Enhancing the Acquisition of Social Skills through the Interactivity of Multimedia

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neuro-developmental disorders caused by brain abnormalities which result in impaired social story. Research on treatment in helping children with ASD to improve social story is growing as the cases of children diagnosed with ASD are on the rise. Social story is one of the proven methods of treatment in helping children with ASD to acquire social story through scenarios written in the form of stories. However, the current approaches to present the social story lack interactivity, consuming more intensive efforts to acquire the social story. Learning is most effectual when motivated; thus, the purpose of this study is to discover a learning tool that children with ASD will be motivated to learn independently, and it is achievable by combining elements that they are interested in. This research utilizes the interactivity of multimedia as a medium to present an interactive pedagogical tool for children with ASD to acquire social story. This combination is anticipated to be an effective tool in teaching social story to children with ASD, as they are naturally drawn to computers and visual cues, combined with the fact that Social Story™ has been effective in changing the social behavior of children with ASD. Thus, this study has contributed to the emergent research of treatment for children with ASD in social story acquisition. The result of this study is important as it presents a novel assistance that can be used effectively in assisting children with ASD to improve their main deficit, social story.