Question: Is there a particular form of technology that you think helps children with autism interact better with people than another?

Maggi Laurie answered on 14 Jun 2017:

Ella thanks for your question, it’s super interesting and something I think about a lot in my research.

First of all, it depends on what you mean by interacting with another person. If you mean ‘face to face’ interaction (e.g. sharing a space, having a conversation), then there needs to be something within the technology that takes the attention away from the tech and onto another person. For example, a super-addictive screen-based game like Candy Crush or something might not be good for this type of interaction because you always have to look at a screen! If you think of interaction in terms of a conversation, but not necessarily face-to-face, then perhaps instant messaging apps (like Whatsapp of Facebook messenger) would be really beneficial to someone with autism, who finds face-to-face interaction difficult.

But for now, let’s stick to face-to-face interaction, and think about what technologies might help children work together. The technology must have some opportunity for collaboration (e.g. an instruction to interact with another person (e.g. show this to your mum or dad!), or a turn-taking element. You can get iPad games that do this brilliantly (e.g. Toca Boca Tea Party is one I can think of) and other games that don’t do this so well. But then again, if they are fun and interesting a child might want to share with with their peers, and therefore, just having something which is motivating might inspire them to interact with other people.

Another thing is space – compare working on an iPad to working on a large table-sized touch-screen. With having a bit extra space (e.g. one child on each side of the table, vs. two children squeezed in to watch a tablet screen together). You might think that autistic children will find the tabletop more comfortable, and easier to interact in, as they will have more personal space. Another thing to think about is the sensory aspect of the game – games with noise, lights, and whistles might really attract one child, but really distract another. There has to be some balance in terms of interest and comfort so that the children can work together, if they are to interact.

To actually answer your question, I think that there isn’t an answer. Like I say, you can make guesses about what might work better for some individual children and not for others. But then again, children, and sometimes moreso autistic children, are very surprising and you may find interaction over something which you didn’t expect them to find interesting enough to share or talk about. Great question, and I hope that my research might be able to answer this in the next few years 🙂