Curriculum Delivery through Game-Based Learning - Thesis Example

Besides that, this paper will address how to enhance working memory in children while highlighting aspects of learning, memory, and engagement with autistic children focusing on children in the late primary and early middle school, who are at a higher risk of social exclusion (Buchanan, 2007). Finally, this paper will focus on the use of ICT, particularly the Tablet (iPad) applications, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of using applications in the classroom by high functioning ASD students.

Autism is a multifarious neurological developmental disability that often manifests within the first three years of an individual’s life; autistic cases have limited social interaction, difficulty in communication, both spoken and unspoken, and may also present with restricted or repetitive tendencies. Autism impairs the brain function of information processing by prompting alterations in the manner in which cells and their synapses connect and organize in a way that is yet so clear and it is one of the three known critical autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Church et al, 2010).

Even though autism is strongly associated with genetics, there is little knowledge of the complex genetic basis of this disorder since it is not clear whether it is the unusual arrangements of usual genetic variants or the uncommon mutations that explain ASD. While factors that result in birth defects have been associated with autism in rare cases, there is no consensus on the link between autism and environmental factors such as heavy metals, pesticides as well as childhood vaccines (Zwaigenbaum, 2009).

Genomic studies have recently propounded that individuals with ASD may be sharing genetic features with people that have bipolar disorder, clinical depression, schizophrenia, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASHD), and there is an increased risk of autism with an increase in both maternal and paternal age (Durkin et al., 2008).