Dyscalculia is a specific learning disability that affects an individual’s core skills in mathematics, including calculation, recall of number facts, and approximating/comparing number. Research into the origins and aetiology of dyscalculia have suggested the presence of two different networks in the brain used for mathematics; one for verbal (symbolic) tasks such as recalling number facts, and one for non-verbal (non-symbolic) tasks such as approximation and number comparison. While these networks are located in different brain areas, they are often used together on calculation tasks, they are known to impact each other over the course of development, and they both appear to be impacted in dyscalculia. The current study used entertaining computer assisted instruction software, “Timez Attack”, to target the symbolic network, i.e. to improve the fluency of multiplication fact recall in three 9 and 10 year old children who were performing below the expected level on multiplication. An ABA (applied behaviour analysis) multiple-baseline across subject design was used to track participants’ performance on multiplication, addition, and number comparison over the course of the intervention. Results showed improved fluency of multiplication fact recall in all three participants; however this improvement did not generalise to addition or number comparison. This finding suggests that the symbolic and non-symbolic brain networks involved in mathematics are largely independent from each other by middle childhood, and that training targeting one network does not affect the other.

Evidence suggests that computer assisted interventions (CAI) have advantages over other types of instruction when teaching children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A growing number of technology based tools for use in educational settings have been developed to address specific deficits associated with ASD; namely poor facial expression recognition. Given the proliferation of CAIs, there is an urgent need to test their application in real world and clinical settings. Based on previous research on the success of CAIs to support children with ASD in this area, this research was developed as a small scale pilot study to explore the feasibility and potential educational benefits of the relatively new CAI; Let’s Face It! Scrapbook (LFI!). This study examined the viability of the LFI! program in a clinical setting in which two groups of children with ASD worked one-on-one with behavioural interventionists to develop necessary life skills. The experimental condition (n=3) which received natural environment teaching (NET) of emotions plus LFI! exercises preformed better on tasks of facial expressions recognition in post-tests than the control condition (n=3) which received only natural environment teaching. Participating behavioural interventionists reporting on their experiences using the app. preferred this method of teaching citing the greater available teaching material, the enriched level of engagement required between client and interventionist, and the fun nature of the program. Though small in nature, the results of this pilot study would suggest that the LFI! program is a viable tool for use when training facial expression recognition with clients with ASD in clinical settings. / Graduate

No description available.

Au cours des dernières décennies, la chirurgie mini invasive a progressivement gagné en popularité face à la chirurgie ouverte, grâce à de meilleurs bénéfices cliniques. Cependant, ce type d'intervention introduit une perte de vision directe sur la scène pour le chirurgien. L'introduction de la réalité augmentée en chirurgie mini invasive semble être une solution viable afin de remédier à ce problème et a donc été activement considérée par la recherche. Néanmoins, augmenter correctement une scène laparoscopique reste difficile à cause de la non-rigidité des tissus et organes abdominaux. En conséquence, la littérature ne fournit pas d'approche satisfaisante à la réalité augmentée en laparoscopie, car de telles méthodes manquent de précision ou requièrent un équipement supplémentaire, contraignant et onéreux. Dans ce contexte, nous présentons un nouveau paradigme à la réalité augmentée en chirurgie laparoscopique. Se reposant uniquement sur l'équipement standard d'une salle opératoire hybride, notre approche peut fournir la relation statique entre l'endoscope et un scan intraopératoire 3D. De nombreuses expériences sur un motif radio-opaque montrent quantitativement que nos augmentations sont exactes à moins d'un millimètre près. Des tests sur des données in vivo consolident la démonstration du potentiel clinique de notre approche dans plusieurs cas chirurgicaux réalistes. / Over the past decades, minimally invasive surgery has progressively become more popular than open surgery thanks to greater clinical benefits. However, this kind of intervention introduced a loss of direct vision upon the scene for the surgeon. Introducing augmented reality to minimally invasive surgery appears to be a viable solution to alleviate this drawback and has thus been an attractive topic for the research community. Yet, correctly augmenting a laparoscopic scene remains challenging, due to the non-rigidity of abdominal tissues and organs. Therefore, the literature does not report a satisfactory approach to laparoscopic augmented reality, as such methods lack accuracy or require expensive and impractical additional equipment. In light of this, we present a novel paradigm to augmented reality in abdominal minimally invasive surgery. Based only on standard hybrid operating room equipment, our approach can provide the static relationship between the endoscope and an intraoperative 3D scan. Extensive experiments on a radio-opaque pattern quantitatively show that the accuracy of our augmentations is less than one millimeter. Tests on in vivo data further demonstrates the clinical potential of our approach in several realistic surgical cases.