NIH Grant Awarded for Innovative Treatment of Autism
October 17, 2008 by admin
Contact:
Pam Homsher, Director of Communications
Monarch Teaching Technologies
Email: phomsher@monarchteachtech.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NIH GRANT AWARDED FOR INNOVATIVE TREATMENT OF AUTISM
Shaker Heights, Ohio, October 6, 2008 – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, announced last week the award of a $182,000 grant to further the “innovative and effective” work being done by Monarch Teaching Technologies (MTT) in the treatment of Autism.
“It’s gratifying to have our work acknowledged as an effective collaboration with the leading researchers in the field,” said Terry Murphy, CEO of MTT, “and the monetary support will allow us the opportunity to develop new components and bring them to market quicker than we would have been able to otherwise.”
The money awarded will be used to research and develop new components for VizZle, a proprietary, web-based service currently used by the Monarch School for Children with Autism in Shaker Heights, OH, and slated for roll-out to the public in November, 2008. VizZle provides educators and parents with convenient, easy to use tools to create or modify the customized interactive visual supports necessary to effectively reach, communicate with, and educate individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Visual supports are the foundation of the “Monarch Model,” a multi-disciplinary curriculum developed at the Monarch School in conjunction with Howard Shane, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Communication Disorders at Childrens Hospital Boston. Researchers and educators agree that most autistic children’s primary processing mode is visual, and the Monarch Model builds on that strength. Dr. Shane documented the efficacy of the Monarch Model teaching methodology in his recently released book Visual Language in Autism (Plural Publishing, 2008) (http://www.pluralpublishing.com/publications_vlia.htm).
While widely acknowledged as very effective, the use of customized visual content has until now been severely limited by practical concerns. Creating the engaging, individualized pieces needed was a time-consuming and expensive chore involving multiple software programs, searches for appropriate art, and manual cutting, pasting and laminating of printed materials.
To solve this problem, VizZle gives users unlimited web access to three important components: a library full of searchable shared lesson content already proven effective in the classroom; a visual language lab with over 14,000 appropriate images and all the tools necessary for lesson creation or customization; and the means to play the finished product interactively on any computer or web-connected portable device in addition to the traditional print option. This unique product has met with rave reviews by the special education teachers in both public and specialty schools who participated in the two years of development and testing prior to release.
For additional information on this new technology, to arrange interviews, or to obtain available art, please contact Pam Homsher at Monarch Teaching Technologies at phomsher@monarchteachtech.com.
Monarch Teaching Technologies, Inc. (monarchteachtech.com) was founded in 2005 by CEO Terry Murphy and Wingspan Care Group, a 501c(3) corporation which includes Bellefaire JCB (bellefairejcb.org), the parent organization of The Monarch School for Children With Autism. In 2007, MTT exclusively licensed intellectual property from Bellefaire JCB and Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School in order to develop and market proprietary software for the treatment of children with Autism and other communication disorders.
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Monarch School Style Guide for Visual Supports for Teaching Children with Autism
October 7, 2008 by admin
The following is an excerpt from the Monarch School style guide used for developing visual teaching materials. It is being published here because it may be helpful to teachers and parents working with individuals with autism. The style guide is designed as a reference document for artists that are producing new media.
Image Colors
- Every image should have a black outline thick enough to be distinctly seen at a normal reading distance (12-14″) when printed at 1×1″
- Each image should be saved in 2 versions: Grayscale and Color
- See color Palettes for guides to colors. When color fills are used they should be, as much as is possible, primary and secondary colors (RGBYCM). These colors should be muted (mix gray to mute colors). Avoid overly bright colors.
- Try to keep number of colors to a minimum to clearly represent the subject of the drawing. There is no research to indicate the precise number of colors that could become distracting to a child. The guideline, based on experience for now will be 4 to 5 colors maximum. Only use more when absolutely necessary.
- Drawing (image) backgrounds should be white or transparent unless the images gets difficult to separate from the background and in those cases a shade of gray should be used.
- Images should be kept simple with only enough detail to help with image recognition. Excessive detail may distract a child on the Spectrum as they tend to focus on small details and miss the overall picture.
- Scenes should have only enough detail to give them context. As a guide, give just enough detail to make the scene recognizable. Students may be asked to place picture elements with the scene, for example an empty kitchen drawing could be created by the artist and the student would be asked to place a drawing of a pot on the stove, a dish in the sink, or a toaster on the counter.
- Action (verbs) drawings will need to be created in static and animated forms…start with the static forms and more info will be forthcoming on the animated forms
- Static action images should show slightly exaggerated sense of motion, but don’t overdo. Stray lines only tend to distract so avoid showing motion with lines representing the movement of air. Show only enough detail to imply an action. The student population will have members who will be easily distracted by overly detailed drawings.
Below are 2 color palettes to be used as the standards for color line drawings created. These are provided to establish consistency across the product base. Further, all the colors below are provided with the hexadecimal numbers corresponding to the exact digital colors used with the aim of keeping the color selections precise. The color choices were originally derived from the 256 color web palette and about half the colors were adapted to avoid the brightest reds, blues, greens and yellows. There are 21 colors, plus two recommended colors for light and dark skin tones, plus 3 shades of gray.
(click pallettes to enlarge)
Image Content
When presented with a word choose the content with the following in mind:
- Choose a form that would be most familiar to a child of 5 to 12 years of age: Think about their environment and what experiences they may have had by that time in their lives
- Don’t add elements beyond those needed to most plainly represent the word. The idea is not to entertain, but to spark a mental connection between your drawing and it’s real world counterpart.
- Keep drawings as concrete as possible with enough details so it pictographically represents the subject and isn’t solely an abstract symbol for it, but not so concrete and detailed that the drawing has a photographic quality.
Car - Unacceptable (too much detail/subject distracting)
Car - Unacceptable (too little detail)
Car - Good (just enough detail)
Dog - Unacceptable (too indistinct, too many colors)
Dog - Good (clear outline, just enough detail)
Monarch Teaching Technologies Director of Instructional Design to speak at Rainbow Babies Autism Summit
October 7, 2008 by admin
Lauren Stafford, Monarch Teaching Technologies’ Director of Instructional Design will be presenting an overview of VizZle at University Hospital’s Rainbow Babies Autism Summit in Cleveland Ohio on Saturday, October 11, 2008. Ms. Staffords presentation will be titled “Visual Language Programming” and will cover a broad range of techniques and technologies for using visual technology to teach children with autism at home, school and community.
