Developing Scripts to Teach Social Skills: Can the Crowd Assist the Author?

Fatima A. Boujarwah, Jennifer G. Kim, Gregory D. Abowd, Rosa I. Arriaga

Abstract: The social world that most of us navigate effortlessly can prove to be a perplexing and disconcerting place for individuals with autism. Currently there are no models to assist non-expert authors as they create customized social script-based instructional modules for a particular child. We describe an approach to using human computation to develop complex models of social scripts for a plethora of complex and interesting social scenarios, possible obstacles that may arise in those scenarios, and potential solutions to those obstacles. Human input is the natural way to build these models, and in so doing create valuable assistance for those trying to navigate the intricacies of a social life.