FrameByFrame: Swinburne Multimedia Design graduate show
VIP night for the Swinburne FrameByFrame Multimedia Design graduate show on Tuesday December 8 was vibrant and buzzing with students, friends, parents and industry professionals.
The projects featured at the exhibition were a culmination of Undergraduate, Honours and Masters students’ work, primarily designed for children with autism. Trained teachers of children with autism from *Bulleen Heights School assisted student groups with eight different projects that focused on assisting autistic children with areas in which they need help.
Areas that student projects focused on included: Grouping Objects, Non Verbal Gestures, Making Emotions, Coping with Change, Schedules, Making Eye Contact, Find a Route and Transactions.
Grouping Objects: ‘The ability to group objects can be linked to activities that include turn taking and waiting. Grouping objects also assists students with autism to develop a greater understanding of characteristics and attributes.’ In Panda Weather, children learn how to ‘group’ and ‘match’ appropriate clothing to different weather conditions when they are required to dress the main character, Panda, on different occasions.
Grouping Objects; Non Verbal Gestures
Non Verbal Gestures: Young people with autism ‘benefit from ‘extra’ non verbal gestures to be included or embedded with the primary spoken information.’ In the game Marty the Mime, everyday gestures are used and presented to children in a ‘clear and fun way.’ The aim of the game is for children to be able to read these gestures in other people and also utilise them themselves, resulting in better communication skills.
Coping with Change: ‘Ritualistic and compulsive behaviours are common for people with autism, such as lining up toys and having rigid routines for daily activities.’ Therefore, any changes such as taking a new route to school, furniture being moved in the house or being made to wear new clothes will distress a person with autism. Distress caused by change can lead to increased compulsive behaviour, aggression, verbal outbursts or withdrawal.
Rufus Goes to School uses a typical school day and incorporates change in different scenarios, such as driving with different people, catching the bus (because the car broke down) and interacting with classmates. Ron Gets Dressed is another game that assists children cope with change. The purpose of this activity is to dress Ron appropriately, according to changing weather conditions.
Coping with Change; Making Eye Contact
Making Eye Contact: ‘Anecdotal evidence suggests that people with ASD may find eye contact difficult when engaging with a communication partner as processing speech and facial expression at the same time results in sensory overload. Therefore it should not be assumed that because a person with ASD is not looking they are not attending to and processing what has been said.’
As many Autistic children like the predictability of mechanical objects such as trains, Bob and Friends uses Bob the working train and his friend, Nick as main characters. Both characters need to transport and dump rocks at the port station. Eye contact between the characters is used to work out where to dump the rocks. Using key words such as ‘look’ and ‘looking’ children are encouraged to apply these games to everyday situations.
Schedules: ‘Schedules are commonly used to reduce anxiety in autistic children.’ The game Daniel the Robo Cat ‘helps children to understand how to read schedules, firstly by describing the activity with actual objects, then introducing pictures and finally symbols.’ The process of making a piece of toast is just one of the daily tasks that this skill can be applied to through this game.
There are links between these tasks and children are able to make connections once they complete multiple tasks. It is poignant to witness the amount of compassion and effort that has been put into these projects, benefiting countless numbers of children not only at Bulleen Heights school, but nationally and internationally.
Design comes alive when it is applied in different ways, enhancing our lives and the lives of others.
Swinburne Multimedia Design course
*Bulleen Heights is a Government, unique, single mode specialist school that caters for children, adolescents and young adults assessed as having autism spectrum disorder. This amazing school is located in the Eastern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne, Australia.
