Augmented reality for cognitive and social skills improvement in children with ASD

Abstract

Nowadays ubiquitous technology can be a suitable way to motivate and engage children in interactive learning activities in order to promote their cognitive and social skills. Technologies, like augmented reality (AR), have the ability to catch the children's imagination and to promote their attention, as they can experiment artificial, safe and fascinating environments. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) usually have difficulty to recognize facial expressions and to understand the associated emotions. Regarding that, an innovative GameBook to assist children with ASD to recognize and acquire emotions by engaging their attention and motivation was developed. The aim is to promote the interaction between the child/storyteller and his/her imagination as well as it will help the child to identify the correct emotional face to the situation. It can be played on any mobile device, such as a tablet, a smartphone or a laptop, with either an external or an inbuilt camera. We also intend to observe the impact of the game on children interaction, as well as to quantify and evaluate their performance, assess the usability of the technology, and evaluate how it affects the child emotion reactions and the benefits it offers.