Teaching Social Competence: In Search Of Design Patterns

COSPATIAL is a multi-disciplinary project that is using collaborative virtual reality and tabletop devices for training social competence within the theoretical framework of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Our ultimate objective is to create a set of patterns for designing applications in collaborative technologies that are suitable for children with autism as well as typically developing children. We describe the rationale for CBT-informed design of collaborative technologies and background related work. Initial steps towards development of a design framework are presented, with illustrated examples from one concept design application for each of the two technologies under consideration. The project is ongoing and an iterative design process will be used to develop and evaluate the applications and further refine the design framework.