Re:inclusion
Using technology to support neurodivergent students in classrooms.
People with neurodivergent conditions are among the most socially excluded, vulnerable groups in the world. In the UK, around 2.5% of people have a mild or moderate condition, 1% have a severe condition, and around 700,000 adults and children have autism.
Over 70% of neurodivergent students attend mainstream schools, which cannot accommodate their needs. According to research, 70% of parents are unsatisfied with the level of understanding of autism in their child’s school.
Without personalised support, it is highly unlikely a neurodivergent person will make the academic and social progress they should. The problem gets worse as students get older: in India and Bangladesh, national reports indicate that access to higher education for students with disabilities is incredibly limited.
Access to appropriate information and communication technologies (ICT) provides the best - and perhaps only - chance for students with a range of physical, sensory, communicative and cognitive disorders to participate in society and fulfil their potential.
Researchers David Brown and Mufti Mahmud from NTU’s Computer Science and Informatics Research Centre have improved the inclusion of students with neurodivergent conditions in special, inclusive classrooms. Incorporating multimodal affect recognition, serious games, location-based services, digital game-making, and robotics and accessibility, their research has focused on using artificial intelligence (AI) to understand how engaged learners are, and how to employ novel ICT interventions for pupils in the greatest need.
Improving lived experience through technology
They have developed and evaluated numerous enabling technologies to support inclusive teaching practices and promote the cognitive, emotional and physical rehabilitation of users. This includes an accessible version of an award-winning educational coding app Pocket Code, which has been downloaded more than one million times across 180 countries; AI-enabled adaptive learning platforms MaTHiSiS and Pathway+; and the app BuddyConnectTM.
Together with NTU PhD researcher Matthew Harris, they have also developed a range of virtual reality worlds where neurodivergent individuals can learn real-life skills. This includes a virtual version of Nottingham city centre, a café, a supermarket and a kitchen which teach users how to navigate through these spaces and how to interact with different people within them. More recently, they are also investigating the use of virtual environments to identify any concerns with aging.
Their AI algorithms can also be used to predict when students with autism will experience an emotional dysregulation event when there is still time to intervene with evidence-based wellbeing interventions. This leads to less classroom disruption and improved mental wellbeing for students.
Our researchers see people with these conditions as their co-researchers, rather than subjects to be researched ‘on’. They believe people with lived experiences of disability should be at the centre of the research process. That’s why they formed the Nottingham International Consortium for Educational Research (NICER) - engaging neurodivergent people to ensure they are involved in the research process and that it’s informed by their needs and wishes. This group meets monthly at the local special school Oak Field.
They are rethinking how technologies can deliver education more effectively and efficiently to improve participation of all learners. Long-term, our researchers want to implement inclusive education approaches informed by the very best, most promising technologies, to afford equality of access to all marginalised students in the EU.
An additional aim is to extend these approaches to low- and middle-income countries. This is important, as in general, a taboo still exists in rural areas regarding disability (especially learning disabilities). They hope to address this issue with their colleagues and communities in India and Bangladesh. Find out more about their work.
In the UK, there are more than 2.5 million people with a range of intellectual disabilities and autistic spectrum conditions.
By using innovative technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, NTU researchers are improving the lived experience for these people.
David Brown, Professor in Interactive Systems for Social Inclusion:
"I started working in virtual reality probably around 30 years ago, and I contacted the local special school because I was working with a teacher who worked at the special school and they asked me to describe virtual reality and what it offered.
And what it offers is that you learn experientially, you don't have to learn English or mathematics to then learn about something else. In virtual reality, you understand the properties of the objects by direct interaction with them. And that teacher said that's actually almost exactly how students with learning disabilities are taught."
To improve the learning experience for people with disabilities, NTU researchers are including neurodiverse and intellectually disabled people in their research, seeing them as co-researchers rather than subjects to be researched ‘on’.
Professor David Brown:
"We’ve been working with the NICER group at the Oak Field School for 30 years now. So we started to use virtual reality to teach them independent living skills and communicational skills to increase their opportunity for inclusion and for even getting a job in the real world."
Our researchers have co-created a range of virtual environments to teach students with intellectual disabilities how to apply their skills in the real world. These spaces include a replica of Nottingham city centre, a kitchen, a supermarket and a café.
Michael Hibbert, NICER group member:
"The virtual city of Nottingham teaches me how to learn to go around the city and learn about the traffic and the buses and that, it helps you to do things like look both ways.
Abigail Taylor, NICER group member:
"My favourite thing is taking part in NICER group. Now I work at the garden centre and do sweeping the floors, sometimes I help to bag the fish up. I feel being important."
With these technologies, the team is helping to promote the inclusion of neurodiverse and disabled individuals, and improving their cognitive, emotional and physical rehabilitation. The team is also co-designing accessible higher education resources for students with learning difficulties in countries where taboos are still prevalent.
Dr Mufti Mahmud, Associate Professor of Cognitive Computing:
"So the tools and technologies that we are developing also have got a great potential to be used in low and middle income countries.
In recent years, these low and middle income countries, they have made the agenda that, for example, access to education, higher education should be equal to everybody, regardless of of race and disabilities.
Therefore, one of our projects called DIVERSASIA aims to transfer the know-how and these tools to countries like Bangladesh and India, to improve the participation of neurodivergent populations in higher education."
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Our researchers
David Brown
Professor Brown is Director of the Computing and Informatics Research Centre and Research Group Leader for the Interactive Systems Research Group.
Matthew Harris
Matthew Harris is an Academic Associate in the Department of Computer Science. He has experience in developing software for Virtual Reality applications.
Health and Wellbeing
This research is drawn from the strategic research theme of Health and Wellbeing.
Groups and centres
Centre for Computer Science and Informatics (CIRC)
The Computing and Informatics Research Centre’s (CIRC) unifying and overarching research vision is ‘Enabling Digital Technology’ and is grounded in high-quality, interdisciplinary work with expertise in advanced computer science topics with links to partners from both academia and industry.
Interactive Systems Research Group (ISRG)
The Interactive Systems Research Group focuses on the development of new technologies for the cognitive and physical rehabilitation of users within the real world, and the promotion of their mental wellbeing. This is a multi-disciplinary endeavour bringing together researchers and clinicians in virtual environments, serious games, games based learning, assistive technologies, location-based services, mobile applications, robotics, health psychology and computational intelligence.
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