iSocial: Virtually a social space for youth with autism

For the past few months, I've been working on a dissertation proposal that will investigate the use of a 3D Virtual Learning Environment for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders. In the process of putting together funding proposals to various granting and gifting entities, I put together a hypothetical use case and a website that outlines the project in broad terms. Since we've decided to use Squeak and OpenCroquet as the development platform for this application, it seemed appropriate to post the use case here.

From the iSocial website:

The iSocial project proposes to develop a three-dimensional virtual learning environment (3D VLE) for students who have been identified with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Participation in iSocial will enable social interaction and support the development of social competence for participation in both virtual and natural settings. The envisioned system integrates (1) a social space attuned to the capabilities and needs of students identified with ASD, (2) a curriculum of activities and scaffolding for developing social competence, and (3) a networked community for students, parents and teachers to motivate, support and sustain social interaction and progress toward social competence.

As illustrated in the video, youth will experience a 3D VLE customized to support social interaction and learning for the ASD population and adapted to the needs of the individual. The customization and adaptivity of features (e.g., representation, orthotics, and notification) and the study of the impact of that customization and adaptivity on presence, co-presence, behavior management and learning social competence guide the design and development of the system. By customization we mean being attuned to the needs and preferences of youth with ASD. For example the conversation console is a feature of iSocial customized to the needs of youth with ASD to have a mechanism for regulating some aspects of conversation, such as turn taking. By adaptivity we mean that the interface adjusts to how the social deficit or learning objective is manifest for this individual and to changes and development of the individual over time. For example, once a youth learns “turn taking” and is ready to practice this skill in conversation, the console can reduce the control it exerts or remove that feature. Similarly if a youth does not adopt the turn taking controls in the console, other forms of control can be substituted such as removing other members from view until it is the youth’s turn to speak.

I am interested in feedback from anyone from the Squeak and Croquet communities.