Enhancing the social competence of students with special educational needs through animal-focused experiential learning activities

Sustainable Development Goals Action Fund,
CUHK

Project Leader:
Jessie Yuen Sum CHOY


Project Coordinator:
Hebe Hin Miu LI


Project Members:
Wing Yuen Wing LAM
Ben Ka Yung LAU
Charlotte Wing Tung LEE
Dickson Tak Shing WONG
Shanice Wing Shan YU

SEN students, including those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and social emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD), often exhibit deficits in social communication skills and empathy. They may experience a high level of stress during social interactions and difficulties in understanding others’ perspectives. Recent research suggests that animal-assisted intervention can enhance the social, physical, emotional, cognitive and overall well-being of SEN students. For instance, the company of an animal can alleviate the anxiety level of SEN students when they are interacting with other individuals. This project will develop an animal-focused experiential learning program for SEN students and evaluate its effectiveness in enhancing the social competence and the overall well-being of SEN students using wearable sensor technology. We aim to develop a more structured animal-focused educational program that can bring positive impacts on SEN children’s mental well-being and promote the important role of animals in inclusive education.

Decoding the concealed emotions of children with special educational needs

Knowledge Transfer Fund,
CUHK

Psychophysiological indices such as heart rate, skin conductance and skin temperature have long been shown to correlate with emotional arousal. These signals can now be easily and accurately monitored with wearable sensors. A system that can manage multiple wireless wearable devices and visualise real-time measurements in the form of easy-to-understand indices can help teachers better keep track of the mental states of SEN students. Student-teacher interactions are improved as teachers give appropriate responses and modify their teaching content and pedagogies accordingly. The system helps SEN teachers better understand and monitor the emotional states of multiple students through easy-to-understand indices converted from objective, real-time psychophysiological data. Both learning and teaching are made more effective and enjoyable, ultimately enhancing the well-being of both students and teachers.
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A mobile, parallel and scalable platform for multi-user EEG recording and analysis

Innovative Technology Support Programme,
Public Sector Trial Scheme

The project aims to test the EEG recording and analysis system with public sector — students with intellectual disabilities and special educational needs (e.g., ASD, ADHD). The system is fine-toned for collecting the physiological responses of the students using Bluetooth-based wearable sensors (i.e., EEG headsets and heart-rate monitors). The system can provide objective biomarkers reflecting the mental activities of the students during an interactive event in a real-world learning setting. This is particularly useful for those students having limited communication skills to express themselves. Users’ feedback will be gathered for further improvement of the system. The success of this trial application will benefit and have significant impact on the decision making process of teachers, clinicians, parents, schools and policy makers in the long term.

Comparing the neural substrate associated with the impulsivity of ADHD individuals and typically developing adolescents using fMRI

General Research Fund,
RGC

This project aims to compare the neural substrate underlying the impulsivity of adolescents with and without ADHD. Although both ADHD individuals and typically developing (TD) adolescents are characterized with impulsive behaviors, previous studies showed conflicting findings that the amygdala-striatum network which is associated with impulsive behaviors is hypoactive in ADHD individuals but hyperactive in TD adolescents. We expect that our findings will advance the understanding of the neural basis of impulsivity and shed new light in the development of intervention protocols that are specifically sensitive to ADHD and TD adolescents and alleviate the possible negative impact of their impulsivity.

The impact of the affective state on the impulsivity and decision making of adolescents

Early Career Scheme,
RGC

Adolescents have been found to be more emotional reactivity than adults do but little is known about how affective states would influence the decision-making process and hence the risk-seeking behaviors of adolescents. This project aims to examine the impact of affective state on the impulsivity and decision making of adolescents using both psychophysiological (e.g. skin conductance and heart-rate variability) and neuroimaging (fMRI) techniques.