Abstract
The current paper presents the development and the evaluation of an Arabic application (app) for electronic stories (eStories) that can be used as an assistive tool in the rehabilitation of children with social communication difficulties. The development process involved engineers and researchers and speech and language pathologists (SLPs) from a rehabilitation hospital, who formulated the design methodology of the Arabic app. This process is critical when designing tools for children with communication difficulties since they have a wide range of differences in their abilities. The evaluation of the app from the standpoint of the SLPs at a local school suggests that the app is easy to use, and the involvement of these SLPs helped in developing a better solution. The results of the usability study on twenty-five students showed positive evaluation with an average score that signifies that the app has above-average usability. This paper highlights the importance of the evaluation process in catering the app for successful user experience.
Highlights
Children with social communication difficulties show significant deficits in language with limited social interaction and verbal commenting. ese children frequently struggle in social settings due to deficits in initiating and responding to communication
We developed an application that contains four stories based on a request from the speech and language pathologists (SLPs) at Kuwait physical medical and rehabilitation hospital (KPMRH). is request was valued and encouraged by funding. e number of SLPs per children with communication difficulties is relatively low at the hospital
Erefore, an assistive tool to enhance the work of these SLPs in supporting these children was needed because of the scarcity of Arabic story applications for children with communication difficulties. e assistive tool, developed with the assistance of the SLPs of KPMRH to accommodate the local culture, contains stories that help the children learn skills associated with activities of daily living
Summary
Children with social communication difficulties show significant deficits in language with limited social interaction and verbal commenting. ese children frequently struggle in social settings due to deficits in initiating and responding to communication. Is increase presents new challenges for parents, caregivers, and speech and language pathologists (SLPs) of children with social communication difficulties. Erefore, an assistive tool to enhance the work of these SLPs in supporting these children was needed because of the scarcity of Arabic story applications for children with communication difficulties. E assistive tool, developed with the assistance of the SLPs of KPMRH to accommodate the local culture, contains stories that help the children learn skills associated with activities of daily living. We developed the app and evaluated its usability, and the findings are reported hereinafter It is the objective of this work to validate the design methodology when providing a solution for tablet application for children with social communication difficulties
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