Whom is this software program targeted to: parents or children?
What are the differences between the school version, classroom version, and home version?
At what age can a child start using this program?
What prerequisite skills must a child have to use the software?
Does the student match the word to the picture?
What words are taught? Is there a vocabulary list? How many words?
What types of reward are given?
What file formats are accepted for the images and the sounds?
How exactly do I add items in the vocabulary?
What are the system requirements?
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 hom is this software program targeted to: parents or children?
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Answer: In few words, the goal and mission of CompuThera can be described as follows. Short for
"Computer Assisted Therapy for teaching cognitive
skills to visual learners" CompuThera has been designed primarily as
a therapist aid for teaching cognitive skills (both receptively and expressively) to children with autism and visual learners. It is meant
as a complement of any type of ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy and consists of 52 drills to be performed one-on-one with a therapist,
much as in an ABA or Lovaas type program. It takes advantage of the fascination most children with autism have towards computers and uses
this natural inclination as a motivator and reinforcer in the learning process. The computer supplements but does not replace the teacher.
First and foremost it is a teacher's tool. Drills that a therapist would normally present on the table using flash cards are performed here
on the computer. The teacher, parent or therapist is required to be by the student's side for recording his score in all expressive drills.
Since in expressive drills the child is asked to verbally label a picture, spell a word or read a sentence, the teacher's judgement in
scoring the child is of foremost importance.
The child alone however can do receptive drills, provided he can appropriately handle a mouse or touch-screen device and does not use it
for perseveration (or "stimming"). Some expressive drills such as Verbal Imitation or Spelling have an "Autorun" mode that can also be
done by the child unattended.
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- hat is the difference between the school version and the home version?
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Answer: The main difference is that the Home Version only allows setting up drills and logging scores for a single child, whereas
the Classroom and School Versions have the ability to set up a profile for an unlimited number of children. The Classroom license is for a
single computer in a single classroom. The School license allows setting up the program in as many as five different classrooms.
The Classroom and School Versions allow designing an individualized treatment plan for each child, and are equipped with additional "trends"
reports giving information on the progress of each student over a period of time for any of the words or categories of words being taught.
In every other respects, both products are identical in their features.
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 t what age can a child start using this program?
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Answer: More than talking about appropriate "age" for using CompuThera one should rather consider a child's
ability or level in
cognitive skills (including language and reading). Here are a few guidelines:
- If the child has language and can already read simple sentences using usual words and understand the meaning of the sentences,
the program will probably benefit him/her by providing a stimulating media for generalization of acquired skills.
- If the child has some language but cannot read, the program can be of a benefit as it will teach the association of words to
pictures, the spelling of words and the recognition of words by sight.
- If the child can rote-read but does not understand what he reads (which can be the case for some children with autism), the program
will help give a meaning to words by associating them with symbols, pictures of objects or actions, using simple images and short video animations.
- If the child is able to sight read single words but does not link them into sentences, the program will teach him/her this
last step.
- If the child can repeat (echo) words but does not have pragmatic language, the program will:
- Teach him that pictures and objects have a corresponding sound that can be spoken.
- Teach him to recognize an object among a collection when the name of this object is spoken. (receptive labeling)
- Teach him to correctly pronounce the words (verbal imitation) and associate the picture with the written and spoken word.
- Decompose the written word into its components or letters (spelling).
- Recognize the word from its written representation alone (sight-reading).
- If the child is non verbal altogether, meaning he has no spoken language, he can learn to associate pictures with the sound of the words
through the "matching" drill and learn to recognize a picture from its spoken label (receptive labeling). If and when he begins to echo
words, he can then progress further into the program.
By 3 years of age (or even younger depending on his/her ability) a child can begin using the program, but there is no upper limit of
age for which a child can benefit from it.
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- hat prerequisite skills must a child have to use the software?
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Answer: To begin using the software, it is good if the child has already some ABA practice (Lovaas type home therapy), he needs to be
table ready and able to have a sustained attention span of about one minute.
The first drill, aimed at matching identical pictures, is mostly for the child to get familiarized with the computer mouse. If this
is too difficult for the child, CompuThera is also compatible with a TouchWindow device (available from EDMARK Company)
where he can
directly point to pictures on the screen. At the beginning, the child does not need to be verbal, since the first two drills are
receptive in nature. From the first expressive drill (verbal imitation) and above, the child must begin to at least echo words and be able
to repeat them.
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 oes the student match the word to the picture?
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Answer: At the simplest level, the student matches identical pictures while the word is displayed under the picture.
Upon successful matching, the program "says" the name of the picture out loud.
At the next level (receptive labels), the student is asked to recognize a picture among several on the screen with the verbal
request "touch..."
At the next (3rd) level (verbal imitation) the student is asked to echo the labeling of the picture. For example "Say bicycle"
with the picture of the bicycle showing on the screen and the caption "bicycle" underneath.
At the fourth level (spelling) the student is asked to spell the word (letter by letter).
The next level (sight-reading) does not display the picture anymore, but only the written caption, although the picture can be flashed
on the screen as a prompt or hint.
The program moves discretely from picture only (matching and receptive label) to word only (sight-reading) moving to a given level
only when the previous one has been mastered for any given word.
In addition, the software allows to create flash cards with either the picture alone, the word alone or both together. Using these flash cards,
the therapist or caregiver can set a table drill to physically match the word to the picture.
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- hat words are taught? Is there a vocabulary list? How
many words?
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Answer: In its current form CompuThera comes preloaded with about 520 words, each with its own picture and sound file,
to which you can
add your own. These words are grouped in 9 categories:
- LABELS: Over one hundred tangible familiar objects, food, clothes, vehicles, furnitures, animals, utensils... etc.
- PEOPLE: Occupations such as Doctor, Policeman, Clown, and Firefighter. You can add your own pictures of family members, friends, teachers, and siblings... Etc.
- LETTERS: A through Z, in upper and lower cases.
- NUMBERS: 1 through 50
- COLORS: Blue, yellow, red, green, orange, purple, pink, brown, white, and black.
- SHAPES: Rectangle, Square, Oval, Star, Heart, Circle, and Triangle.
- BODY PARTS in the context of the face or the whole body.
- ACTIONS: Over 70 pictures, drawing and movies illustrating action verbs.
- EXTRA: Any word that does not fit in the above categories (such as prepositions, articles, adverbs, and adjectives) and some of the
Dolch words for which a picture is not available.
You can add your own pictures to help generalization and record your own sound files for new words. There is no limit to the number of
words that can be taught. However, the purpose of the software is not to teach an extensive vocabulary, but rather to bring the student
to the conceptual leap that written and spoken words can represent pictures, symbols and concepts which in turn can be linked into
sentences to express more complex structure of thought.
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- hat types of reward are given?
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Answer: The rewards for receptive and expressive drills are both visual and musical. Typically a 10 to 14 seconds musical strip
is played while animation is displayed on screen. There are also puzzles, simple games such as popping balloons,
cat and mouse game, fireworks animation, story reading...etc.
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- hat file formats are accepted for the images and the sounds?
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Answer: Images should be in Bitmap (.bmp) or JPEG (.jpg) formats. Most drawing softwares can export in these
two formats. Action verbs are illustrated with short movie clips in AVI (.avi) format. Sound files should be in wave (.wav) format.
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 ow exactly do I add items in the vocabulary?
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Answer: Two ways are available, depending whether you have a picture for the item.
- If you do have a picture for the item, for example if it is tangible or a verb that can be represented by an image,
the CompuThera software comes with a tool that will guide you through each step: select the picture from your hard drive, CD, or network drive,
it will let you pick the category of vocabulary where the word is to be included, and then have you select or record a sound for the newly added word.
It will finally ask you for a label (word) for the newly added picture. The word is then automatically saved and added to the student's available vocabulary.
- If you do not have a picture for an item to be added to the vocabulary, you can still add it by selecting the "Extra" category in the
"Treatment Plan and Configuration" dialog box (accessed via the "Organize" button on the main screen). Press the "Add Item" button
(located at the bottom left of the dialog box). All you need then is to record a sound file for this new item.
Note: The Extra category already contains words that cannot easily be described with a picture, such as preposition (to, at, in, for...)
articles (the, an, a...) pronouns (this, whom, she...) or adverbs.
Important: Items in the Extra category are only accessible for the following drills: Verbal Imitation, Spelling, Sight-Reading. (Since
they require a picture, other drills such as receptive or expressive labeling cannot be used with the Extra category)
A word can be added in any of the existing categories. For the purpose of generalization, you can even use more than one picture for any given word.
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- hat are the system requirements?
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- Hardware: IBM-compatible PC with Intel based Pentium processor 250MHZ or faster with at least 64 MB or RAM.*
- Disk Space: At least 300 MB of available disk space.
- Sound: Sound card (microphone optional).
- CD-ROM: Double-speed CD-ROM drive or faster.
- Video: 64K color (16 bit) SVGA video card with 800x600 resolution capability or better.
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, NT 4.0, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating systems.
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Last Modified: December 24, 2007
Additional help is accessible at http://www.computhera.com/manual.html.
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