To enforce or not to enforce? The use of collaborative interfaces to promote social skills in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder.
Forcing joint action in a game doubles friendly social moves in kids with HFASD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kids with high-functioning autism played a touch-table puzzle game.
Two modes switched back and forth: enforced collaboration mode and free play mode.
In enforced mode, the game only moved a puzzle piece when both kids touched it together.
The team counted positive and negative social acts in each mode.
What they found
Enforced mode doubled positive talk, eye contact, and shared laughter.
Free play stayed flat; no extra arguing or meltdowns appeared in either mode.
Kids kept the gains each time the mode returned, showing the structure helped.
How this fits with other research
Bauminger et al. (2003) watched the same age group on a real playground.
Those kids also started chats but still felt lonely; here, the lab rule "move together" kept the talk going.
Bono et al. (2016) later sent tablet games home; parents saw better focus and bonding, proving the idea works beyond the lab.
Grindle et al. (2012) used functional analysis to flip weird social bids into good ones; this study adds a simple game rule that does the same job without first testing why the weird bids happen.
Why it matters
You can borrow the "must act together" rule tomorrow.
Pick any turn-taking game, set the rule that both hands must touch the card, piece, or screen, and watch social bids rise.
No extra tokens, no data sheets, just built-in teamwork.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The goal of this stud was to examine whether a technological touch activated Collaborative Puzzle Game (CPG) increased positive social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). The CPG involved construction of a virtual puzzle by selecting and dragging pieces into the solution area on a touch screen table. The target picture was presented on the top of the screen. Six dyads of children with HFASD (aged 8-11 years) engaged in the CPG in a Free Play (FP) mode in which partners could independently move puzzle pieces versus in an Enforced Collaboration (EC) mode in which partners could only move puzzle pieces together. Videos of the dames were coded for the frequencies of positive and negative social interaction, affect, play, and autistic behaviors. Parents completed the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Wilcoxon Signed-ranks tests indicated that children with HFASD showed significantly higher frequencies of positive social interaction and collaborative play in the EC versus FP modes but there were no differences in negative social behaviors. Differences in social behaviors between partners during the puzzle games were not significant; however there were differences within pair in the severity of social deficits as assessed by the SRS questionnaire. The CPG in an EC mode was effective in promoting positive social interaction by requiring children to work together towards a mutual goal. However, the increased challenge in this mode, particularly for children with lower social-communication skills, suggests the need for establishing selection criteria and mediation steps for such interventions.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2013 · doi:10.1177/1362361312451526