Autism Society records most keynote and concurrent sessions at their annual conferences. You can see and hear those recordings by purchasing full online access, or individual recordings.
Registered attendees have free access, please select the button above for the file you would like to access.
Purchase AccessLearning Objectives
Major Objective: To learn how a hand held computer in the context of a social skills group can assist in the instruction of and improve individual awareness of social thinking and social skills for teens with HFA and AS.
Supportive Objectives: 1) To understand that technology can enhanced HFA and AS teens interest in personal awareness and social skills development. 2) To understand how to alter social skills group structure and process for hand held computer usage. 3) To become familiar with the components of a hand held computer: making behavior checks on a handheld computer, the variety of visual guidance on a hand held computer and the applications of visual guidance to social, sensory and emotional functioning. 4) To learn what kinds and levels of social thinking and social skill improvement can be achieved with a handheld computer. For instance: improvement in emotional awareness-feeling states (happy-sad), range of feelings (frustrated to furious), understanding of sensory states (high, just right, low and how to alter each state), improvement in one-to-one social exchanges (perspective taking), improvement in specific social skills (turn taking, eye contact etc) to name a few examples.
Methods:
In our (MGH/YouthCare) Behind the Scenes Teen summer program much of the focus is on self-awareness, social thinking, social skills with peers and adults and healthy lifestyles including eating, exercise, sleep and sensory awareness. These areas were incorporated into our screens for The Personal Guidance System (PGS) software developed by Symtrend, Inc. We have collaborated with Symtrend for two years on this project. MGH/YouthCare developed the content for the screens based on our outcome goals for the teens. Symtrend, Inc. created these additional screens for us and they were loaded onto the hand held computers. Symtrend’s website with secure two-way internet communication was also utilized. The PGS user (teens and group leaders) data is entered onto the PDA and it is sent to the website for charting. The charts can be used to reveal the course of progress and events that facilitate or obstruct progress, trends in feelings, behaviors or understanding of concepts.
Participants: Twelve individual male teens (each summer) divided into groups of six with HFA or AS enrolled in our Behind the Scenes Teen summer program and the two group leaders for each group.
Content
The MGH/YouthCare Behind the Scenes Summer Teen program is a seven week program that runs between July and August 5 days a week for 5 hours. The ages of the teens (all boys) were between13-17 and they were divided into two groups based on age and functioning level. Each group is staffed by two group leaders. Before introducing the actual PDAs to group members we introduced the concepts that were being addressed on the PDA on paper. Each boy had his own “Instructional Manual” that had printouts of what the actual PDA screens would look like and an explanation/definition of particular social concepts and vocabulary that they would be entering data on. At this stage the concepts and vocabulary were introduced and reinforced across the day and identified when they were engaging in a particular behavior, feeling, sensory state etc.
Sample screen content included:
Feelings: (sad – happy) and range within a feeling (frustrated – furious)
Cognitive Flexibility: Stuck on thoughts, talking about the same topic, repeating the same question
Social Skills: Eye Contact, body language, turn taking
Participation: Engaged with the group nonverbally/verbally, not with group
Social Thinking: Your peer moved away from you when you were talking were you staying on topic? Did you scan the person’s face/body for social information, I noticed/paid attention to face, body language, clothes, previous knowledge
Self-Regulation/Sensory System: How is my engine running? high, just right, low How can I get my engine speed just right? Stretch, push on chair, fidget
Stressors: Didn’t get my way, I have to do something I don’t want to do
Common signs of stress: repetitive thoughts, tense muscles, loud voice Both group leaders and each individual teen had their own PDA in which they entered data. Data was collected multiple times during the week - at the start and end of every day and at various other time periods (i.e. Social Thinking Group, After Lunch, etc) during the week. Social Thinking Group occurred two times a week for 45 minutes each session and data was collected during both sessions. Data was reviewed during one of these periods with all teens having access to his own chart and those of other group members. Contained on each chart was data entered by the Group leader as well as the teen. This concrete visual representation proved invaluable for all of our teens. All were able to see the discrepancies between their data and staff data for some screens. However, for some of our teens the vocabulary choices as well as the higher level content/concepts were too advanced. Yet, there were some who were matched perfectly and they benefited tremendously from this technological approach to self-awareness, social thinking and social behavior. These boys were able to discuss their data and recognize discrepancies between staff perceptions and their own recordings and ultimately make changes to their social behavior.
Learning Objectives:
Content Area: Social Skills
Dorothy Lucci, M.Ed., C.A.G.S.
Director of Consultation Services
MGH/YouthCare