatthey facilitate communication using images. Theydiffer from PixTalk since they use the Apple iPhone,iPod touch and iPad platforms. In addition, PixTalkallows data tracking and is intended for use by clin-icians who want to systematically review the ongo-ing learning process of multiple children.

Early evaluations showed that PixTalk can be adigital communication enabler. So far, five casestudies have been conducted with teachers and ther-apists in Southern California and in NorthCarolina. The studies showed how children who areable to use PECS are also able to use PixTalk whentaught by the teacher. In other cases, where a childdid not yet communicate, the teacher adaptedPixTalk to be used as a choice board. Figure 2 showsa sentence that was displayed by a child whilePixTalk was being used in his public school class-room. The device was kept in the classroom or wasworn by the teacher and anytime the child wantedto use it, he could get it from the teacher. PixTalkusage data was collected every time the child usedthe device.

Gondy Leroy (Claremont Graduate University)together with HyeKyeung Seung (California StateUniversity at Fullerton) and two graduate students,Juliette Gutierrez and Shannon Schow, are evaluat-ing how such mobile devices can be integrated intherapy and everyday life. Dr. Seung leads autismresearch with young children who are non-verbal orproduce few functional words.

Integrating Information Technology in Therapy and LifeBy Gondy Leroy, Juliette Gutierrez, HyeKyeung Seung & Gianluca De Leo

Figure 1a: Operational mode. Selection of image/images

Figure 1b: Display mode.Visualization of image of sentences

Figure 1: PixTalk used to Communicate Messages

Figure 2: Sentence displayed by child using PixTalk

Cookies pretzels

water thank you more

www.CommunicationAutism.org

R E S E A R C H


The potential advantages of using a digitalcommunication approach such as PixTalk are enor-mous and diverse. For example, concrete images canbe used, frequently changed and shared without theneed for printing or laminating. In future it will bepossible to systematically collect data from manychildren. Based on these data therapists could fine-tune their intervention and test or develop alterna-tive systems. The digital images used in PixTalk areconcrete, but they could also be dynamic or adjust-ed automatically over time. A digital media providesnew options to therapy that are impossible with apaper-based approach. And finally, an applicationsuch as PixTalk can be integrated with other localapproaches, such as the visual scheduling work byGillian Hayes at the University of California, Irvine(see article on pg. 30).

Even though success hasbeen achieved in pilot stud-ies, there are still obstacles tobe conquered. The casestudies show that limitedtechnological knowledgeprevents teachers, cliniciansand parents from usingPixTalk to its full potential.

Uploading and downloading files, cropping orimproving images, and synchronizing a computerwith mobile devices are often new skills to belearned. Parents who are trying to cope with every-day demands often are overwhelmed by learning andtraining with PixTalk. Similarly, therapists andteachers often do not have the time to devote tolearning new technology. And the device hardwareitself also adds obstacles: keeping batteries chargedand avoiding damage to mobile devices proved hard-er than expected.

Funding by the Allergan Foundation is bring-ing the group closer to offering solutions. After ashort pilot study with one mother and her daughter,the group is now working with another parent andher son and evaluating how the training and consis-

tent use of a new device canbe best integrated in every-day life and in therapy. Thecomputing skills required byclinicians are being evaluat-ed and the lessons learnedare shared with new teachercredential programs, such as the new program at Claremont GraduateUniversity, or with those in

charge of training the next genera-tion clinicians, such as at CaliforniaState University, Fullerton.

For further information pleasecontact:

Gondy LeroyClaremont Graduate UniversityE-mail: [email protected]

Juliette GutierrezClaremont Graduate University

HyeKyeung SeungCalifornia State University, FullertonE-mail: [email protected]

Gianluca De LeoOld Dominion University

While the Picture ExchangeCommunication Systems (PECS) is inwide use, there exists significant con-

troversy about its use in languagelearning. Linguists often have concernsabout the way this system is meant toscaffold language (see also page 30).

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E D U C AT I O N / T H E R A P Y


Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI)CAI refers to instruction or remediation on the com-

puter to support therapies or education. Results show thatCAI has great potential as an effective intervention forstudents with ASD supporting pre-academic and acade-mic skills, as well as acquisition of vocabulary or evenskills in Theory of Mind or Social Problem SolvingResearch on CAI is not new (e.g., Panyan, 1984), yetthere has been a surge of studies in the past decade(e.g., Bernard-Opitz, Sriram, & Nakhoda-Sapuan,2001; Coleman-Martin, Wolff Hellar, Cihak, &Irvine, 2005; Moore & Calvert, 2000; Swettenham,2006; Williams, Wright, Callaghan, & Coughlan,2002). Some of this research indicates that CAI maybe more effective than other methods in teaching cer-tain skills to students with ASD such as vocabularyand other language skills (e.g., Moore & Calvert,2000; Williams, et al, 2002). Furthermore, computer-ized techniques are showing promise in social under-standing (e.g., Sansosti & Powell-Smith, 2008; Silver& Oakes, 2001; Simpson, Langone, & Ayres, 2004),and there is evidence that information learned via CAIcan generalize to the natural environment(e.g., Bosseler & Massaro, 2003;Hetzroni & Shalem, 2005).

A CAI Program Based on EffectiveInterventions

TeachTown: Basics is a CAI programthat includes the following features:

CurriculumThe program includes a comprehen-

sive curriculum that aligns to standard-ized measures (e.g., The Assessment ofBasic Language and Learning Skills-Revised–ABLLS-R, Partington, 2008)and state content standards (e.g.,California). The program was designed for studentswith Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) between thedevelopmental ages of 2 and 7 years. The curriculumincludes the following learning domains:

1) Language Development;2) Social and Emotional Skills;3) Adaptive Skills; 4) Cognitive Skills;5) Language Arts; and 6) Mathematics.

Each domain has 5 levels: 1) Toddler; 2)Preschool; 3) Pre-K; 4) Kindergarten and 5) Grade 1.Upon enrollment, the teacher completes a rankingquestionnaire regarding the student’s current perfor-mance that places each student at a starting rank (i.e.level) for each domain. The curriculum is then depen-dent on student performance and is adjusted for eachstudent. Teachers can customize the curriculum tomeet IEP goals, and to best suit the needs of each stu-dent.

ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) Teaching Approach

The instructional methodologies in theTeachTown: Basics program incorporate common tech-niques in ABA. Specifically, Discrete Trial instruc-

tion and Pivotal Response Training (PRT) are com-bined as follows: The program presents objectives indiscrete tasks and guides learning through promptingand reinforcement (e.g., Lovaas, 1987). The student

Effectiveness of a Computer-Assisted Instructional Program forChildren with AutismBy Christina Whalen & Laura Lara-Brady



chooses and starts a lesson by clicking on a building inthe town scene, which has lessons targeting the specif-ic location (e.g., farm building, includes animals).Child-choice keeps motivation and attention to taskhigh (e.g., Koegel, O’Dell, & Koegel, 1987).Depending on the student’s previous history with thelesson, a pre-test, learning exercise, or post-test is pre-sented. Maintenance tasks are interspersed through-out the exercises and occur for 20% of the trials. Thesetasks help the student preserve previously learnedskills and keep him motivated and on task (Koegel, etal, 1989). Each trial follows the discrete trial model(Lovaas, 1987; Smith, Groen, & Wynn, 2000) wherethe discriminative stimulus is presented (i.e. theinstructional cue requiring student response) by pre-senting one or more images (e.g., a happy, sad, andangry face) with a vocal instruction (e.g., “Find theperson that is happy”). Next, the student responds byselecting one of the images (e.g., clicks or touches[touch screen] the happy face). A correct response elic-its a positive statement (e.g., “You did it!”) followed bya brief (3 second) pause between trials, and the nexttrial is presented. An incorrect response elicits an iso-lated lingering correct answer. Due to earlier findings,negative feedback is not included because of rein-forcement potential. Students in the pilot phaseseemed to choose the incorrect images deliberatelyand repeatedly to hear the “negative” feedback (e.g.,“Try again”). For pre and post-tests, 25 trials are pre-sented including 4 different concepts (e.g., happy, sad,angry, confused). For learning trials, 15 trials are pre-sented (with 3 maintenance trials) targeting at least 2concepts (e.g., happy and sad). The standard masterycriterion is 80% correct (Lovaas, 1987; Smith, Groen,& Wynn, 2000). The TeachTown: Basics program alsorequires 80% correct. All responses are coded and pre-sented graphically.

PromptingTrial difficulty is controlled by within-stimulus

prompting which has been shown to result in betterdiscrimination, generalization, and independence (i.e.prompt fading) in 1:1 trials (Schreibman, 1975) andusing the computer (Panyan, 1984). When necessary,a least to most prompting strategy is utilized, wherestimuli are introduced in a weak (i.e. faded images)form and gradually strengthened (i.e. saturated

images). Gradually introducing distracters at the stu-dent’s pace maximizes learning and minimizes errorsthat help the student discriminate stimuli (Perez-Gonzalez & Williams, 2002).

ReinforcementCorrect answers are reinforced on a variable ratio

schedule with rewards available approximately every 4correct (or prompted) responses (VR-4). This inter-mittent schedule of reinforcement has been effectivefor keeping responses high, particularly on the com-puter (e.g., Neef & Lutz, 2001). To access a reward(i.e. reinforcer), the student chooses from 6 optionsthat include a variety of casual video games andbrief cartoons. The student can play or watch foronly 10-20 seconds and then returns to the next trial.

Automatic Data Collection and ReportingThe program contains data tracking and report-

ing to allow for student progress reports. Data is syn-

chronized using a hosted data server and encryptedInternet communication allowing student usage onany computer. Such synchronization allows for con-sistent programming and allows for school adminis-trators to remotely track classrooms district-wide.

GeneralizationStudies have shown that motivating teaching tech-

niques can result in generalization (Koegel, Camarata,Valdez-Menchaca, & Koegel, 1998). Additionally,research indicates that the use of multiple exemplars iscritical (Stokes & Baer, 1977; Jahr, 2001; Reeve, Reeve,Townsend, & Poulson, 2007), specifically varying theinstructions and stimuli can result in better acquisition,



motivation, and generalization (Dunlap & Koegel,1980). In addition to providing a motivating platformfor students, the program addresses generalization inmany ways. Concepts are taught through several teach-ing modules including receptive identification (e.g.,“Find the blue bird”) or identical and non-identicalmatching (e.g., “Match the tiger” or “Match the color tothe object”). Varied instructions (e.g., Trial 1 “Do yousee an airplane?”; Trial 2 “Which one is an airplane?”)and multiple exemplars (currently over 15,000 imagesand sounds) including photographs, drawn images, andanimation (e.g., actions), are presented throughout theprogram. The stimuli in exercise trials are different frompre and post-tests to ensure concept learning rather thanmemorization. Generalization is also planned by teach-ing several concepts at a time instead of a common masstrial teaching strategy. The program also includes off-computer activities that encourage the application ofcomputer learned skills, enhance understanding, andteach additional skills (e.g., communication, play, social,and motor skills).

Off-Computer ActivitiesResearch indicates that structured teaching and

naturalistic approaches may positively affect a varietyof students (Bernard-Opitz, Ing, & Kong, 2004). Toprovide a program that is likely to benefit differentstudents, TeachTown: Basics includes a structuredapproach (the computer program) and a naturalisticapproach (the off-computer activities). All computerlessons are tied to off-computer activities. AlthoughPRT (Koegel, 1989) and other naturalistic approaches(e.g., McGee, Daly, & Jacobs, 1994; Rogers &Dawson, 2010) are the recommended instructionalmethodology, the activities are written for caregiversand teachers. There are approximately 300 activities inthe current manual that cover both learning domainsand developmental levels.

Research on TeachTown: BasicsIn a parent implementation study, a multiple-

baseline design (2-5 weeks) was used with eight stu-dents (4 with ASD and 4 with Down Syndrome)using the program for 2 months (Whalen, et al.,2006). Results showed a significant change frompre to post-test scores (53% increase) for studentswho used the intervention. Collateral effects wereobserved where students with ASD demonstrated a

105% increase in language and social behaviors onthe computer compared to a play condition with theirparent. Students also made more spontaneous com-ments (e.g., “Look, a rocket ship!”), showed morepositive affect, and more joint attention behaviors(e.g., coordinated gaze). Inappropriate behaviorsdecreased both on and off the computer (61%decrease on computer and 44% decrease in off-com-puter activities compared to baseline play activities).This study offered promising results for using theprogram by means of parent implementation.

In a recent study, 47 preschool and K-1 students inASD classrooms participated in a randomized efficacystudy in the Los Angeles Unified School District(LAUSD) (Whalen, et al, 2010). Students were random-ized by classroom with the treatment group receiving theintervention for 3 months while the control groupremained in baseline (their regular educational pro-gram). Teachers in the treatment group had students usethe computer program for 20-minutes and do an off-computer activity for 20-minutes per school day.Compared to the students in the control group, thetreatment group showed more improvement overall onlanguage and cognitive-developmental measures. Inaddition, students who used the program demonstratedsignificant gains on standardized measures compared tostudents who used the program less. These findings offerpossibilities for improving early school-age skills for stu-dents with ASD in a classroom setting and offer hope fora successful program that can be teacher implemented.

Students made more spontaneous comments, showed more positive affect,

and more joint attention behaviors.




Christina Whalen, PhD, BCBA-DCo-Founder and Chief Science OfficerE-mail: [email protected]

Laura Lara-Brady, PhDResearch Scientist E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Whalen and Dr. Lara-Brady are full-time employeesof TeachTown, Inc. Dr. Whalen is also a shareholder inthe company.

References• For the following references, please click here.

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Stein Education Center is a nonpublic school inSan Diego, which serves a wide range of studentswith autism or significant communication deficits.The speech department, in conjunction with theentire education team, has always searched for themost efficient methods of facilitating communica-tion opportunities for the pre-verbal and significant-ly unintelligible population. Low-tech methods, suchas picture communication, serve the needs of manystudents who mainly communicate to request.However, our population also includes many higherfunctioning students whose verbal deficits will alwayscurtail the spoken word as a modality for meetingcommunication needs. Sign language is an importantadjunct for many students but is not readily under-stood by persons outside of the special educationcommunity and can prove tobe problematic when formu-lating complex expressiveoutput. Previously, appropri-ate electronic augmentativedevices, useful for the higherfunctioning population, havealways been associated with aconsiderable price tag. For aspecific sector of the currentspecial education population,technology has recently closedthe gap between the need forcomplex augmentative com-munication formats and pro-viding technology at anaffordable price.

The speech departmenthas recently explored the useof “Proloquo2GO” as aneffective “picture to speech” augmentative programfor higher functioning students. Proloquo2Go is anAlternative Augmentative Communication (AAC)application for the iPod, iPhone, or iPad, which usesthe Mayer-Johnson Boardmaker symbols. Just as with

the more familiar,and considerablymore expensiveAAC devices his-torically availableto the special edu-cation communi-ty, students needto be able to “tog-gle” betweennumerous “pages”to make this pro-gram an appropriate choice for communication facil-itation. The Proloquo2Go touch-screen format allowsthe student to scroll through various pages to formu-late statements. It should be noted that this scrolling

feature has proved to be a “differen-tial diagnostic element” for deviceselection, in that some students donot possess the fine motor controlneeded to accurately scroll throughpage options.

In addition, Proloquo2Go pro-vides a default vocabulary set ofover 7000 items, across a variety ofcategories. One can adjust thevocabulary size by adding or delet-ing the words applicable to eachstudent. Digital photos can beadded and interface features can bealtered (e.g., the number of itemson a screen, item size, color, orvoice output) in order to bestaccommodate the user’s ability.

In addition to the Proloquo2Goprogram we also use several com-

munication applications. Several parents at our centerhave applied current technology to their students in adifferent format using their iPhone potential. Theseparents, in consult with school needs, have down-loaded photos of persons in their student’s environ-

Keeping up with TechnologyBy Hiroka Yamada & Debbie Ferrante



ment as well as places that are fre-quently visited by their students(e.g., doctor offices, stores). Theseimages are used as a digital sched-ule to help the student understandwhat is going to occur in his or herday. An explanation of activitiesthat are about to occur can neverbe underestimated as a proactivebehavioral strategy.

If already in possession of aniPod, iPhone, or iPad, one canpurchase this “app” for less than$200. This device is extremelyaffordable, as compared to theother popular AAC devices,whose prices range from about$3000 to $7000. For some of our

students this may be a “goodidea” for a big birthday present.

For further information pleasecontact:

Hiroka YamadaStein Education Center E-mail: [email protected]

Debbie FerranteE-mail: [email protected]

* There is no affiliationbetween the Stein EducationCenter and the productsdescribed in this article.

Kelly McKinnon & Associates is proud to support the Autism News ofOrange County & the Rest of the World

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Touch2Learn ProgramBy Bill Thompson

The Orange County Department of Education(OCDE) Special Schools and Program Divisioncontinues to implement the Touch2Learn (T2L)program, which uses mobile devices to enhancelearning, in its special education classes.

Over the past several months, numerous publica-tions, including The Wall Street Journal and the SanFrancisco Gate, have discussed how the Apple iPodtouch and iPad may improve education for studentswith Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These arti-cles continue to support what has been observed atOCDE over the past two years.

The Touch2Learn program at OCDE uses over60 iPod touch devices with students with multipledisabilities. In addition, piloted programs are alsobeing reviewed that implement the use of the iPadfor instructional purposes. Based on preliminaryresults, these devices appear appropriate for severaltarget areas.

Communicating with the iPod touchThe most common teaching target is picture

exchange method communication. Rather thanusing paper-based drawings or photographs (i.e., pic-ture icons) the pictures are formatted on the iPod

touch. The “exchange” becomes sharing pictures onthe device instead of handing a picture icon to thecommunicative partner.

In most instances, students carry their device ina “fanny pack” or intheir pocket. Somestudents with ASDappreciate the con-crete nature of thedevice as well as itsportability. The pre-dictability of thedrawings also appearsto benefit the largenumber of caregiversand educators in thestudent’s life. Thedevice may aid in cre-ating a uniformmethod of use, whichhelps promote con-sistency and higherlearning.

In addition to theincreased educationalgains, staff and par-ents have reported social benefits. These benefitsinclude other peers showing interest in what the stu-dent is doing. This social quality has also beenobserved in the community.

Assessing behavioral data on the iPod touchMost recently, benefits associated with T2L have

also been observed in areas beyond communication.In some pilot classes, behavioral data is collected oneither an iPad or iPod touch. Many data applica-tions allow for easy methods of collecting informa-tion. Once collected, graphs and charts can beextracted which facilitates discerning behavioral pat-terns in students. Such information is essential forimproving challenging behaviors.

A student participating in OCDE's Touch2Learn project showsoff his iPod touch to communiciate.

iConverse displays 6 different icons that represent a person’s basic needs.


Other applications for the iPod touchWhile the educational benefit and interest in the

student has been paramount, staff has reported thatmobile devices have supplanted other resources inease of use and implementation. For example, ratherthan carrying a large visual timer when out in thecommunity, staff can now use the iPod touch to

show the studenthow much time isremaining with avisual timer appli-cation. The dif-ference in cost hasalso been noted asvisual timers cancost upwards of$40 while a com-parable applica-tion on the iPod istypically less than$2. In addition,mobile devices are

substantially cheaper than traditional “high end”Augmentative and Alternative Communication(AAC) devices.

While mobile devices certainly have a “cool fac-tor,” perhaps their greatest asset is the ease withwhich these devices can be individualized. Somestudents may use it as a timer, some for communica-tion. Well-researched concepts such as “video mod-eling” now appear easier than ever to implement and

the number of autism-specific applications contin-ues to increase. For example, a recent search oniTunes for iPhone applications with the word“autism” yielded over 225 applications.

Individualizing strategiesWhile its benefits cannot be disputed, the

Touch2Learn group has been quick to note that thisstrategy may not be recommended for all students.Some students show varying degrees of attendingskills to the device. In addition, communicationdevices and programs may require a number of cog-nitive and behavioral prerequisites. The tendencymay be to immediately use this “cool, sociallyaccepted” device; however, it simply may not be thebest fit for the student at the moment. IEP teamsthroughout Orange County are continuing to exam-ine the appropriateness.

While the results are preliminary, it’s clear thatthere have been numerous positive outcomes fromthe use of these mobile devices within the OrangeCounty Department of Education and theTouch2Learn Program. As these devices becomemore prevalent, the benefits appear to be far-reach-ing, including greatly aiding students with AutismSpectrum Disorders.

For further information, contact

Bill ThompsonSchool PsychologistOrange County Department of Education, Special Schools and ProgramsE-mail: [email protected]

TOP TEN APPS inTouch2Learn

• Behavior Tracker Pro• Stories2Learn• iEarned That• Look2Learn• iConverse• iPrompts• Answers: Yes No• Proloquo 2 Go• iWrite Words• SoundingBoard

Look2Learn allows 2 word sentences from several categories


www.monarchtt.com




Specialisterne is a Danish company that providesemployment options within the field of informationtechnology, or IT, for individuals with Asperger’sSyndrome or High Functioning Autism. The com-pany has been very successful in creating jobs forindividuals with autism, so that today even top com-panies employ autistic consultants.

Q: How do companies benefit from employingindividuals with autism and collaborating withSpecialisterne?

Thorkil Sonne: The IT field has a big need forsoftware testing, which requires skills many peoplewith autism excel in. While someprogrammers prefer to work oninnovative tasks, individuals withautism often are excellent in detail-oriented, predictable routines, suchas checking and rechecking theaccuracy of data. Their attention todetail, perseverance and consistencyare characteristics that provide acompetitive advantage in this field.Our company provides workersskilled in a variety of IT services,such as software testing, data regis-tration, quality control and infor-mation packaging for national andinternational IT and telecommuni-cations companies.

Q: What are prerequisites for successful employ-ment in this field?

Thorkil Sonne: Individuals with autism oftenhave very specialized intelligence. They may be goodin spotting differences and mistakes; they may beinterested in technical processes, or they may begood at programming. Additional predictors for suc-cess are the motivation for a market-driven environ-ment, personal stability and problem solving skills.

Q: How are individuals withautism trained in your compa-ny?

In the beginning of our training, many youngindividuals with autism are shy and do not feel con-fident about their skills. It helps that our companyhas an excellent environment where they can feelsecure, develop friendships and even show a lot ofempathy towards each other. During a five-monthtraining period we assess the profile of skills of eachindividual trainee and match it to potential joboptions. One of the testing instruments used isLego’s Mindstorm, an advanced Lego building kit

incorporating electronicsand software which allowsusers to develop testing andproblem-solving skills thatcan be used in software andwebsite analysis. Historicallyforty percent of our assess-ment activities have resultedin employment as an ITconsultant in Specialisterne.

Q: What are some factsabout your company?

Thorkil Sonne:Specialisterne is a for-

profit company, which cur-rently employs 33 consul-

tants with autism and 17 typical employees. Allemployees are paid competitive salaries and are con-sidered specialists in their field. Our headquarters islocated in Ballerup, Denmark. We recently added aYouth Education Center where 25 individuals withautism between16 and 25 yearsare trained. Thesestudents cannotfollow traditional

Technology Employment for Individuals with Autism An Interview with Thorkil Sonne, Founder of SpecialisterneBy Vera Bernard-Opitz

“My personal goal is toenable 1,000,000 jobs for

specialist people.”

Daniel Tronborg, 21, studies as part of theSpecialisterne program in Denmark. “They (thepsychiatrists) only started trying to diagnose methree years ago, when I was getting depressed. Itwas actually the best thing that could have hap-pened to me,” he said. Daniel helped launchSpecialisterne Scotland in Glasgow.

Thorkil Sonne

PA R E N T / FA M I L Y


youth education programs. Over the next year thiscenter is expected to grow to 40 students. At thecenter, experienced consultants with autism fromSpecialisterne’s business department assist in thetraining and act as role models.

Q: What are the next steps?

Thorkil Sonne: Over the next couple of years weplan to expand our services to Iceland, Ireland,Germany, Poland and hopefully the US. We current-ly have contact to 29 states in the US. While our cen-ter in Denmark is a for-profit enterprise, overseas cen-ters could have non-profit status. Knowledge centersshould be funded for at least five-year periods throughsocial impact investments, donations and grants.

Q: What are your visions?

Thorkil Sonne: My personal goal is to enable1,000,000 jobs for specialist people. I therefore amin the process of bringing this vision to the interna-tional level. I want to ensure that individuals withASD are given an opportunity to be seen as valuablemembers of all societies. I am confident that we canget there: we can build a world free of unnecessarybarriers, stereotypes and discrimination. To accom-plish this I need a lot of support.

For further information and videoclips, please visit:Website: www.specialistpeople.com

To quote my recent interview by JenniferO’Connell for an Irish Sunday Paper:

“There is no single moment when you realizeyour child is different.”

For me, the understanding that my son, Liam,was not like other children, dawned over a thousandtiny moments.

Liam was a bright, happy and alert little boy andeveryone loved him. He was obviously clever; leaningout of his stroller at 18 months to look at road signs.

But sometime between his second and thirdbirthdays, my husband started asking questions.Liam wasn’t talking, he wasn’t looking at anyone, hewasn’t answering to his name – he was leading us tothe cupboard to get a drink, but not asking for it.

He reminded us of our nephew who lived inEngland, whom we had met and spent time with onfamily holidays before we had children. I resisted itat first. Liam was perfect in my eyes, and he wouldcatch up on his own.

Eventually, my husband convinced me to bringLiam to visit our public health nurse and we got areferral to a pediatrician who we started seeing regu-larly every few months.

After 6 months we demanded our diagnosis ofautism, because the old doctor we were seeing feltthat that there was still a question mark, that weshould give it “more time.”

However, we knew by then that we needed toget on to waiting lists, and the diagnosis allowed usto get him into the Autism Intervention Course atthe Autistic Association of Queensland in NorthBrisbane where we lived at the time.

Doubt and Denial still reigned. Even after Liamstarted at the center, I was still hoping that maybe itwas Aspergers or something else. The sign over thedoor said “State Autism School,” but one day Iasked Liam’s teacher – “is there any doubt?” And shesaid, “No, there’s no doubt. He is very autistic.”

Grace AppBy Lisa Domican

Visit us online @www.autismnewsoc.org

and share it with friends and colleagues!


www.specialistpeople.com



The next few years passed in a blur, as we triedto secure services and struggled to cope with Liam’sincreasingly difficult behaviour, my attention wasdivided between Liam and Grace, who was born 20months after her brother.

Gracie was breech, and delivered by a planned c-section at 38 weeks - “before she was ready,” in myopinion. The mid-wives had tried to turn her but shewas tucked up so tightly under my ribcage, there wasno chance of a natural delivery. A sign of the tena-cious personality that was to come!

The day she was born and put onto my chest,she stayed there for the next two years. She wouldn’tsleep on her own, wouldn’t stop feeding, and Ithought it was because she’d been forced into theworld too soon.

Of course to me, Grace was fine. It took mymother to say, “Look at her, Lisa. She’s not interact-ing. She’s not looking at anyone. She won’t wean.” And I suppose I just knew. So off we went tothe pediatrician again, but thistime it was water off a duck’sback – I knew why we werethere and what was coming.

In the waiting room therewas a wooden stacking toywith colored disks that you puton to each peg. I moved a reddisc to a peg where there wereblue ones and Grace went bal-listic. And in the Doctor’soffice Liam helpfullyrearranged a set of antique sur-gical instruments – it didn’ttake much for Dr B to writethe letter of referral this time.

Shortly after this we movedto Ireland, I started Liam onPicture Exchange Communica-tion under the instruction of the teacher in the AutismUnit he attended. We started using it when he was fourand were using it for about two months, when he sud-denly started not just speaking, but reading too. Theidea is that you build up a book of cards stuck in with

Velcro to help them communicate, but I don’t thinkwe’d got past two pages of cards with him when wewere out somewhere and he said “I want Toilet” inde-pendently- that was a majorly good day!

For Grace, however, the process of learning tocommunicate was much slower. I had to do it allmyself as there was no provision for speech therapyfor Grace in the State Autism Pre-school that sheattended here in Dublin. I approached PECS verymethodically, did the two day course, followed themanual, bought the cd-rom, made several differentsized books for staying in and going out.

I took my data and learned everything there wasto learn about it. And kept it going, for the next 6years. Grace was extremely good at communicatingher needs with PECS but she relied on me to add toher vocabulary with new cards. As a mom with twoautistic kids, there was often a delay in taking, sav-ing, printing and laminating those new pictures.

As a result Grace was amazingly skilled at getting

what she wanted using shapes, colors and numbers.She could put together a picture sentence that said,“I want 8 black triangle toast” meaning she wantedVegemite Spread on toast cut into 8 triangles. Butshe couldn’t say “I want Vegemite.”

Before: Grace’s PECS book full of symbols



At the age of 6, thanks to a home ABA programthat we funded with bank loans; (we told the bankmanager it was for “Home Improvements” and itwas, kind of ) Gracie started to make sounds whenwe were playing a “what animal” game and finallystarted to try and say words.

It was still difficult for most people to under-stand her approximations, she would say “Dink” fordrink or “Tote” for toast. But it was enough toencourage me to continue to try and develop hervocalizations, while maintaining her picture com-munications as a prompt and back up for when peo-ple could not understand her version of a word.

And bit by bit she improved. “Tootar” became“Cootar” - meaning Computer. And I will neverforget the day I heard fromthe back seat of the car herfirst independent sentence “Iwant green crisps!” - I droveacross three lanes of traffic toget into a service station andbuy her five packets of crisps.

During this time I hadjoined the IAA “Irish AutismAction” which is a ParentsAdvocacy and Support Group.In 2007, I was at their AnnualGeneral Meeting listening to anaddress by telecoms companyO2Telefonica who supportedIrish Autism Action. The dis-cussion turned to ways technol-ogy could help children withautism, and I asked, “whatabout the iPhone?” One of theSocial Responsibility Officersfrom Telefonica actually hadone, (the iPhone had only just arrived were inIreland) and promised to get me one if I thought itmight help – it was couriered to my house a fewweeks later.

By this time, Liam and then Grace had beenaccepted into a Privately managed ABA school. Wehad waited 5 years for a place but it is no exaggera-

tion to say it changed our lives. No more after schoolhome based ABA tutors. No more stress about lack ofclinical support services in their State autism school.No more poorly trained unsupervised “care” staffactually exacerbating behavioral issues. I was sudden-ly unburdened and ready for a new project!

That summer, Gracie and I got to work, gettingpictures onto the iPhone and using it to requesttreats in the supermarket. But we couldn’t put themin order, and that was very frustrating, because thewhole point of the picture exchange system is to putwords in sequential order and build sentences thatprompt speech.

I realized that I needed help, and luckily found anewspaper article about a gifted iPhone app develop-

er, Steve Troughton-Smith. Wecommunicated via Facebookand finally met for the firsttime at the start of 2009. Ibrought along all Gracie’sPicture Books and drew a bigdiagram on the back of a shop-ping bag. From that Steve cre-ated a prototype which heloaded on to my iPhone, whichGracie used expertly. The BigPicture Exchange Book stayedhome to gather dust and theiPhone came out everywherewith us. I started using thedevice’s built-in camera to takephotos of things that Gracewanted, which I stored on theiPhone for next time. Gracewatched me doing this and oneday I caught her holding thephone, trying to take a picture

of a toy she wanted on ebay. She understood that it ifthe photo was in the phone, then I knew she wantedit! I told Steve about this and he incorporated thephoto application into the app which we then testedwith four other children in Gracie’s school. We wereapproved by iTunes late on the evening of March11th, 2010. The Grace App was born.

Now: Grace App



The thing about Grace App is that it won’t do allthe work for you – it’s not a talking box for the child,and it doesn’t let the parents off the hook either. Youhave to work with the child to help them learn tocommunicate independently. We are incorporatingall our feedback in a major update – putting the “addpictures” button into each category so that caregiversand users can sort their customized pics.

Grace App is also available on the iPad and iPodtouch, and users can switch between devices with asingle purchase with free upgrades as we do them.

My experience has been developed using theiPhone but now that iPod touch has a camera, I cansee that taking over as the entry level device. I’m alsolooking for a lot more feedback on iPad usage, as theyhave only recently arrived in Ireland. Grace App wasincluded in an online listing of the Top Ten iPadApps for Autism recently and has been featured inthe Autism Hangout “Apps for Autism” videoseries. A huge honor as you can imagine.

Recently, Grace App was chosen as the BestMobile Application in the Irish Web Awards. Wealso won a United Nations World Summit Award forMobile Content in the m-Learning and Educationcategory. It was also another chance to encourage peo-ple to donate their old iPhones when they are upgrad-ing to MyCharity “I want my iPhone for Autism”campaign, where we give iPhones to underfundedAutism Schools and Services.

But there have been other, less tangible – but noless significant - rewards too. One of the things youmiss out on as the mom of autistic kids is what’sknown as “shared attention”: that stage where theystart saying “Look Mom.” It always felt to me likethey only communicated with me when they want-ed something. But with the Grace App, my daugh-ter suddenly started showing me things – notbecause she wanted them, but because she wantedto share them with me. And others have told me ofsimilar experiences. That was very special, that madeit all worthwhile.

© Lisa Domican, Grace App CommunicationsE-mail: [email protected]: www.graceapp.comPhone: +353860486249Graceappforautismoniphone.blogspot.com

This article includes anecdotes used with per-mission from an interview I did with JenniferO’Connell for the Sunday Business Post, first pub-lished October 24th, 2010.

E-mail: [email protected]

Recent informationregarding PECS

By Nicole Gage

While the PECS has been demonstrated to bevery helpful in aiding children with autism withtheir social and communicative behaviors, its role inscaffolding speech and language acquisition has notbeen elucidated. While some parent statements andsmall case studies have reported an increase in theamount of spontaneous speech in children afterintroduction of PECS, a recent large meta-analysishas found that these anecdotal and/or small samplestudies do not fully reflect what is actually occurringwhen we look at larger samples. Over the meta-analysis of more than 120 children using PECS,results showed that gains in speech were small. Thuswhile PECS can be quite effective in reducing frus-tration and increasing communicative behaviors inchildren who are minimally verbal, it has not beendemonstrated to actually aid the language acquisi-tion processes that are key to language developmentin early childhood. Michelle Flippin StephanieReszka Linda R. Watson (2010) “Effectiveness ofthe Picture Exchange Communication System(PECS) on Communication and Speech forChildren With Autism Spectrum Disorders: AMeta-Analysis.” American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology Vol.19 178-195.

Nicole M. Gage, Ph. D.Department of Cognitive SciencesUniversity of California, Irvine


www.graceapp.com




I am a teacher, the parent of an autistic son whohas graduated from college and a consultant forhome programs for autistic students. Twenty yearsago when my son was diagnosed, there was notmuch help available for parents. I remember once amonth a group of moms would pool our money andhave a senior therapist travel down from Dr. Lovaas’clinic at UCLA to guide us for an hour through thenext month of intensive discrete trial therapy. Thataveraged about 10 minutes a month per child to getideas, lessons and support from a qualified person.

Wow, have times changed! There now is a web-based autism treatment program called “RethinkAutism”that can complement professional super-vision. It allows parents to view ABA curriculumand see what might be appropriate for their child.Video based lessons demonstrate the different stepsof learning. Over 1,200 video exercises are available

on video, which make it possible to record the child’sresults as well as to track his progress. As studentsmaster skills, new lessons are added and generatedautomatically. There is a simple program to use witha progress tracking option with easy-to-read bar-graphs for each of the child’s current lessons.Rethink Autism has a curriculum library with cate-gories such as pre-academic, academic, social/emo-

tional, daily living, motion skills, play/leisure,expressive and receptive language.

I especially enjoyed the demonstration videosbefore starting to teach a lesson. While I have taughtchildren with autism for more than 20 years, it is stillimportant to see others teaching comparable lessonsin a slightly different way. Some colleagues haveargued that the demonstrated style of interactionlacks social reciprocity, but in all cases demon-strated training ideas should be matched to theindividual child and his optimal learning atmos-phere. We can all learn from each other and hav-ing a structured model should be helpful, especial-ly for young parents and new teachers in the field.

Most of the lessons build on each other anddemonstrating a continuum of learning is veryimportant. The website has a detailed curriculum

that helps parents and therapistsknow what drill to do next.

Along with online helpRethink Autism also has consul-tants to help troubleshoot whenparents need 1 to 1 help withtheir child’s programs.

While we have to keep inmind that currently researchon online training programsfor children with autism israre, programs like this may beable to help parents who donot have access to qualifiedprofessionals in their vicinity.Especially new parents, parapro-

fessionals and young teachers or therapists may wantto consider registering for the one-week trial to see ifthis will help complement their needs.

For contact and further information

Vivian Bottino M. Ed.Consultant Pacific Child and Family AssociatesE-mail: [email protected]

Rethink AutismBy Vivian Bottino




Before our son Nate was diagnosed withAutistic Spectrum Disorder, or before we even hadthe language to describe his “eccentricities,” myhusband and I were certain, without any ounce of adoubt, that Nate could watch TV like noother baby. At 6 months old, Nate wouldstare intensely at the screen for long periodsof time, following the stories of BabyEinstein and movements of each animatedcharacter or object that appeared. He wouldcry at the sad parts, laugh at the funny parts,and remain in trance for long periods oftime. Nothing like television, portable DVDplayers, or computer screens, could captureNate’s attention or keep him seated longenough to complete a task.

Friends and family members would pointout Nate’s visual passions and express a rangeof opinions; some were impressed by his incli-nations towards animated characters and sto-ries, others were concerned, especially grandparentswho believed the age-old myth that television “rotsyour brain.” As his parents, we believed his visualpreferences were just a part of Nate’s character.We accepted it, and used his favorite movies,games, and books to our advantage in gaining hisenthusiasm, expressive language, and attention.The portable DVD player allowed us to have familymeals at the table, with Nate sitting quietly, watch-ing and eating. He would also be able to sit happilyduring long road trips or airplane flights or doctors’appointments, anything that would otherwise pose amajor threat to the peace of the family. And eventhough boundaries in duration needed to be set, andrepetition was a bore for the rest of us, a favoriteepisode of “Thomas the Tank Engine” could turnany bad moment with Nate into a good one.

After Nate entered a public school setting, andwe became more knowledgeable of his ASD, histechnical aptitude became a window into his cog-nitive strengths. Early exposure to educational

and reading websites taught us that Nathan exhib-ited hyperlexia, “a syndrome characterized byintense fascination with letters and numbers andan advanced reading ability.” With the ability to

read at age three, a whole new world opened upfor Nate. Using visual aides like books, social sto-ries, websites, or PECs (Picture ExchangeCommunication), gave us a forum to teach Natemore efficiently. It also negated any previousmemory of a bad experience at school, and madeit easier for teachers and parents to connect withNate. When he has difficulty focusing, transi-tioning, or sitting on the potty, we pull fromour “bag of visual tricks” to communicate,redirect, and reward.

At Nate’s IEP meetings, we learned that we are per-mitted by law to draw upon any tool or “assistive tech-nology device” to further any of his academic, behav-ioral, or cognitive goals. According to an AT Resourcelink on http://Child-Autism-Parent-Cafe.com:

The Individuals with Disabilities EducationAct Amendments of 1997 defines assistivetechnology device as “any item, piece of equip-ment, or product system, whether acquired

Assistive Technology: From a Parent’s PerspectiveBy Jennifer Wienick

commercially off the shelf, modified, or cus-tomized, that is used to increase, maintain, orimprove the functional capabilities of a childwith a disability” (IDEA, 1997, 20, USC, Ch.33, Sec. 1401 [25] US) The level of guidanceand support necessary for each student in theclassroom may vary greatly; the student mayneed anything from physical, verbal, or visualprompts to high-technology devices and ser-vices. “No” technology and “low” technologydevices do not require electronic equipmentand may need only a simple accommodation,are usually readily available, and are cost effec-tive; “high” technology requires a high-mainte-nance electronic system and, hence, is morecostly (Purcell & Grant, 2002).

The website also provides a useful list of ATdevices, ranging from a pair of reading glasses or asimple PEC Board to expensive hardware and soft-ware. In these tough economic times, limited schooland home budgets make it hard to purchase themore expensive AT devices. After an extensive searchfor affordable or free resources to maintain our homeprogram and facilitate communication, here aresome things that I found:

• Free Resources: There are many free educa-tional websites that parents can use to teachreading, math, and language skills. Such web-sites include www.starfall.com oriknowthat.com. If you visit the OrangeCounty Department of Education website atwww.ocde.us, there are links to many othereducational websites for homeschooling orentertainment for all age groups. Consideryour local library as a primary supplement toany school or home program.

• Helpful Product Websites: Check out a vari-ety of useful AT devices athttp://www.nationalautismresources.com/assistivetechnology.html. Also, check out localbookstores or teaching supply stores for greatfinds and inexpensive learning tools.

• Hardware: Ideally, every child with ASD orspeaking difficulties could afford an iPad and

software like Proloquo2go (visitwww.Proloquo2go.com for more informationon this new Augmentative and AlternativeCommunication software). Yet, spending largeamounts of money on the hottest visual aidesoftware isn’t always necessary. Smaller, lessexpensive technical devices like Nintendo DSor Leapfrog can serve as a tool for helping yourchildren focus and practice their visual learn-ing methods.

• Create Your Own AT device: Drawing a PECor picture can be a very valuable tool in help-ing your child know what to expect, creatingstructure, and eliminating anxiety. Get cre-ative and find images that your child respondspositively to, and incorporate them into yourvisual aides. You can laminate these picturesand use them again and again, at no cost.Also, use readily available programs likeMSWord or Photoshop to create visual aideson your home computer.

The rewards of using AT devices and visualaide technology comes after a lot of practice, trialand error, and consistent implementation intoyour home and school programs. Boundaries needto be set, as any behaviorist or ABA therapistwould tell you. But as we’ve learned with Nate,as long as your child is engaged in their ownlearning process, improvement in communica-tion will follow. As parents, you will feel gratifiedin having tangible tools to help your special needschild, and as a result, your child and family will behappier and more successful in their educationand home programs.


Jennifer Wienick, parentE-mail: [email protected]

Editor’s Note: Not all children need be “visual” tobenefit from AT. Parents interested in AT should con-tact colleagues who can offer individualized advice.




www.Proloquo2go.com

www.ocde.us

www.iknowthat.com

www.starfall.com

www.aapcpublishing.net


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a few more comments from our readers...

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Emirates) and are currently looking for an honest andreliable person to work with our 17 year old son withautism. He attends school from 8:30am-3:00pm 5days per week. We require a person with an interestand some knowledge in autism, who can work withour son in the afternoons, evenings and weekends.The job involves a combination of structured 1:1teaching and natural environment training and out-ings. Training and supervision will be provided andinterested applicants must be willing to follow behav-iour intervention plans that target the reduction ofchallenging behaviour. Self-contained accommoda-tion will be provided.

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emailto:[email protected]


www.forockids.org


N E W S / H I G H L I G H T S

Developmental Approximate Date/Time/Place Topic/Speaker Level Fee Contact

Locations: OCDE = Orange County Department of Education – 200 Kalmus Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92628

Does not include other agencies’ information….Only reflects the S.U.C.S.E.S.S. Project

March 4, 20118:30 AM – 3:30 PMOCDE

“Good Intentions Aren’tEnough”- Social Thinking& Transition IssuesMichelle Garcia Winner

Upper Grades,Secondary andadults

$70 S.U.C.S.E.S.S. Project(714) 966-4198

March 17, 20118:30 AM – 3:30 PMOCDE

Orientation/Overview tothe SCERTS ModelEmily Rubin

Developmentalages – toddler toelementary

$25 S.U.C.S.E.S.S. Project(714) 966-4198

March 16, 20118:30 AM – 3:30 PMOCDE

“Introduction to theSCERTS Model”Emily Rubin

Developmentalages – toddler toelementary

$70 S.U.C.S.E.S.S. Project(714) 966-4198

Upcoming Staff Development, Conferences and Parent TrainingsThroughout the school year, there are several opportunities for continuing education and support that will be offered by various

organizations. The Regional Center of Orange County (RCOC) and the S.U.C.S.E.S.S. Project of Orange County strives to provideaffordable fees to both families and staff. Each session has a specific focus, some pertaining to early interventions, some with more of anemphasis on the older aged student. Registrations for those outside of Orange County may be limited, therefore call early!

PLEASE NOTE: You can access online information about sessions (hosted by the S.U.C.S.E.S.S. Project of Orange County) athttp://sped.ocde.us/cses/Autism/cc_ap/sd/cbs.htm

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a few more comments from our readers...

http://sped.ocde.us/cses/Autism/cc_ap/sd/cbs.htm

Avoids eye contactEvita el contacto visual

Lacks creative “pretend” playCarece el juego creativo

Shows indifferenceDemuestra indiferéncia

Copies words like a parrot (“echolalic”)Repíte las palabras como un loro(“en forma de echo”)

Shows preoccupation with onlyone topicDemuestra preocupación/interésen solo un tema/asunto

Does not like variety: it’s not thespice of lifeNo demuestra interés en variedad

Shows fear of, or fascination withcertain soundsDemuestra miedo de/ó fascinación con ciertos sonidosLaughs or giggles inappropriately

Risa/reír inadecuadamente

Displays special abilities in music,art, memory, or manual dexterity Demuestra capacidades especialesen musica, arte, memoria ordestreza manual

Shows fascination with spinningobjectsDemuestra fascinación con objetosque gíran

Does not play with other childrenNo juega con otros niños

Some Examples of Autistic BehaviorAlgunos ejemplos del comportamiento de personas con autismo

• Difficulty with social interactions.Tienen dificultad para socializar con otras personas.

• Problems with speech. Tienen problemas con su lenguaje.

• Disturbed perception.Tienen una percepción anormal de los sucesos que acontecen a su alrededor.

• Abnormal play.Su forma de jugar es anormal.

• Resistance to change in routine or environment.Se resisten a cambios en sus actividad rutinarias ó a su medio ambiente.

SOME EXAMPLES OF AUTISTIC BEHAVIORALGUNOS EJEMPLOS DEL COMPORTAMIENTO DE PERSONAS CON AUTISMO

Shows one-sided interactionDemuestra interacción que es unilateral

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