Supporting Early Intervention Programmes for special
Contents
1. Starting up 18 10 1 01 3 00 PM 0 John Ate 16 10 1 01 3 00 PM 1 John Drank 17 10 1 01 3 00 PM 2 John Tantrum 18 10 1 01 3 00 PM 20 John 25a 19 10 1 01 3 00 PM 20 John 25a 20 10 1 01 3 00 PM 3 John Sleeping 0 0 3 21 10 1 01 3 00 PM 4 John Sound 22 10 1 01 3 00 PM 1 John Drank 23 10 1 01 3 00 PM Q John Ate 24 10 1 01 3 00 PM 2 John Tantrum 25 10 1 01 3 00 PM 3 John Sleeping 0 0 1 26 10 1 01 3 00 PM 0 John Ate 27 10 1 01 3 00 PM 1 John Drank 28 10 1 01 3 00 PM 20 John 25a 29 10 1 01 3 00 PM 2 John Tantrum You may easily graph a simple time behaviour chart by selecting the first two columns of the data below the summary information and making a scatter plot The button files are also easily editable Each line is a button title with blank buttons marked with double dashes Timed entries are followed by an asterisk If the button plays a sound it is followed with the filename in square brackets Finally if the button is an alarm timer it is of the format title sound filename time in seconds Final notes All changes made to the system are persistent the next time you log in the logger will be exactly the same as you left it 14 APPENDIX II ASSOCIATION GAME Installing the program Download the file SimpleGame exe 58kb onto your computer Connect to your iPaq and copy this into the Windows Start Menu folder on it The program will then appear in the start2. compared to the other disabilities net growth in the number of persons with autism is on average about 3 percent greater each year It is estimated that the cost of treating an autistic person throughout their life is around 3 million pounds Na tional Autistic Society but current diagnosis and early intervention programmes which can dra matically increase a person s ability to function independently tend still to be too little too late Therapy programmes An example of an approach to treatment of autistic children is Applied Behaviour Analysis This approach involves parents coordinating a home based programme which involves a number of tu tors working intensively one to one with the autistic child for between 15 40 hours a week Run ning such a programme often has a large organisational overhead much of which is related to ac quisition and analysis of behavioural data This often uses up parents energy which could be better used in developing the curriculum and teaching the child as well as distracting both tutors and child in training sessions Current approach to data collection Current approaches to data collection include the use of paper forms on a clipboard data must then subsequently be graphed by hand or re entered into a spreadsheet A clipboard is bulky and in Changes in the Population of Persons with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders in California s Develop mental Services System 1987 through 1998
3. 00 PM 11 John Drank VF 10 1401 3 00 PM 12 John Tantrum 18 10 1 01 3 00 PM 20 John 25a 19 10 1 01 3 00 PM 20 John 25a 20 10 1 01 3 00 PM 13 John Sleeping 0 0 3 21 10 1 01 3 00 PM 14 John Sound 22 10 1 01 3 00 PM 11 John Drank 23 10 1 01 3 00 PM 10 John Ate 24 10 1 01 3 00 PM 12 John Tantrum 25 10 1 01 3 00 PM 13 John Sleeping 0 0 1 26 10 1 01 3 00 PM 10 John Ate 27 10 1 01 3 00 PM 11 John Drank 28 10 1401 3 00 PM 20 John 25a 29 10 1 01 3 00 PM 12 John Tantrum Figure 3 Log file and summary results Advantages of electronic data acquisition Having the data immediately available in electronic format has a number of advantages Parents can spot problems in a programme very quickly based on graphical information about performance and alter the curriculum or reinforcement to avoid the child becoming bored or frustrated Parents can view graphical representations or perform standard database queries on for exam ple the performance of individual tutors performance at different times of day or clustering particularly difficult tasks The data is in an agreed uniform standard form and can easily be sent to consultants for moni toring This can also include providing other professionals not directly related to the pro gramme e g the educational psychologist to be well informed about developments Automated help advice systems could be built in to the palmtop which give on line advice to the
4. A Report to the Legislature March 1 1999 Department of Developmental Services trusive and annotating observations interrupts and slows down the teaching process Although flexible in terms of the range of information which can be recorded formal and informal notes Other tools include hand held counters which are useful but limited to single type of event and do not include time of event and timers which can be used if we want to record the frequency of a given type of event Frequency counts are used in fluency based teaching approaches Data Benefits of hand held computers A hand held computer could guide the user to which activities were planned which is of benefit in programmes involving a number of tutors It could record more complete and detailed information such as time of day time taken for each part of the training programme and which therapist was interacting with the child This would reduce the need for lengthy note taking and would improve the reliability of the recording process as well as preventing programmes failing because of parents inability to cope with burdensome recording procedures in what is usually an extremely stressful period Information not currently taken in such processes could be included e g tantrum toilet break icons could be added allowing a consultant to easily view the time line of a given session and picking up contextual information which helps them evaluate the formal performance info
5. a week We wish to record groups of data including Sleeping patterns Verbal behaviour Spoken words Dietary intake Undesirable behaviour e g tantrums hand flapping specific problem behaviours Responses to requests or demands These can be added to a tutor profile by either using the PDA directly or by downloading a pre pared textfile from a normal PC to a user profile see details in Section In principle each tutor could have a different profile recording different features but in general we wish to have the same profile for each child for all tutors Tutors can record details for multiple children easily with the software Multimedia features In addition to standard event logging we have utilised the inherent flexibility of a PDA to include multimedia features and timing We included timer buttons alarm buttons and general sound to the device Timing In many cases we wish to record how long a child stays at a given activity so that progress can be monitored any button can be given a timing attribute which records the event with a duration Ex amples used in this scenario are TV Drawing Play Other buttons included with this feature were on a Sleep tab with Sleep Lie down which could then be timed Duration of problem behaviours such as Tantrum could also be timed using the logger Alarms Buttons can be created which include countdowns which can be set in advance by the user and at the end of a
6. correct picture in the title bar Default no negative_score Set this to yes to deduct from the score if a wrong answer is given Default no reset_score Set this to yes to reset the score to zero if a wrong answer is given Default no positive_feedback Set this to yes to enable positive feedback Default yes negative_feedback Set this to yes to enable negative feedback Default no target_score Set this to a number representing the maximum score to be achieved before giving the reward sound picture Recommended values are 5 to 30 Setting this to zero will disable scoring Default 0 feedback_time Set this to the time in seconds it may be fractional for which to display the feedback image play the feedback sound Default 0 1 zoom_image Set this to yes if you wish to have the correct image occupy the whole screen and the name of the image repeated when a correct answer is given Default yes dont_mix Set this to yes to disable choosing images from multiple directories i e keep pictures with their own type Default yes Final notes The jpeg images used must be less than 200 pixels in any dimension any larger will cause perform ance issues The wave files if externally provided must be 8khz 8 bit and mono 17
7. therapists concerned If a programme is so successful that the child can join a mainstream school an easy to use automated data entry system could also be used in classroom or nursery situations and would allow parents to see in quantitative fashion how well skills were progressing especially during the hand over period If there were several autistic children in a class it might make data acqui sition feasible where prior to this it would have been impossible without extra teaching man power ASSOCIATION GAME During the development of the logging software we noticed that children were very interested in the PDA in its own right This was one reason we added the music buttons to the logger as a motiva tional device We could easily see other ways in which we could construct flexible games which parents could customise to their own child s needs An early part of many programmes is to encourage the child discriminate between multiple images and sounds and to get the child to point to objects A simple game where two images are presented with a verbal prompt labelling the desired target was developed Adding pictures To use the program parents can provide a selection of pictures This could include pictures of fam ily members or the child s own toys house etc If general images are sought the thumbnail images from searches on image google com_ are a good source Many familiar figures from childrens TV have web sites where you can d
8. will also be in this directory Each tutor s directory contains tab txt containing a list of the defined pages and children txt a list of children the tutor is monitoring There will also be one text file for each of the pages defined containing the button entries An ex ample directory structure might look like tab txt John Tutors children txt Default txt Logger log txt Bob today txt 12_03_01_p m wav Dave ik log txt today txt Children The format of the output logs is simple CSV The fields are Time event code tutor who logged this event event name If the event was timed there will be an additional field after event name giving the time elapsed in h m s format The event codes are arbitrarily assigned based on the positions of the buttons they make it easy to analyse afterwards If you wish to analyse the data this Excel macro 32k can be used First of all open the macro file then import the file into Excel as a comma delimted file and go to Tools Macros Macros select GetTotals and then Run The output will appear like this 13 A ae cas D EEEE 1 Code IName Total Total duration Events hour sa 0 Special 2 0 000229 B 1 Notes a 0 Al 10 Ate 4 0 000458 ga 11 Drank 4 0 000458 w 12 Tantrum 3 0 000343 wal 13 Sleeping 3 00 00 05 0 000343 an 14 Sound 1 0 000343 EA 20 2Sa 3 0 000114 10 11 Active duration 00 00 19 12 13 Time Codes Tutor Event Duration 14 10 1 01 3 00 PM 0 John
9. Dept Computing Science Technical Report TR 2002 118 Supporting Early Intervention Programmes for special needs children with personal digital assistants Roderick Murray Smith John Williamson James Borland Phil Gray Department of Computing Science University of Glasgow www dcs gla ac uk 2 Behaviour Intervention Services www behaviourintervention com Abstract We describe flexible logging software designed for use in behavioural therapy pro grammes for special needs children This software runs on a handheld computer or Personal Digital Assistant PDA and is flexible and easy to use so that parents or teachers can customise the logger to the needs of individual children and pro grammes The software is intended to allow parents or teachers to record high quality behavioural data with minimal intrusion into the teaching and interaction with children We also give an example of how PDAs can be used directly as a teaching tool with a program which allows parents to design a speech picture as sociation game for their own child INTRODUCTION In recent years there has been a growing trend towards treatment of special needs children in the community either in home programmes coordinated by parents or in mainstream nurseries and schools Many home based therapy programmes involve parents or carers applying a therapy to their child which requires them to observe the child s behaviour over long periods throughout
10. age The second part which occurred more as a spin off of the main work on logging was an association game which we viewed as a simple example of how elements of a curriculum can be implemented on a PDA in a manner that is more motivating to some children than conventional methods There are many similar teaching tasks which could be developed on mobile devices A feature common to both approaches is that the development has been made as open as possible so that parents can customise the software to suit their own programme and child In the logger you can log features you deem relevant to your programme and in the game you can use familiar faces themes and images This is a first step towards the automation of the management data acquisition and interpretation needed for a well run behavioural therapy programme More elements are needed but relatively straightforward software development could lead to extremely exciting changes to the way in which programmes are run in future General applicability The software infrastructure developed in this project is not tied to any one particular therapy pro gramme but allows the creation of templates which can allow people to customise the tool to their own programme or use it in a completely different setting The ability to perform comprehensive and efficient data capture accompanied by programme support with a small unobtrusive and easy to use device is of widespread interest in a range of setti
11. as is apparent from the diagram These are Sound This button will record the last fifteen seconds of sound to wav file The file will be given the cur rent time as a name If recordings are made with less than fifteen seconds gap only the sound re corded since the last recording was made will be stored Note Prompts you to enter a one off freeform text note to add to the log Undo Undoes the last log entry if you hit a button by mistake You can only undo once New See adding new items Delete Deletes a button or a page See deleting items Profiles Goes to the profile manager screen Four different kinds of button are visible on the screen each of these performs a different function They are Normal grey This is the most common kind of button Pressing it simply records one event Timed light Pressing a timed button will cause it to stick down changing to a dark blue When pressed again this will record the time the button was down for This is useful for behaviour that might go on for some period of time Alarm timer orange This will start an alarm timer A preset timer will countdown and at the end the button will flash briefly and an associated sound will be played Pressing the button again while the timer is going will stop the timer 11 Sound green This will play a preset sound Adding a new item The new item screen is used to add items You can either add a button to the current pag
12. countdown a sound file wav format is played The user is free to choose what sound is played to allow therapists to choose sounds or music which are particularly suited to an individ ual child This feature can be used when trying to count the number of observed behaviours in a short time frame e g 30 seconds as is done in fluency based assessment Keenan Kerr amp Dillen burger 2000 Lindsley 1997 which has been shown to improve retention but which often causes non specialist parents problems in recording accurately Sounds Music In therapy it is often useful to be able to use certain sounds or music to capture the child s attention In order for example to bring a child back to the table or let them know it was time to go outside As the PDA has a microphone and loudspeaker certain sounds can be recorded directly using the microphone or downloaded from the Internet many children s TV shows have theme tunes or char acter s voices available for downloading this has proved a powerful motivation factor for children Also the ability to record the parents own voices can be a powerful tool as we will discuss later Microphone The built in microphone can also be used to capture child behaviour In the current implementation of the logging software the system is continuously logging sound and if the child actually says something at the press of a button the previous 30 seconds of sound are kept for later analysis This is an exc
13. e is that I have multi ple children but the buttons aren t saved when you switch between children so I have to reenter the buttons every time I start new I do like and rely on the alarm feature so far all my prompts have been on time Association Game This proved to be motivating to the student and the touch screen on the PDA was relatively intui tive to the children Sometimes they did not press hard enough and the system didn t respond Other problems arose with children pressing other control buttons on the PDA which changed the running program and led to frustration Parents felt there was a need to keep the pictures up to date and use a variety of voices to maintain interest It is also important to include added reinforcement from par ents to the devices in built reinforcer so that if the parent or tutor hears that the child has completed a series of pictures they could provide extra reinforcement CONCLUSIONS Two pieces of prototype software for early intervention programmes were developed and these provide some useful pointers to how PDAs might be used in future in such programmes and similar situations where flexible data logging is required Despite the prototypical nature of the work the behaviour logging program is already useful and is being used in a number of home programmes and in studies in special needs schools and in studies at normal primary schools This could become part of a larger programme coordination pack
14. e or a new page Checking the Timed box will make the button a timed entry This will be disabled if you are creating a new page Add new Button Page Name n If you wish to add either a sound playing button or a timed alarm choose the Sound button This will bring up the sound dialog This option is not available if you are creating a new page or if the Timed setting is checked Wave file to play windows alarm1 w Browse Timer Hours Minutes Seconds B EE eE A valid filename of a sound must be entered in the text box at the top the browse button can be used to select a file If the timer button is checked you can set a time to elapse before the alarm goes off Deleting items To remove a button or page first click the delete button It will then go dark gray and you can se lect the button or page to delete You cannot delete the page you are currently on If you decide not to delete anything click the delete button again to turn the delete mode off Output The logger writes output files into the directory logger of My Documents There is a subdirectory for children containing the log files and recorded sound and one for tutors containing the pro files for each tutor Each child or tutor has their own subdirectory within these directories Chil 12 dren s directories contain log txt the log of all entries and today txt the log of entries made to day Any recorded sound files
15. eading For example a section of the config file might look like my_section simultaneous_images 2 positive_feedback yes negative_feedback no Choosing my_section will display two pictures with positive feedback if the correct picture is selected and no negative feedback Other settings will remain at the defaults specified below An easy way to create a new section is to copy and paste an existing section similar to the one you wish to create and edit it to suit For example you could create a setting for one specific child and edit it as the child progresses while keeping the base settings unchanged Settings and defaults The following settings may be used in a section of a config file media_directory Set this to the name of the folder containing the images and sounds if they exist for the game This is useful for keeping different childrens image sets different for exam ple Default media simultaneous_images Set this to a number between 1 and 4 giving the number of images to display onscreen at once Default 2 sound_delay Set this to the time in seconds after which the sound for a picture is played after the picture s are shown If this is negative this gives the time after the sound is played before the new picture is show 0 gives simultaneous sound and picture Default 0 repeat Set this to yes to show the repeat button at the bottom left Default yes show_title Set this to yes to show the name of the
16. ence GLascaw Please Login If you have not logged on before you will get a message asking you to add a child to monitor before starting You will then be taken to the profile manager screen If you have logged on before or al ready have a login set up skip to the main screen The profile manager The profile manager looks as below The new button allows a new child to be added clicking on a listed child and choosing remove will remove the selected child You need to add at least one child to use the logger Children for John oO ob Remove Main screen The main screen is where logging actually takes place Initially it will be empty but buttons can be added which will record specific events In the figure below four buttons are visible 10 Save the last 15 Add a new note to the log Undo the last log entry seconds of sound file Sf Select a child to monitor ______ Go to the profile management screen p set Mute any sound being played X Remove a button from the page These tabs will flick between the pages of buttons you have defined The event buttons are the large buttons in the middle of the screen There can be up to nine on any given page Pages can be selected using the tab controls at the bottom of the screen as show above Initially the logger will start with only the Default page but more may be added There are sev eral additional controls available
17. iting development as in many cases tutors think the child is trying to say something but cannot understand what with the parents help the sound on the log file can maybe be decoded Also it is a powerful tool in convincing sceptical colleagues on a therapy team that a child did actu ally say a given word The method can also be used to log spoken notes by the therapist There is also a written note option in the software but this might be too time consuming in certain situa tions Analysis of logged data Once the data has been recorded we can look at it in a number of ways the log file can be viewed on the PDA in text form see Figure 3 for an example It can also be transferred to a standard PC and viewed in Excel using a macro package provided with the software which converts the logged data to a number of events counts and frequencies It is then up to the user to further transform or plot this as they wish An example of the output information available is given below me A ee D ee 1 Code IName Total Total duration Events hour ee 0 Special 2 0 000223 seh 1 Notes 0 0 AD 10 Ate 4 0 000458 fou 11 Drank 4 0 000458 IBA 12 Tantrum 3 0 000343 SE 13 Sleeping 3 00 00 05 0 000343 oa 14 Sound 1 0 000343 kaa 20 25a 3 0 000114 10 11 Active duration 00 00 19 12 13 Time Codes Tutor Event Duration 14 10 1401 3 00 PM D John Starting up 16 10 1 01 3 00 PM 10 John Ate 16 10 1 01 3
18. menu at the top left as SimpleGame with a fish icon Adding pictures To use the program you must provide a selection of pictures from which the program can choose The pictures should be in JPEG format and be sized such that no dimension exceeds 200 pixels The thumbnail images from searches on image google com_are a good source for this These pic tures need to be placed in their own subdirectory the default is My Documents TheGame media You may either dump all of the pictures into the media directory in which case images will be ran domly selected from all those provided or you may create subdirectories within the media directo ries This will cause the program to only choose sets of images from within one subdirectory al lowing categories of images to be kept distinct For example if there was a media directory with subdirectories called family and objects the game would present random pairs of images such that pairs will either both be from the family directory or both from the objects directory If you wish to provide feedback on the selection of correct or incorrect answers or reaching a par ticular target score you may place images and or sounds for these events in the My Docu ments TheGame feedback directory Positive feedback if enabled see config files below will display the image positive jpg and play the sound positive wav Negative feedback is handled similarly the files for reaching the targe
19. mmon to other programmes The advantages of a consultant having a common core set of measurements is that it allows sharing of visualisation software e g Excel macros graphing tools etc and is easy for the consultant to inter pret If a group of parents agree to share data the common format allows comparison between pro grammes and possibly information retrieval from a database allowing parents with children at similar levels to contact each other and exchange ideas or experience It also allows parents to find http www bestofiowa com pc logit2 html http www talkingwords com http www gumnut be ca homeaba case histories which were at one point similar to their own and to see how they dealt with the problem Extra features such as video footage converted to digital format could be added to Inter net based documentation so that parents could search by profile and view footage of a given child and the teaching and see how the programme developed A common response to many current edu cational programmes in the area is that parents find viewing videos of other children and other teaching styles much more useful than reading about therapy techniques in manuals This is espe cially true when parents can talk to the consultants and parents who ran the programme bringing the right parents together can be a far more efficient use of resources Target machine The work described in this paper was developed for the C
20. ngs including special needs education other learning disabilities sports training rehabilitation of stroke patients speech therapy Anyone wishing to use the software should contact Roderick Murray Smith by e mail at rod dcs gla ac uk and he will send you a free copy REFERENCES 1 Lindsley O R Precise instructional design Guidelines from Precision Teaching In C R Dills amp A J Romiszowski Eds Instructional development paradigms pp 537 554 Englewood Cliffs NJ Educational Technology Publications 1997 Keenan M Kerr K P amp Dillenburger K Eds Parents Education as Autism Therapists London Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2000 Ron Leaf ed amp John McEachin ed A Work in Progress Behavioral Management Strategies and a Curriculum for Intensive Bahavioral Treatment of Autism New York Different Roads to Learning 1999 APPENDIX I USER MANUAL FOR LOGGER Installing the program Download the file ChildLogger exe 58kb onto your computer Connect to your iPaq and copy this into the Windows Start Menu folder on it The program will then appear in the start menu at the top left as ChildLogger Starting the program After lauching the program you must login This allows separate profiles to be maintained for dif ferent users You may either a new name or select a new name from the drop down box The login screen looks like this 5 Child Logger UNIVERSITY Department of he Computing Sci
21. o the top of the screen again depending on philosophy this can be reconfigured so that wrong answers remove a token rather than being ignored so children can see how close they are to reaching the target score Parents might want to add further reinforcement when they hear the sound associated with the target score FORMATIVE EVALUATION Behaviour Logger The behaviour logger has been used in home and nursery situations In general it was found easy to use The microphone feature was not as useful as hoped as the sounds were often too indistinct to be of use Parents tended to use it in bursts rather than monitoring all day This is supported by the system as it allows the generation of statistics related to time spent logging The frequency record ing with sound alarms did however have problems with longer periods as used in for example toi let training where the PDA would switch off after a fixed period to conserve battery strength and the current implementation only updated alarms while on The logger was also used in a primary school setting by researchers at Bangor University in a study of ADHD hyperactive children measuring about 5 different behaviours simultaneously looking for frequency and duration Previous work had used clipboards and paper but this was found to be too distracting to the children being observed Some comments from the trial included The program has been good for our purposes The one thing I would chang
22. ompaq Ipaq handheld Personal Digital Assistant PDA shown below Figure 1 Compaq Ipaq PDA This is a portable wireless device with a colour touch sensitive screen which can comunicate with a conventional Windows based PC so that data and applications can easily be recorded and saved in a normal desktop computing environment Many of the features of the software developed in this work could be implemented on cheaper handheld platforms but the advanced features of the Ipaq made this a useful research platform The main screen is where logging actually takes place Initially it will be empty but buttons can be added which will record specific events In the figure below four buttons are visible Save the last 15 Add a new note to the log Undo the last log entry seconds of sound file Fi Select a child to monitor Bob X Go to the profile management screen i Mute any sound being played gT Add a new event button Default Test Three Remove a button from the page These tabs will flick between the pages of buttons you have defined Figure 2 Logger main screen Most features in the logging software have been designed to be usable even if the stylus is not used interface objects are large enough to be controlled by fingertips an important feature in stressful situations EXAMPLE SCENARIO A family is running a home programme with 2 tutors 3 family members and a nursery which the child attends two days
23. ownload images and sound files Web cam pictures are suitable and already in a low resolution suitable for the smaller screen and memory of a pocket PC Parents may either dump all of the pictures into a general directory on the PDA in which case im ages will be randomly selected from all those provided or you may create subdirectories within the media directories This will cause the program to only choose sets of images from within one subdi rectory allowing categories of images to be kept distinct For example if there was a media direc tory with subdirectories called family and objects the game would present random pairs of im ages such that pairs will either both be from the family directory or both from the objects di rectory Educational philosophy Depending on the educational philosophy of the individual programme the software allows you to configure the positive negative feedback presented to the child If you wish to provide feedback on the selection of correct or incorrect answers or reaching a particular target score you may place suitable images and or sounds for these events in the feedback directory Positive feedback will display the image positive jpg and play the sound positive wav Negative feedback is handled similarly and there are extra reward files for reaching the target score The progress to the target score is presented in token economy fashion with each correct answer another circle is added t
24. rma tion Mobility A clipboard is unlikely to be carried as easily and unobtrusively as a palmtop device especially outside the home Getting children to react correctly in a number of situations generalisation is the key to successful programmes so anything which frees tutors from having to work in a fixed room or building is likely to be beneficial Link to standard desktop PCs The mobile device is able to transfer the data acquired during sessions to a conventional personal computer for more convenient data analysis printing or communication with consultants via the Internet Planning for future sessions could be performed on the PC and the details downloaded to the palmtop in much the same way as personal electronic diary users do Examples of PC based support for ABA programmes includes Log It Talking Words and Home ABA Data manager Communities of programmes The configuration files for the logger and game are standard ASCII text files which can be pub lished on the Internet as example configurations which can be used or adapted for other programmes we hope that this will allow the development of a community of users who can then swap best practice ideas If a given consultant wishes families to use a common subset of the features he or she has selected this can be provided to each family as a base configuration Individual programmes can then add extra pages to the logger which will not interfere with the events co
25. sounds this may be confusing in the game The game The aim The game operates by presenting a pair or more up to 4 images on screen and playing a sound which will correspond to one of the displayed images The child then has to select the matching im age by pressing it If the child would like to hear the sound again the repeat button may be pressed to replay it The in game screen will appear as below is Feedback Pressing the images can give feedback Either positive feedback negative feedback or both may be presented after an image has been selected this is configurable see config files Scoring Optionally a scoring system may be enabled which increases as correct answers are given it may also be set to decrease on incorrect answers if desired The scores will appear as orange circles at the top of the screen when they reach the right hand side the target feedback will be given Config file The game options can be adjusted using the config file This is the file config txt which is located in My Documents TheGame You can download the default file here 10k The file consists of headings surrounded by square brackets and settings of the form something some value Lines beginning with a hash symbol are ignored these may be used as comments Each heading de 16 fined in this file appears in the list when the game is started and selecting it then will use the set tings listed under that h
26. t score are called target jpg and target wav Starting the program After lauching the program you begin by selecting a setting to use These are defined in the configuration file described later The screen below shows this selection screen Each of the set tings changes the various options that are used in the game how many pictures to show whether to provide negative feedback and so on Please choose a setting from the list below to use for this session default v Recording the sounds Each image is associated with a sound Normally this will be a vocal description of the image but it may be anything at all Each sound file corresponding to an image is kept in the media directory and has the same name as the image but with a wav extension instead of jpg If for example you had a file called cat jpg the associated sound would be called cat wav You can record or oth erwise obtain sound files and copy them into the media directory if you wish however it is easier to 15 use the recorder built into the game This will happen automatically when the game is started if im ages are found for which no matching sounds exists The screen will appear as below Sound for apple jog Record Skip remaining sounds To record a sound for the displayed image just hit the record button and hit it again when you are finished If you wish to skip the recording hit the skip button Note that this will leave some files without
27. the day often in stressful situations in a number of different contexts physical location and type of interac tion play training eating etc Modern computing technology can provide support for parents and teachers working with special needs children in home programmes or within nurseries or classrooms This support can be in terms of tools which ease some of the administrative burden of planning and coordinating an intensive early intervention programme and in terms of easier and faster communication with experts and consultants Software This paper examines two example applications developed at Glasgow University 1 a behaviour logger 2 asimple customisable association game These have been developed as examples of how personal handheld computers can support therapy programmes Although these were initially only intended as preliminary investigations of the area we have found them to be already highly applicable in practice The programs are being used in home nursery and school settings Autism The work described in this paper was developed in the context of early intervention parent run pro grammes for autistic spectrum disorder children but many of the features are relevant to other pro grammes Autism is being diagnosed with rapidly increasing frequency throughout the world but generally only 5 of autistic children become independent There are around 115000 autistic people in the UK NAS figures Estimates suggest that
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