The Effect of Digital Storytelling and Sensory Integration on Children With Autism

The DST activity emphasized the use of multimedia to bring the stories to life. At the beginning of the workshop, interactive circles were formed for informative interactions. Children with autism and typically developing children were asked to prepare a short video reflecting a personal experience from their own lives. The children's habits and interests were identified and they were made to work on preparing materials such as pictures, photographs, handicrafts, dough toys, etc. to be uploaded to the computer program. It was explained that they could also choose from ready-made photos in the video editing/editing program for their stories, and that they could make short audio recordings if they wished. Digital stories are usually prepared as videos that combine audio, video, and video clips to tell a story. The DST study was conducted for 16 hours over two months. During the DST, the mothers who wanted to participate and watch also participated in the study.

Sensory integration training for children with ASD was conducted 2 days per week for 2 months. Taking into account the results of the Dunn Sensory Profile Scale, sensory approach strategies were determined for children with ASD, taking into account low and high neurological thresholds and hyper- and hyposensitive responses in the auditory, visual, tactile, vestibular and kinesthetic sensory systems. Sensory-motor activities with deep pressure and proprioceptive stimuli were used for children sensitive to tactile stimuli, and activities with linear and slow vestibular stimuli and resistive movement were used for children with kinesthetic sensitivity. In the intervention, swings, ball pools, ramps, rotation, and fast motion inputs were used in swing for children with hypersensitivity to motion, and sensory materials with different textures, play dough, and some other sensory materials were used for children with hypersensitivity to tactile sensory system.