Using Innovative Technologies as Therapeutic and Educational Tools for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

During the last decade, researchers and clinicians have noted the value of technology, in general, and computer-based activities, specifically, as therapeutic and educational tools for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In recent years, a growing number of innovative technological applications have been developed with the aim of helping people with ASD improve social and communication skills, enhance emotional expression, learn vocabulary and functional daily activities. Computer-based technologies appear to be beneficial for people with ASD due to their capacity to reduce distractions from extraneous sensory stimuli, to deliver consistent and predictable responses and to provide clearly defined tasks. The objective of this paper is to help the reader learn about the attributes and limitations of four technologies (videomodeling, shared active surfaces, virtual reality and robotics) in order to determine which of them may be considered for immediate use, and which will become useful only at a later date.