Interactive Technologies and Autism, Second Edition - Kientz, Julie A.

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Résumé :
This book provides an in-depth review of the historical and state-of-the-art use of technology by and for individuals with autism. The design, development, deployment, and evaluation of interactive technologies for use by and with individuals with autism have been rapidly increasing over the last few decades. There is great promise for the use of these technologies to enrich lives, improve the experience of interventions, help with learning, facilitate communication, support data collection, and promote understanding. Emerging technologies in this area also have the potential to enhance assessment and diagnosis of autism, to understand the nature and lived experience of autism, and to help researchers conduct basic and applied research. The intention of this book is to give readers a comprehensive background for understanding what work has already been completed and its impact as well as what promises and challenges lie ahead. A large majority of existing technologieshave been designed for autistic children, there is increased interest in technology?s intersection with the lived experiences of autistic adults. By providing a classification scheme and general review, this book can help technology designers, researchers, autistic people, and their advocates better understand how technologies have been successful or unsuccessful, what problems remain open, and where innovations can further address challenges and opportunities for individuals with autism and the variety of stakeholders connected to them.

Biographie:
Dr. Julie A. Kientz is a Professor at the University of Washington in the department of Human Centered Design and Engineering, with adjunct appointments in Computer Science and the Information School. She has worked in the space of autism and technology for the last 15 years, as well as the more general area of technologies for health, education, and families. Her background is in Computer Science, and thus she comes to this area from the perspective of a technologist, but she has had a focus in human-centered design and works to bring the perspective of end users and other stakeholders in the design of novel technologies. Her primary experience in this area has been in the development and evaluation of four technologies for individuals with autism and their caregivers. The first, Abaris, was a tool that used digital pen technology and voice recognition to help therapists and teachers conducting discrete trial training therapy become more efficient and reflective of the data they collect. The second, Baby Steps, is a long-term project looking at using a variety of software, Web, mobile, and social media technologies to engage parents of young children to identify early warning signs of developmental delay, including autism. The most recent project, led by her former Ph.D. student Kiley Sobel, was Incloodle, a shared tablet-based picture-taking application for kindergar-teners to promote inclusive play and teach social-emotional understanding of neurodiversity be-tween neurodiverse children and their peers. Dr. Kientz received a National Science Foundation CAREER award for her work on using technology to track developmental milestones in young children and was named an MIT Technology Review Top Innovator Under 35. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008.