A Study on the Design of Communicative Pictures for Children with Autism in Elementary School

• Main Authors: Hsin-Hui Yu, 余心蕙
• Other Authors: Cheng-Yee Leung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/96699919039537181966

碩士 === 大同大學 === 工業設計學系(所) === 99 === In recent years, the increasing number of patients with autistic disorder often encounter communication difficulties, Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) is one means used to assist their communicative ability. Communicative pictures play an important role in AAC. However, teachers are lack of clear norms and principles in selecting or drawing communicative pictures. This study aimed to propose a set of principles in designing communicative pictures. 52 elementary teachers of special education were invited to discuss their opinions about autistic children’s needs and applications of communicative pictures and using condition. The results showed 8 most needed communication items under school context which are "ok!", " I don’t want.", "Hello, teacher.", "I need help!", "Thank you.", "I want to eat.", "I want to drink." and " I want to pee.". With literature reviews, product analysis, surveys, expert interviews, a set of designing principles for Communicative Pictures were figured out in two aspects: picture specifications and picture contents with communication elements of non-verbal messages as information giver, information receiver, context and action, facial expressions, gestures and object. A dialog box and protruding lines were proposed too. A set of communicative pictures were developed accordingly. Then, four 10-year-old pupils with severe autism and non-verbal ability were invited as research subjects for a single subject research with feature of the Solomon four-group design in the experiment. Four other special education teachers were invited to design the communicative pictures based on this set of principles. The results showed that children with autism can enhance their communicative performance by using communicative pictures through teaching and repeated practices. They have better learning performance by using the communicative pictures which were based on the set of design principles proposed by this study. Teachers felt that this set of design principles is a good one to follow to make the needed communicative pictures. The set of design principles proposed in this study should be promoted to design other communication pictures. It is also a good reference in selecting or designing such pictures for parents and teachers to improve autistic children's communication and learning effectiveness.