Demonstration of a Collaborative Interface to Promote Positive Social Interaction Skills by High and Low Functioning Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Background: While various Computer Assisted Instruction tools have resulted in mainly positive effects on children with ASD, responses from both professionals and parents have been mixed; along with the obvious advantage of using such environments with children with ASD, there are those who fear that such tools will increase social withdrawal and encourage compulsive behaviors. However, computer based interventions and virtual environments appear to offer a useful tool for social skills training in children with ASD.
Objectives: To demonstrate a new paradigm using a co-located setting that employs the Diamond Touch table originally prototyped by the Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratory and now commercialized by CircleTwelve Inc.

Methods: The DiamondTouch has a 32-inch diagonal surface that can be placed flat on a standard table. The graphical user interface is projected onto this surface. It contains an array of antennas embedded in the touch surface. Each antenna transmits a unique signal. Each user has a separate receiver, connected to the user, typically through the user's chair. When a user touches the surface, antennas near the touch point couple an extremely small amount of signal through the user's body and to the receiver. In this way DiamondTouch can distinguish who is touching and distinguish between simultaneous inputs from multiple users. This unique characteristic enables the implementation of cooperative gestures where the system interprets the gestures of more than one user as contributing to a single, combined command increasing participation and sense of cohesion.
Results: Initially, we developed the StoryTable application, whereby pairs of children could interact to construct a common story. In this application we investigated a specific case of cooperative gestures, named “Enforced collaboration”, that require that actions on digital objects (e.g., touch, drag) be carried out by two or more users simultaneously. Preliminary investigation with dyads of children with high functioning autism has shown that forcing the simultaneous execution of selected tasks may foster the recognition of the presence of the other, stimulate social behavior (increased eye contact, emotion sharing, and enhanced interest toward the partner),  and improve social skills. More recently, we have shown a second interface, the Collaborative Puzzle Game (CPG), to be a feasible tool for lower functioning children with ASD since it does not require the use of language. The Collaborative Puzzle resembles a traditional jigsaw puzzle (an activity that primarily involves visuo-spatial skills). While in the Free Play Condition, players can move puzzle pieces individually, in the Joint Play Condition the Enforced collaboration is active and the puzzle pieces can be moved to the solution area only be means of a joint drag-and-drop action. In an initial study both children with typical development and those with ASD enjoyed using the game and were readily able to learn and execute the various functions of the game within one session with minimal explanations. An increase in collaboration as the sessions progressed for both typical children and those with ASD was observed.

Conclusions: Our tentative conclusion is that the CPG encourages children to interact, whether they have ASD or not.