For autistic students, social skills from a handheld device

(Clarification: A story in last Sunday's Globe South about autistic students using personal digital assistants to aid social development (''For autistic students, social skills from a handheld device") overstated one of the goals of the project. Researcher Ron Calvanio said he hopes the program can help improve social skills and improve brain development, not ''fix" the disorder itself.)

Toggling quickly from screen to screen on his PDA, Jonathan Libby, 18, scrolled through a checklist of conversational tips reminding him to smile, make eye contact, and address people by name. Most of all, he emphasized to a visitor with a tap of his digital pen recently, don't interrupt or rattle on without letting others get a word in edgewise.

''Those are the ones I tend to forget," he acknowledged.

For most people, such social conventions are second nature. But for Libby, who attends a Walpole school for autistic students, they are a constant struggle. Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism, Libby is bright and chatty, but often rambles aimlessly from topic to topic.

What's helping him is having the unwritten rules of social interaction written down. Using a personal digital assistant, or PDA, an electronic diary customized with social and organizational reminders, Libby is slowly breaking some hard-wired habits. As part of an innovative research project being conducted at the League School of Greater Boston by a team of neurological experts, eight teenagers with Asperger's have used the hand-held computers the past few months to rehearse social situations, track their progress, and chronicle their moods and behavior.

The project is in its early stages, but researchers are confident that the reminders will serve as a kind of script to guide students through anxious situations and reinforce social skills over time until they are ingrained. Similar software has also been used to help patients with depression or who are recovering from strokes or brain injuries, and researchers believe the program could have a far-reaching impact in helping people with autism lead more productive and independent lives. In Massachusetts, more than 5,000 children are diagnosed with autism, a lifelong disability with no known cure.

Ron Calvanio, a Harvard Medical School neurologist who created the software and is helping to conduct the research, likens the software to quarterbacks who write summaries of plays on their wristband to help them make quick decisions in a fast-paced, confusing environment.

''It's a reminder that helps them read the defense," he said.

Calvanio gave a presentation on the research at a conference in Norwood recently on how new technology is helping people with autism. So far, the results have been promising, as Libby attests.

Demonstrating the software at his desk, Libby spoke in quick bursts, with his ideas usually a half-step ahead of his words. But he stayed on topic and paused periodically to gauge reaction, which he never used to do. The reminders are starting to stick, he said.

''It gives me some information about how I should talk to people," he said. ''Like how we should wait until the person has finished their sentence before we start talking. I've learned to interchange conversation better. I'm more focused."

About one in 250 children have autism, a neurological disorder that impairs social and communication skills. It is not evident at birth; it typically becomes apparent around age 3. The number of people diagnosed with autism has risen dramatically in recent years, prompting an intense search for its causes and ways to treat it. Technology has been a linchpin of the effort -- at MIT, scientists are developing a device that will help people with autism to interpret facial expressions.

The project at the League School, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, is one of those efforts, a collaboration between Calvanio's software company and a renowned autism center at the University of North Carolina. Gary Mesibov, a UNC psychologist and autism specialist who is codirecting the project, said the clear, visual prompts play to autistic individuals' learning strengths.

''In many ways they respond better to technology than to people," he said. ''The machine is more consistent and delivers the information to them in a very predictable way."

Mesibov, who is conducting a parallel study on adults that is in its early stages, said the hope is that with practice, social interaction will become more automatic. As that happens, conversations will become less daunting and more rewarding, giving them a confidence people with autism rarely experience.

The eight students at the League School, which overall has 80 students ages 3 to 22, are asked to chronicle each day's interactions in the diary and evaluate their own performance, mood, and confidence. Those marks are compared with teachers' observations to determine whether the student is moving in the right direction. So far, students and teachers have generally agreed, suggesting that students are gauging their own progress accurately.

The daily appraisal and feedback give students a sense they are heading in the right direction, a potentially huge motivator, Mesibov said.

''So many social situations are nebulous; so many people with autism never know if what they are doing is right or whether they are getting better," he said. ''This makes them feel that they are getting somewhere."

Dan Gillette, who chairs the innovative technology committee for Cure Autism Now, a national advocacy group, said that while the project faces many hurdles, social scripts can help those with autism overcome their fear of social situations and lead more independent lives.

''The population has all the capabilities of internalizing the strategies," he said. As conversation becomes more natural, individuals with autism will become less hesitant, he predicted.

Students are also asked to report their moods, on the theory that autistic students' emotional and social struggles frequently overlap.

Timothy McLaughlin, a 16-year-old from Foxborough who was bullied and teased for years in public school, said tracking his moods is therapeutic.

''I'm able to put something down so it's not bottled up," he said. ''I jot it down, and then it gets out."

McLaughlin, who describes himself as a ''straight-A student, but a C with social stuff," said the software has taught him to scan the room before he speaks to see whether anyone else is talking, and to check the reactions of people he's chatting with.

Arthur Fawcett, 17, of East Bridgewater, said his autism makes it hard for him to break the ice with people and often leaves him on the outside looking in. But testing out the tips and writing down how it went has made the reminders ''stick more than usual."

''I used to feel anxious, about what to talk about, how to say it. How to express my feelings," he said. ''But I've gotten better."

Joan Hill, 17, who lives in a group home in Sharon, is learning, perhaps reluctantly, to avoid conversational detours. ''I tend to go off in tangents," she said. ''I'll go on forever. But I'm learning to stop myself. I'm learning what's appropriate. Like, wait a second, 'Family Guy' " -- the TV program -- ''has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton."

The students' teacher, Mimi Gray, said while the constant reminders have helped, it remains to be seen whether they will have a lasting impact. ''We need to see once the prompts are taken away, will they still remember?"

But Calvanio is even hopeful the technological assistance can do more than just help students cope: He hopes it can ''change the brain" enough to fix the disorder.

''That's the $64,000 question," he said.

''If we get the kids young enough, we think it's possible."

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.