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Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can demonstrate a preference for using digital technologies which can represent a relative strength within the autism community. Such a strength would have implications for digitally mediated interventions and support for autism. However, research to date has not developed a methodology for assessing the capabilities of minimally verbal children on the autism spectrum with intellectual disability (ID) to use digital technology.

Six minimally verbal children with ASD and ID undertook an accessible assessment that identified what capabilities for interacting with a digital tablet device they could and could not demonstrate. Twelve brief assessments were demonstrated, including turning on the device, adjusting the volume, operating the camera, touching, tilting and rotating the screen.

Participants could be assessed on their digital capabilities. In this study, participants could largely touch and swipe the screen effectively and leave the app, but could not tilt and rotate the screen nor turn on the digital tablet device.

While the numbers were small, the findings indicate that the digital capabilities of this group can usefully be assessed. Future research can use such assessments to highlight how intervention effectiveness and support can be enhanced by matching the digital capacities of minimally verbal children with ASD and ID to technological support. This is a preliminary study and a greater understanding of children’s prior experiences with technology will better inform how and which digital capabilities develop.

This is the first study to assess a range of basic capabilities for using digital tablet devices in minimally verbal children with ASD and ID.

The potential of head mounted displays based virtual reality (HMD-based VR) for autistic groups has been well documented. However, the deployment and application of this technology, especially in schools, has been extremely limited. One of the main criticisms in this field has been the lack of involvement from practitioners in research on educational approaches for autistic populations and the gap between research and practice in real-life settings.

This conceptual article focuses on our research in a UK-based special needs school that sought to examine the effects and potential use of VR-HMDs, while seeking to establish best practices for safe and ethical application using this technology. This draws upon ethical and participatory research guidance, including British Educational Research Association and Autism Participatory Research.

The authors make recommendations on planning and implementing a participatory, safe and ethical approach to researching the use of VR-HMDs in special needs schools and engaging with the priorities of autistic children and young people and their teachers.

This conceptual article provides an initial first consideration of ways we can better include autistic people and their views in research that is with and about them. The value in this will mean we are able to better support autistic groups moving ahead using VR HMD-based technologies. Without this paradigm shift and including autistic people (and their stakeholders) the field might continue to build initiatives around medical-based models of disabilities rather that what the community need/want.

This paper assesses the ability of the minimally verbal child with autism to recognise their own voice. The rationale for this study rests in recent advances in technology aimed at making the voice of speech generating devices (SGDs) sound more like the child using them (van Santen and Black, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the child’s ability to actually recognise the sound of their own voice in a series of short experiments using computer-based methodology.

Using a voice-face matching computerised paradigm, the performance of 33 children with autism was compared to that of 27 children with developmental delay (DD), and 33 typically developing (TD) children. The children were matched for verbal and non-verbal ability and a training period was conducted prior to the main test to ensure children’s understanding of what was expected of them.

The findings of this study suggest that the child with autism recognise the sound of their own voice at test, but with much greater difficulty than age-and-ability matched comparison groups. The implications of this finding are useful for researchers in the field of speech mimicry technology and manufacturers of SGD software packages. The paper also provides empirical insights about how the child with autism may process voice in their everyday social interactions.

Some limitations to this study exist, for instance, there were only a small number of presentations involving self-voice in this task. This may have over simplified the process for the young TD children and the children with DD. Nevertheless, it is striking that despite being matched for non-verbal mental age, the children with autism performed significantly less well than either of the other two groups of children. However, future studies would benefit from adjusting the number of presentations of voice and face accordingly. It is also important to note that for some children with autism the simultaneous presentation of faces and voices may act more as an interference effect (Cook and Wilding, 1997; Joassin et al., 2004) than a facilitation effect (Molholm et al., 2002). Future studies may wish to test a subgroup on voice recognition without the aid of visual prompts.

The paper includes implications for the type of voice children with autism may prefer to use when communicating via a SGD. The authors suggest that if the child does not recognise or prefer the sound of their own natural voice on such devices, partial or complete abandonment of the SGD may occur.

This paper fulfils an identified need to research how children’s abilities and preferences can be taken into account at the point of decision making for particular communication tools.

Limited research focuses on the challenges that exist at the intersection of race and dis/ability for Black men on the autism spectrum in encounters with law enforcement. An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to fully comprehend and mitigate the complex challenges. This conceptual article presents Critical Dis/ability (DisCrit) Theory, a framework usually applied to education, as a lens through which to think about encounters between Black autistic men and police officers. The article concludes with recommendations for collaboration between social scientists, police scholars, law enforcement and the public to improve the outcomes of police encounters involving Black men on the autism spectrum.

Using a literature review and analysis of current events, this conceptual article explores the intersections of race and disability, specifically neurodiversity, in policing using Critical Dis/ability (DisCrit) theory, and its predecessors, Intersectionality Theory and Critical Race Theory (CRT).

An interdisciplinary approach might be a potential solution to improve police encounters with Black autistic men. Expanding the theoretical frameworks utilized in scholarship about policing might allow for innovative approaches to examine current practices in law enforcement. Collaboration and critical dialogue may yield opportunities for further research and shifts in practice.

This conceptual article uses two incidents from recent events to highlight the need for increased scholarship around the intersections of autism and race, with a particular focus on Black autistic men. It advocates for the use of social science frameworks, namely DisCrit Theory, as a novel way to approach new research regarding race and dis/ability.

Story‐telling is recognised as important to child language development. However, children who use electronic communication aids have limited opportunities to develop their story‐telling compared to their natural speaking (NS) peers. The “Telling Stories”' project aims to explore narrative construction in teaching staff‐aided communicator dyads.

A pilot study was conducted to examine the feasibility of research methods. Video data were captured during a fictional story‐telling task. Two measures were investigated: communicative modality; and linguistic move type. Momentary time sampling (MTS) was applied to the video to determine range and proportions of communicative modalities in use. A coding framework was applied to determine the distribution of linguistic move‐types across the interlocutors.

The findings revealed multimodal contributions from both interlocutors. The linguistic move‐type coding indicates the NS assumed a more dominant, initiating role. MTS was shown to be an appropriate methodology for this research.

The pilot provides provisional data regarding narrative constructions of an aided speaker and tests the efficacy of the MTS methodology prior to the full study. Refinements to the protocol to be used in the main study are reported. The main study aims to provide detailed analysis of the narrative constructions of aided speakers, currently an area with little existing research.

People with intellectual disabilities are not routinely involved in the assessment of their behaviours that challenge, as this is often completed by a proxy respondent and the health-care professional. This is contrary to guidance stating that everyone should be involved in the planning of their care. This paper aims to show how health-care professionals can support people with intellectual disabilities to engage in the assessment of their behaviours that challenge and the subsequent development of their own positive behaviour support (PBS) plans.

A non-systematic review of the existing literature on improving the engagement of people with learning disabilities in health-care planning, and specifically PBS planning, was undertaken. Appropriate papers were included in this paper.

There are several evidence-based methods to improve people’s engagement in the assessment of their own behaviours that challenge and then the development of their PBS plans. These methods are discussed in terms of their application to supporting people to communicate and involving them in the process of developing a valid and meaningful PBS plan. This is a relatively new focus within the literature, and further research should focus on increasing engagement in the process, as well as monitoring how co-production affects PBS outcomes.

This paper summarises some of the approaches used to support people with intellectual disabilities to engage in the assessment of their behaviours that challenge and the development of their own PBS plans. This should encourage health-care professionals to consider how to use alternative and augmentative communication strategies to facilitate co-production in their own clinical practice.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of the academic skills deficits in male offenders and their relation to neurocognitive deficits.

In total, 72 Finnish male prisoners were tested with regard to reading, spelling, and mathematical abilities.

Low academic skills, especially reading, were related to poor neurocognitive performance in verbal memory, visual memory, attention, and motor dexterity. The results showed a high number (29-36 percent) of reading and spelling disorders. In all, 15 percent of those with medium to severe problems in academic skills had marked difficulties in mathematics. In total, 88 percent of the participants with at least one problem area in literacy skills had neurocognitive deficits. In the present study, the pervasive neurocognitive deficits, occurring comorbidly with reading and spelling difficulties, seem to refer to a fundamental set of deficits which are only minimally explained by IQ, educational background or training.

Reading and spelling difficulties could be seen as functional illiteracy which, combined with a broad spectrum of neuropsychological function deficits, pose a challenging task for rehabilitation. Only after proper identification of deficits has been achieved is it possible to set goals and select the appropriate means for rehabilitation. One obvious limitation is the moderate number of subjects (n=72).

It may not be enough just to train reading or develop literacy activities among prisoners; focussing intervention on comprehensive neurocognitive deficits is also necessary.

Correlates and comorbidity between academic difficulties and neurocognitive deficits among offenders, especially in arithmetic difficulties, have been less studied.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the assessment by parents of children with autism regarding the services provided by the Center for Special Care in the United Arab Emirates.

The surveyed sample included 300 families of children with autism, receiving educational and rehabilitation services, treatment and support services.

The results indicated significant differences in the assessment of services provided by centers due to a place of service, nature of diagnosis, child’s age at the time of study and age when first diagnosed.

Parents taking part in this study expressed an average level of satisfaction with the received services.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if “fit” and “non-fit” between authoritarian versus demonstrator teaching and visual versus verbal learning preferences differ in impact on Chinese MBA student academic performance in a large local urban Chinese university setting. In addition, the role of Chinese cultural behavioral tendencies in dictating specific teaching and learning style preferences among Chinese MBA students is also examined.

Subjects were 135 Chinese MBA students that indicated their learning style preference (verbal or visual) and predominant teaching style encountered (authoritarian or demonstrator). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) main effects were used to identify the best teaching style and best learning style. ANOVA interaction effects were used to test the meshing hypothesis (i.e. teaching-learning style “fit” versus “non-fit” conditions).

The results provided support for the mesh hypothesis – teaching style – learning style fit does matter. In general, authoritarian teaching was superior to demonstrator, and verbal learning was superior to visual. Findings also suggest that the demonstrator teaching style may better handle different learning styles (e.g. both verbal and visual) simultaneously as compared to the classic authoritarian teaching style.

The findings support and contribute to the body of knowledge about the mesh hypothesis and provide the foundations for further longitudinal studies evaluating teaching and learning styles learning styles in a multicultural and cross-cultural context. A limitation of the study is that self-report responses were used and the data were collected at one Chinese university.

The results suggest that instructors are likely to reach only a selected few students if it is assumed that all students learn in the same way or based on cultural orientation alone. University administrators should be aware of the role of cultural tendencies related to teaching and learning and how cross-cultural communication and multicultural awareness can provide insights into strategies for social and academic integration of foreign students.

To date, the meshing hypothesis has received far less theoretical or empirical attention than the general learning style and teaching style hypotheses. This study addresses that gap.