Abstract
Technology is inevitable, and its role for clinical therapists and specialists cannot be ignored. The promising movement towards computer-based interventions, specifically the use of tablets as an effective and newly developed learning device for children with autism spectral disorder (ASD) highlights the role of technology in addressing the shortcomings of conventional therapy methods. In this paper, we present a new application, named as Xylotism, which is an interactive game to improve learning and teach music to children with autism spectrum disorder. The game can be played with/without parents/therapists’ involvement, which increases its usefulness and effectiveness. We have investigated the acceptability and eligibility of the application among twenty children with autism spectrum disorder. To have a fair comparison a similar experiment has been performed utilizing a real Xylophone. The initial results are promising, since all participants accepted to play with Xylotism application and fifteen out of the twenty of them preferred to use the virtual Xylophone. We also video recorded the activities and coded the children’s behavior, and their performance in playing rhythms were measured. The results suggest that the acceptance of Xylotism application is fairly compatible to the real Xylophone and it has the potential to improve the skill of playing rhythms in children with ASD.
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Acknowledgements
Our profound gratitude goes to the “Center for the Treatment of Autistic Disorders (CTAD)” and its teachers/psychologists for their contributions to the clinical trials with the children. This research was funded by the “Cognitive Sciences and Technology Council” (CSTC) of Iran (http://www.cogc.ir/). We also appreciate the Iranian National Science Foundation (INSF) for their complementary support of the Social & Cognitive Robotics Laboratory (http://en.insf.org/). We also thank Mrs. S.L. Holderread for English editing of the paper.
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Tavakol Elahi, M. et al. (2017). “Xylotism”: A Tablet-Based Application to Teach Music to Children with Autism. In: Kheddar, A., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10652. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70022-9_72
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70022-9_72
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