Design with Caregivers: Enhancing Social Interaction for Children with Down Syndrome

Han Zhang, Xu Sun, Cheng Yao, Yanhui Zhang, Qingfeng Wang, Ning Lei

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Children with Down Syndrome face major challenges in maintaining active social interaction. HCI research has well explored the design of computer-aided systems to support education for teachers and therapists, but comparatively less work has been considered in the case of social behavior learning for Down Syndrome children and their caregivers. Many challenging behaviors originate from misunderstanding DS children’s emotions, body language, and verbal expressions. To better investigate the barriers to maintaining active social interaction for DS children and their caregivers, we conducted a social activity with an organization providing therapeutic treatment for DS children. Situated in a co-designed drama rehearsal activity for acting, storytelling, and socializing, our field observations and semi-structured interviews with family caregivers, therapists, and volunteers have illustrated certain behavior characteristics of DS children that may hinder communication and understanding with their caregivers. Based on this field study, we are contributing a nuanced understanding of the behavior issues of DS children during social interactions. Furthermore, we are proposing a collaborative partnership model to engage both non-professional and professional caregivers in developing a safe, effective, flexible, caring mode to allow DS children to be more self-independent in broader social contexts. Finally, we have brought forward the suggestion that the visual analytics technique can be used as a novel mediated form of assistive technology to support social behavior learning and personalized intervention.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. User and Context Diversity - 16th International Conference, UAHCI 2022, Held as Part of the 24th HCI International Conference, HCII 2022, Proceedings
EditorsMargherita Antona, Constantine Stephanidis
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages442-452
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9783031050381
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Event16th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, UAHCI 2022 Held as Part of the 24th HCI International Conference, HCII 2022 - Virtual, Online
Duration: 26 Jun 20221 Jul 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13309 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference16th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, UAHCI 2022 Held as Part of the 24th HCI International Conference, HCII 2022
CityVirtual, Online
Period26/06/221/07/22

Keywords

  • Design with caregivers
  • Down syndrome children
  • Social behavior learning
  • Visual analytics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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