Synchronised shared spaces: design considerations for tablet technology

Collaboration is crucial for developing advanced social and cognitive skills, with synchrony as a key component. Autistic children can find social engagement and collaboration challenging, which can limit their involvement in behaviours that give rise to advanced socio-cognitive skills. Social Motor Synchrony (SMS), the tendency to harmonise one's movements with another has several social benefits and it may be different in autistic children. However, the scenarios studied so far lack universal design, which may have limited autistic participants' displays of SMS. This paper presents an initial investigation into how tablet technology can be adapted to support synchronous collaboration and will identify features that facilitate SMS. We compare pairs of autistic and pairs of neurotypical children to highlight the capabilities of autistic children to synchronise using specially designed technological environments. Synchrony occurred between autistic peers with dual tablets, often paired with shared affect and joint engagement.