DmTEA: Mobile learning to aid in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Mobile Learning is a teaching-learning methodology which has been developed successfully both inside and outside the classroom. Thanks to the several possibilities of mobile devices, it has been possible to use them with students with special educational needs thus giving rise to software applications focussed on competence acquisition on the students' part and offering such a high level of interaction that it could not be possible by using a PC. Advances in the development of mobile devices have made it feasible to go a step forward and help the teacher with the modelling and evaluation of this type of students. dmTEA is a mobile technology which allows both behaviour evaluation and modelling of students on the autism spectrum. It implements 12 activities - duly verified by experts - which are adapted to interaction with the mobile device within a specific context, the aim of which is to deal with student's disorders by observing learning processes and modelling his or her behaviour during task performance. dmTEA implementation in two studies, i.e. a student with severe autism and another student with moderate autism, has helped the teacher at the time of evaluating by offering him or her the necessary information to carry out any possible intervention. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.