2 STATE-OF-THE-ART
In the last decades, a number of software applications
have been developed for people with special needs,
mostly targeting computer-based learning. These
however, have been developed in a more enabling
and functional perspective centered in the individual
himself (Emiliani et al., 2009) (Helal et al., 2008)
Specifically designed for children with ASD there is
the Zac Browser
1
, which allows autonomous usage
of the Internet, together with other tools as activi-
ties, games, and videos. This platform is especially
designed for recreational and entertainement use, as
such, it does not explore the interpersonal communi-
cation specificities. Furthermore, tutors are limited
at a content manipulation and tool adaptation levels.
Boardmaker
2
is a suite of applications that enables the
adaptation of learning materials to the needs of each
child. The program has a large database of symbols
they call Picture Communication Symbols (PCS)
TM
,
and allows the users to create any kind of customized
material, such as schedules, manual communication
boards, books, teaching materials, etc. The mate-
rial can be used in the computer or printed, making
this tool usefull to create materials for teaching, how-
ever, this software is designed for the tutor and was
not conceived to be used by children. TeachTown
3
is a Computer-Assisted Instructional (CAI) program
designed for developmental ages between 2-6 years,
specifically to meet needs of ASD population. The
program includes a comprehensive curriculum that
aligns to standardized measures, which integrated the
following learning domains: 1) Language Develop-
ment; 2) Social and Emotional Skills; 3) Adaptive
Skills; 4) Cognitive Skills; 5) Language Arts; and 6)
Mathematics. The curriculumdepends on the perfor-
mance and is adjusted for each student. Tutors can
customize the curriculum to meet Individual Educa-
tional Plan (IEP) goals. TeachTown also collects data
from the children usage and produces reports, to track
the student progress. This tool is one of the most com-
plete applications for children with ASD currently
available, and extensive research has proven that an
ICT tool like TeachTown has beneficial results. How-
ever, this tool is not completely customizable, and it is
not targetting all the children preferences, which can
have poor effects in their attention and engagement.
Furthermore, this tool was devised for individual use,
and lacks features that can promote communication
and social interaction skills. Although not specifically
designed for children with ASD, another tool of pos-
1
http://zacbrowser.com
2
http://www.mayer-johnson.com/boardmaker-software
3
http://web.teachtown.com/
sible application is the Grid 2
4
. This is a customizable
solution that replaces the conventional keyboard and
mouse by a pointing device applied in a virtual key-
board, through which it is possible to use any software
on the computer. However, this is a platform aimed
to a different target population, with special needs in
terms of accessibility.
3 FUNCTIONALITY
my.Troc@s.net was designed with the purpose of
encouraging socialization, facilitating interaction
among children with ASD, and also allowing tutors
to easily customize the contents and overall look-and-
feel of the platform.
The application can be fully customized with
icons, background images and the contents that allow
each child to be more effective while using it. Chil-
dren can even use their own drawings or favourite im-
ages in a semiotics approach to better associate each
feature of the software with the underlying function.
Tutors have full control over the software and they
can intervene at virtually all levels. They can act at
the content level, where contents are structured and
organized under the application folder tree, just as
any other document is organized in regular computer
work. But they can also act all the way up to the pre-
sentation level, where with basic training they are able
to manage the screen and navigation structure by sim-
ply editing the HTML files.
All the activities are targeted at communication
skills training. They are based on multimedia con-
tent: images, videos, audio, and stories that children
can autonomously browse through and learn from. In
addition there is also a message board, and content
preference sharing options, these being the main con-
tribution of the platform to the field, when compared
to existing work.
In the message board children can post messages
to their colleagues. The sender child has a buddy
list with names and photos of all counterparts, from
which the receiver colleague can be chosen. The mes-
sage can then be written either through text, picture
exchange (Bondy and Frost, 2001), or a combination
of both methods. When the receiver colleague opens
the message board, he will immediately be able to see
all of the messages sent to him by others. Figure 1
shows the message board screen.
For content preference sharing, associated to each
multimedia item (image, sound or video), there is a
positive and a negative preference option. These al-
4
http://www.sensorysoftware.com/thegrid2.html
PhyCS2014-InternationalConferenceonPhysiologicalComputingSystems
300