Smart objects to support the discrimination training of children with autism

Teachers spend considerable amount of time keeping students with autism “on task” giving away prompts and rewards and maintaining a detailed record of students’ progress during the object discrimination training. We hypothesize that tangible computing, in particular smart objects, could help teachers cope with the problems faced during the object discrimination training of students with autism. In this paper, we describe design principles for smart objects to support the object discrimination training and present several example prototypes. First, we present the design and implementation of “Things that think” (T3), a smart device that converts traditional objects into smart objects that promote interactivity with a playful and engaging interaction, and are capable of the automatic recording of students’ progress. Then, we present four T3 smart objects assembled in a board. The results of a 7-week deployment study of the use of such smart objects in three classrooms of students with autism (n = 25, 7 teachers and 18 students with autism) demonstrate T3 smart objects reduce the workload of teachers, ease the record-keeping and increase its reliability, and reduce students’ behavioral problems while improving their cognitive efficacy. We close discussing directions for future work.