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Working Through
Type: LLP-ERASMUS
Period: 1 Oct 2018 - 30 Sep 2020
Working Through is an Erasmus+ project, aiming at:
• Developing an application for the assessment of social skills of adults with autism
• Developing and improving social skills of adults with autism towards their inclusion in the labour market
• Creating a learning programme based on learning scenaria through Virtual Reality in order to support social and professional skills among adults with autism.
According to the international bibliography people with Autism face difficulties in the following domains :
-Social interaction – difficulty in social relationships, for example appearing aloof and indifferent to others.
-Social communication – difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication, for example not fully understanding the meaning of common gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice.
-Social imagination – difficulty in the area of imagination and flexibility of thought, for example being interested in a limited range of activities which may be copied or pursued rigidly; difficulty with understanding what others think and feel.(NAS, 2018)
The main goal of WORKINGTHROUGH project is to utilize a VR environment using social scripts in order to train People with Autism in “soft” skills (interpersonal intelligence, communication) in increasingly challenging work environments.
To this goal, and in relation to the objectives listed previously, the expected results are:
A. during the project:
• To design and develop an innovative curriculum and the corresponding certified materials and assessment methods. An interpersonal, communication and social intelligence skills curriculum will be developed that will be exploiting VR both as a training tool and also as an assessment tool.
• To train staff, involved with the training of people with autism, in understanding and using VR.
• To train staff in order to be able to create more social stories using the authoring tools of the VR toolkit.
• To train 40 individuals with autism using the project materials and tools and receive feedback. A sample of young adults with Autism will be trained using VR and will give feedback regarding their social and/or occupational experiences.
B. on the project's completion:
• To have raised awareness on the project results, offering for free the developed curriculum and the accompanying VR social stories as well as a best practice and replication guide on how to use them(OBJ 8).
• To have ensured sustainability by (a) proving the added value of the developed methodologies and tools. The project will deliver a detailed description of social communication deficits of individuals with Autism and prove how VR can help (b) by creating an authoring tool and a community of users able to create additional social stories using the authoring toolkit, and (c) by certifying the training contents and tools
Last but not least, while we have identified several deficits in the social behavior of people with Autism it is important to note that there are also some features in Autistic behavior that are positive and may be quite useful in a work environment such as :
-Attention to detail accompanied by thoroughness and accuracy
-Ability to focus deeply in a task, concentrate for long periods of time and resist distraction quite successfully
-Are more visual in their learning and have good observational skills
-Have good long term memory and recall
-Good visual skills
-Have a methodical and analytical approach
-Adopt novel approaches in solving problems and offer innovative solutions
-Are less likely to criticize others
-Possess integrity and commitment
These positive features will be highlighted during the project having as a results the change of the attitude of employers towards people with ASD.
The project is coordinated by Habilis (Greece) in cooperation with Omega Technology (Greece) and involves partners from Cyprus (MMC and Cyprus Certification Company), Ireland and Denmark.
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