Cognitive accessibility and support in special education

Guillomía, M.A. ; Artigas Maestre, J.I. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Falcó Boudet, J.L. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: This work describes an assistive technology development for cognitive support and training to be used by children of special education schools in Spain. Design is based on and guided by cognitive support findings coming from a long-term collaboration of a team of engineers (University of Zaragoza) and special education teachers (Alborada Special Education School, Zaragoza). The description starts by providing a structure of such findings in five cognitive-social areas (interface usability, virtual representations understanding, time orientation, self-awareness, and social interaction). Design requirements are extracted by applying those findings to four support services (home control, time orientation, behavior contention, and context anticipation). Technological system description follows, together with the degree of implementation and testing for each service. A major result is the benefit of using a services interface with the same structure and appearance as the alternative and augmentative communication system that children are already acquainted with. Based on regulatory conditions, the needed flexibility, and reduced available budgets, this support platform is built on mainstream technology and low-cost single-board computers with standard databases and free software packages. Results show evidence of benefit in children’s cognitive and social performance, in addition to offering a technological tool for deeper educational research. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.3390/s21144871

Año: 2021

Publicado en: Sensors 21, 14 (2021), 4871[28 pp.]
ISSN: 1424-8220

Factor impacto JCR: 3.847 (2021)

Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, ANALYTICAL rank: 29 / 87 = 0.333 (2021) - Q2 - T2
Categ. JCR: INSTRUMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION rank: 19 / 64 = 0.297 (2021) - Q2 - T1
Categ. JCR: ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC rank: 95 / 274 = 0.347 (2021) - Q2 - T2

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 6.4 - Engineering (Q1) - Physics and Astronomy (Q1) - Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Q2)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.803 - Analytical Chemistry (Q1) - Biochemistry (Q1) - Instrumentation (Q1) - Information Systems (Q1) - Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Q1)

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Tecnología Electrónica (Dpto. Ingeniería Electrón.Com.)