Autism, Down syndrome, qualitative and quantitative pedagogical research, VOKS

The paper describes possibilities of testing and practical implementation of the application for users with special needs for example an autistic spectrum disorders, the Down?s syndrome, mental retardation and other growing defects, which cause handicapped children obstacles learning spoken natural language. The project is based on the knowledge of the communication system PECS and its Czech variant VOKS. It shows basic possibilities of using computers for education and support of communication skills. Children with specific disorders face communication difficulties and common ways are often unusable. The target user group requires a specific approach to development and testing of the created software. Thus, apart from common functional testing, quantitative and qualitative methods of pedagogical research were also used.