An interactive attention board: Improving the attention of individuals with autism and mental retardation

Abstract

This paper presents a tool named Interactive Attention Board (IAB) and an associated software named Interactive Attention Boards Software (IABS) for individuals with Mental Retardation and Autism. The proposed system is based on several theories such as perception and learning theories, and it is intended to improve hand-eye coordination and attention duration of disabled individuals. Furthermore, the IAB system offers an interactive environment both for disabled individuals and educators, and enables a rapid improvement of disabled individuals' responses to various stimulants, and increases attention duration on a certain object. IAB aims to decrease disabled individuals' reaction time to stimulants, and to increase total concentration and attention period on a single object. Thus, these improvements in the attention help the educator to teach individuals about various cognitive concepts such as long, short, small, big, and colors, as well as educational concepts such as animals, vehicles and professions.