EAGER: Enhancing the executive functions of neurodiverse children through technology-mediated sociodramatic play

执行功能是目标导向行为所需要的认知过程，如注意控制、信息处理和目标设定。它们对于在学校和整个生活中取得成功至关重要，但神经多样性儿童在EF方面有困难。心理工具（ToM）风格的社会戏剧游戏（在这种游戏中，一群孩子在计划、角色扮演、互动社会对话和谈判、即兴创作和使用通用道具等方面有着共同的目标）被证明是培养神经多样性儿童EF的一种成功方法，但由于需要对成人辅导员进行大量培训，实施起来可能具有挑战性。这项探索性研究的目标是发明降低这一障碍的技术。项目成果将产生人工、经验和方法上的贡献，以平等地服务于被诊断为自闭症和智力残疾的儿童，以及在EF技能中表现出一系列互补优势和劣势的儿童，从而为教师和治疗师提供必要的定制工具，以支持每个孩子，从而改善他们的学习成果，提高他们的生活质量。软件和硬件说明将在网上发布，研究结果将在计算机科学场地和唐氏综合症和自闭症大会上展示，以便不同的观众了解它们。其他广泛的影响将来自于神经多样性儿童与一名女博士生和四名本科生的参与式设计会议，以及通过CRA-W DREU或AccessComputing项目的女性和/或残疾的暑期本科生研究人员。该项目将利用该团队之前在StoryCarnival上的工作成果，这是一个旨在为典型的3-4岁儿童降低ToM障碍的系统，其中包括促进社会戏剧游戏的交互式视觉故事，帮助儿童从体验故事过渡到角色扮演的游戏规划应用程序，以及由成人辅导员控制的有形语音代理，以保持儿童的参与。“故事嘉年华”将把“故事嘉年华”的范围扩大到所有儿童（包括智障儿童和自闭症儿童），增加我们对高质量内容、互动媒体支架和语音代理如何支持目标社区物理空间中的协作活动的理解，从而降低以证据为基础的活动的障碍，以促进EF技能的发展。StoryCarnivalU将通过一系列的18个设计会议迭代开发，其中至少有一个孩子被诊断为自闭症或智力残疾，以及兄弟姐妹。新颖的定制方法将使目标人群能够从汤姆式游戏中获得帮助，特别强调故事内容，游戏计划，语音代理设计和控制，并额外关注围绕技术使用的生态，包括最佳群体规模，结合行为目标和期望，并在游戏过程中为道具的象征性使用提供支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Executive functions (EF) are cognitive processes needed for goal-oriented behaviors such as attentional control, information processing, and goal setting. They are critical for success in school and throughout life, but neurodiverse children have difficulty with EF. Tools of the Mind (ToM) style sociodramatic play (in which groups of children engage in make-believe with common goals for planning, role playing, interactive social dialogue and negotiation, improvisation, and use of generic props) has been shown to be a successful approach to developing EF with neurodiverse children, but implementation can be challenging due to the substantial training required for adult facilitators. The goal of this exploratory research is to invent technologies to lower this barrier. Project outcomes will yield artifact, empirical, and methodological contributions to equally serve children diagnosed with autism and intellectual disabilities and who display a range of complementary strengths and weaknesses in their EF skills, thereby providing teachers and therapists with the customizable tools necessary to support each child so as to improve their learning outcomes and enhance their quality of life. Software and hardware instructions will be published online, and the findings will be presented both at Computer Science venues and Down Syndrome and Autism conventions so different audiences are aware of them. Additional broad impacts will derive from the inclusion of neurodiverse children in participatory design sessions with one female Ph.D. student and four undergraduate students, as well as summer undergraduate researchers who are female and/or with disabilities through CRA-W DREU or AccessComputing programs. The project will leverage the team's prior work on StoryCarnival, a system designed to lower barriers to ToM for typically developing 3-4-year old children, which includes interactive visual stories to promote sociodramatic play, a play planner app to help children transition from experiencing a story to role playing, and tangible voice agents controlled by adult facilitators to keep children engaged. StoryCarnivalU will expand the reach of StoryCarnival to a universal set of children (with intellectual disabilities and autism), increasing our understanding of how quality content, interactive media scaffolds, and voice agents support collaborative activities in physical spaces for the target community and thereby lower barriers to evidence-based activities to promote EF skills. StoryCarnivalU will be developed iteratively through a series of 18 design sessions with families having at least one child diagnosed with autism or an intellectual disability along with siblings. Novel approaches to customization will enable the target populations to receive help from ToM-style play, with special emphasis on story content, play planning, and voice agent design and control, with additional focus on the ecology surrounding technology use including optimal group sizes, incorporating behavioral goals and expectations, and providing support for the symbolic use of props during play.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.