Autism is a life-long condition characterized by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and also difficulties in flexibility in thinking and behavior. Autism Spectrum Disorders are diagnosed in at least 1% of the population, and it is estimated that 25-50% of individuals with autism also have intellectual disability/learning difficulties. No medical treatment is available for the core symptoms of Autism. Students with autism progress much better when specific educational supports are provided. Visual supports for both receptive communication (daily agendas, individual work-systems, tasks structures, etc.) and expressive communication (alternative communications systems based on picture-exchange to communicate what they need, and to share ideas with others) are examples of autism-specific supports that have evidence for their effectiveness. Very often, these visual supports are provided by means of smart devices such as smartphones or smartwatches. However, the number and variety of technological solutions for people with disabilities is so big that is very difficult for families and professionals working with students with disabilities to find appropriate solutions. For a given individual it is difficult to assess what type of device is better; what device-protection systems should be considered; what type of software apps should be acquired (for communication, education, etc.); and what any training needs for parents and teachers are. Professionals and parents need support, tools and protocols for identifying the most appropriate support that is available for individual children with autism and/or learning disabilities. Preliminary work has been undertaken by several Spanish partners of this project proposal with a National Grant. These organisations have developed experimental protocols to assess and identify the needs of technological support and training for each student. SMART-ASD intends to generalize this practice to other countries (such as Turkey or UK) by developing software and online training materials that help professionals and parents to determine the most appropriate technological solutions for each student with autism and/or learning difficulties. The software App will automatize this process of assessment and will foster the transnational exchange of good practices acquired nationally. A multi-sectorial team has been built for this SMART-ASD project, including researchers from the three participating universities (UVEG, UBAH and NECMETIN), teachers and families from the six schools involved (AUTISMO BURGOS, AUCAVI, MIRAM, SANT CRISTÒFOL, FATMA and MERAM Schools) and continuous training institutions from regional governments (CEFIRE-GVA and KONYAMEM). Four schools involved (AUCAVI, MIRAM, FATMA and MERAM) are newcomers to Erasmus+. The objective of this diverse and multidisciplinary composition of the team is to assure the transferability of the project results to a diversity of contexts and to maximize the impact on different target groups. Three intellectual multilingual outputs are expected from the project work: Assessment App (O1), Online Training Facility (O2) and a complex Research Study (O3) designed to assess the effectiveness of the App. Two short-term training actions will take place in the UK, one for teachers (C1) and another for students (C2) have been planned to assist the necessary work for O1 and O2. Two Multiplier Events have been planned in Turkey (E1) and Spain (E2) to spread project results to more than 300 external participants. A high impact is expected on students with autism and their teachers, who will have ICT-based assessment and training tools to identify technologies that will strongly impact their learning and communication. The six schools involved will benefit from the generalization of these best practices around the educational use of technology and around the integration of technologies within the curriculum of students. Participating education departments from governments will increase their repertoire of training resources to prepare teachers. Participating universities from the three countries involved in the project will strengthen their contact with first-hand experience of attending students with autism and/or learning difficulties. This will increase their knowledge about these difficulties and will allow them to identify any additional needs. The digital nature of all the project results (App, online training and open-access research papers) will enormously facilitate dissemination of results both inside and outside organisations. SMART-ASD counts on a strategy of relying on existing agreements with non-profit organisations specialized in the maintenance of IT products for autism. This will also foster the transferability of the tools and educational practices to others and the generalization of their use, as the life-cycle of the products will then be much longer than the project life-cycle.
CONTEXT: Autism is a life-long condition characterized by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and also difficulties in flexibility in thinking and behaviour. Autism Spectrum Disorders are diagnosed in at least 1% of the population, and it is estimated that 25-50% of individuals with autism also have intellectual disability/learning difficulties. Visual supports for both receptive and expressive communication are examples of autism-specific supports that have evidence for their effectiveness. Very often, these visual supports are provided by means of smart devices such as smartphones or smartwatches. However, the number and variety of technological solutions for people with disabilities is so big that is very difficult for families and professionals working with students with disabilities to find appropriate solutions. Professionals and parents need support, tools and protocols for identifying the most appropriate support that is available for individual children with autism and/or learning disabilities. OBJECTIVES: The main objectives of SMART-ASD are to provide teachers and parents with tools to facilitate person-technology matching, to train them on basic concepts on ASD & IT as well as on the use of the above-mentioned tools, and to study the process of introducing this tool in a sample of students with ASD of the participating schools. Other complementary objectives were learning from students with ASD from the six participating school, visiting each other to learn good practices and to transfer knowledge between the 11 participants organisations of the three countries involved. PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS: The project has been developed by a multi-sectorial team, including researchers from the three participating universities (UVEG, UBAH and NECMETIN), teachers and families from the six schools involved (AUTISMO BURGOS, AUCAVI, MIRAM, SANT CRISTÒFOL, FATMA and MERAM Schools) and continuous training institutions from regional governments (CEFIRE-GVA and KONYAMEM). MAIN ACTIVITIES: Together with the technical activities for developing the three intellectual products of the project that are mentioned below, SMART-ASD has celebrated four transnational meetings (in Valencia, Bath, Burgos and Valencia) together with one training action (Bath) and two multiplier events (Konya and Valencia). RESULTS AND IMPACT: SMART-ASD has developed a fully functional software App, available at App Store and Google Play, aimed at assessing individual basic skills for using tablets and smartphones and also contextual information that provides personalised recommendations on the most appropriate apps for each individual, together with tools for planning and follow-up. This was the first intellectual product. SMART-ASD has also developed a MOOC, available in several languages at Futurelearn.com, for training teachers and professional on basic concepts on ASD and IT and also on the use of the SMART-ASD App. This was the second intellectual product. SMART-ASD has also developed a research study on the process of introducing SMART-ASD app on a sample of students from the participating schools of the project (from Spain and Turkey). This study has found important benefits and also has informed the update of the app in order to improve its functionality and usability. The high number of SMART-ASD App downloads together with the high number of students who registered and completed the SMART-ASD MOOC in the four languages available (Spanish, English, Turkish and Valencian) shows an important impact. The two multiplier events had been very useful in spreading information about the project results, with 170 attendees of the multiplier event in Konya (Turkey) and 550 attendees in the multiplier event of Valencia (Spain). LONG TERM BENEFITS: The project coordinator has reached an agreement with the company Appycally, owner of the popular website for searching autism apps www.appyautism.com to include SMART-ASD app as a key tool for this website aims. According to this agreement, SMART-ASD app will include references to that website and the App will be part of the home page of that website. Also, the regional government of Valencia and Konya MEM are promoting the use of SMART-ASD App as a best practice for assessing the IT needs of students with ASD and to plan resources for them. The online courses in MOOC portal in four different languages will be available for the people who would like to benefit from the content prepared in scope of this project.