Development of Smart phone based Cultural Social Stories for Intellectually Disabled Children of Pakistan

Abstract

Intellectual disability (ID) is defined by a limitation in adaptive skills and cognitive functioning of an individual which attributes towards difficulty in handling or dealing with everyday life situations. Research validates that cognitive functioning and adaptive skills of ID individual can be reduced through Early Intervention which is a set of therapeutic services provided as soon as the first sign of disability appears. As intellectually disabled children (IDC) are better able to learn through demonstrations and role plays that is why early intervention techniques such as Social Stories and Video Modeling are considered effective at teaching various adaptive, social, daily life and self help skills to IDC. Research recommends that these social stories should be developed with respect to the targeted culture and should represent the cultural norms, language and attire else they might not be helpful. This study has been conducted in collaboration experts and teachers from Amin Maktab, Lahore (Pakistan) where the experts have not only endorsed the significance of culturally tailored social stories but have also recommended to present these social stories to Pakistani IDC using smart phones to teach them various social and adaptive skills. This paper proposes the framework to develop culturally tailored social stories for Pakistani IDC followed by the design implications for development of an Android application Parity through which the social stories shall be presented.