By Bruce Bower
PARK CITY, Utah — Children with autism and related developmental disorders typically can’t carry on a conversation or play cooperatively with peers. Encouragingly, though, life-size virtual youngsters displayed on large computer screens can draw kids with autism into social encounters, psychologist Justine Cassell of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., reported June 5 at a meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, which focuses on research about psychological development.
In a preliminary investigation, Cassell and her colleagues examined turn-taking and other conversational skills in 12 pairs of 7- to 11-year-olds. In six pairs, children with autism were partnered with peers of their choosing who had no developmental conditions. In another six pairs, youngsters free of developmental problems worked with partners who also had no developmental complications.
Participants had to use a toy castle and an array of other toys to tell a story, first with their partner and later with a virtual peer. Those virtual peers were 3-D, computerized versions of children programmed to carry on conversations and react appropriately to what real-life partners said in various situations. Virtual kids were designed to be patient with conversation partners, give a lot of feedback to their partners and pause briefly before taking a turn in a conversation.
Unlike kids free of developmental disorders, children with autism contributed to stories, took turns in conversations, looked at their partners and suggested new story ideas more often with virtual peers than with flesh-and-blood partners. Cassell plans to explore whether regular exposure to computerized friends translates into improved real-life interactions for children with autism. – Bruce Bower