Computer Mediated Interaction in Asperger's Syndrome: the Bubble Dialogue Program

Gnanathusharan Rajendran and P. Mitchell, Computers and Education, 35, (2000), 189 - 207.

This paper reports use of a computer application, Bubble Dialogue, with two primary aims: (1) to assess the experience of computer-mediated role-taking on the interpersonal understanding, executive abilities and verbal abilities of two young male adults with Asperger's Syndrome (a diagnosis given to higher-functioning individuals with autism); (2) to investigate whether blind raters judged differently between Bubble Dialogue scripts produced by individuals with Asperger's Syndrome and scripts produced by individuals with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The results show that there was no detectable improvement in the interpersonal understanding of the participants with Asperger's Syndrome, but there was an improvement in their executive function scores. Additionally, the blind ratings revealed that only one of the 'Asperger' Bubble Dialogue scripts was different from the scripts generated by individuals with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Conceivably, Bubble Dialogue helps to regulate interaction, such that the social impairments characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome are less conspicuous. With the aim of assessing and improving interpersonal understanding in individuals with Asperger's Syndrome, we utilised the Bubble Dialogue program (Gray, Creighton, McMahon & Cunningham, 1991). The application creates the experience of role-play in a comic strip world, in which two users each role-play a character. The users have opportunity, by clicking on icons, to insert text into a speech Bubble above the head of their character and then to insert text into a thought Bubble which subsequently replaces the speech bubble. The Dialogue thus alternates between the users and each has access to the speech and thoughts generated by the other.

When using Bubble Dialogue, thoughts (which are normally private and hidden) become public and visible and so the users have access to the thoughts of each other's character. The users are literally able to mindread. If a user plays 'correctly', then their character will not act upon the knowledge that resides in the private thoughts of the other user's character.