Graduate Diploma in Professional Development – SLD/PMLD

Module 3 Teaching and Learning Part 2 Assignment

Undertake a small-scale classroom-based action research project focusing on an identified issue in your own setting. Apply an appropriate intervention (e.g. a particular teaching technique) and evaluate its impact.

I was aware through trust group discussions how difficult it would be to think of a single issue that could be positively affected in a short space of time. The issue or ‘problem’ I chose to research for this assignment was the serious lack of engagement presented by Tom, who has a diagnosis of ASD. His motivational problems and lack of well being were increasing and negatively impacting on his school and home life. As the ICT co-ordinator in my school I was naturally inclined to try out some new technology. After an unsuccessful iPad trial with Tom an opportunity arose in March to BETA test a new piece of gesture-based technology. I decided to use this program, Somantics, in an individual case study with Tom to try to increase his involvement and well being.

Tom’s Personality and Behavioural Issues

Tom is 14 years old and is a very shy and withdrawn young man who is happy to be left alone. He has been in my class since September and at our school since 2009. Tom has had a diagnosis of ASD since 2003 and has significant impairments in all three aspects of the Triad (Wing & Gould, 1979). He is working at a P5-8 level (EQUALS, 2005) and has very limited communication. Tom is immediately echolalic in direct conversation and also shows delayed echolalia. Tom can however name flashcards of common objects such as ’car’, ’ball’ and ’house’. He is very vocal at times when he will repeat words, tones and short phrases repetitively. Tom will also engage in physical ‘stimming’ with only the top half of his body and will pick at fibres on his clothes (Appendix 1, C3 Yard). Tom’s repetitive body and vocal behaviours seem to have their root in self stimulatory and pleasurable withdrawal functions (Bogdashina, 2003).

Tom shows some understanding of concepts (Appendix 1, C1 Worksheet), and is evidently a logical-mathematical and visual-spatial learner (Gardner, 1983) (Appendix 2). He can match pictures, group in categories such as ‘cars’ and ‘planes’, sequence in size order and label photographs with verb symbols. Tom is very prompt reliant, he will cut out one picture following an initial prompt then sit and wait for the next prompt. He needs verbal prompts to transition, to eat his food, to drink and to go to the toilet. Tom does not generally engage with peers or staff. Tom will only react when another girl shouts in class, he will then often become upset and hit himself in his mouth, head and face. At home Tom will also show this self-harming behaviour for a number of triggers, usually centred on demands being made of him. In terms of emotional well being ‘a small number of people at all levels of ability show a marked breakdown in adolescence or early adult life.’ (Clements & Zarkowska, 2000, p.27) On the yard he will always stand in the same place and exhibit his repetitive behaviours which is not surprising as ‘free times and playtimes… are often the times of maximum withdrawal’ (Jordan, 2001, p.47).

Tom also shows the same self-harming behaviour in school when he is asked to go out for an outside lesson, or when he is going to PE in the hall. Tom does not always transition well, he will often stop in the corridors and need a verbal or slight physical prompt to keep walking, or he will sit on the floor (Appendix 1, C4 Transitioning). He will sometimes not want to go to the hall for dinner although he will for assemblies and he will also transition well for music lessons. Tom will usually come to the front of class to use the whiteboard with a few verbal requests. He will try to reach all of the whiteboard with his arms without moving his feet and will sit down once the activity is finished or when he has had enough. Frequently Tom will not move from his desk (Appendix 1, C2 Whiteboard). Tom will sometimes retreat to the toilet area, especially after an episode of self harming, and will remain there until he feels ready to return to class, which he needs prompting to do.

Tom shows very little motivation to complete tasks or to enjoy himself. ‘A feature of autism, after all is the lack of a need to make sense of the world.’ (Jordan & Powell, 1995, p.40) He would be quite content to sit at his desk all day with no demands being made of him, although I’ve obviously not tested this theory. Similar to other individuals with ASD whose ‘play is typically stereotyped and repetitive rather than symbolic or imaginative’ (Jordan & Powell, 1995, p.21). Tom enjoys a very limited set of activities. He will complete jigsaw puzzles, of up to around 100 pieces with some prompting. He will play a Scooby Doo switch activity over and over again. Initial trials with other activities in class from September to December 2011 widened his repertoire solely to include a Winnie the Poo switch activity. With other activities he pushes them away and refuses to engage. Appendix 3 shows the result of a few sessions of working on the iPad, as I originally intended using it for this assignment. It met with extremely limited results and all Tom was interested in was touching the ‘Do The Roar’ Shrek app repeatedly to make him roar. This is worrying as ‘apparent lack of interest in anything can seriously affect access to education and quality of life.’ (Jordan, 2011, p.148) and ‘positive motivation as a concept is closely linked to well being (Clements and Zarkowski, 2000, p.186).

The Research Issue

Tom therefore does not engage socially, is resistant to transitioning, is very prompt reliant and has very low involvement levels. If we place Tom on the Leuven Scale for Involvement then he would present as Level 1-2 through the majority of the school day (Laevers, 2005). It is a sad fact that ‘left to their own devices people with autism in the end become unhappy, unwell, confused and ever more driven and dominated by compulsions of one form or another’ (Clements & Zarkowska, 2000, p.19). Tom began refusing to access PE lessons in the hall around January and ended up self harming, sitting in the corridor and becoming very distressed. A number of interventions were tried unsuccessfully. At this time I was in contact with Dr Wendy Keay-Bright from UWIC who kindly offered me a trial version of the PC version of the Somantics program to use in school. I decided to try the system with Tom. I wanted to increase his engagement to interact and enjoy something, in fact to enjoy anything new. I also wanted to try to improve his general mobility, for him to move his whole body as ‘a very significant contributor to the promotion of both physical and emotional well being is exercise’ (Clements and Zarkowski, 2000, p.125). I also planned to use it as a method of bringing him back to PE sessions as it is possible to use Somantics in the hall.

Somantics and Gesture-Based Computing

When I was appointed ICT co-ordinator in summer 2011 I drew up an action plan to update ICT provision in the school. I decided to start with a ‘bottom up’ approach, to give access to those pupils who had no, or very limited, access to the curriculum. This was mainly our PMLD pupils but also included a group with specific physical disabilities such as Retts Syndrome and other repetitive motor control problems and pupils with sensory processing issues who would usually break conventional equipment. Through this identified need I researched and trialled gesture-based, non-touch technologies also now termed natural user interfaces (NMC, 2012). The school has now purchased a Tobii eye-gaze system that enables computer control by retina movement, a set of iPads and is about to purchase an interactive floor projection system.

Through this planning I came across the Reactickles and Somantics project at UWIC headed by Dr Wendy Keay-Bright in September 2011. In November Wendy came up to use Somantics, a gesture-based Kinect system, with some KS2 classes. The pupils’ responses were positive, especially with another ASD pupil who unintentionally ‘popped in’ to the session. I hosted a Phd student of Wendy in January and February 2012 to run further trials of his handwriting system (Othman & Keay-Bright, 2010) and after some eager inquiry from me about release dates Wendy kindly gave me access to a BETA version of the software and I finally got Somantics working at the beginning of March.

Gesture-based computing is named in the NMC Horizon Report 2012 as one of the ‘emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in education.’ (Johnson et al, 2012, p.3). Gesture-based computing involves the control of computers through ‘the motions of the body, facial expressions, and voice recognition via new input devices.’ (ibid, p.8). Some systems such as touch screens are already familiar equipment in many SEN schools through interactive whiteboards and touch screen monitors. Tablets such as the iPad respond to ‘pressure, motion and the number of fingers used in touching the devices. Some devices react to shaking, rotating, titling or moving the device in space.’ (Johnson et al, 2011, p.24). Gesture based technology is a feature in mainstream gaming with the Nintendo Wii using ‘a handheld, accelerometer- based controller with a stationary infrared sensor’ (Johnson et al, 2012, p.26) to control actions on the screen.

The Microsoft Kinect takes gesture-based systems further as there is no need for buttons, touch screens or controllers because it uses a motion sensor camera to ‘recognise and interpret patterns in gross motor movements, including body movements and facial expressions.’ (Johnson et al, 2012, p.26). Microsoft Xbox games are already used in ASD settings (Xbox, 2012) but its use is also spreading beyond Microsoft (Sechrist, 2011). There is an increasing community looking to develop educational applications for the Kinect (KinectEDucation, 2012). Companies such as Visikord are using the Kinect system for dance and light applications in nightclubbing, which may also have a use in our settings (Visikord, 2012). The customized virtual reality software FAAST also means that teachers can program the Kinect to interact with existing programs (Suma et al, 2011). Individuals such as Ceri Williams are also networking through Twitter, websites such as TES and Blogs to disseminate some open source software for the Kinect in education (Williams, 2012).

Somantics is ‘a suite of applications that use touch, gesture and camera input to encourage, capture and amplify the interests of young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions’ (Keay-Bright, 2012). The system is an ‘interactive mirror’ where pupils can see themselves and their movements on screen in real time. Dinah Murray, even back in 1998, recognised the value of computers primarily as a therapeutic tool for ASD pupils and that educational potential may not be accessed until ‘the calming, controllable, aspects of working with computers have first been explored freely.’ (p.100) Reactickles, another UWIC project, uses the same playfulness and exploration concept where ‘even the most tentative of physical manipulations of an input device will be immediately rewarded with a visual response’ (Keay-Bright, 2011, p.1). With the ‘mirror’ and instant feedback element of Somantics it supports developing both play and thinking in pupils with autism as it gives almost literal opportunities for ‘the learner developing an awareness of him or herself as a reflecting problem solver’ (Jordan & Powell, 1995, p.94).

Action Research Methodology

Session 1 on the 16th March was Tom’s first experience of Somantics. Session 2 was meant to follow the next week but staff shortages meant I could not continue sessions until the 29th March. The sessions continued over the next week ending with Session 8 on the 5th April. All the sessions took place in the ICT suite which ensured a distraction free area where I hoped Tom would feel safe. I collected video evidence for the project, this enabled me to repeatedly look at different areas of behaviour and engagement. The video evidence is organised into folders of Session 1-8 listed in Appendix 1. I didn’t want to be distracted from recording the activity so no written evidence was taken during the sessions.

Session 1 and 8 include one minute clips of Tom using each of the five applications, Sparkles, Kaleidoscope, Painter, Split Scanner and Ghost. These two sessions were my main ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ evidence to show any progression during the study. I needed a method to turn this qualitative research into something quantitative however (Gomm et al, 1994). As the intention was to improve Tom’s involvement and well being the Leuven Involvement and Well Being Scales for Young Children were an ideal assessment tool (Laevers, 2005). I could not however just give one score for each session as I knew Tom would display many levels of involvement in a short space of time. I therefore split each session into 10 second blocks, with the outcome score being the main behaviour shown in that section. Each one minute session then had a score out of 30, which was then divided by 6 to get an average session score. The final data from session 8 was also analysed this way and they are both presented and compared together in Appendix 5 & 6 to evidence progression.

In the intervening 6 Somantics sessions I recorded Tom for progressively longer sessions and focused mainly on the ‘Painting’ application of Somantics. From session 1 I could see that this was Tom’s favoured activity and the one that had the most scope for further development. I intervened a little in each session, mainly to facilitate by helping to change the colours, to give some small verbal or physical cues to aid Tom’s interaction with the system, to introduce objects and to change the Kinect camera angle. Play and exploration is a very important skill for ASD pupils but must usually be taught. Through it ‘The child develops a sense of self-efficacy and an understanding about things he or she can affect’ (Jordan, 2001, p.89). Tom needed these little prompts at times to develop. It was impossible to formally record and tabulate all of the physical, gestural, emotional and verbal responses in sessions 2-7, especially as some of these only occurred fleetingly. Some main points of development are discussed later however.