TY  - JOUR
TT  - AN EMPATHIC INTENSIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH CHILDREN WITH SEVERE AUTISM IMPROVED THEIR ICT ATTAINMENT LEVELS
AU  - Elzouki, Salima Y. Awad
AU  - Tashani, Osama A.
AU  - Cooper, Bridget
PY  - 2016
DA  - September
JF  - The Eurasia Proceedings of Educational and Social Sciences
JO  - EPESS
PB  - ISRES Publishing
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2587-1730
SP  - 139
EP  - 144
VL  - 5
KW  - Severe autism
KW  - technology
KW  - p-levels
KW  - empathy
KW  - ethnography
N2  - This research was carried out over 13 months, witheight children, in a specialist school unit for children with severe autism,aged 6-10 years (7 males, 1 female). Theassessment of the children's characteristics and abilities was used toestablish individual performance levels (P-Levels). P-Levels are used todescribe attainment levels for pupils with Special Educational Needs (SENs)working below level 1 of the National Curriculum in England and Wales, and wereapplied to English language skills (writing, reading, listening, speaking) andInformation and Computer Technology (ICT). These P-levels acted as a baselineto assess how computer-based interventions affected the participatingchildren's learning abilities. An empathic and ethnographic approach wasadopted to observe and interact personally with each child, through thedevelopment of computer interventions based on each child’s interests e.g.cartoons, singing, and drawing. Gradually, positive relationships were builtand ultimately made an interestingly significant change in the behavior andlearning abilities of the children. The findings suggested that the behaviorand learning abilities, measured by P-levels, of children, under the umbrellaof the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), are wide and varied, albeit with somesimilarities. A slight improvement in the children’s Facial EmotionalRecognition was observed, combined with a positive change in their interactionwith the researcher and progress in their ICT attainment, with the biggest pre-postchange recorded for ICT P-levels (p=0.026, Chi square). The level ofnon-cooperation in the initial study reflected the challenges faced whenteaching children with severe autism, however using interactive tools tailoredto the individual interests of each child was shown to make the computertechnology a more enjoyable, engaging and efficient teaching tool. Further, theextensive field work yielded fascinating and intrinsically valuable andimportant insights into daily life in an educational unit for children withsevere autism.
CR  - Anagnostou, E., Zwaigenbaum, L., Szatmari, P., Fombonne, E., Fernandez, B. A., Woodbury-Smith, M., . . . Drmic, I. (2014). Autism spectrum disorder: advances in evidence-based practice. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 186(7), 509-519. 
Education, D. o. (2014). Performance - P Scale - attainment targets for pupils with special educational needs. UK government Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/329911/Performance_-_P_Scale_-_attainment_targets_for_pupils_with_special_educational_needs.pdf.
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QCDA (Producer). (2011, 17/10/2013). Using the P scales to assess pupils’ progress. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/240021/Using_the_p_scales.pdf
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UR  - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/epess/issue//332929
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/332311
ER  -