Minor Project
Arletta Leviani (0337751)
Minor Project
INSTRUCTION
Minor Project
Introduction to the module
03/09/20 (week 1)
This is the first week of minor project, but not our first class. The first
time Mr Mike briefed our module is 2 weeks before the actual class start. We
are required to put an idea that can help others, and 2 of the ideas would be
pick. Today we are briefed on the MIB and Mr Mike straight away talk about the
project options. There are 5 in total, and turn out my idea was selected. I
was shock, but mostly panic. This semester since I can't fly back to Malaysia,
I don't have full control of making decisions, since most of the group
decision is more in the offline class because the majority came to class. Some
people eventually text me that they interested in the topic and want to join.
I decided to stick with my idea, which is
Early Autism Project or
EAP in short.
Empathy
10/09/20 (week 2)
Mr Mike then talk about empathy, in design, it is a way of designing something
for the good of others. We design and redesigning for the people in mind. The
empathy is form based on what they need, tested and fixed to suit their habit
and behavior. For us to understand, we need to have an interview with people
related to our topic, or to come to the place and observed. It is not possible
for us to observe ourselves, so interview would be more fitting.
During the week, there are information about the groups are not fair, and Mr
Mike said to change it. Since the group haven't finalized, we can't have much
discussion. The only thing we did this week is to find people that know well
in special education or special need, and getting familiar with the spectrum
in autism.
We found some that willing to be interviewed by us. The first one is my
friend, Christian, a special
education specialists, graduates from Malaysia and work with kids with needs
such as autism in Indonesia. He has the experience working with children with
autism and he is happy to share the knowledge. The second person that willing
to be interviewed is my friend
Mellisa. She is a friend of
mine since junior high school that has a little brother that has autism. I've
meet her brother in a few occasion and I believe she can share what she
observe over the years. She only want to be interviewed by me, as she not used
to talk about her brother to stranger. The last person is
Michelle, a non-profit
coordinator of The Hope Project who coordinates their projects.
Define
17/09/20 (week 3)
1. When learning, what areas do these children struggle in, compared to normal children?
Not every student have cognitive problems. Some students find difficulties in behavior. Some students have difficulty in paying attention and focusing. Not all of them.
2. Based on your observation, what are the common difficulties/factors children with autism had? As a teacher, what are the difficulties you face when teaching? How do you cope with these problem?
Difficulties - Sometimes they are not ready to learn. Their mindset are not ready to work (emotionally ready, behavior adaptation).
3. Which environments/supports are most effective in terms of achieving the best education/social skills outcomes in autistic children?
Best environment for autistic children are calm and away from distraction. For special needs the classes are plain with limited posters to limit distractions and disturbance.
4. What are the activities you practice to make a new autistic student feel accepted and adapt to the new environment?
Early classes students don't get much mathematical work. Each students have a specific schedule, (Eg; cooking class there is cooking pictures). Some students have difficulties to change schedule and adapt with flexibility. Make changes in their schedule to make them adapt to flexibility. Give them time to process the change.
5. Is there a certain order that you follow when creating your schedules?
Early classes students don't get much mathematical work. Each students have a specific schedule, (Eg; cooking class there is cooking pictures). Some students have difficulties to change schedule and adapt with flexibility. Make changes in their schedule to make them adapt to flexibility. Give them time to process the change.
6. Which interventions reduce anxiety/calms down an autistic child?
When there is a tantrum; we observe and act according to the behavior.
7. Based on your experience how do most autistic children deal with strong visuals?
Every one is unique; Some students like when there are powerpoint, pictures, music. And for some it can be disturbing as there are too many visual inputs. Majority like visuals as it helps them focus.
8. How can parents/families be supported/educated to care for and better understand an autistic child/relative?
Families are different; some are acceptance and some denial; Address their needs and share knowledge with families to accept the child. Schools give parents seminars and talks Intervention will be based problem.
9. Which interventions are most effective in the development of communication/language skills in autism?
receptive and expressive. Early intervention is best for better results. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
10. How can autism diagnostics criteria be made more relevant for the adult population?
Majority joins when they are young but some (parents does not want to accept the fact so they send student to mainstream school) joins like 9-10 when it's a bit late.
11. Throughout the years has there been technological developments to help teach autism?
Smart boards, technology helps teacher makes lessons more interactive. Shows cards with pictures; nowadays students open an application to express themselves and communicate. Simple, more interactive. (Mostly targeted to non verbal students).
12. How could technology help in enhancing your teaching approach?
Use something they can see, feel, touch, this helps to gain their attention. Need more human resources; more motivated teachers, passionate and skilled. Resources in inclusive classroom. Application to Rise awareness; society.
13. What are the resources that is needed to improve/to better help autistic children learn?
There are times where teacher bring materials for the children to engage and interact. But usually it create a mess, between it fell on the floor or the plastic container broke. This can be improved to create useable bag that not easily broken but easily assessable for the kids to touch.
14. What resources could we produce to help families/employees in autistic institutions to better help the children?
I would say human resources. Because we are lacking human resources.
With his answers, we use them to help with challenge analysis and target audience. We also use his knowledge for class system, teaching process into consideration of using it for our product, since we haven't fully set on what to make.
Ideation
24/09/20 (week 4)
We then fill in the google docs with the information we had from the
interview. We believe with that using the interview answers, it would be
helpful to fill in the google docs, as it is also come from a specialist.
What we know in general?
1. Social behavior and social understanding
For autistic kids, basic social interaction can be difficult.
They can find it hard to understand other people's emotions and feelings, and have difficulty starting conversations or taking part in them properly. It causes unusual or inappropriate body language, gestures, and facial expressions.
Lack of awareness of and interest in other people or in sharing interests or achievements. They prefer to be alone.
2. Speech and language
In early infancy, some autistic kids don't babble or use other vocal sounds. Older autistic children have problems using non-verbal behaviors to interact with others.
They Speak in an atypical tone of voice, or with an add rhythm or pitch. And Repeat words or phrases over and over without communicative intent.
Communicating needs or desires is difficult for them, and they don't understand simple statements or questions.
3. Sensory problems
Many autistic children underreact or overreact to sensory stimuli. They may be disturbed by even the softest sounds. Sudden noises can be upsetting, and they may respond by covering their ears and making repetitive noises to drown out the offending sound. They are also highly sensitive to touch and to texture.
Not every autistic child necessarily has cognitive problems. Some have adaptation problems while others may have problems focusing or paying attention. Furthermore, some students have difficulties to adapt to drastic/small changes (timetable changed, teacher absent). So autism is unique and varies within every individual.
What do we believe we already know about this challenge?
There is a lack of understanding from others about autism.
Lack of human resources to teach others about autism.
Every autistic kid is unique and needs a different approach in solving their solution.
Best working environment for a autistic student:
Best environment for an autistic student to learn and focus is AWAY from distraction; A special needs class should be minimalist with limited posters and equipment to keep the student focused. Most autistic students love powerpoints, pictures, music; it helps them engage and focus in their work. Most of the work involves the student to use their senses (touch, smell, taste), to gain attention and stay focused.
Parents and families.
A lot of traditional parents will not accept the fact that it is okay to be special; they would send their child to normal schools which most of the time has negative impacts on the child.
What would we like to learn more about?
We would like to better understand the role of technology in the education of autistic children.
How resources such as 3d printed models or digital apps have improved the way the children learn. Whether or not AR and other digital resources are being actively used to assist the children to communicate better and learn in ways that are engaging.
We understand the role parents play can make a big difference.
Other than the provision of classes and video books what other ways are parents being taught to understand and better take care of their children. What is the parents role in the education of the child and how are they being taught the techniques to educate their children in an engaging and visually stimulating manner?
Prototyping
01/10/20 (week 5)
On the 24th September, Michelle agree to do an interview with us. Each of us
create a set of questions and then we compile them, we arrange them to flow
and fit well. During this time, we always create the question ourselves and
discuss them. I would give them time to do it but usually Baahy, Ryan, Zain,
and me the one that make them before we discussed. Chelin and Alizeh sometimes
create the question when we are discussing or after the questions already
discussed.
This is how the interview answers.
1. How do you increase awareness of accurate autism diagnosis and the appropriate treatment?
The Hope Project does a different campaign to spread awareness, do therapy sessions, this become expensive because of the limited people with expertise. To reach more people, they use online platforms to teach and educate parents, such as you tube. They make programs like Autism at Home to give free courses on behavior analysis. It is pricey because the amount of video and resources they need to produce and have.
2. What are the current activities or work that has been implemented in order to achieve your project goals?
The Hope Project does a campaign to raise awareness. The Hope Project has limited workforce to do 1 on 1 sessions, they continue to build expertise but to cope with this problem, they currently do online sessions so it is easier to access by everyone. They seek help from government and hospitals to make policy standards for special needs children
3. What kind of resources such as technology and printed materials are you currently using to help autistic children thrive?
The Hope Project switches their campaign to online based campaigns, they focus on making the campaign more appealing so the younger people would spread the message.
4. Are there any specific technology, equipment and printed materials that you need to further help achieve your goals? (Suggest AR approach here)
Printed materials are still used when meeting face to face such as name cards or fliers. They are quickly outdated and reprinting it is expensive. They want to switch to online based cards or fliers that can be updated and inexpensive but are still not yet implemented.
5. What kinds of visuals and sounds does an autistic child react positively to?
AR is not on their priority, the main priority is building their resources.
6. How could The Hope Project's teaching material be improved with technology to better engage and teach Autistic children? What methods were used to make sure that the children remained interested and focused during online classes in the pandemic?
Material used for kids is simple so autistic children won’t get confused/ distracted. The simple design makes it easier for kids to learn even when it is not appealing for us.
7. Is the teaching resources also provide to the autistic child's parents too? Could you please explain what they are?
Severe to moderate autism spectrum kids can’t do online classes, it is only possible with parents to be guided and they will run the therapy with their child. The mild spectrum can do online therapy but with short sessions. There are no specific/standard resources because it is individualized to specific kids. Each kid has their own supervisors which will guide the parents and do therapy with the child. The hope project now teaches the parents how to approach their child in certain situations.
8. How do you guide parents to support their autistic child's learning during this pandemic? (Parents/teachers relationship)
Problems caused by the pandemic are internal and more towards the company but in terms of The Hope Project they are almost back to full force and normal one on one classes.
9. Are there any other problems that you are currently facing with the pandemic that was not mentioned earlier? If so, how could we help?
The hope project feels like it is a waste of money and paper to reprint materials when they need to be updated. The idea is great and can be used for learning the basics and concepts of social skills in different social settings. The only problem she might have is how to make it individualized.
Every kid is different and goes through different social situations such as having a challenge of losing a game, may face bullying and it is important to know how to cope with it. Using AR to hold a conversation for middle end of the spectrum may be possible for them to practice.
With these information, we continue to fill in our google docs.
Defining the challenge:
How might we aid EAP by providing them with a design tool that assists their
goal to have a more effective and efficient way of communicating with children
at the lower to moderate end of the autistic spectrum and create a
personalized design tool that will benefit them
The Project Brief:
There are difficulties for kids with autism to communicate and adapt to
situations like sudden changes in their schedules, orders, or sequences. There
is a need for an easier and accessible way for parents to use these problems
and let their children practice their skills.
The Target Audience:
Autistic children with lower to moderate autism, who have the ability to
transition into a normal school setting where communication skills and
thorough understanding of social cues are needed.
The Pitch Deck
08/10/20 (week 6)
We then create problem statement based on our interview with Michelle. This is
the problem statement we made.
Lower to moderate autistic children need to learn how to adapt to a social
setting to fit in because adapting to society’s expectations can be
challenging for moderate autistic children. Lower to moderate autistic
children need to learn how to adapt to a social setting to fit in because
adapting to society’s expectations can be challenging for moderate autistic
children.
During this time, we are unsure of how the kids will react when losing a game.
This resolved by having another interview with my friend, Mellisa who has a
brother with autism. I known her for 8 years and have meet her brother a
couple of times. I asked her if we can do an interview but she is not
comfortable to answer when there are strangers, so she requested to only
interviewed by me. This is how the interview goes.
1. How's your brother adapt to his school since he is now in High School?
He's adapting well now, he is currently home schooled. He is now used to it since his junior high school is a regular school. But now he is doing online classes, he got distracted to open other online tabs instead of focusing on the lesson, so there should be someone guarding him during school hours.
2. When he's young, is he having difficulty in social setting?
yes, he would feel uncomfortable and doesn't want to stay still, like in supermarket. He sometimes cut queues. He just doesn't understand the norm but doesn't mean any harm.
3. How would you react when he cut queues or when he doesn't understand the norm?
I didn't care, because i was very young back then. But my mom would talk to him and tell him that it is not right to do so. She would talk to him quietly since it's in the public space. She would teach him patiently if something is impolite.
4. How did you teach your brother manners and norm when he was young?
He need to be told many times, so he would remember.
5. I find online that by giving rewards, it will be helpful for kids with autism to learn new things? Did you do that?
Yes! We would give him little present if he act nice that day. He loves to eat so his reward usually snacks after school.
6. What is your system to give rewards to him?
We only give him rewards if he follow the rules for a period of times. For example if he in class the whole day without walking around then he will get candy. The rewards is not given if it's only a little instruction, it usually several instruction for a period of time.
7. How does your brother react when he loses a game?
He usually fine with it, he doesn't get angry for losing the game. Usually he would be angry if the iPad crashed.
We found that kids with autism are okay with losing in a game, so we now
sure that it is possible for us to create a game as a probability. We then
start to create ideas for the final project. We created 6 different ideas,
we find different sources to back up our ideas and to make sure it proofed
to be useable for children with autism. These are our ideation stage.
- How might we help moderate autistic children adapt to certain change in environment and patterns
- How might we improve the current HP teaching approach to a digitized version
- How might we educate the child about how to react in different situations and also teach the difference between right and wrong behavior.
- How might we help the children to communicate/express their emotions.
- How might we help lower to moderate autistic spectrum children to build confidence.
This is our ideas,
- AR to help hold conversation/ situation. Using printable paper cubes with recognizable patterns, scan 2 cubes and different scenarios appear. Can be used for kids to choose an option
- A Choose your own adventure app (game) that can give different scenarios and results based on what the child chooses
- A game app that gives different situations that help children learn how to act in the situation. When picking wrong action, the app will describe how to act in that situation
- A coloring book that can be colored as the kids want. It can be scanned and an AR animation of certain emotion will appear
- An app with multiple videos that show different emotions for kids to observe repeatedly, and distinguish the emotion characteristic. The kids will react to the emotion characteristic with the help of adults to understand
- A speech therapy app that provides exercises to practise pragmatic language or social skills. These skills include personal interactions, handling change, social relationships. The kids will learn these skill sets through short stories and videos, scenario questionnaires to teach the kids appropriate answers. This app will help the children deal with situations more confidently and help with stuttering as anxiety deteriorates speech.
The Pitch Deck
15/10/20 (week 7)
Each of us then pick one idea to create a prototype. I choose a 'Choose
your own adventure app' (game) that can give different scenarios and results
based on what the child chooses. I made that there are different stages, when
finished one, another story will open and it will be easy to add.
A loading scene and then the story will start. After this, it is the player
choice to choose which story he want to start first.
Then the game start, there are 5 scenarios in total, but 1 is locked and only
available at the last.
When the player choose one one story, it will give them choices and there will
be consequences of picking the wrong choice. The player can fail the story and
redo it again.
This is the flow chart of the prototype I made.
We discuss among ourselves that we will be using Zain's prototype. Mr Mike
suggested to combine them all but we believe it will be confusing and all over
the place. Zain idea is a game app that gives different situations that help
children learn how to act in the situation. When picking wrong action, the app
will describe how to act in that situation.
The Pitch Deck
22/10/20 (week 8)
We then start to divide our work. I create a moodboard, art direction and
storyboard. I feel like the art direction is not used, some props are not
similar with the art direction.
This is the storyboard that I made.
Mr Mike said that the unsimilar design need to be fixed so we need to redo
all the assets. He also said we need to fix the unusual camera angles too
and possibly change the portrait to landscape. I redo my storyboard after
Chelin and Ryan do game analysis.
The Pitch Deck
29/10/20 (week 9)
I redo the storyboard and fixing the story, with in mind we need to save
time. I decide to create a RPG type game to save time not to design the
lower half of the body. This is my storyboard.
I then created intro scene illustration, landing scene, and supermarket
scene. I then animate intro, landing, supermarket, playground and outro. I
also created a color code for everyone to use, to make sure they are similar
and consistent.
This is a few pictures of the scenes.
I then animate the scenes using after effect, and added sound effect. I gave
them to ryan right away after I'm done so he can start coding.
The Pitch Deck
05/11/20 (week 11)
After all the animation finished, I helped Ryan when he is coding, help
designing the conversation box. During this time, my work is mostly done
since I take part in the animating. We continue to work on the game to show
to Michelle. She said she will be free on 19th November, and we plan to show
her progress so she can see the gameplay.
The Pitch Deck
12/11/20 (week 12)
Next week is the day we will show Michelle our game. We feel pressured
because Mr Mike gave feedback again for the colors. I am scared that it wont
finished in time. The team then agree to show her to the point of
supermarket. We finished the gameplay till then and continue to work on it.
The Pitch Deck
19/11/20 (week 13)
Today we show Michelle our game and she love it. We show her the fail
system when picking the wrong answer, the reward system and she love the
game and can't wait for it to finished. She fix a few things such as the
option and say that children with autism tend to take word literally. We
then discuss on the game name. I then work on the outro, work on the
google docs and make the slides.
The Pitch Deck
26/11/20 (week 13)
This week we focused on making the slideshow, I helped Baahy and Zain when
making the slideshow. I also work on the last part of the google docs. I
work on my blog as well.
This is the slides proposal slides.
This is the final slides
Comments
Post a Comment