0000000000246506

AUTHOR

Gabriel Labajo

Using ‘Ambient Intelligence’ for Compensating Intellectual Difficulties of People with Severe Learning Difficulties and/or Autistic Spectrum Disorders

This paper describes a set of services and software created so that what is called ‘ambient intelligence’ would compensate for the ‘intellectual difficulties’ that people from this collective have. Existing concepts and standards of ambient intelligence are strongly reinforced through the use of the exact current user’s position as a key factor to calculate how the ‘digital home’ or any ‘digital environment’ behaves at every moment. This will be obtained using both Wi-Fi personal locators (embedded in necklaces or bracelets) and Wi-Fi communication from the PDA. This mix, together with individual capabilities and preferences, makes the development of a wide range of services possible when c…

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Development of symbolic play through the use of virtual reality tools in children with autistic spectrum disorders: two case studies.

Difficulties in understanding symbolism have been documented as characteristic of autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). In general, virtual reality (VR) environments offer a set of potential advantages for educational intervention in ASD. In particular, VR offers the advantage, for teaching pretend play and for understanding imagination, of it being possible to show these imaginary transformations explicitly. This article reports two case studies of children with autism (aged 8:6 and 15:7, both male), examining the effectiveness of using a VR tool specifically designed to work on teaching understanding of pretend play. The results, confirmed by independent observers, showed a significant adv…

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Assessing Virtual Reality as a Tool for Support Imagination

One of the major developments of the second year of human life is the emergence of the ability to pretend (Leslie, 1987). Many children with autism use no pretend play or are impoverished in the quality of their play (Baron-Cohen, 1989). The key factor of our Virtual Reality Software in relation to Pretend Play is the possibility to really show the object transformations we propose when pretending. We hope those technics to drive people with autism to a better understanding of pretense and to enable them to develop a play with more quality.

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Assessing B.A.Bar Device as a Tool for Supporting Labour Integration of a Severely Affected Person with Autism Who Carries Out Classifying Tasks

This paper describes the case research carried out to demonstrate the utility of a specific technical aid (adapted bar code reader) to train an adult with severe autism in the performance of a work task of classifying products in a shop. The individual with autism who participated in this research has a combination of difficulties (degree of 76 percent of disability and unable to learn to read and write) and abilities (being able to follow single verbal instructions). Positive results are expounded together with considerations about the desirable features of future products that would overcome the mere training process and also be useful for the final and real task in any working environmen…

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