ACE PROJECT

-AUTISM CONNECTIONS EUROPEJanja Kranjc, psychologist Center for Autism Slovenia

London, 24.11.2011

2-year Lifelong learning Grundtvig project for young adults with autistic spectrum disorder. (October 2009 October 2011) Partner organizations:  Center for autism Slovenia  Estonian Autism Society  Autism Romania  Oxford Brookes University, UK  Autism Europe  Imelda Agency, Slovenia  Institute of communication and health, University of Lugano

The idea
to use Facebook to connect young people with autism throughout Europe. To use Facebook as a mean of developing communication and social skills of people with ASD. To enable young people with ASD to meet, to travel, to socialize. To enable people with ASD to speak up about their experience and to gain more expert knowledge on ASD.

Participants
Variable number: In the beginning: 15 (6 female, 9 male) In the end: 16 (5 female, 11 male) Age: 16 38 years Slovenia, Romania, Estonia, UK

Facebook
Commonly used. Enables safe distance communication. Enables different kinds of communication, private or public (chat, private messages, comments, wall posts ). Visibility. Sense of belonging. Structured environment.

Internet safety
http://www.autism-ace.eu/datoteke_guide.html

International meetings
Ljubljana, Slovenia, may 2010 Catania, Italy, October 2010 Ljubljana, Slovenia, February 2011 Oxford, UK, April 2011 Tartu, Estonia, June 2011 Ljubljana, Slovenia, September 2011

PILOT STUDY
Oxford Brookes University (John Lawson, Nicki Holland) Institute of communication and Health, University of Lugano (Maddalena Fiordelli)

Focus of the study

Social skills, general well being, autistic traits, the concept of friendship. Facebook activity. Facebook activity in relation to real-life social interaction.

Research tools
Social Communication Questionanire SCQ (Rutter et al, 2003) The Autism Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al, 2001) The Social Skills Questionnaire, adult version SSQ-A (Autism Asperger Consulting Group, 2008) The Friendship Questionnaire, FQ (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2003) The General Well-being scale, GWB (Fahey et al, 2005)

The Autism Connections Europe Interview, ACE-I (Lawson, Holland, 2011) Observing Facebook activity Semi-structured intervies with the participants

Collecting data
Time 1 beginning of the project (SCQ, AQ, SQQ-A, FQ, GWB) Time 2 the middle of the project (AQ, SQQ-A, FQ, GWB) Time 3 at the end of the project (AQ, SQQ-A, FQ, GWB, ACE-I, participants interview)

Results

Figure 1. The AQ results at times 1-3

Figure 2. The SSQ results at times 1-3

Figure 3. The GWBQ results at times 1-3

Figure 4. The FQ results at times 1-3

ACE-I parent interview confident and knows more about his abilities she doesn t think of herself as being an idiot or a weirdo anymore . Now she thinks she is a bit different , and that is not necessarily a bad thing . she trusts herself more and also has more courage to interact with people . his progress in communication and independence makes my life easier

ACE made her talk more with us, and talking more helped us to understand her better . We never knew how alone and different she felt. more open and starts conversations more often good news, a chance to socialise

Facebook activity
How to comment on somebody s photo? How to write a compliment? How to ask a personal question? How to respond to a personal question? Why it is important to share your photos? Who is your friend, acquaintance and what does being a Facebook friend really mean?

FB as a mean of maintaining contact, communication increased after meetings. Little wall messages mostly birthday messages, not a lot of comments (but did increase), most often used: likes. Frequent private messages and chats.

Challenges: - Language barriers - Private FB profiles

Participants views
Most prefer real life meetings. The trigger to use FB: a notification. Meetings provoce communication on FB. FB: a chance to discuss some topics that were not discussed during meetings (personal questions).

Benefits for the participants

Learning to use internet and social networks safely. Developing communication and social skills. Improving English language skills. Travelling, learning about other cultures and habits. Meeting new people with similar experience. Establishing possible long term acquaintances and friendships. Developing independent living skills.

Future research and projects

- Using internet social networks within the programs of teaching social and communication skills. - Establishing national on-line groups socializing, selfadvocay - Encouraging membership in on-line interests groups.

ACEbook - the real social network: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjKCvVyN -N4

Thank you for your attention. More information about the ACE project: http://www.autism-ace.eu/about_ace.html info@avtizem.org