ASDTech parent survey

This project explored autistic children’s use of technology at home, and what their parents thought about their child’s technology use, through a parent survey and follow-up interviews.

We asked parents of autistic children to complete an online survey which asked questions about their child’s use of technology at home. Questions were asked about what kinds of technology their child used at home, how often their child spent using technology, and parent attitudes and concerns about their child’s use of technology. All materials associated with this research, including a copy of the survey in English, the processed dataset and analysis script, and summaries are available in the library post.

We invited responses from families internationally, and also included families where children had additional support needs. In our analysis, we also include report from parents of grown-up children.

One of our main findings was the range of technologies which autistic children reportedly used in the home, from iPads and other tablets, to games consoles such as the Wii. We did not find much report of children using apps or technologies specifically designed for autistic people, and did not find a high rate of the use of augmented and alternative communication (AAC) devices. Instead, parents talked about how their children enjoyed playing video games, watching videos on YouTube, listening to music, and doing independent research on the internet.

We found that parents had concerns about the amount of time that their child spent using technology. Level of concern about screen time was associated with parents reporting that their child spent longer using devices.

In conclusion, we found that autistic children use a wide range of technology and use technology for a broad range of leisure purposes. Whilst some parents had concerns about their child’s technology use, many reported the benefits of their child using technology to direct their own learning. We think this paper is important for looking further into the indirect benefits of technology use in autistic children, and exploring family barriers to accessing technology-based supports such as AAC.

Unfortunately this project didn’t have independent input from the autistic community, apart from those people involved as participants in the research.