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Project Background

The aim of this research is to design, develop and evaluate a web-based personalised dual-adaptive learning system to scaffold and support carers teaching social interaction skills to children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Social interaction difficulties lie at the core of these disorders. Due to their social-cognitive learning disabilities children with ASDs are unable to develop social skills or interpret the social nuances around them. The need for carers to tackle the issue of social competence is important for the overall development of children with ASDs, for without social interaction skills these children will be unable to participate fully in school life and later in society.

A review of sixty existing social skills interventions indicates that these interventions are used mainly to teach language, pragmatics, and communication skills. This approach, based on teaching specific social skills in isolation from other aspects of social development, does not deal adequately with the social deficit in ASDs.

Since carers are familiar with the distinctive nature of these children’s problems and the varying levels of difficulty children experience when interacting with the people around them they are best placed to help this group. However carers require assistance as they lack the expertise and resources necessary to teach children social skills as part of their social development. Moreover, if carers are given the tools to personalise the learning experience for individual children according to their particular needs, they can help these children achieve a degree of social understanding which will enable them to apply and generalise learnt social skills in a meaningful way.

The researcher proposes to bridge the gap in the existing interventions by developing an adpative learning system to help carers teach ten skills required for successful social interaction.