An augmented toy and social interaction in children with autism

Abstract

An Augmented Knights Castle (AKC) play set was adapted so that children with autism can configure programmable elements. This is compared with a non-configurable AKC and when the AKC set is switched-off. When the system is configurable, and when it is switched on, less solitary play and more cooperative play occur. Digital toys, and their configurability are key factors in design for children with autism allowing greater individual control and more socially oriented behaviour. We suggest that tangibles provide a safety net for encouraging social interaction as they allow for a broad range of interaction styles. Keywords: Tangibles, configuration, autism, object interaction, social interaction, direct manipulation Biographical notes: William Farr trained as a Primary school teacher at the University at Sussex and worked in schools for twelve years. During that time he taught in Tottori Prefecture in Japan, and completed an MA in Education focusing on Autism and computing. After finishing the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and working as a Deputy Headteacher he was offered an EPSRC sponsored Dphil. He is currently 3 rd year Dphil student in Psychology focusing on Autism and Tangibles and is also an Associate Tutor in Education and Psychology on MA and Undergraduate programs.

Exploring Expressive Augmented Reality

“…Although various physical objects are involved in these systems, they either remain literal without any symbolic transformation (e.g. Storymat [31], Augmented Knight's Castle [10], video puppetry [3]) or simply function as tangible entities to help children interact with virtual objects more efficiently (e.g. ShadowStory [18], Puppettime [22], wIzQuebes [38]).…”

Mechanisms for collaboration

“…Children's free play with the augmented playset was contrasted with that in a switched-off version (the KC version). There are striking differences between the two conditions, for both typically-developing children and for children with autism (Farr, and Hinske, 2010;Yuill et al, submitted), in that there is significantly less solitary and more social play in the augmented version. In terms of awareness, the playset in both versions allows all-round views, allowing each child to see the focus of attention among their playmates through eye gaze and body orientation.…”

Augmenting imagination for children with autism

“…Farr [5] and his colleagues built a knight castle toy augmented with audio feedback, which inspired cooperative play in a natural play environment. They conducted another experiment [6] comparing Topobo (tangible construction toy) and Lego, which showed that Topobo elicited more social interaction.…”