File
Mulligan H.1, Graham H.1, Mccormick M.1, Bond A.1, Hobbs O.1, Yoo C.1, Gupta S.2, King M.2
1University of Otago, School of Physiotherapy, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2Callaghan Innovation, Christchurch, New Zealand
Background: Difficulty with social interactions is a feature of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and can be present in other developmental disorders. A new interactive application, Talk With Me, was specifically designed to facilitate social interactions between low-functioning adolescents with ASD or other developmental disorders via a two-way conversation.
Purpose: To compare the usability and efficacy of the interactive application, Talk With Me, with existing systems for social interactions (Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices, and Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS®) cards) used by children who are non-verbal.
Methods: We recruited six adolescents (with high or very high needs) (3 males, 3 females, aged between 12 and 19 years) who were students at a special needs unit, via information about the study to their parents/caregivers. Parents/caregivers gave written consent for an adolescents participation in the study. Three participants had a diagnosis of ASD and three had other developmental disorders (e.g. Down syndrome). All participants had impaired verbal and non-verbal communication and/or untypical social behaviours and usually communicated via AAC and PECS® cards. Each participant with ASD was paired with a participant with other developmental disorder. An independent trainer provided participants with two training sessions on how to use Talk With Me. Another independent facilitator then assisted the three pairs to communicate with the three different systems on three separate occasions. Sessions were a maximum of 10 minutes. Sessions were videotaped via three cameras set up in a triangular formation to capture all angles of participants interactions. We analysed the video-data, using a previously developed method (Fine grain analysis) of identifying and counting participants social interactions between participant pairs and between participants and the facilitator during the conversation (e.g. negative repetitive behaviour and positive eye contact), and by timing attention span (e.g. participants length of time in attending to their partners reply). Data was extrapolated out to 10 minutes in order to compare results across the systems.
Results: Talk With Me and the PECS® cards allowed the pairs to finish their conversations faster. All Talk With Me trials were completed well under the 10 minute time limit. Only one pair completed the conversation in the 10 minute time slot allocated when using their personal AAC device. Talk With Me had the greatest total frequency of positive behaviours (479.7) and the lowest total frequency of negative behaviours (106.2) across the three systems. The lowest frequency of positive behaviours (334.7) and the highest total frequency of negative behaviours (274.6) were observed when the participants were using their personal AAC device. There were markedly less interactions required by the facilitator when the pairs used Talk With Me (90.9), compared with PECS® cards (160.6), and with personal AAC device (225.6).
Conclusion(s): Talk With Me provided a faster and more promising alternative to the existing systems for social interaction via a conversation, because it increased positive behaviours, and had less need for outside intervention to facilitate the conversation.
Implications: Talk With Me warrants further investigation with larger samples representing different ages and different diagnoses of developmental disorders.
Funding acknowledgements: Unfunded
Topic: Paediatrics
Ethics approval: University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (Ref 11/95)
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
