Social Skills Instruments for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Disease Information Through Comics: A Graphic Option for Health Education

This paper presents a critical interpretive synthesis of research on the efficacy of comics in educating consumers on communicable diseases. Using this review methodology, the authors drew from empirical as well as non-empirical literature to develop a theoretical framework exploring the implications of comics' combination of images and text to communicate this health promoting information. The authors examined selected works' alignment with the four motivational components of Keller's ARCS Model (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) to evaluate research within the context of learner motivation. Findings of this research indicate comics offer a useful method for providing consumer health education, particularly regarding topics that individuals may have difficulty in discussing openly.

Could You Give Me the Blue Brick? LEGO®-Based Therapy as a Social Development Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review

LEGO®-based therapy is a social skills development program aimed at children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A systematic review of the literature was conducted using PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science bibliographic databases were searched from their date of inception to August 2020. The review included 19 studies. Studies were classified according to experimental designs (e.g., Randomized Control Trial, Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions and case report and series) and a narrative synthesis of each was provided, along with a critical discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the available literature on the topic. Although LEGO®-based therapy appears a promising treatment for social interaction in ASD, the findings of LEGO®-based therapy studies should be interpreted and generalized with caution, due to the low quality of the studies and the small sample sizes.