Terlouw Gijs, van 't Veer Job Tb, Prins Jelle T, Kuipers Derek A, Pierie Jean-Pierre E N
Academy of Healthcare, Digital Health Care Research Group, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Medical Faculty Lifelong Learning, Education & Assessment Research Network, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
JMIR Ment Health. 2020 Jul 10;7(7):e17260. doi: 10.2196/17260.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face difficulties in social situations and are often lagging in terms of social skills. Many interventions designed for children with ASD emphasize improving social skills. Although many interventions demonstrate that targeted social skills can be improved in clinical settings, developed social skills are not necessarily applied in children's daily lives at school, sometimes because classmates continue to show negative bias toward children with ASD. Children with ASD do not blame the difficult social situations they encounter on their lack of social skills; their main goal is to be accepted by peers.
This study aims to design a comic creator-It's me-that would create comics to serve as transformational boundary objects to facilitate and enact a horizontal interaction structure between high-functioning children with ASD and their peers, aiming to increase mutual understanding between children at school.
This research project and this study are structured around the Design Research Framework in order to develop the comic through an iterative-incremental process. Three test sessions, which included 13, 6, and 47 children, respectively, were initiated where the focus shifted in time from usability during the first two tests to the initial assessment of acceptance and feasibility in the third session. A stakeholder review, which included six experts, took place after the second test session.
A digital comic creator, It's me, was produced within this study. Children can create their own personal comic by filling in a digital questionnaire. Based on concepts of peer support, psychoeducation, and horizontal interaction, It's me has a rigorous base of underlying concepts that have been translated into design. Based on the first test sessions, the comic has shown its potential to initiate personal conversations between children. Teachers are convinced that It's me can be of added value in their classrooms.
It's me aims to initiate more in-depth conversations between peers, which should lead to more mutual understanding and better relationships between children with ASD and their peers. The first test sessions showed that It's me has the potential to enact horizontal interaction and greater understanding among peers. It's me was designed as a boundary object, aiming to connect the objectives of different stakeholders, and to trigger reflection and transformation learning mechanisms. The applied design research approach might be of added value in the acceptance and adoption of the intervention because children, professionals, and teachers see added value in the tool, each from their own perspectives.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童在社交场合常常面临困难，社交技能也往往滞后。许多针对ASD儿童设计的干预措施都强调提高社交技能。尽管许多干预措施表明，在临床环境中，目标社交技能可以得到改善，但所培养的社交技能在孩子在学校的日常生活中不一定能得到应用，有时是因为同学们对ASD儿童持续表现出负面偏见。ASD儿童不会将他们遇到的社交困境归咎于自身社交技能的缺乏；他们的主要目标是被同龄人接纳。
本研究旨在设计一款漫画创作工具——“这就是我”，该工具能创作漫画，作为变革性的边界对象，促进并构建高功能ASD儿童与其同龄人之间的横向互动结构，旨在增进学校里孩子们之间的相互理解。
本研究项目围绕设计研究框架展开，以便通过迭代增量过程开发漫画。开展了三次测试，参与儿童分别为13名、6名和47名，测试重点随时间推移，从前两次测试中的可用性，转变为第三次测试中的接受度和可行性的初步评估。在第二次测试后，进行了一次有六名专家参与的利益相关者评审。
本研究制作出了一款数字漫画创作工具“这就是我”。孩子们可以通过填写数字问卷来创作自己的个人漫画。基于同伴支持、心理教育和横向互动的概念，“这就是我”有一套严谨的基础概念，并已转化为设计。根据第一次测试，该漫画已显示出引发孩子们之间个人对话的潜力。教师们相信“这就是我”能在他们的课堂上发挥附加价值。
“这就是我”旨在引发同龄人之间更深入的对话，这应能增进ASD儿童与其同龄人之间的相互理解，改善他们的关系。第一次测试表明，“这就是我”有潜力在同龄人之间构建横向互动并增进理解。“这就是我”被设计为一个边界对象，旨在连接不同利益相关者的目标，并触发反思和变革学习机制。所采用的设计研究方法可能会在干预措施的接受和采用方面增加价值，因为儿童、专业人员和教师都从各自的角度看到了该工具的附加价值。
