The Electronic Age: Building Social Skills Online

Link: ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners | Editorial.

The Electronic Age: Building Social Skills Online
By Kerri Waldowski

Adolescents and young children with Asperger's syndrome and other forms of high-functioning autism often experience intense anxiety in social situations. Because face-to-face interactions can be terrifying experiences for them, researchers from the Autism Center, Center on Human Development and Disability, at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, partnered with Microsoft to develop an online chat program to help these children acquire social skills in a comfortable setting. KidTalk offers a scripted social environment that reinforces their group social skills.