Product Design, Sketching, 3D Modelling, 3D Printing
Pushkar Ingale
(Mentor)
Cohesive Labs, Pune
May '21 - July '21
3 Months
The project involved understanding children with Autism Spectrum Disorder by shadowing multiple therapy sessions, group activities, talking to therapists and an expert in neurodivergent children. The aim of the project was to create an intervention which would enable children on the milder side of ASD mix and interact with a typical school environment.
The intervention was a fidget toy wrapped around a water bottle. When the child gets overwhelmed, the fidgeting could alert the teacher/supervisor to take specific steps prescribed by a doctor.
The first half of the project is a long read, where I try to present what I have understood about ASD.
The second half has more images. Go check it out here
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ASD is a complex neurodevelopmental condition characterized by challenges in social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. The degree of impairment varies across individuals. Autism encompasses five main types: Asperger's syndrome, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, Kanner's syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder.
ASD is categorized into three levels based on the support required
Level 1: Requires support; challenges with social initiation and organization.
Level 2: Requires substantial support; marked difficulty in communication and repetitive behaviors.
Level 3: Requires very substantial support; severe deficits in social, verbal, and nonverbal communication, with significant distress in adapting focus or actions.
According to Schreibman (2005), no specific cognitive deficits meet the criteria of specificity, universality, persistence, and precedence to define autism. However, common areas of cognitive impairment include:
Theory of Mind: Difficulty inferring others’ thoughts.
Executive Function: Challenges with behavioral control and planning.
Central Coherence: Struggles with processing global information.
Communication and Attention Challenges
Communication delays are a key indicator of autism, often amplifying social skill deficits. Verbal communication development varies, and some individuals may never achieve functional communication. Nonverbal children require specific, situation-based instruction, which rarely leads to spontaneous language use.Selective attention difficulties are prevalent, with overselective focus (obsessing on single details), lack of sustained attention, and challenges in shifting focus being common. These impairments hinder flexibility in cognitive and social interactions.
Some autistic children face significant challenges understanding speech, often relying on situational cues, which can lead to misjudgments of their comprehension and disengagement from social interactions. Therapists use minimal, purposeful speech supported by visual aids to enhance understanding while fostering spontaneous communication. Enabling environments that prioritize autonomy and incorporate tools like rhythmic intonation or musical techniques can positively influence a child’s ability to communicate independently, highlighting the critical role of context in their development.
The book “Communication in Autistic Children” outlines the following methods
Giving prompts: Giving prompts will include showing the object or pushing forward one choice out of two.
Encouraging Spontaneous Conversation: Giving the child the time to respond based on their own pace and not forcing the solutions on them.
Minimal Speech Therapy: For non-verbal children, start out by using only one or two words that will give a clear message.
Incorporating Sign Language: Introducing sign language to bridge the gap and introduce the children to new concepts. Compelling them to use words. Can be started from 12 months old.
Milieu Language Teaching: Using the child's interest and the environment surrounding as tools to initiate and enhance the conversation.
Free Speech: Using blocks of words which are then run through a system to create sentences
Proximal Communication: Getting close to the child so that the instructor can guide the child closely.
Children with ASD often learn to decode written words before fully comprehending their meaning. To enhance vocabulary acquisition during critical language intervention periods, labeling training should follow the establishment of functional communication skills. Systems like PECS bridge the gap between verbal and non-verbal communication by teaching symbol recognition and meaning. Vocabulary instruction in familiar, real-world contexts helps autistic children, who are often visual learners, connect words to tangible experiences. Labeling objects reinforces the idea that all items have names, aiding literacy and communication. Effective literacy instruction incorporates visual emphasis, dual teaching methods, safe environments, vocabulary-communication integration, and a reward system to promote engagement and learning.
Play serves as a vital medium for children to explore and understand their world, but children with autism often engage in repetitive play with limited toys, restricting their exploration. Autism impacts essential play skills like imitation, sharing attention, responding to others, and turn-taking. Many children with autism enjoy sensory play, drawn to cause-and-effect activities like spinning wheels or flipping switches, which offer a sense of control. Introducing mechanical toys or robots can encourage social interaction through turn-taking, imitation, and collaborative play, bridging the gap between complex human interactions and simple toys. Each child’s unique interaction style reflects their individuality beyond the autism label.
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Certain gaps were identified for possible interventions and further research. The existing methods and technologies do not capitalize on the state-of-the-art technical possibilities. The research also lacks breadth in terms of subjects identified and studied due to the slow and complex nature of the process. The following are some of the Research Questions that came out of doing Gaps Analysis.
1. How can the products/aids help in-classroom training and in interaction with peers?
2. Can Milieu Teaching and Artificial Intelligence-driven products work in unison and make a better learning experience for the child?
3. How can parents educate outsiders on the ways of interaction with people with ASD?
The range of symptoms in children with ASD vastly varies and is very specific to the individual. A solution made for an individual might not fit anyone else. Hence the approach was to create an umbrella solution that covers the basic common factors.
‘ To help Children on the Autistic Spectrum with social interactions when they are away from their caretakers such as parents and therapists.’
During ideation the situation was split into two parts, School and At Home. The home scenario catered more towards the time spent when the parents are not around. The school scenario focused more on the classrooms where there are multiple students and very few trustworthy faces.
The concepts formed after ideation were very different in function and aimed to solve the brief in unique ways. Broadly, they could be categorized into two ways of implementation, active and passive. The passive concepts are aimed at blending into the background and aiding the communication, whereas the active concepts aim at incorporating active skill improvement techniques.
The proposed concept will be an infinity running game where the player will have to overcome obstacles to win the level. The player will be powered by repeated actions such as rotating arms, jogging, etc. The obstacles can be programmed to inculcate skills such as word matching, common greetings in social situations, etc.
Modality: Active, Smart TV and Kinect/iPhone
Setting: Home External Support: Not required
The proposed concept will act as a source of indicator to the school teacher that the child is in distress. The concept uses the stimming mechanism that the children fall into as the input for the signal sent to the teacher. The product can also display modes where the child can say that they are open to speaking to give them some time to talk, they are listening but won’t respond and lastly, they are not listening and won’t respond.
Modality: Passive, products such as water bottles, tiffin boxes, belts, etc.
Setting: Schools and Playgrounds External Support: Only when the child asks for it
The child will stand in front of a mirror and see their reflection, a central hub will live track their movements and project a second character on a wall nearby. The child will have to replicate the actions of the character to the songs being played.
Modality: Active, will require a separate unit, with a camera(lidar) and a projector
Setting: Home and schools External Support: Not required
Origami is used as a tool to take turns in a conversation. The adult will start off by making a fold and hand it over to the child, who will continue the process. This will establish a turn-taking relationship that can promote conversations.
Modality: Passive, paper
Setting: Home and School External Support: Active involvement of the adult
The concept can be outlined as a school item which will use the stimming rhythms of the child to determine their agitation and then convey that across to the teacher so that precautionary measures can be taken and the situation can be stopped from aggravating.
Student with ASD ---does stimming---> The Bottle ---sends signal---> The Teacher
Pros: The teacher will constantly be in the loop for the welfare of the student. They will have proper knowledge of how to handle the situation.
Cons: The child can start fidgeting with the product even when they are not under duress to cause false alarms.
The water bottle as a product is very common in day-to-day life. It becomes easier to implement an intervention, especially for children on the spectrum. It does not introduce a new object that the child has to get used to.
Personal: Every bottle is extremely personal to the individual and is carried by them everywhere.
Portable: Does not require external factors and fits in in all environments.
Accessible: Everyone is acclimatized to the concept of the bottle and it is easier to accept it as a form of intervention.
Various ideas were sketched out with respect to the mechanisms that can cater towards the system. Keeping the bottle as a central element, the sketches mainly involved different ideas to add interactions to the bottle.
The final solution will have 4 key features that will work in unison to create an ecosystem that will keep track of the child’s welfare and repeating patterns. The features will be spread across three devices, the water bottle, the charging hub, and the teacher’s notification bar.
The Water Bottle
The bottle will keep track of the stimming and fidgeting pattern and keep alerting the teacher as and when required. The bottle can also be attached with various modular accessories that will make it easier for the child to fidget somewhere else if required. The bottle will then transfer the data to the charging hub for tracking and analysis.
The Charging Hub and its Interactions
The charging hub will have a basic screen that will act as an artificial character that will interact with the child when the bottle is docked and removed. It will also house a voice modulation detection API that can sense the tone and judge the mood of the child.
The Teacher’s Notification Bar
The bar will display the child’s name and what help the teacher can give in a simple easy to understand sentence. For example,” Vishnu needs a hug!” or “Joel can use some water and a breather.”
Parent and Therapists Tracker
The system can then send daily tracking history to the parents along with the results of the voice modulation if that is recorded. The actual recording itself will not be stored anywhere keeping in check the privacy issues.
The expert suggested that the notification bar should just alert the teacher about the child and not give any specific command. The teacher will have to judge the situation and then give instructions based upon a pre decided set of activities. The proposed testing method was testing every other month with the progress of the child. The progress and the impact of the product will not be visible at first and will come into effect gradually.
To know more, check out my thesis report with everything in detail along with references ->