Readers: Associate professor Anita McAllister, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (Karolinska Institutet) and Associate professor Jenny Wilder, Department of Special Education (Stockholm University).

Supervisors: Professor Helena Hemmingsson, Department of Special Education (Stockholm University), Professor Mats Granlund, CHILD, Swedish Institute of Disability Research, School of Health and Welfare (Jönköping University), and Associate professor Ai-Wen Hwang, Graduate Institute of Early Intervention, College of Medicine (Chang-Gung University, Taiwan).

Moderator: Professor Helena Hemmingsson, Department of Special Education (Stockholm University)

Research topic/content of thesis
Children and youth with complex needs experience various participation restrictions in daily activities due to the severity of motor impairments and speech difficulties. Research indicates eye-gaze assistive technology (AT) could be a feasible method, enabling them to use their eyes to access and interact with a computer/tablet instead of a standard mouse or keyboard. Therefore, it might create an opportunity for these children to communicate, learn, and participate in varied daily activities by using an eye-gaze controlled computer. 

This doctoral research aims to investigate the impacts of applying eye-gaze AT on daily participation for children and youth with complex needs. The first study examines the impacts of using eye-gaze AT on dyadic communication interaction through video coding analysis. The second study uses multiple baseline design to investigate the preliminary effects of an eye-gaze AT intervention on computer activity repertoire and performance of participation goals in children and youth with complex needs in Taiwan. The third study investigates the feasibility of this eye-gaze AT intervention in Taiwan’s context regarding participant adherence, caregivers’ satisfaction, and stakeholders’ experiences through a mixed method approach.

The PhD study is part of the Research School in Special Education directed towards Early Interventions in Early Childhood Education (Swedish Research Council 2017-03683). Read more about Research School. 

Material for the seminar: Material for the seminar will be distributed two weeks in advance through Stockholm University Box-cloud for employees and in physical copies through research administration at the Department of Special Education. Please contact: forskaradministration@specped.su.se 

The seminar will be held exclusively via Zoom: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/69627381054 

Contact: Yu-Hsin Hsieh, yu-hsin.hsieh@specped.su.se