Background

For over ten years Do2Learn has, through funding from several sources including the National Institutes of Health, used technology and the web to provide special learning resources for individuals with disabilities and the professionals and caregivers who serve them. We have worked with leading educators, clinicians, teachers and parents to develop serious games and learning material targeting specific deficits of individuals with neurological disorders including autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, fetal alcohol effects, OCD, attention disorders, learning and communication disorders and others.  The deficits we address include risky and disruptive behavior as well as lack of appropriate social, communication and daily living skills.

Do2learn.com freely offers, for your personal use, thousands of pages of the best of the resources we have developed and tested.  You do not need to register to use the site nor do we use cookies or any other tracking devices to intrude on your privacy. We find ads to be distracting and therefore do not put them on our pages. Our goal is to create a site that provides resources you may need in a respectful way.

For help navigating our site, visit our 'How to Use' page.

Our philosophy

When we started, we hoped to help children with learning difficulties better understand and adjust to our world. At some level, this is still true. We, however, misjudged what we were exchanging with these children. If we in any small way help them function in this reality, they continually teach us much more about what reality can be. For years, psychologists have shown that our minds respond selectively to our senses. In working with individuals with mental disorders, we are reminded of just how separate our realities are. They showed us that the secret to communicating with anyone may be to suspend previous judgments of how the world must be sensed and separated, and to understand that life can be seen in many ways.

Our goal is to help each person communicate, survive and adapt to the bigger world around him or her, while respecting that all perceptions are valuable. Our hope is that this site will provide tools and solutions based on scientific research and clinical experience to help those with special learning and treatment needs. Our tools are designed to help them understand our world by:

• breaking tasks into smaller, more easily handled parts
• putting complex tasks together slowly, with guides to keep order
• repeating activities often, letting the user set his own pace
• allowing interactive customized and engaging tasks with positive rewards for success
• providing a range of ways to learn including tactile, visual, and audio material

Papers

Research related available at do2learn site:

An Evolution of Virtual Reality Training Designs for Children with Autism and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Grant Develops Free Computer Games and Songs to Help Children with FAS

Video Enhanced VR for Teaching Restaurant Social Skills to Children with Autism(PowerPoint)

Brief Report: Two Case Studies Using Virtual Reality as a Learning Tool for Autistic Children

Developing Virtual Reality Instruction for Autism Report

Computer Language Games for Autism

Overcoming Phobias by Virtual Exposure


Research related available elsewhere:
Strickland, D., Patel, A., Stovall, C., Palmer, D. & McAllister, D. (1994). Self tracking of human motion for virtual reality systems, SPIE Proceedings on Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems, Bellington, WA: SPIE Press.

Strickland, D., Marcus, L., Hogan, K., Mesibov, G., and McAllister, D. (1995). Using virtual reality as a learning aid for autistic children. Proceedings of the Autisme France 3rd International Conference on Computers and Autism.

Strickland, D., Marcus, L., Mesibov, G, and Hogan, K. (1996). Brief report: Two case studies using virtual reality as a learning tool for autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 26(6), 651-660.

Strickland, D. (1996). A virtual reality application with autistic children. PRESENCE: 5(2).

Strickland, D. (1996). Creating virtual worlds to help children with special needs. California State University, Northridge Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, Los Angeles, March 19-23.

Strickland, D. & Chartier, D. (1997). EEG measurements in a virtual reality headset, Presence, 56 (5), 581-590.

Strickland, D., Hodges, L., North, M., & Weghorst, S. (1997). Overcoming phobias by virtual exposure. Communications of the ACM, 40(8), 34-39.

Brandt, G., Strickland, D., Hodges, L. & Hoffman, H. (1998). Virtual potential. SIGGRAPH Proceedings, ACM Publications.

Strickland, D. (1998). Learning aids for virtual settings. In R. Guisseppe (Ed.), Virtual Reality Applications. Rome: IOS Press.

Rizzo, S., Strickland, D., Hodges, L., Hoffman, H. & Watson, J. (2000). The healing powers of virtual reality. Conference Abstracts and Applications, SIGGRAPH 2000, New Orleans, LA.

Evans, C., Osborne, S., & Strickland, D. (2001). Computer learning game efficacy for children with autism/poster. Council for Exceptional Children Conference Proceedings, Kansas City, April 18-21.

Strickland, D. (2001). Learning games for special children, USC Annenberg Center Entertainment in the Interactive Age Proceedings.

Padgett, L, Strickland, D, Coles, C. (2003) Virtual reality safety games for children diagnosed with FAS/pFAS, Research Society on Alcoholism Conference Proceedings.

Strickland, D. (2004). Video enhanced virtual reality for teaching restaurant social skills to children with autism/Poster, Cybertherapy Conference Proceedings.

Rizzo, A. A., Strickland, D. & Bouchard, S. (2004). The Challenge of Using Virtual Environments in Telerehabilitation. Telemedicine Journal and e-Health. 10(2), 184-195.

Padgett, L., Strickland, D, Coles, C. (2006). Case study: Using a virtual reality computer game to teach fire safety skills to children diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 31(1):65-70. http://jpepsy.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/jsj030v1.pdf

Coles, Claire D., Strickland, Dorothy C., Padgett, Lynne, % Bellmott, Lynnae (2006). Games that “work”: Using computer games to teach alcohol-affected children about fire and street safety. Research in Developmental Disabilities. Volume 28, Issue 5, October-November 2007, Pages 518-530. Available online 11 September 2006.

Strickland, Dorothy C., McAllister, David, Coles, Claire, Osborne, Susan (2007). An evolution of virtual reality training designs for children with autism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Topics in Language Disorders. Virtual Reality: Exploring New Dimensions for Conversation, Language, and Learning. 27(3):226-241, July/September.

Stranger, Donna and Strickland, Dorothy (2009). FACELAND: Recognizing Facial Expressions of Emotion. Closing the Gap, Bloomington, MN

Strickland, Dorothy (2009). Serious Games and Teacher Resources for Social, Behavior and Life Skills. Closing the Gap, Bloomington, MN.