Report from user study

Communicati on requirements for children with special needs

by

Catharina Henje & Linda Bogren Design Research Lab

Umeå Insti tute of Design, Umeå University Sweden, 2009

contents1. introducti on1.1 background1.2 UID design research lab 1.3 target group 1.4 objecti ve

2. implementati on 2.1 initi al survey 2.2 design ethnography

3. processing 3.2 communicati on zones & substance 3.3 identi fi ed themes 3.3 design opportuniti es

4. previous experiences4.1 pictocontact 4.2 interacti on design degree projects

5. design development challenges

6. references

1. introducti on

This report describes the process and result from the user study Communicati on requirements for children with special needs (Kommunikati onsbehov hos barn med särskilda behov) carried out by Catharina Henje and Linda Bogren at the Design Research Lab at Umeå Insti tute of Design, Umeå University during spring 2009. The user study was partly conducted in cooperati on with José Ledon and Rouien Zarin, Master degree students at the Interacti on Design program at Umeå Insti tute of Design.

1.1 background In spring 2008, the industrial and interacti on design offi ce Myra Industrial De-sign, Stockholm and the world leading company in eye tracking and eye control Tobii Technology, Stockholm received the Swedish Grand Award of Design 2008 by the Teknikföretagen, the Associati on of Swedish Engineering Industries in associati on with The Swedish Industrial Design Foundati on and The Swedish Society of Craft s and Design. Myra and Tobii Technology was awarded for a series of eye-controlled screens.

Myra Industrial Design and Tobii Technology chose to use the reward to fi nance this user study performed by the Design Research Lab at Umeå Insti tute of De-sign.

This user study is a pre-pre study for a possible project with the intenti on to develop an everyday communicati on tool for mentally challenged children.

1.2 UID design research lab Umeå Insti tute of Design (UID) at Umeå University started in 1989 as the third industrial design educati on in Sweden. Through its close cooperati on with Swed-ish and internati onal companies and organizati ons, UID has created a positi on as one of the world's top design programs. Business Week Online published in October 2006 a list of the best design schools in the world and among the 33 selected design educati ons outside the U.S., there is only one among the Nordic countries – Umeå Insti tute of Design at Umeå University.

The Design Research Lab carries out research projects in close cooperati on with leading industrial companies and organizati ons. The multi -disciplinary teams work with a user-centered approach, always in close cooperati on with end users and clients. Multi -annual research collaborati ons have been with ABB, Umeå Municipality, Volvo, Banverket, Telestyrelsen, Specialpedagogiska Skolmyn-digheten and more.

1.4 objecti ve The commission is to look into the communicati on needs and problems in a vari-ety of communicati ve situati ons in everyday life for children with special needs. With help of a reference group designated by Myra Industrial Design and Tobii Technology, the Design Research Group is expected to document the prerequi-sites and describe and test a method how to work with this user group.

The overall vision is that this research results will provide the possibility for bet-ter development of communicati on aids for children with special needs.

Image 1. Project directi ves for user study“Communicati on requirements for children with special needs”

As an academic research team, the Design Research Lab develops new knowl-edge through research projects in the area of design research. The results are published regularly in leading internati onal journals and at conferences in the areas of design research, interacti on design, human-machine interacti on and inclusive design.

For the moment, the Design Research Group consists of eight industrial and interacti on designers and engineers.

1.3 target groupThe main target group for this user study is children with special needs in pre-school and primary school age. In this case, children with special needs means children with a developmental disability (as Down syndrome and/or auti sm) that including results in substanti al functi onal limitati ons in their recepti ve and expressive language.

2. implementati on

The collecti on of knowledge about children with special needs and their commu-nicati on requirements has been done through interviews with parents, peda-gogues and specialists, through observati on of children with special needs in their everyday situati ons and through a review of the subject.

Initi ally, we made a study visit at Kolbäckens Habilitati on in Umeå were we interviewed Lena Nilsson, specialist pedagogue in the team of Auti sm Spectra Disorders.

A concentrated user study week was planned and prepared by Myra Industrial Design in beginning of February. For this week, we prepared and tested an initi al survey, aimed for the network close to the children we were about to meet dur-ing the week in Stockholm.

In Stockholm we visited the game developer, teaching aid and children book publisher Hatt en Förlag AB. The pedagogic material produced at Teckenhatt en is inspired by the Swedish professor of Linguisti cs and Special Educati on Iréne Johansson and her theories and methods to teach and train children in language and communicati on development, parti cularly children with Down syndrome.

At Klara Mera at Rosenlunds Hospital in Stockholm they had a showroom with diff erent technologies and ideas that you can use in an apartment to promote independence amongst cogniti ve disabled adults. Next to Klara Mera was Idé-torget, an assisti ve technologies showroom setup so that you can test and ask for recommendati ons of which devices, technical adjustments and computer programs are available and interesti ng to use for people with specifi c needs in all ages.

Together with Myra Industrial Design we met Mårten Skogö at Tobii Technolo-gies´ offi ce in Danderyd, who demonstrated their eye tracking technology which showed on new interesti ng ways to interact with a computer.

In Stockholm we visited Sti na Juhlin, CEO at Myra Industrial Design, and her fam-ily. We had the fortune to meet their 6-years old son Ludwig both in his home and during diff erent acti viti es in his daily life. Ludwig is borne with Down syn-drome and auti sm.

Image 2. Study visit at Hatt en Förlag AB.

2.1 initi al survey The concentrated user study week that was planned and prepared by Myra Industrial Design took part during February 2-5. The plan was to meet, follow and observe some diff erent children through their day, from early morning with breakfast at home, joining the taxi to their preschool or school, all along the day unti l it was ti me for bed again (maybe split into two or three days).

To get an overall picture of the children’s daily life before meeti ng them and their families, and to bett er know how to plan and conduct the forthcoming user study, we prepared an initi al survey with focus on communicati on.

The kit was send to one family as a pre-test to see if and how it should be ad-justed before it was send out to all families that we were going to meet.

The kit consisted of fi ve separate parts aimed for the adult persons closest to the child. With the kit came a small photo printer that could be connected directly to a digital camera (the families were expected to use their own digital camera).

The survey was expected to be fi lled in during one single day and the main goal was to capture the child’s communicati on needs and eff orts during an ordinary day in the child’s life.

The survey kit contained the following parts:

¤ A local map: where the parent could draw the route that the child would do that day.

¤ A multi ple ti me-schedule for one day: the same day for all adult people that meet the child that day, and where each person shortly could write when and how they communicate with the child that day.

¤ A photo album: for photos of the people that the child would meet that day with space for writi ng a short note about the role persons have in the child’s life.

¤ An album for listi ng communicati on aids: with possibility to att ach photos and describe the aid, when it’s used and how the adult experience it - what is good and what can be done bett er.

¤ An album for communicati on situati ons: with possibility to att ach photos of the situati on and describe when and how the child communicates and interacts, when it happens and with whom.

SummaryIt took several weeks to get the kit back from the fi rst test family so we never had ti me to test it with more families.

The test family’s experience was that the survey was far too detailed, ti me-consuming and diffi cult to fi ll in (they fi lled in the surveys but did not take any photos). It was hard to make notes and try to manage life at the same ti me.

The conclusion is that this kind of survey kit needs to be redesigned and sim-plifi ed to be useful in the way it was planned to be used. Or using parts of the material in a deep interview situati on with a child’s surrounding network.

Another proposal for documenti ng communicati on situati ons for a child during one day could be to ask the family (resource person or teacher) to bring a cam-era for one day and take photos of interesti ng situati ons that day. The photos could then be tagged with comments at the end of the day.

Image 3 . Parts of the Initi al Survey.

2.2 design ethnography Design Ethnography is based on ethnography, a branch of anthropology that uses various techniques and ways of thinking to understand modern human be-haviors and cultures. The method is qualitati ve, meaning the research is focused and capable of revealing a deep contextual understanding of what the users do and why.

To get a bett er understanding for our users and the contexts that the children use to be in during their daily life, we practi ced design ethnography as a method to perform deep user observati ons. Through these kind of observati ons, the interacti on designer tries to get as rich informati on as possible about the user, the context, the user’s interacti on with other persons and objects and within and with the context and in considerati on with the design challenge that you are facing.

During the concentrated user studies we carried out in Stockholm Feb 2nd-6th, our focus was to capture the variety of communicati on situati ons in diff erent contexts for children with special needs and try to defi ne needs and problems in relati on to this. Focus has not been to disti nguish behaviors and needs related to a specifi c diagnosis, but rather to look at similariti es for children with diff erent kinds of cogniti ve and communicati ve challenges.

We were privileged to observe a number of children in their daily acti viti es both at a preschool called Hemmesta preschool, at two special schools called Hem-mesta särskola and Skytt eholmsskolan and during a group acti vity at the Habili-tati on in Nacka. In total we met a mixture of kids in the age of 5-12 years old in several groups and classes, class teachers, speech therapists, drama pedagogues, sports teachers, image therapists, habilitati on pedagogues, psychologists, re-source persons and a few parents.

Image 5 . Photos taken during the user observati ons in Stockholm.

Image 4 . Video documentati on of an acti vity for children at the Habilitati on in Nacka.

3. processing

When we returned to UID aft er this week, we all had a lot of impressions, pho-tos, fi lms, notes and questi ons. Each of us, Linda Bogren and Catharina Henje from the Research Group and Ru Zarin and José Ledon, master degree students in Interacti on design, analyzed the material on his/hers own and made a content inventory.

Together we had some joint sessions were we discussed, analyzed and sorted out our fi ndings.

By printi ng out, nailing up and browsing photos of individual interesti ng stories and situati ons from our observati ons, we could more easily share and discuss the material and enhance the identi fi cati on of recurrent patt erns and common-aliti es as well as specifi c themes, labeling the situati ons.

Image 5, 6 & 7 . Brousing and processing user observati ons.

3.1 communicati on zones & substanceWithin the Reggio Emilia approach, an educati onal philosophy focused on preschool and primary educati on formulated in Reggio Emilia, Italy over the last 50 years, one regards the environment and the children’s group as important pedagogues as the pedagogue him- or herself, when it comes to supporti ng the child’s learning.

We used this as a model when sorti ng the informati on from the initi al survey and the user observati ons, identi fying where and with whom communicati on take part for our user group. We presuppose that the communicati on in all three surroundings is of importance for the child but may take diff erent forms at dif-ferent places and with diff erent persons and may be of diff erent importance and priority for the child.

Image 8: The three surroundings that we relate to and were the children we met used to be in

their daily life

Image 9: Examples of environments were the children we met used to be in their daily life

Image10: Examples of groups that the children meet in their daily life.

Image 11: Examples of individual persons that the children meet and have a relati on with in their

daily life.

SummaryIn a further study, it would be of interest to look deeper into the kind of com-municati on, the content and the priority degree due to the contexts. This to see possibiliti es and constrains when evolving functi ons and interface in a future communicati on tool.

3.2 identi fi ed themes The following headlines are some of the signifi cant themes that were identi fi ed when processing the material from the design ethnography observati ons. Some overlap each other more or less. The discoveries from our observati on are here in some cases supplemented by material from interviews and literature.

A. Communicati onB. Interpretati on C. Abstracti on & Generalizati on D. Social competence E. Interests, Moti vati on & RewardF. Visual feedback, Tangible objects & ReinforcementG. Structure, Time & Transiti on

A. Communicati onFrom what we have seen at the diff erent study visits, a multi ple ways of com-municati on is used in-between children and children and adults. From wordless communicati on through shared visual experience, through pointi ng or physical interacti on as when a child grabs the adults hand or clothes to direct the per-son or his or hers att enti on to what is needed (performati ve communicati on). Or physical acti on as when a child just sat down (and refused to go further) at the same place every day, unable to communicate why this was such important place to stay.

The communicati on can also appeared through physical objects as when a child fetched an object (e g a toy or a video) to let the adult know what he/she wanted as we heard and saw when visiti ng Sti na Juhlin

The verbal communicati on was someti mes aided by sign language, in Swedish called TSS – Tecken Som Stöd (signs as support) or AKK – Alternati v Komplet-terande Kommunikati on (alternati ve complementary communicati on). The verbal communicati on could also be supported by diff erent images as photos, PECS (Picture Exchange Communicati on System), PCS (Picture Communicati on Symbols) and Pictogram.

We have also seen the lack of common communicati on and communicati on tools at the special school and the frustrati on this causes. Among the pedagogues and the assistants we noti ced the frustrati on because of the absence of individually fi tt ed tools and the problem with the school lacking money to buy adequate aids.

We observed situati ons when adults tried to communicate with a child but turned their head away from the child too quickly to be able to see his or hers att empt to answer, and in one case, how sorry a boy became when not noti ced and misunderstood. And we also saw the happiness when a child was seen and heard and understood.

One pedagogue told us that a challenge with some children is that they act and communicate in diff erent ways with diff erent persons.What se saw was that some children used speech and signs language for com-municati on in a higher degree with the surrounding adults than with other kids, both in classroom situati ons as in the playground. It seemed like they adapted

Image 12 . Photos from user observati ons and some of the Identi fi ed Themes.

to the pedagogues expectati ons how to communicate in this more obvious way, because even if they had quite a vocabulary, when communicati ng with each others some kids used more of physical interacti on to communicate that they wanted something from each other.

When playing in the school yard during a lunch brake, we could see how a peda-gogue consequently helped one of the kids in the communicati on with other class-mates, helping the girl by telling her how to act and what to say to be able to express her will, guiding the social interacti on as well as the spoken communi-cati on.

What we experience is the defi nite need of fi nding each child’s’ individual level and aid for communicati on.

B. Interpretati onSome children are quite transient in their communicati on. As an adult, you must be focused and observant for subtle signals, indicati ng that the child wants to express something. Some pedagogues expressed that it someti mes is so diffi cult to understand what the child wants to express. “It’s so easy to misunderstand, and you want so hard to grasp what they are trying to communicate, so you try to interpret what they are saying and give them alternati ves all the ti me.”

The special pedagogue Lena Nilsson at Kolbäckens Habilitati on means that the lack of language and communicati on also causes a lot of everyday worries. A dis-order in the process of perceiving can cause diffi culty in registering, organizing and interpreti ng sensory impressions. The lack of communicati on makes it even more diffi cult for the child to interpret hers or his own signals from the body as to be aware of that you are thirsty, hungry or in need of taking a leak.

For the adult to interpret the child’s signals right, verbalize them and move from words to acti on, as to confi rm that you have read the child’s needs, is not only a way to formulate a language but also a way to help the child to interpret and un-derstand hers or his own signals making it easier to express these in the future.

C. Abstracti on & Generalizati onAccording to the pedagogues we met, both generalizati on and abstracti on can be of great diffi culty, not least for children with auti sm spectrum disorders. Another part of the disability is that these children more rarely ask for help. They manage themselves and are sati sfi ed with very litt le. To learn and understand similariti es is a keystone in the abstracti on that takes place in the constructi on of a language. At Kolbäckens habilitati on they teach the surrounding network how to step by step train functi onal communicati on. From the basic in fi nding a way how to moti vate the individual child and learn how to imitate, to linguisti c comprehension through understanding that an photo or an image of an object is equivalent to the object and that you can ask for an object by showing an image and so on.

D. Social competence In several group acti viti es and games, at both the preschools, the special schools and at the Nacka Habilitati on group acti vity, components of training social com-petence were included in the acti viti es.

Image 13. A Social Story about what will happen when you go to the barber.

Image 14. A aid for playing with your doll - showing diff ernt alternati ve games you can do with it..

It could be included in songs or games with turn taking and waiti ng for your turn in a group acti vity, or games where you pose a questi on, asking somebody for a thing or as “the fruit store game” during a snack brake where all the children were sitti ng in a ring. First they got a real coin and then, one at ti me, they went to the teacher in the middle and choose a fruit, asked for it and payed for it and then went back to their place in the ring before enjoying the fruit.

Klara Mera had a lot of visual aids for training and preparing tasks in your daily life. A social story can be a short explaining text or a series of images, telling how to handle a situati on or describing what to expect in a specifi c situati on. This text, reinforced with images, tells about what will happen when you go to the barber.

Children with auti sm spectra disorders oft en have a shortage of Theory of mind (T-O-M). It can be diffi cult for them to imagine things beyond the perceived, to understand how, and even that, other people think, feel, are pretending or jok-ing. It can be diffi cult to understand other peoples’ intenti on and to predict what will happen. For these children, social stories are of great help, teaching the child how to act and what to expect in a relati on with other people and in specifi c situati ons.

A defi ciency in central coherence can mean that the child with an auti sti c chal-lenge has an extremely good memory for details but at the same ti me a frag-mented sensory integrati on with diffi culty to generalize knowledge from one situati on to another, having narrow-minded interests and inability to vary the games she or he plays. One kind of game can go well for a long ti me but is rarely developed. Instead it is exchanged to another game. Stories can help them understand what sequence that usually comes aft er another. Stories, images and dolls can be a method for talking and treat a situati on in a neutral way, without exposing the parti cular child or his or hers situati on.

E. Interests, Moti vati on & RewardFor the diff erent children we met during the user study week in Stockholm; we saw diff erent att empts among the pedagogues to catch each individual’s interests and moti vati on for supporti ng and encouraging the learning process. For one child, the reward could be a verbal approval, for another it could be a certain game, sing a song or watch a movie.

One boy we met was very fond of raspberries. For each task he performed at school, he could collect an image of a raspberry and when he had gathered three images he knew that he was allowed to go out to the kitchen and fetch half a cup of frozen berries. Yummy! The reward system itself was a very lo-fi gadget, made in plasti cized paper. But it had taken some while for the pedagogues and the family to frame the reward system for this child with Down syndrome, start-ing with the instant treat to collecti ng abstract images and for the boy to wait unti l the third image before collecti ng his desire.

Anneli Tisell at Hatt en Förlag AB told about her work with developing the sound for the applicati on TeckenHatt en, a children’s PC program for learning sign lan-guage. The sound of a fart when something went wrong was such a misdirected “reward” so instead of performing the tasks in a right way, the children using the program really tried to fail – just to evoke the funny sound.

Anneli realized that she didn’t need to confi rm or reinforce when something goes wrong, only to strengthen succeeds.

All children are individuals, unlike each others, and therefore need diff erent strategies for capturing interests and gaining moti vati on as well as suiti ng pos-sible systems for rewards.

F. Visual feedback, Tangible objects & ReinforcementFor all children at all preschools and schools visited, the teachers uses images, photos, symbols, objects and signs to reinforce communicati on in one or an another way. Lena Nilsson means that the eye-minded is so strong. “It is docu-mented that images also trigger the linguisti c development”, she tells us.

Oft en you see both text and image in combinati on. Signs as a support and reinforcement to spoken language (TSS or AKK) are oft en used for children with speech or language disorders.

One purpose of the arti culated and visual feedback is also to strengthen the child’s self concepti on and self esteem. Visa bild på studmatt a Using physical items and moti ons are other ways of enhancing memory by involving other senses in your learning process as well as training fi ne and gross motor-skills.

G. Structure, Time & Transiti on Structure is one of the three main cornerstones that Iréne Johansson stress as important when using her method to support children’s language development.

All children are doing well from having a good structure in life, but children with an auti sm spectra disorders depends enti rely on the surrounding structure to feel good and being able to act. To understand ti me and to switch from one acti vity to another can also be very hard. One way of constructi ng structure and making life more understandable is by visualizing ti me and showing what will happen in the near future. There are a lot of lo-tech as well as more technologi-cal devices that visualize ti me and durati on as well as schedules for day acti viti es and weeks.

When you know that the ti me limit for one acti vity is reached, it can be easier to switch to another. We also saw some examples in the schools how teachers bridges over from one acti vity to another by singing a song or doing a physical acti vity that actually led from one place with the fi rst acti vity, to the next place and next acti vity.

SummaryThe themes and the observati ons made within the diff erent areas as signifi cant to take into account in a conti nuous design process. They can serve as basis of discussion when deciding what to focus on or including in a demand list for a future product.

Image 15 & 16. The ordinary child book is supported with tangible objects - the same characters and utensiles that is menti oned in the book.

Image 17 & 18. Aids for visualizing ti me and the daily acti viti es.

Image 19. Transiti on - walking on blocks from one acti vity, to another.

3.3 design opportuniti es For us designers, an observed situati on also serve as a starti ng points for design opportuniti es. Some ideas appear already in situ, others when processing the background material. To make the material easier to share, each of us chose some observed situati ons that we found interesti ng, formulated them as “short stories”, summed up with a formulated design opportunity in a sentence begin-ning with “what if”.

SummaryA good story about a user's experience can help people to see the problem (or opportunity), moti vate people to take acti on, and sti ck in people's memo-ries long aft er we're gone. These short stories illustrate one way of processing, selecti ng, visualizing and sharing a background material. It also shows how to trigger and capture design opportuniti es from a material.

Image 20 & 21. Some examples of the design opportuniti es that were formulated.

4. previous experiences

4.1 pictocontact During 2008 and unti l March 2009, UID Research group carried out a project called PICTOCONTACT in cooperati on with The Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) and The Nati onal Agency for Special Needs Educati on and Schools (SPSM).

In PICTOCONTACT, the users have been involved in the design development throughout the whole project. The user group remained of people in the age of 16-30 y with a cogniti ve challenged on a level B , a few of them with very limited spoken language.

The overall objecti ve with the project was to develop an Internet-based service, which provided people with cogniti ve diffi culti es, and reading and writi ng ability on a level B, to independently and remotely communicate and create a social community with help of Pictogram.

Initi al interviews were made with parents, teachers, resource persons and special pedagogues to identi fy current needs, possible problems and functi onal requirements. From this pre-study, the design department created an interface for web and mobile phone which was tested for three months with 13 users and their surrounding contacts before it was evaluated.

SummaryThe experiences from this project show the importance of working in an inti mate contact with the people that are closest to the user, such as parents, assistants or resource persons, teachers, etc.

One must take into account whether the person has an own language or not, and adapt to each individual and situati on.

All tests with users must be well prepared. A test is more likely to succeed if it is preceded of a pre-study with observati ons included, to bett er know how to arrange the test itself. The test should be set up so the results can be interpreted by those who are closest to the user, and with questi on that are possible for these persons to answer.

The interpretati on of a result can also be made in combinati on with observati ons by the designers.

It was hard to predict the outcome during the test period, it was much of trial and error, and all through the project you have to be prepared on adapti ng as the project progresses.

It took quite a while before some of the users learned how to use the new com-municati on tool, and in general, everyone, both users and surrounding network, thought that three months was too short.

Picture based communication for mobiles

Image 22. PICTOCONTACT - examples of interfaces for PC and mobile phone.

4.2 interacti on design degree projects The outcome from the Interacti on Design degree projects made by José Ledon and Rouien Zarin gives a lot of input according to user tests with cogniti ve chal-lenged preschool children, touch screen based devices and the benefi t of using an eye tracking system.

JOSÈ LEDONOne of the user tests José Ledon carried out was with a 6 y old boy with Down syndrome and auti sm spectra disorders. In this case he tried some applicati ons he had built for a Nokia5800 with a 3,2 inch wide touch screen(16:9).

One of the applicati ons contained 15 small images placed on the area of 3.2 inches. The boy interacted with the interface in a spontaneously way and under-stood intuiti vely how to press and interact with the small icons. Even though the boys’ fi ne-motor skills were not the best, he had no problems with hitti ng the small icons.

At the same user test, José Ledon tried the same applicati on, now on an Eye Tracking System from Tobii Technology model T-60. The applicati on José Ledon had designed contained both text and images. When touching one of the graphic icons, a short movie-clip started were you can see the mouth of the boy’s mother, reading the word that is shown in the graphics.

The feedback from the eye tracking device showed that the boy not only looked at the images but also the text area. Animati ons were the most att racti ng. Com-pared with other, nondisabled children in the same age, the boy focused and moved his eyes in another way. His focused were some centi meters to the left or the right of the objects that he interacted with on the screen. This could be due to a vision problem, but also to the fact that it was very diffi cult to carry out the calibrati on.

ROUIEN ZARINIn the user tests Rouien Zarin carried out, he fi rst tried a lot of animated fl ash applicati ons on a horizontal multi -touch screen together with some cogniti ve challenged children. Most children interacted instantly and in collaborati on with the applicati on. Some children became more dominant, taking the role of an “advanced user” which made him try also with one child at ti me.

Aft er some testi ng, the children also understood how to control the sound driven applicati on and seemed to enjoy the performance as well as the feedback from the graphics.

At some points the computer couldn’t handle all incoming signals from all the children’s input and totally slowed down. This is something to have in mind when prototyping for user tests. Another refl ecti on Rouien Zarin made was that a touch screen does not support dragging, which most of the children had tried to do.

SummeryFrom the tests performed with the eye tracking one can say that it is important that the calibrati on is adjusted for the special user you are testi ng, to know that you can rely on the fi ndings and that you don’t lose valuable ti me and the child’s att enti on in the beginning of a user test. But also that it is a perfect instrument to use when evaluati ng the soft ware you are about to design.

It was obvious that the children learned from each other’s when they interacted simultaneously with the interface Rouien Zarin designed. There is also a big po-tenti al in developing a sound driven applicati on, and see how it could encourage children to respond vocally, together in a group or single, and thus develop their spoken phoneti cs and speech.

5. design development challengesChildren with diff erent kinds of auti sm have parti cularly diffi culty with commu-nicati on and social interacti on, means Lena Nilsson at Kolbäckens Habilitati on. Off course there is a wide range of individual diff erences, but it is common that these children do not interact with other children and have a limited imaginati on and ability to play imaginary games.

Defi ciencies in communicati on skills for children with auti sm are parti cularly evi-dent in the areas of joint att enti on and symbol use, says Gunilla Bohlin et al. in their report. These areas are also core areas for language development. Speech development is usually delayed, between one third and half of all children with auti sm do not use speech in a functi onal way. Spoken language among children with auti sm before the age of fi ve has also proved to be one of the strongest and most reliable signs of a further positi ve development.

The ability to communicate in a functi onal manner is crucial to how a person's life turn out. Even rudimentary communicati ve skills can mean a lot when it comes to interacti ng with the environment, general adaptati on, inclusion and quality of life. Even small improvements in communicati on skills may spell sig-nifi cantly improved quality of life and fewer problem behaviors (Gunilla Bohlin et al.).

Every single step to support a cogniti ve challenged child’s communicati on skills is important. All these children can learn to read, write and speak – on their condi-ti ons. It will only take longer ti me and must be modifi ed aft er each individual. The key is that learning must be on their terms and based on every persons interests and curiosity.

A conclusion to be drawn from the observati ons is that conditi ons vary a lot between individuals, which means that an open approach in the creati on of an applicati on is needed to make it work for the broad audience.

And it seems though it is crucial that tools for training, enhancing and enabling communicati on also are developed for really small children and children at a low cogniti ve level. But how should a communicati on tool be designed to promote speech in a func-ti onal way and actually support social interacti on?

Since a few years back, the Habilitati on in Umeå, as several others in Sweden, is working with a behavioural interventi on for young children with auti sm. They teach how to train functi onal communicati on step by step. On the basis of a clear structure and fi nding the right way of moti vati ng the individual child, they start with learning how to train the child how to imitate and then conti nue to practi ce linguisti c understanding through a range of examples. A good outcome has been seen when starti ng at a low age, with a high intensity and with involve-ment of the child’s whole network.

The same base that the Swedish Habilitati on Directors rely on, has for several years been practi ced in the model for language development, Karlstadmetoden, that the speech therapist Iréne Johansson has developed. This method is prac-ti ced by families and their children with speech disorders, regardless diagnosis.

The model is grounded on children’s normal language development and the three methodological ground stones includes that the training should:- start early, as soon as possible aft er the birth or as soon as the parents wants- be conti nuously and repeti ti vely performed- be structured, systemati c and individually suited

In the design work with developing a strong and reliable tool for enhancing com-municati on and developing linguisti c skills among children with speech disor-ders, it would be of great benefi t to rely on a rati fi ed and well known model for language development. In the Nordic countries, Iréne Johansson is a guiding star in this area, and has been so since the 1980’s.

The publishers Hatt en Förlaget has done a great and inspiring graphic design work when they have developed the “Karlstadmodellen” into puppet characters, children books and computer games. This illustrates how a trusted model for language sti mulati on can be made more accessible and tempti ng with help of graphic design and new technology.

There are other interesti ng infl uences telling about new ways of understanding language. Gestures are shown to be criti cal both to linguisti c and to cogniti ve development. In Blackstone et al.’s paper, they also menti on Tomasello’s “usage-based” theory of acquisiti on as one of the most prominent accounts of language acquisiti on today.

“The real thing is having fun” says Janice Light. She brought in teams of young kids, posed a problem to them of a child who isn’t able to walk and talk and set them loose to build an inventi on to help such a child. She has compared features of winning toys and used modifi ed parti cipatory design methodology to inves-ti gate and assemble children’s preferences and prioriti es in the design of AAC technologies.

Janice Light has also found that young children with developmental disabiliti es (1-3 y) show substanti al increases in vocabulary acquisiti on when provided with access to dynamic display AAC technologies.

AAC (Augmented and Alternati ve Communicati on) technologies are a broad, integrated group of strategies, tools, and techniques from which an individual with CCN (complex communicati on needs) may choose when communicati ng anywhere, any ti me , and with anyone.

When thinking about designing and improving AAC technologies, says Sarah Blackstone et al., it is important to seek input from all relevant stake -holder groups as family members, clinicians, teachers, educators, researchers, develop-ers and manufacturers, knowing that they will not all view the world in the same way. Though, the most important voices are oft en the hardest to hear, they say. The most important in AAC research and practi ce is to involve and rely on the individuals with the complex communicati on needs.

Parti cipatory acti on research is menti oned as a widely recommended way to involve individuals with complex communicati on needs in developing research questi ons and designing methods (Blackstone, 2007).

In a project where the aim is to develop tools for for children with communica-ti on needs, we would like to pose the same questi ons to the design team that

Barbro Svensson (speech and auti sm special pedagogue at the Habilitati on in the region Västra Götaland and member of Föreningen TalFör) means are the most essenti al to ask yourself when you plan for, and carry out, communicati on train-ing with a child:

- Where - in what context - does the child do justi ce to itself?? - With who communicates the child the best? - Which acti vity and what interest captures the child's att enti on? A user-centred approach in a design project is the only way to be sure that an end-result will be successful for the users (including their network).

For a future project, where the aim is to develop a communicati on tool for cogni-ti ve challenged children, we would recommend the design team to, from the very beginning; establish a close contact with a group of children and their near-est network. And along the project, plan for repeatedly implemented user-test with ample ti me margins.

It would also be of importance to defi ne what you would like to achieve or what you want to support with a future product as well as fi nding good ways to evaluate success in the developing work in relati on to what you want to achieve, either by network evaluati ons, logopedic tests, observati ons of positi ve changes in social behaviour and interacti on and so on.

Barab, S.A., et al. (2004) Criti cal Design Ethnography: Designing for Change. An-thropology & Educati on Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 2. pp. 254-268.

Blackstone, S. W., et al. (2007) Key principles underlying research and practi ce in AAC. Augmented and Alternati ve Communicati on, 23:3, 191-203.

Bohlin, G., et al. (2004, revised 2006 and 2008) Mångsidiga intensiva insatser för barn med auti sm i förskoleåldern. Report. Föreningen Sveriges Habilitering-schefer. (Associati on for Swedish Habilitati on Directors)

Bromark, G., Behandling av auti sm med beteendeterapeuti sk intensivträning. Habilitering för barn och vuxna i Uppsala län.

Fraser, S., & Gestwicki, C., (2001) Authenti c Childhood: Experiencing Reggio Emilia in the Classroom. Delmar Learning.

Johansson, I. (2007) Språkutveckling hos handikappade barn. Performati v kom-munikati on. Studentlitt eratur, Lund.

Johansson, I. (1994) Language Development in Children with Special Needs. Performati ve Communicati on. Jessica Kingsley Publisher, London and Bristol Pennsylvania.

Ledon, J. (2009) Expressive Interacti ons. Communicati on Aid for Children with Special Needs. Ma Interacti on Design Degree Project report, Umeå Insti tute of Design, Umeå University, Sweden.

Light, J. (Feb. 20, 2006). Technology Helps Disabled Kids Find Their Voice. Science News. www.sciencedaily.com

Light, J. & Drager, K., (2007) AAC technologies for young children with complex communicati on needs: State of the science and future research directi ons. Aug-mented and Alternati ve Communicati on, 23:3, 204-216.

Light, J. et al. (2007) Children’s ideas for the design of AAC assisti ve technologies for young children with complex communicati on needs. Augmented and Alterna-ti ve Communicati on, 23:4, 274-287.

Söderbergh. R., et al. (2003) Från joller ti ll läsning och skrivning. Kristi anstads Boktryckeri AB, Kristi anstad.

Zarin, R. (2009) Trollskogen. A Framework for Enhancing Communicati on for Cog-niti vely Disabled Children. Ma Interacti on Design Degree Project report, Umeå Insti tute of Design, Umeå University, Sweden.

Föreningen TalFör, förening för Talpedagoger i Förskolan. htt p://hem.passagen.se/talfor/

6. references

Umeå Insti tute of DesignUmeå UniversitySE - 906 29 Umeå

Sweden