Fa16- Project 11

Eligible participants were at least 12 years of age, and no more than age 18. They were recruited from a school research subject pool at Brooklyn Autism Center in Brooklyn, New York. The subjects were recruited through a brief survey asking parents about any behavioral problems they are going through, and that they may need help with. Subjects with great visual skills were chosen to be the control. The children that had great abilities in music were the experimental group. The average age of the subjects were 15 years old. The teens were male and female, any ethnicity, but they would have to be American born. Must attend an American school in New York City or any disability programs in New York City.

The materials that I used to collect data were recording behaviors through a two-way mirror. The collection of data was then recorded on a spreadsheet that showed how long a subject took to place the shapes in the right place. It also showed the different behaviors and how often they occurred throughout the game. It would be the first time this game would be used. The subjects were motivated to participate by receiving movie tickets for a new ASD movie.

The game will take place in a classroom. There were two groups. One group will play with a child that does not have ASD. The other group will play the exact same game but without a typically developing child. Subjects were told that they will be playing a game in which they had to feed the monster. If they got the answer wrong, then the monster will be hungry. The collection of data was recorded on a bar- graph to show the ranges of behavior when working with another child. There were 10 trials for the game.

The outcome of my experiment, was that the children that played with the typically developing child, experienced a great change in their social ability. The whole study was to see if a child with ASD can develop better social skills by working with a typically developing child to finish the game. The children that played the game without a typically developing child, were looked at as the control, because they had higher visual skills than the other kids. It was fact that they can look at something and figure it out very quickly.

The mean reaction times for the children in the Typically Developing group were 23.25 sec (SD=3.0 sec), the reaction times for the autistic group were 28.69 sec (SD=5.5 sec). My results indicate that the children in the Typically Developing group were faster that the students in the Autistic Group.

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About Robert O. Duncan

I'm an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences at City University of New York, with joint appointments in Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience. I also have an appointment as a Visiting Scholar at New York University. My research interests include cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging, glaucoma, neurodegenerative disorders, attention, learning, memory, educational technology, pedagogy, and developing games for education.

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