Augmented reality for body schema, pointing and imitation training in autism Erasmus Project

Project Title

Augmented reality for body schema, pointing and imitation training in autism

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Access for disadvantaged; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviour (APA, 2013). Autism is thought to be largely biological in origin, affecting information processing by altering how nerve cells in the brain and their synapses connect and organize (Levy et al., 2009). Works in molecular biology show that this altered information processing operates during the 2nd and 3rd trimester of gestation (Courchesne et al., 2019). Autism is diagnosed in at least 1% of the population, and diagnoses are more common amongst males than females (Baird et al., 2006). It is estimated that 25-50% of individuals with autism also have intellectual disability/learning difficulties (CDC Atlanta, 2018). Students with autism progress much better when specific educational supports are provided (Mesibov and Howley, 2003).

Nadel (2015) has analysed imitation in autism in-depth, concluding that it has a strong role in the development of communication and learning in autism. Providing supports aimed at compensating imitation difficulties is of major importance for the whole development of the child and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies have several advantages for this purpose, including:
• The use of big-size screens or TV-displays that is a more proper scenario for practising social skills than small-sized screens;
• Availability of low-cost hardware (MS Kinect or similar) for creating mirror-like settings, where the student can see him/herself in a digital display with augmented elements;
• Availability of a free software tool (named Pictogram Room) developed by participant partners with previous national grants from the Spanish Government and with private funding.

Pictogram Room tool is an AR software that:
• Includes a set of 80 activities specially designed for training young students with autism in body schema, body postures, pointing and imitation.
• Is highly customizable to fit with each student’ preferences, audio-visual reinforcers and pace of learning;
• Can be used playfully and inclusively, including other typically developing peers in the process of learning;
• Trains new skills in a real context to facilitate generalisation;

The main objectives of ARBIT project are to create two intellectual outputs around the use of this tool:
• O1, Research study: to adapt and personalise the AR tool to be used by 30-45 students with autism from the three participating schools, to define protocols for this adaptation that can be replicated elsewhere and to run a research study to test its efficacy on training those students on body schema, pointing and imitation (O1, Research).
• O2, MOOC: to develop teacher training materials and a MOOC for more than 1,000 teachers to learn about the use of augmented reality for imitation in autism.

These outputs will be disseminated to at least 290 teachers and parents who will participate in three multiplier events in Avila/Spain (E1), Valladolid/Spain (E2) and Konya/Turkey (E3). Project activities also include a training activity on AR and imitation in autism (C1) for 11 teachers in Valencia/Spain and the celebration of 4 transnational project meetings in Valencia/Spain, Sofia/Bulgaria, Paris/France and Konya/Turkey with the participation of 18 members from the 9 partner organisations. Four organisations of the project are newcomers to Erasmus+ action.

A diversity of cultural contexts is involved in ARBIT Project, through partners from France, Spain, Bulgaria and Turkey, with this being an important advantage of carrying in out the project transnationally. A data bank from several countries will allow to consolidate the results and also to prevent cultural specificities.

Participant education departments from the regional governments KONYA IL MEM (Turkey) and CFIE-Avila (Spain) will increase their repertoire of training resources to prepare teachers. The participating universities UVEG (Spain) and EPHE/LUTIN (France) will strengthen its contact with the first-hand experience of attending students with autism and/or intellectual disabilities. This will increase their knowledge about these difficulties and will allow researchers to identify additional needs. Three schools will participate: TREBOL (Spain), AA-CSRIAS (Bulgaria) and KARATAY (Turkey).

The digital nature of all the project results will enormously facilitate dissemination of results both inside and outside organisations. ARBIT counts on a strategy of relying on existing agreements with non-profit organisations specializing in distributing and maintaining IT products for autism, such as the partner ADAPTA Foundation (Spain). This, together with the participation of FACYL (the regional society for autism in Castilla y León, Spain), will also foster the transferability of the tools and educational practices to others and the generalization of their use, as the life-cycle of the products will then be much longer than the project

Project Website

http://arbit.adaptalab.org

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 229186 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Karatay Ozel Egitim Uygulama Okulu III. Kademe
• Association Autism
• Federacion Autismo Castilla y León
• ASOCIACIÓN DE PADRES Y FAMILIARES DE PERSONAS CON TRASTORNOS DEL ESPECTRO DEL AUTISMO DE AVILA Y SU PROVINCIA
• CFIE de ÁVILA
• Fundación ADAPTA
• KONYA IL MILLI EGITIM MUDURLUGU