This book offers a practical approach for staff and carers who want to develop the use of ICT for children on the autistic spectrum and for those with language and communication difficulties. It combines descriptions of current research and literature on the subject of autism and ICT with practical guidance on software and hardware. A practical approach encourages experimentation, values the skills and attributes that participants bring and minimizes the technical barrier to ICT use. It includes concise information on what autism is, and examples of a range of pupils and their typical learning behaviors. It offers advice on how ICT can relate to various aspects of autism, information on concept keyboards and touch-sensitive screens and switches, and help with buying a computer and using the internet. Teachers, carers and parents of children with autism or language and communication problems will find lots of useful suggestions and advice on how to use ICT to help access the curriculum.

International interest in the use of assistive and ambient information and communication technologies to support people with a range of cognitive impairments is growing rapidly. Autism spectrum disorders ASDs, which affect social skills, communicative abilities and behavior, are of particular interest. The number of diagnosed cases has continued to grow in recent decades, and the impairments associated with ASDs mean individuals affected are at risk of social isolation and marginalization. Although helping people with autism to overcome their difficulties has always required the joint expertise of various fields, the widely shared

Among the disabilities covered at the state and federal levels, autism and related conditions are a sharply growing diagnostic category among children and young adults. In education, administrators and practitioners working with affected learners are continually faced with confronting difficult problems such as getting adequate personnel training and choosing appropriate tools and techniques that best fit the specific needs of their students while at the same time satisfying their budget, technical resources, curriculum, and profile of the ASD population they serve. The choice of appropriate tools is especially complex due to the intrinsic connection between technical specifications, educational/therapeutic methods, and the wide variety of ASDs and related conditions. In this respect, tools chosen to support children may need to target those diagnosed not only with ASD but also with such co-morbidity conditions as attention deficit disorder. The instructional strategies and use of technology currently have room for improvement for online, hybrid, and face-to-face counseling settings. Also, an effective evaluation of educational technologies and tools would be fundamentally incomplete without a thorough understanding and assessment of the related special education practices as well as psychological and neurological issues specific for ASD and learning disabilities. Education and Technology Support for Children and Young Adults With ASD and Learning Disabilities provides an in-depth analysis on the use of available technology solutions, instructional design methods, and assessment techniques in the context of standards and regulations in classroom or counseling settings. The chapters contain theoretical analyses, vital practical information, and case studies that can function as guidelines for those involved in helping children and young adults with ASD or learning disabilities in online, hybrid, or face-to-face environments. While highlighting topics such as inclusive education, online gaming environments, assistive technologies, and cognitive development, this book is ideally intended for administrators, instructional technology specialists, special education faculty, counselors, instructional designers, course developers, social workers, and psychologists along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, and academicians interested in education and technology support for children and young adults with ASD and learning disabilities.

This volume analyzes recent technological breakthroughs in aiding children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Chapters offer practical guidance in such areas as assessment, treatment planning, and collaborative intervention. The book also presents findings on hardware and software innovations and emphasizes their effectiveness in clinical practices that are targeted to specific cognitive, social, academic and motor skill areas. In addition, it describes promising new deficit-reducing and skill-enhancing technologies on the horizon. Featured topics include: Developing and supporting the writing skills of individuals with ASD through assistive technologies. The ways in which visual organizers may support executive function, abstract language comprehension and social learning. Do-as-I’m-doing situations involving video modeling and autism. The use of technology to facilitate personal, social and vocational skills in youth with ASD. Evidence-based instruction for students with ASD. The use of mobile technology to support community engagement and independence. Technology and Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder is an essential resource for clinicians and related professionals as well as researchers and graduate students across such disciplines as child and school psychology, rehabilitation medicine, educational technology, occupational therapy, speech pathology and social work.

Technology acceptance can be defined as a user’s willingness to employ technology for the tasks it is designed to support. Over the years, acceptance researchers have become more interested in understanding the factors influencing the adoption of technologies in various settings. From the literature, much research has been done to understand technology acceptance in the business contexts. This is understandable, given the close relationship between the appropriate uses of technology and profit margin. In most of the acceptance studies, researchers have sought to identify and understand the forces that shape users’ acceptance so as to influence the design and implementation process in ways to avoid or minimize resistance or rejection when users interact with technology. Traditionally, it has been observed that developers and procurers of technological resources could rely on authority to ensure that technology was used, which is true in many industrial and organizational contexts. However, with the increasing demands for educational applications of information technology and changing working practices, there is s need to re-examine user acceptance issues as they emerge within and outside of the contexts in which technology was implemented. This is true in the education milieu where teachers exercise the autonomy to decide on what and how technology will be used for teaching and learning purposes. Although they are guided by national and local policies to use technology in the classrooms, teachers spent much of their planning time to consider how technology could be harnessed for effective lesson delivery and assessment to be conducted. These circumstances have provided the impetus for researchers to study technology acceptance in educational settings. Although these studies have typically involved students and teachers as participants, their findings have far-reaching implications for school leaders, policy makers, and other stakeholders. The book is a critical and specialized source that describes recent research on technology acceptance in education represented by educators and researchers from around the world such as Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, United Kingdom, and United States of America.

Millions of children have been diagnosed with autism or fall somewhere within the autism spectrum. Early intervention, education, and training programs have been found to support these students immensely, leading to a higher level of independent social life than has previously been seen. Anxiety, bullying, communication, and learning abstract concepts can be a great challenge for autistic children and can also provide an obstacle for social interaction with other children. It is important to continue offering these students access to a broad, enriched, and balanced curriculum while also devising new approaches and alternative systems of communication that will help to facilitate their access to the educational process and foster adaptive behaviors. Interventions for Improving Adaptive Behaviors in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders offers a current overview of modern practices regarding the teaching of autistic children. This book seeks to update the current practices for professionals working with autistic children, offer practical information regarding interventions, and provide tools for managing autistic children in critical situations. Covering topics such as autism diagnostic observation schedule, inclusivity in schools, and vocational training for autistic people, this text is essential for teachers, special education teachers, administrators, speech therapists, academicians, researchers, students, and professionals and practitioners involved in the upbringing, education, social, and vocational inclusion of people with ASD.

Runner up in Teach Secondary’s Technology and Innovation Awards 2014 sponsored by Lego, Brilliant Ideas for using ICT in the Inclusive Classroom provides lots of simple practical ideas showing teachers and support staff how they can use ICT to boost the achievement of all pupils. How can you use ICT to boost the achievement of all your pupils? This practical teachers’ guide will help you to unlock the enormous potential of new technology in order to enhance pupils’ learning, particularly for young people with additional needs. Written by two of the UK’s leading technology experts, this invaluable and newly updated resource will enable you to use ICT effectively to make lessons more accessible, motivating and fun. With fifty illustrated case studies and twenty starter activities, this practical resource will help you to introduce new technology into the inclusive classroom. It has been specifically designed to help develop your pupils’ key skills, such as problem solving, developing concepts and communicating to different audiences. In each activity, the authors show why and how a particular resource was used and show how similar techniques can be implemented to open up the curriculum to your learners. The authors include timely and realistic advice on how to use a range of technologies from the cheap and cheerful – and even free – to more sophisticated and specialist packages. Find out about: Apps Blogging Digital animation Podcasting Digital storytelling Wikis Geocaching Coding Games and gaming Sat nav Art packages Twitter Whether you’re already techno-savvy or looking to get started with ICT, this book is full of brilliant ideas on how to engage learners of all abilities using technology. If you’re looking for inspiration on how to integrate creative uses of ICT with the curriculum, this book will prove invaluable.