Digital technology offers the potential to address educational challenges in resource‐poor settings. This meta‐analysis examines the impact of students' use of technology that personalises and adapts to learning level in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Following a systematic search for research between 2007 and 2020, 16 randomised controlled trials were identified in five countries. Studies involved 53,029 learners aged 6–15 years. Coding examined learning domain (mathematics and literacy); personalisation level and delivery; technology use; and intervention duration and intensity. Overall, technology‐supported personalised learning was found to have a statistically significant—if moderate—positive effect size of 0.18 on learning (p = 0.001). Meta‐regression reveals how more personalised approaches which adapt or adjust to learners' level led to significantly greater impact (an effect size of 0.35) than those only linking to learners' interests or providing personalised feedback, support, and/or assessment. Avenues for future research include investigating cost implications, optimum programme length, and teachers' role in making personalised learning with technology effective. What is already known about this topic? Promoting personalised learning is an established aim of educators. Using technology to support personalised learning in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) could play an important role in ensuring more inclusive and equitable access to education, particularly in the aftermath of COVID‐19. There is currently no rigorous overview of evidence on the effectiveness of using technology to enable personalised learning in LMICs. What this paper adds? The meta‐analysis is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of technology‐supported personalised learning in improving learning outcomes for school‐aged children in LMICs. Technology‐supported personalised learning has a statistically significant, positive effect on learning outcomes. Interventions are similarly effective for mathematics and literacy and whether or not teachers also have an active role in the personalisation. Personalised approaches that adapt or adjust to the learner led to significantly greater impact, although whether these warrant the additional investment likely necessary for implementation at scale needs to be investigated. Personalised technology implementation of moderate duration and intensity had similar positive effects to that of stronger duration and intensity, although further research is needed to confirm this. Implications for practice and/or policy: The inclusion of more adaptive personalisation features in technology‐assisted learning environments can lead to greater learning gains. Personalised technology approaches featuring moderate personalisation may also yield learning rewards. While it is not known whether personalised technology can be scaled in a cost‐effective and contextually appropriate way, there are indications that this is possible. The appropriateness of teachers integrating personalised a...

Background. Little is known about the extent to which embodied digital mediation may support social engagement between children with or without autism (ASD) in free play settings. This study draws on A ordance theory and Sociocultural theory to investigate social play behaviours associated with use of a Tangible User Interface (TUI) during free play.Method. The study used a detailed observational and descriptive design. Two groups of children with ASD and two groups of typically developing (TD) children were lmed during a 20-minute play session with either a passive toy, or a digital toy with a TUI. Behaviours were coded according to a scheme based on Parten's Play States. Data were described in terms of duration, frequency and the likelihood of transition to another state, given the current state.Results. For TD children, Parallel and Associative were the most frequently observed Play States across both conditions. For those with ASD, Parallel Play and Non-Play-Related Conversation were the most frequent states in the passive condition, while Parallel and Associative Play were the most common in the TUI condition. This group demonstrated a longer duration of co-operative play with the TUI toy compared to TD children. Both groups showed higher frequencies of social play in the TUI condition.Conclusions. Social play states can be e ectively mediated by TUIs for both TD and ASD groups. For the ASD group, repetitive behaviour with a TUI may not be inhibitory to social engagement. Practitioners may consider making TUI enabled toys available during free play opportunities.

No abstract

No abstract

Background and aims Play-based interventions are used ubiquitously with children with social, communication, and language needs but the impact of these interventions on the mental health of this group of children is unknown. Despite their pre-existing challenges, the mental health of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) should be given equal consideration to the other more salient features of their condition. To this aim, a systematic literature review with meta-analysis was undertaken to assess the impact of play-based interventions on mental health outcomes from studies of children with DLD and ASD, as well as to identify the characteristics of research in this field. Methods The study used full systematic review design reported to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (PRISMA prisma-statement.org) with pre-specified inclusion criteria and explicit, transparent and replicable methods at each stage of the review. The study selection process involved a rigorous systematic search of seven academic databases, double screening of abstracts, and full-text screening to identify studies using randomised controlled trial (RCT) and quasi-experimental (QE) designs to assess mental health outcomes from interventions supporting children with DLD and ASD. For reliability, data extraction of included studies, as well as risk of bias assessments were conducted by two study authors. Qualitative data were synthesised narratively and quantified data were used in the metaanalytic calculation. Main contribution A total of 2,882 papers were identified from the literature search which were double screened at the abstract (n  =  1,785) and full-text (n  =  366) levels resulting in 10 papers meeting the criteria for inclusion in the review. There were 8 RCTs and 2 QEs using 7 named play-based interventions with ASD participants only. Meta-analysis of 5 studies addressing positive mental health outcomes (e.g. positive affect and emotional functioning) found a significant overall intervention effect (Cohen's d = 1.60 (95% CI [0.37, 2.82], p = 0.01); meta-analysis of 6 studies addressing negative mental health outcomes (e.g., negative affect, internalising and externalising problems) found a non-significant overall intervention effect (Cohen's d = 0.04 -0.17 (95% CI [-0.04, 0.51], p = 0.88). Conclusions A key observation is the diversity of study characteristics relating to study sample size, duration of interventions, study settings, background of interventionists, and variability of specific mental health outcomes. Play-based interventions appear to have a beneficial effect on positive, but not negative, mental health in children with ASD. There are no high quality studies investigating the efficacy of such interventions in children with DLD. Implications This review provides good evidence of the need for further research into how commonly used play-based interventions designed to support the social, communication, and language needs of young people may impact the mental health of children with ASD or DLD.

No abstract

Background. Little is known about the extent to which embodied digital mediation may support social engagement between children with or without autism in free play settings. This study draws on Affordance theory and Sociocultural theory to investigate social play behaviours associated with use of a Tangible User Interface (TUI) during free play.Method. The study used a detailed observational and descriptive design. Two groups of children with autism (ASD) and two groups of typically developing (TD) children were filmed during a 20 minute play session with either a passive toy, or a digital toy with a TUI. Behaviours were coded according to a scheme based on Parten's Play States. Data were described in terms of duration, frequency and the likelihood of transition toanother state, given the current state.Results. For TD children, Parallel and Associative were the most frequently observed Play States across both conditions. For those with ASD, Parallel Play and Non-Play-Related Conversation were the most frequent states in the passive condition, while Parallel and AssociativePlay were the most common in the TUI condition. This group demonstrated a longer duration of co-operative play with the TUI toy compared to TD children. Both groups showed higher frequencies of social play in the TUI condition.Conclusions. Social play states can be effectively mediated by TUIs for both TD and ASD groups. For the ASD group, repetitive behaviour with a TUI may not be inhibitory to social engagement. Practitioners may consider making TUI enabled toys available during free play opportunities

Background and AimsPlay-based interventions are used ubiquitously with children with social, communication, and language needs but the impact of these interventions on the mental health of this atypical group of children is unknown. Despite their pre-existing challenges, the mental health of DLD and ASD children should be given equal consideration to the other more salient features of their disability. To this aim, a systematic literature review with meta-analysis was undertaken to assess the impact of play-based interventions on mental health outcomes from studies of children with DLD and ASD, as well as to identify the characteristics of research in this field. MethodsThe study selection process involved a rigorous systematic search of seven academic databases, double screening of abstracts, and full-text screening to identify studies using RCTs and quasi-experimental designs to assess mental health outcomes from interventions supporting children with social, communication, and language needs. For reliability, data extraction, as well as risk of bias assessments were conducted by two study authors. Qualitative data were synthesized and quantified data was used in the meta-analytic calculation.Main contribution A total of 2 882 papers were identified from the literature search which were double screened at the abstract (n = 1 785) and full-text (n= 366) levels resulting in 10 papers meeting the criteria for inclusion in the review. There were 8 RCTs and 2 quasi-experiments using 7 named play-based interventions with ASD participants only. Meta-analysis results found a significant overall intervention effect (Cohen’s d = 1.57) for studies addressing positive mental health outcomes (n = 5) in contrast to a non-significant overall intervention effect for negative mental health outcomes (Cohen’s d = -0.17).ConclusionsA key observation is the diversity of study characteristics relating to study sample size, duration of interventions, study settings, background of interventionists, and variability of specific mental health outcomes. The heterogeneous nature of studies stand out although only a few studies were eligible for inclusion. ImplicationsThis review provides good evidence of the need for further research into how commonly used play-based interventions designed to support the social, communication, and language needs of students may impact the mental health of children with ASD or DLD.