SEMATIC Pilot Study in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Using an Innovative Edutainment Software
Condition: Autism Spectrum Disorder
MeSH terms: Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Use of the software could allow learning of reading code in subjects with ASD through the
      design of serious games for educational and therapeutic purposes.

      This SEMATIC software could improve communication and could be integrated into medical
      management (speech therapy and neuropsychological).

      The benefit of an action research will enable training professionals to autism, cognitive
      characteristics of autism and the use of IT support for this population.
    

Detailed description: 
      SEMATIC is an innovative collaborative project which aims to develop an edutainment software
      for learning words and phrases from logic games. This software is designed for children with
      autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who do not have the normal prerequisites for learning to read
      (that is to say: the understanding of words, verbal expression and phonological awareness).
      In addition, this project is based on hyper competence in the visual field of children with
      ASD by providing a playful computer support and access to specific visual interests of these
      children. IT support is a useful tool because it is stable and predictable for focusing the
      child's attention with ASD. To date, none of learning reading software does exist for
      children with ASD. This project is based on innovative theoretical and methodological
      assumptions. These assumptions are derived directly from observation, clinical knowledge of
      the autistic disorder, testimonies of families and individuals with Asperger Syndrome or
      Autism High Level and the contributions of the scientific literature in the field of autism.

      This software was designed to improve the secondary verbal children with ASD as well as
      medical care (speech therapist and neuropsychological). The SEMATIC software could be
      integrated into traditional care for children with ASD. This project is part of an approach
      of 'action research'. Indeed, this research aims to boost health care teams by training
      cognitive characteristics of children with ASD and the use of computer support (SEMATIC).
      Fifteen children with ASD will be recruited in various institutions in the PACA region
      (departments 06 and 83) to participate in this study. All participants will use the software
      in the institution where they are usually supported but also at home.

      Thus the interest of SEMATIC project is to develop learning words and phrases on computer
      using logic games to go towards learning the reading code for children with ASD do not have
      the usual prerequisites. This is a pilot study. There is currently no equivalent method for
      measuring these changes.

      The assessment of learning will be carried out at different times of the protocol. Tests
      created specifically for the needs of the study will be used. Some tests commonly used in
      speech therapy and neuropsychological assessments (Standard tools validated on the
      recommendation of the HAS, 2005) will also be used to include topics and define the
      characteristics of the population of this study.
    

Intervention name(s): Autism Spectrum Disorder
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Training to the serious game sematic, clinical exam, speech and language therapy and neuropsychological evaluations
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; SEMATIC; software