The importance of digital multimedia materials used by pupils is growing. The use of alternative learning tools (as opposed to traditional ones) can be particularly relevant for children with special needs (Hasselbring & Glaser, 2000), such as children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This is because these tools can offer them higher level of support. Plus, pupils with ASD find these tools appealing and the visual support of the materials means a great advantage for them (Grynszpan et al., 2014). There is a growing effort to use digital materials for social skills development of ASD children (Grynszpan et al., 2014) as it is one of the areas which is – given the expectations from society – most challenging for them.

Despite the growing interest in using digital tools for social skills development of individuals with ASD, little is known about the optimal design and the effectiveness of these tools in practice (Ke et al., 2018). How should digital multimedia materials for social skills development be designed to suit the unique needs of children with ASD? Can the materials be of general use for this audience despite large differences among individuals with ASD (Masi et al., 2017), i.e., are these tools equally effective for all their users?

Our aim was to develop and examine a digital multimedia tool for social skills development of pupils with ASD who attend mainstream schools with the intention to answer the above-mentioned questions.

For this purpose, we have used design-based research approach because of its numerous benefits including, among others,multiple development iterations and cooperation between practitioners, researchers, and the target group (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012).  Our research project consisted of several iterations, in which we focused on two main research areas: 1) evaluation and improvement of the design of the tool, and 2) evaluation of the effectiveness of the tool in natural settings.

Here, we present the results of the evaluation of the digital multimedia tool, we have developed. Based on our findings, we draw recommendations for the design and use of the digital multimedia materials for social skills development of children with ASD.

Participants We conducted the research with 19 primary school-aged (6 to 12 years; Mean age = 9.08 years) Czech children with ASD, 19 parents, and 19 teachers or teaching assistants. All the children visited mainstream schools. In addition, the sample included 16 health professionals (experts working with individuals with ASD). Materials The intervention tool was a web-based application for PC/tablet, of our production. It consisted of four interactive animations covering four different social situations from the school environment - greeting, asking for help, chatting with friends, calming down. The scenario of animations was based on the format of Social Stories (Gray & Garand, 1993). The application was set to repeat the same scenarios with subtle changes (different characters, environments, etc.) during 9 to 15 days. Method A mixed methodology was used. We focused on two areas of evaluation: 1) feedback on the design of the tool, 2) effectiveness of the tool assessed through a change in social understanding and social skills of children. Feedback on the design of the tool was collected through questionnaires and interviews undertaken with parents, and through questionnaires undertaken with health professionals. For the evaluation of the effectiveness of the tool we used (1) questionnaires assessing social understanding of children. We conducted it before and after each child’s interaction with the tool (Social Interaction Understanding Picture Recognition task & Friendship Picture Recognition task; self-made test of social understanding of given topics). (2) Questionnaires (Social Competence Inventory, Walker-McConnell Scale) and scales were administered to parents and teachers/teaching assistants to determine the possible change in social skills of children with ASD. (3) The interviews regarding (un)perceived changes in social behaviour of children were conducted with the parents and teachers/teaching assistants as well. Procedure Once the cooperation with children, their parents, and teachers/teaching assistants was established, the pre-test phase was performed (i.e., the testing phase before the child’s interaction with the tool). Next, the children interacted with the tool in their natural setting (home) for approximately 4 weeks (only on weekdays and not necessarily all consecutive days; the average time of one day interaction with the tool was approx. 20 minutes). Finally, the post-test phase was carried out (i.e., the testing phase after the child’s interaction with the tool). Health professionals gave us their feedback on the tool through on-line questionnaires after a one-time interaction with the tool (lasting approx. 20 minutes).

All the parents found the tool useful and appealing. The pros of the tool, the parents named, were the comprehensibility of the scenarios, simple graphics without any distractions, simple control, and relevance of the topics. The benefits, that according to the parents emerged from the children’s interaction with the tool, were the social skills training and a deeper understanding of the topics. On the other hand, parents would appreciate a wider range of topics (topics not only from the school environment but also situations from everyday life). The health professional’s evaluation was in accordance with the opinions of the parents. They highlighted: the tool’s simplicity, the clarity of scenarios, the relevance of the topics and the anticipated attractiveness of the tool for ASD children. They would be keen to use the tool for their work, especially for the social skills training and development of social understanding. With respect to the effectiveness of the tool, we found a significant difference in social understanding of children after interacting with the tool. However, the change in social skills seemed to depend on other factors. Based on the qualitative analysis, the parent’s support, during the child’s interaction with the tool, was found to be a crucial factor for transferring children’s newly acquired knowledge into practice. We conclude that digital multimedia tools seem to be one of the useful solutions for social skills training of ASD children. The key design aspect of the multimedia tools for children with ASD appears to be the simplicity of the tool in general (i.e., in scenarios, graphics, control). Based on our results, the effectiveness of the tool can be influenced by the way it is used. The optimal use seems to be the child’s interaction with the tool in combination with discussing topics regarding everyday life situations.

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