Conversation Fuel

Many young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder do not receive adequate professional support to develop communication skills during puberty. As a result, these individuals face poor transition outcomes in critical areas like developing social connectedness through conversational skills. Previous research investigating these outcomes' psychological impact has shown that these individuals often expressed their desire to build friendships despite their social skill difficulties. These unique challenges have intensified during the pandemic owing to a further lack of in-person interaction opportunities. This project details the everyday challenges these individuals face based in Canada through the lens of their counsellors. The counsellors were able to provide in-depth information about what they expect in a tech-supported tool that can help their clients overcome challenges in communication and practice self-regulation through role-playing. It was important to study this subject with the counsellors' help to incorporate the right self-regulatory exercises into the tool. I used generative design research to understand the current support tools used by counsellors in their practice to develop their clients' conversational skills who self-identify themselves as high functioning ASD. Many autism interventions during in-person counselling sessions depend on playful interactions and games such as flashcards and board games, grounded in findings on the positive influence of play on learning. Previous studies have investigated the potential of interactive technology for autism education, showing that it enhances the learning experience and reduces the need for continuous assistance. However, these strategies are rarely used as direct input for designing tech-supported tools that counsellors could use in their virtual counselling practice and acknowledge the variability in the tool functionality based on different individuals with high functioning autism. The tool is focused on embracing those differences and allowing the counsellors to tailor the exposure therapy based on individual needs. The research so far has indicated the possibilities of incorporating virtual reality platforms in tandem with biofeedback as a virtual reality exposure therapy. I applied the research results as a guide to building a remote virtual environment to support exposure therapy. The virtual reality platform could be an adequate interface to improve the virtual counselling sessions by providing in-tool options to customize the scenarios, build avatars, observe body language and incorporate assessment goals using biofeedback into the experience. These scenarios and exercises are based on the input by the counsellors during the co-design workshop.