†

ECHOES II Investigators
Judith Good† (Sussex University)

Karen Guldberg (Birmingham University)

Wendy Keay-Bright (University of Wales Institute Cardiff)

Helen Pain, Tim Smith (Edinburgh University)

Thusha Rajendran (Strathclyde University)

Annalu Waller (Dundee University)

Project Leaders

Oliver Lemon (Edinburgh University)
Kaska Porayska-Pomsta (IOE, LKL)

Project Details
TLRP 2 funded, start date September 2008

Keywords
Social interaction, child development, autism, enhanced rality exploratory multimodal learning environment, participatory design

Social and communication skills are important for learning by all children [1].† Development of typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder differs, but both groups may find real social interactions stressful and intimidating.† This can impact on their communication and learning.† ECHOES II will address these issues by creating a safe, motivating, and inclusive multimodal learning environment allowing children to explore different social situations to improve their social interaction and communication skills. ECHOES II will provide a unique opportunity to explore a place in which learning happens and in which learning can be studied.

†Research basis for ECHOES II:

?†Computers can assist in the inclusion of the most anxious by offering a predictable and† controllable medium, where multi-sensory inputs of the real world can be reduced.

?†TEL can be effective, motivating, safe, and emotionally engaging.

? Experience and exploration of social interactions is crucial to social understanding that is generalisable to everyday cognitive functions, e.g. recognition of surprise in others, initiation of small talk, etc.

? Typical socio-cognitive development may be an average across diverse developmental trajectories rather than a pathway that most children follow [2].

? Participatory design is essential to creating learning technology for children.

?†Technologies such as the Reactive Colours (pictured; http://www.reactivecolours.org/), STAGEís ëmagic mirrorí (TLRP1 funded; [3]), avatars, eye tracking, speech synthesis and learner modelling will be used in the ECHOES II development.

References:

[1] Mercer, N. and Littleton, K. (2007).† Dialogue and the development of childrenís thinking.† London: Routledge.

[2] Pennington, B. F., Snyder, K. A., & Roberts Jr, R. J. (2007). Developmental cognitive neuroscience: Origins, issues, and prospects. Developmental Review, 27, 428-441.[3] Good, J., Romero, P., du Boulay, B., Reid, H., Howland, K., and Robertson, J. (2008). An embodied interface for teaching computational thinking.† Proc. of the 2008 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2008).††