A Tablet Computer-Assisted Motor and Language Skills Training Program to Promote Communication Development in Children with Autism: Development and Pilot Study

Abstract

ABSTRACTAutism is a heterogenous condition, encompassing many different subtypes and presentations. Of those people with autism who lack communicative speech, some are more skilled at receptive language than their expressive difficulty might suggest. This disparity between what can be spoken and what can be understood correlates with motor and especially oral motor abilities, and thus may be a consequence of limits to oral motor skill. Point OutWords, tablet-based software targeted for this subgroup, builds on autistic perceptual and cognitive strengths to develop manual motor and oral motor skills prerequisite to communication by pointing or speaking. Although typical implementations of user-centered design rely on communicative speech, Point OutWords users were involved as co-creators both directly via their own nonverbal behavioral choices and indirectly via their communication therapists’ reports; resulting features include vectorized, high-contrast graphics, exogenous cues to help capture and maintain attention, customizable reinforcement prompts, and accommodation of open-loop visuomotor control.