1 | Please provide a short description of the state-of-the-art and/or current trends in the field? How does the result fit into it? |
Autism, the most severe form of communication disorders in children, is a multi-factorial disease that appears during the first 30 months of age and is attributed to brain dysfunction. The prevalence of Autism and of diffuse developmental disorders in general is higher than blindness, Down syndrome and is about the same as deafness. The cause of autism is still mainly unknown today. Nowadays, with the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) is considered as a key method for handling Autism interventions, particularly for young children.
Our approach is based on a platform that is intended to enhance or mediate the teacher - child educational process . Including a variety of interaction procedures according to the disability level of autistic, the platform consists of several modules. |
2 | What is the problem/need/knowledge gap that the research result is responding to? How was it addressed before? |
As there is currently no treatment or prevention available for Autism, early diagnosis and primary intervention contributes to the improvement of the developmental process (communication, cognitive performance, social interaction, behavioural skills) and target to the adaptation to the environment. All those are accomplished through educational programs and psychotherapeutic methods. |
3 | What is the potential for further research? |
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4 | What is the proposed method of IPR-protection? (patent, license, trademark etc.) |
The Ministry of Education and Lifelong Learning has probably the Copyright of the first R&D result from the Educating Autistic Children by Using New Technologies project. However, since then, the Autism platform has been updated. The R&D result with new embedeed technologies belongs to members of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki following a deed. |
5 | What are the steps that need to be taken in order to secure the IPR-protection? What is the cost of IPR-protection? |
No steps need to be taken for IPR protection. |
6 | What is you overall assessment of the scientific maturity of the research result? |
Scientific maturity stems from the digitizing of the materials and methods, traditionally used by educators in specialized schools. Moreover, the main design philosophy and principles are based on literature findings. |
KEYWORDS QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT (0-5)
Please put X as appropriate. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Scientific maturity | X | ||||
Synergies | X | ||||
State-of-the-art/innovation | X | ||||
IPR-potential | X |