Towards more supportive ICT for children with autism spectrum disorders:lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted daily routines, causing isolation and quarantine. Technologyhas emerged as a crucial tool for sustaining essential activities, but children with autismspectrum disorders have faced distinct challenges due to their intricate interaction with it. Weemployed an online su...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Chinchay Manco, Yussy Miriam, Torrado, Juan C., Gómez Escribano, Javier, Montoro Manrique, Germán
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/709627
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/709627
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2023.2268734
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Digital intervention
autism
COVID-19
assistive technologies
Informática
Descripción
Sumario:COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted daily routines, causing isolation and quarantine. Technologyhas emerged as a crucial tool for sustaining essential activities, but children with autismspectrum disorders have faced distinct challenges due to their intricate interaction with it. Weemployed an online survey to analyse the impact of technology use in online learning, remoteassistance and daily life of children with autism along COVID-19, and we have identifiedbenefits and challenges with assistive technology exposed by the pandemic. Findings aredivided in (1) seven themes where COVID-19 impacted this population the most and theirrelationship with technology (remote communication, learning, emotional management,entertainment management, executive functions, activities of daily living, and physical activityand motor skills), and (2) a mapping of technological categories that define the working areasspecifically aimed to cover the special needs of children with autism whenever face-to-faceinteractions are not possible (attention, authoring tools, calculation, e-learning, emotions,entertainment, experience of self, language and communication, memory, planning and timemanagement, social networking, and social skills). These results help provide a more well-rounded knowledge of how to improve technology to make it accessible to autistic children, tohandle and avoid services interruption in similar scenarios.