Overcoming autism ... with video games | Renae Beaumont | TEDxUQ

Doctor Renae Beaumont completed her PhD and developed a computer game, Secret Agent Society (SAS), that trains social and emotional skills for children with autism spectrum conditions, helping them learn how to feel happier, calmer, and braver and to make friends and keep them. To date, the program has been delivered to over 10,000 children with optimistic results - a testament that gaming can be used as a force of good instead of evil to transform children's lives for the better. Given the challenges that many children face in navigating our modern world, Dr Beaumont's work is fundamental to optimising the wellbeing and success of our future generations.

Renae Beaumont PhD is a clinical psychologist and senior visiting research fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital. Renae is a UQ alumnus, completing her PhD in clinical psychology at UQ in 2006.

Dr Beaumont was the 2011 recipient of the American and Canadian Academies of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Senior Researcher Award. In 2014, her Secret Agent Society program won the Autism Spectrum Australia National Recognition Award for Advancement, and the Secret Agent Society Family Kit won the US Learning Magazine Teacher's Choice Award for the Family.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

As you look at these pictures,
what do you see?

Kids smiling, laughing, having fun.

Now think back to your own
happiest childhood memories.

Hanging out with friends at school
or in your local neighbourhood,

sleepovers,

birthday parties,

camps,

sporting trips.

The kids you shared these experiences with
may still be amongst your closest friends.

Now, imagine a childhood
that looks strikingly different.

A childhood where you're
on the sidelines of games,

and when you ask other kids
if you can join in, they say, 'No.'

A childhood where you
detonate social landmines

by accidentally saying and doing things
that upset and offend others.

Recently, I was working with a kid

who told me that I'd better hurry up
and get married and have kids

because otherwise, my eggs would dry up,

I'd only get older, fatter, and wrinklier,

and no one would want to marry me.

I wasn't offended.

He was just looking out for me.

(Laughter)

He didn't mean to upset me
with what he said.

And even if he did recognise
that what he'd said offended me,

he wouldn't have known
how to repair the situation.

Social blunders like this

are part of the daily lives
of one in 68 children worldwide.

These are children
who are on the autism spectrum.

For the past 15 years,

my mission has been to create
a gaming-based therapy program

to teach these kids the skills they need
to feel happier, calmer, and braver,

and to make friends and keep them.

To create a program that these kids love,

that's effective,

and that taps into their fascination
and interest in technology,

allowing for self-paced learning,
individualised feedback,

and that's scalable.

Accessing effective treatments
from skilled professionals

is one of the greatest challenges faced
by families of kids with autism worldwide.

Tech therapy seemed like
the perfect solution to this problem.

Little did I know this idea would form
the foundation of my future career.

As an aspiring 21-year-old
psychology student

here at the University of Queensland,

I wanted to do a PhD
that would be a game changer

in the world of child therapy.

At the time, I was working
part-time as a flute teacher

to pay for university student essentials

like nightclub entry fees, drinks,
and two-minute noodles.

Working as a flute teacher,

I had the great privilege
of teaching a nine-year-old boy

who was absolutely brilliant.

I'm going to refer to him as Sam.

Sam tirelessly practised
his scales and flute pieces

over and over again

until they reached the point
of technical perfection.

I'd never taught a student who showed
such dedication and commitment.

But when Sam played the flute,
it sounded robotic.

It didn't give an emotional gift
to the listener or to Sam himself.

When I raised this with him,
he wrinkled up his face and said,

'But, I don't understand.

The notes are just dots
and dashes on the page.

Where does it say anything
about emotions?'

He made a really good point:

the emotion that's communicated in music
isn't clearly marked on the page.

It's a felt experience.

When I shared this story with Sam's mum,

she told me that he had
an autism spectrum condition.

Sam was really smart intellectually,
but he struggled a lot socially.

Other kids thought he was weird

because he was into mathematics,
when they were into sports and Pokemon.

He spoke in a monotone voice,
and his eye contact was a little unusual.

Other kids excluded him
from games and activities.

He wasn't invited to birthday parties,

and he was the last kid
to be chosen in group activities.

Sam's mum didn't know what to do.

She tried relentlessly to get him
the help that he needed

but found that most professionals
didn't understand

the unique social and emotional
challenges that he faced.

Some even trivialised his difficulties
because he was doing well academically.

Recognising the threat
that Sam's social difficulties posed

to his future potential,

I desperately searched the literature

to find an effective
social skills program for him.

But no such program
seemed to be available.

Those that had been evaluated

generally led to minimal treatment gains,

seemed really boring for kids,

and weren't publicly available.

I dedicated myself to creating the program

that Sam and so many other kids like him
desperately needed.

A fun program that didn't involve
kids reading and writing

on boring black-and-white
handouts full of text.

A world that kids co-created,
that gave them the lifeline they needed:

The Secret Agent Society.

(Voice-over) Please enter

the International Secret Agent
Society Headquarters,

where you will begin your training.

Renae Beaumont: From the start,

my vision was for a computer game
to be at the cornerstone of this program.

Kids love gaming.

It seemed logical
to tap into this interest,

to create a computer game
to teach them social survival skills.

It couldn't be that hard, right?

Wrong.

I had no idea what I was signing up for.

I was a 21-year-old nobody
in the world of academia

who had zero computer programming skills.

At the time, I couldn't even create
a PowerPoint presentation

without getting help
from the IT department

here at the University of Queensland.

I had a better chance of winning lotto
than securing grant funding

that was significant and large enough

to fund the development
of the computer game.

So, I approached the computer engineering
department of a nearby university

and asked,

'Was there any chance that maybe
students could create the computer game

to fulfil course requirements?'

My request was met
with an enthusiastic response.

But tragically, after a year
of painstaking work,

I was delivered a computer game
that was riddled with bugs

and only 60% complete.

Neither I nor the students
that I was working with realised

that the vision
I had for this computer game

was beyond their capabilities.

At this point,

I was faced with the prospect
of ditching the project altogether.

But then, I took a moment to think about
why I was doing my PhD in the first place.

It wasn't to get the piece
of paper or the doctor title.

It was to create something that
would make a difference in kids' lives.

In the life of an 11-year-old girl
who used to sit and eat lunch by herself

rather than gossiping
about boys and music with her friends.

In the life of a 10-year-old boy

who used to run out of the class, crying
when he couldn't do schoolwork

instead of taking a breath,
asking for help, and trying his best.

In my heart, I believed
that the initial significant investment

of time, energy, and money

would lead to exponential improvements
in these children's lives.

So, I took on additional casual jobs,

saved hard,

and paid a team of recent IT graduates
to do the computer game programming.

While the programmers worked away
on the computer game

with a team of child consultants,

I developed additional
program materials to help kids

to actually put the skills that they
learned from the computer game into action

in daily life.

These included a therapeutic board game,

walkie-talkie voice-tone recognition game,

and helpful thoughts game.

I replaced tedious homework tasks

that were a common feature
of child therapy at the time

with secret agent missions
that involve kids recording evidence

to show how they use
their social skills in daily life,

in a computerised journal.

I also included resources
and training sessions

for parents and school staff
to teach them how to help kids

to put these social skills
into action in daily life.

When these resources were developed
and the computer game was complete,

the trial was ready to begin.

I had many a sleepless night, worrying,

'What if parents and kids
hate the program?

What if it doesn't work?

No one else had managed to create
an effective therapy program.

What made me think that I could?'

But even as this doom and gloom
soundtrack repeated in my head,

I continued to push forward.

And it's a good thing that I did

because the Secret Agent Society program
has made a real difference

in the lives of children
and families worldwide.

That girl who used to sit
and eat lunch by herself?

She was invited to her first sleepover
and birthday party during the program.

The boy who used to cry and give up
when he couldn't do schoolwork?

He learned how to stay calm,
focus, and finish it.

Three months after the program ended,
he was awarded his first academic prize.

In fact, 76% of kids
who had significant social difficulties

in the beginning of the program

improved to show social skills,
just like other kids their age,

by the end or within five months
of it finishing.

This is the most significant
improvement in social skills

ever shown for a program
for kids on the autism spectrum.

For the first time in their lives,

these kids were making real friends
who enjoyed hanging out with them.

Their parents' vision for their future
was finally coming true.

With the help of the commercialisation arm
here at the University of Queensland,

I partnered with a company

to publish and distribute
the program materials,

and the end result was more extraordinary
than anything I could have ever imagined.

I've created an effective
gaming-based therapy program

that has since touched the lives
of over 10,000 children and families

in nine countries

and is being increasingly adopted
in schools and clinics worldwide.

Right now, I'm working with colleagues
at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York

to take the research to a whole new level.

Most of the trials done to date
have been kids on the autism spectrum.

Now, we're looking at
the effectiveness of the program

for kids who have
other social-emotional challenges,

like anxiety disorders

and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder.

Whole-of-class version of the program

is also being trialled
in Australian schools

thanks to the Australian Cooperative
Research Centre for Living with Autism.

In this trial, we're looking at
the social, emotional, academic benefits

of the program for all students,

including its impact on bullying.

This is just the beginning.

By enhancing the computer game
with virtual reality technology

and creating an app
to alert and reward kids

for using their relaxation gadgets
and social codes when they need them,

my vision is to be a leader
of a tech therapy revolution,

to create the Pokemon GO
of social survival skills.

What's my advice to you?

Think about the one thing in the world
that you'd most like to see change

and creative ways to solve that problem.

You might not know the answer right now
or how to get there,

but you're smart:

you can learn the skills that you need to

or if you prefer,

surround yourself by other people
who already have those skills.

Right now,

you might be working a mind-numbing job
that pays minimum wage

and be years away
from finishing your degree,

but as long as you're moving
in the direction of your goals,

no matter how slowly,

you are succeeding.

Thanks to Sam,

I've created something that makes
kids' futures a little brighter.

By stepping outside your comfort zone,

embracing new experiences,

and persisting when you fail -
which you will -

you can download
your dreams from the cloud

and make a difference.

Thank you.

(Applause)