Our research group focuses on systematic research on autism, education, and quality of life, and develops evidence-based methods for enhancing the educational-social inclusion of people with autism, their autonomy, and quality of life.
The ‘Autism in Education’ Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) – ELTE University has been officially founded on the 1st of September, 2016. It has been funded via two subsequent grants within the Education Methods Research Program and the Research Program for the Development of Public Education of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Our research group has developed its approach to research and intervention in education on the basis of our preceding work within the frameworks of the ‘Inter-Departmental Autism Research Group’ at the ‘Bárczi Gusztáv’ Faculty of Special Needs Education, ELTE University (Budapest, Hungary). Beyond our foci in exploratory research and innovative R+D projects, our main interest is in establishing and developing further the evidence-based practices within the field of autism. We see this as a key way to improve the life qualities of people on the autism spectrum and their family members, and education as a primary target domain.
Our research group integrates research and practice competencies in the fields of education, special needs education, psychology, and health sciences. Cognitive development, educational neuroscience and the evidence-based application of state-of-art info-communication tools receive special emphasis.
Ágota Szekeres, PhD, master of special education and psychologist, associate professor and acting director of the Special Education Institute of Atypical Behaviour and Cognition at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Education, ELTE. She mainly lectures and gives seminars on the pedagogy of people with mild intellectual disabilities.
Her research interests include: different sociometric methodologies, the development of social relationships in communities of different ages and composition, and the factors of inclusion.
Since 2003 she has been a full-time lecturer at the Faculty, but she also teaches at several other institutions (ELTE-TÓK, ELTE-PPK, Liszt Ferenc University of Music, John Wesley Theological College).
In 2014-2017 she was awarded the János Bolyai Research Fellowship, in 2015 she was awarded the bronze degree of the Pro Universitate Memorial Medal and in 2016 she won the Rector's Special Award for Excellence.
She has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Special Education since 2009. She is also a regular speaker at national and international conferences on education and special education.
Dr. Miklos Gyori, psychologist, then associate professor and up to 2020 also the director of the Institute for the Psychology of Special Needs at ELTE University, Budapest.
His main research foci were informatics-based assistive, educational and diagnostic procedures and methods; the psychology of, and education in, the autism spectrum; atypical cognition, language and communication; and the applications of eye-tracking and automated emotional facial expression recognition technologies.
His interest in exploratory research is represented by his monograph, Autism and Cognitive Architecture (Akadémiai, 2006); while his interest in education, technologies and atypical human abilities is shown by the volume Touching the Future Technology for Autism?, co-edited with Joseph Mintz and Morten Aagaard (IOS Press, 2012).
Since 1993, he had taught in the psychology programmes of the ELTE University; between 2010 and 2022, his main teaching focus was on the special education programme of ELTE. He had been a regular guest lecturer at the University of Vienna between 1996 and 2017. He left academia as of September 2022, but remained an external member of our Research Group.
Our group amalgamate expertise from special education, psychology, health sciences, and human-technology interaction, in order to create and validate novel tools and methods to enhance the life quality, autonomy and personal development of people on the autism spectrum. We are convinced that effective and applicable pratices and methods can be developed on the basis of high quality systematic research only.
We designed and implemented a complex research programme on the quality of life of individuals with autism and their parents. This was a pioneering study in Hungary, its results have direct relevance to education and autism-related services. The programme consisted of a large-N quantitative study with onine survey data collecting, and a qualitative study based on interviews with parents of individuals with autism. The planned number of participants in the quantitative study was 200; the actual final sample was considerably larger: 519 parents of persons with autism and 326 parents with neurotypical children. Thirty-two parents, recruited from among the participants of the quantitative survey, took part in the qualitative interviews.
As the key outcomes of this research programme, we emphasise the followings:
(1) the studies were the first in Hungary with such foci, including several educational aspects, and with their relatively complex design;
(2) their results therefore filled in an important gap in our understanding of the quality of life and autism-related difficulties of individuals and their parents in Hungary;
(3) their results can potentially serve as a basis for developing services further, including education services, for the activities of advocacy organisations, and for decision-makers;
(4) beyond scientific publications having been completed and yet to be completed, the dissemination of our key results has already reached a significant part of the public;
(5) our results allow for international comparison; these show that the key patterns of parental quality of life in Hungary are similar to the ones found in other countries, although some of their aspects – especially those related to autism-related services – show specific ‘local’ characteristics.
The ‘Star-bus’ Inclusion Intervention Programme (SIIP) is unique in Hungary, and, to some extent, internationally, as a programme and tool-kit for forming autism-knowledge of peers of pupils with autism, learning in mainstream educational environments. One of the innovative features of the SIIP is that its target group is unusually broad. Beyond pupils with autism and their peers, it aims to enhance autism-knowledge also in the communities of the teachers of the schools. It intends to enhance their relevant explicit and implicit knowledge on autism and human diversity, in general, expecting that this will lead to beneficial ‘secondary’ effects on the entire communities of the schools, and will generalise beyond autism to the acceptance of other human differences, too. The programme kit has several further innovative features, it targets the building up and enhancing pupils’ awareness about autism-relevant behaviours, skills, motivations, as well as their cooperation skills, their acceptance of human variability as natural, and their openness to taking social responsibility. The program is based on a storybook about autism. An important benefit of the SIIP programme is that its various elements – such as training videos, data collecting questionnaires, etc. – can be utilised in other intervention, training and research contexts too, beyond the SIIP pedagogical programme.
We created a detailed pedagogical protocol for the programme, as well as the protocol of its evaluation study.
Our evaluation study protocol is based on a controlled design. It compares pre-test and post-test data in order to detect changes in the quality of life of the pupils, in their position in the class community network, in their knowledge about autism, in their attitudes towards autism, in the occurrence of bullying in the community – all in relation to the SIIP intervention. This study design is unique in the field, too, in some of its aspects.
Our first evaluation results seem promising: applicability data suggest that the programme is well-calibrated for Hungarian primary education, the autism-related knowledge of the pupils grew significantly, and their repertoire of cooperation skills has grown. There seems to have happened progress in the school-related aspect of the quality of life of the pupils having participated in the programme. Further and more thorough analyses of the data collected in the evaluation study are in progress. For conference presentations (both domestic and international) and a published brief report with the first results of the evaluation study, please, see the Publications section of our website.
We have completed and submitted the SIIP teacher further training programme for accreditation too, and have made the preparations for keeping it available for teachers.
The goal of our project is to develop evidence-based pedagogical methodologies to support the autonomy and integration of pupils with special educational needs at school by the DATA digital support system. In addition to students with autism, our target groups incluide children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
The project includes an intensive literature research and review phase, in order to lay down the foundations of, and elaborate further the pedagogical methodologies and a teacher training programme for it. Our mixed-method evaluation study protocol is based on mutliple single-case design studies with pupils with autism. We plan to implement applicability tests of the established pedagogical and teacher training methodologies, too.
By achieving these goals, we hope to contribute to the inclusion of students with special educational needs, to maximizing their developmental perspectives, and to the overall digitalization of Hungarian public education.
The SHAKES / Screening for High Functioning Autism at Kindergarten Age project was aimed at designing, creating and evaluating a social serious game based multi-modal, interactive software system for screening for high functioning cases of autism at kindergarten age. As an R+D project, it had strong research aspects, too. The project was started in 2011 and had been funded via various sources. Its main relevance was in its goal to help recognising autism already before the child would enter the primary education. This could enhance the chances of the children with autism for receiving more adequate support and learning environment at an earlier age.
The broad, practice-oriented goal of our mixed-method research project was to provide a solid evidential basis for enabling teachers and other professionals to support the communication and participation of individuals with autism and CCN, by using procedures that are evidence-based and have a clear methodological background. The main focus of our research was on the use of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) methods.
In order to reach this goal, we designed 3 studies: (1) a large-sample quantitative survey among Hungarian professionals (N=378) to explore the goals, devices, functions and contexts of their AAC-use, as well as their practical, theoretical and methodological knowledge about using AAC in autism; (2) a qualitative pilot study with teachers (22 interviews), which served as the basis of our subsequent AAC study; and (3) a quantitative prospective study focusing on the development of spontaneous communication and AAC-use in the classrooms (with 51 pupils with autism and complex communication need, their parents and teachers).
The goal of the DATA (Digital Autonomy support in the Autism spectrum) project was to develop a digital assistive system and related application methodologies for enhancing autonomy and independence in the daily lives of people on the autism spectrum. As an R+D project, it was committed to build on up-to-date evidence. As a key challenge, we attempted to provide a solution for users with autism from the broadest possible range of the autism spectrum. The DATA-system and the connected services were developed by a research and development consortium of the Hungarian National Autism Society (Autisták Országos Szövetsége, AOSZ) and the HAS-ELTE ‘Autism in Education’ Research Group (MASZK), on behalf of Eötvös Loránd University , Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education (ELTE BGGYK). The project was funded by a joint EU/Hungarian government grant (EFOP-1.1.5-17-2017-00007).
The most of the research and development activities within the DATA project were done by the HAS-ELTE ‘Autism in Education’ Research Group, in close cooperation with the Hungarian National Autism Society. Beyond the core members of the HAS-ELTE ‘Autism in Education’ Research Group, we invited several other colleagues into the team.
Our main responsibilities within the DATA project were: (1) designing the functionalities of the DATA system on the basis of available educational and psychological evidence; (2) designing and running usability and effectiveness studies on, and overall evaluation of, the implemented DATA prototypes;(3) developing usage and administration methods and protocols for the DATA system, and their evaluation; (4) developing training protocols and materials to help users in learning and using the DATA system, and their evaluation.
The so-called ‘Mórahalom Project’, funded directly by the Hungarian Government, is aimed at creating a complex rehabilitation and education center in the village of Mórahalom, a small town in the southern region of Hungary. Several members of our research group are involved in various autism and education related aspects of the project, such as counselling 20 institutions in the region, in order to improve their autism-practices; and designing and implementing a novel further education programme, providing a degree in ‘Autism-specific psycho-educational counselling’.
A few members of our research group worked on the development of a web database, in cooperation with the University of Pannonia Faculty of Information Technology, and the National Autism Society (Autisták Országos Szövetsége, AOSZ). The goal of ‘InfoBase’ is to provide quick, reliable and correct information about the services of the AOSZ, and other contents related to autism, via a single online platform for ‘everyone’ (primarily for parents of persons with autism, and for professionals).
We have established promising connections to, and co-operation with, Prof. Karen Guldberg and her research group. As an important step, Prof. Guldberg visited our group in July 2018. We organised a one-day conference for this occasion, with Prof. Guldberg being the keynote speaker. Beyond the conference programme, we held two workshops with her, in order to explore further perspectives for collaboration, especially in studying education for autism and developing evidence-based practices in this field.
Dr Joseph Mintz is a senior lecturer in education at the Institute of Education, University College London, ranked the world #1 higher education institution for Education in the QS subject rankings several times. We have had a long history of cooperating with Dr Mintz since an international project for developing a mobile assistive-educational app for pupils with autism (HANDS project, 2008-2012). The potential areas of cooperation emerged, especially in the field of educational research methods in autism and other special educational needs.
We started to build connections to Prof. Eapen and her research group in the process of designing our quality of life studies within the MASZK research project. The first step in this cooperation has been the Hungarian adaptation of the QoLA questionnaire. Prof. Eapen visited our research group in July 2018 - we organised a workshop to explore vistas for further cooperation. We are working on establishing further cooperation, primarily in quantitative research on quality of life in autism. Joint conference appearances took place and joint publications are in press (as October, 2022).
Dr Ryan O Kellems is an associate professor at the Brigham Young University (Utah, USA). His research interest is closely related to the activities of our research group: it is centred around autism, education, and digital technologies. Our partnership is relatively new, but a couple of specific areas for cooperation have taken shape already. These focus primarily on research methods and digital support methods for pupils with autism. Professor Kellems visited us by the support of a Fulbright grant in the Spring of 2022. His publication from 2020, written together with the then-head of our research group, Miklos Gyori, and two other colleagues, can be found here.
Havasi, Á., Stefanik, K. & Győri, M. (2019). Can we empower people with complex communication needs to participate? – Hungarian professionals’ use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication in Autism Spectrum Condition. In Orel, M. Jurjevčič, S. (szerk.), EDUvision 2019 : Modern Approaches to Teaching the Future Generations Ljubljana, (pp. 18-27.) Szlovénia : EDUVision (2019) 1 850 p.
Stefanik, K., Molnár-Varga, M., Németh, V., Bertók, Cs., Havasi, Á., Őszi, P., Janoch, M., Ábrahám, A., Vígh, K., Borsos, Zs., Pongrácz, K. & Miklos Gy. (2019). Enhancing Autism Knowledge among Primary School Pupils: First Results from the Evaluation of the ‘Star-bus’ Inclusion Intervention Programme (SIIP). In: Orel M. & Jurjevčič S. (szerk.), EDUvision 2019 : Modern Approaches to Teaching the Future Generations Ljubljana, (pp. 28-37.) Szlovénia : EDUVision (2019) 1 850 p.
Stefanik, K., Molnár-Varga, M., Németh, V., Bertók, Cs., Borsos, Zs., Pongrácz, K., Gyori, M., Havasi, Á., Őszi, P., Janoch, M., Ábrahám, A. & Vígh, K. (2019). Enhancing autism knowledge among primary school pupils: first results from the evaluation of the ‘Star-bus’ Inclusion Intervention Programme (SIIP). In Mojca, Orel; Stanislav, Jurjevčič (szerk.), EDUvision 2019: Modern Approaches to Teaching the Future Generations, Ljubjana, (pp. 28-37). Szlovénia: EDUVision.
Havasi, Á., Stefanik, K. & Győri, M. (2019). Can we empower people with complex communication needs to participate? – Hungarian professionals’ use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication in Autism Spectrum Condition. In: Mojca, Orel; Stanislav, Jurjevčič (szerk.) EDUvision 2019 : Modern Approaches to Teaching the Future Generations, Ljubjana, Szlovénia: EDUVision, (2019) pp. 18-27. , 10 p.
Zs. Borsos, Z. Jakab, K. Stefanik, B. Bogdan, M. Gyori(2019). Screening for autism spectrum condition (ASC) with digital technologies: an overview of methodological difficulties. 12th AutismEurope International Congress: A new dynamic for change and inclusion. Nizza, 2019. 09. 13-15.
Molnar-Varga, M., Stefanik, K. & Gyori M. (2019). Quality of life and psychological well-being of parents of individuals with ASC: first results from a large Hungarian sample. Asia Pacific Autism Conference, Singapore, 2019. 06. 20-22.
Győri M. (2018). Researching the quality of life of people with ASD and their families – insights from a large-sample mixed-mode study. Focus on Autism International Scientific Conference 2018. Krakkó, Lengyelország. 2018. 09. 27-29.
Gyori M., Csákvári J., Molnár M., Havasi Á., Varga F., Stefanik K. & Virányi A. (2018). Assessing Support Needs for Developing an App-Based Assistive System for Enhancing Independence in the Autism Spectrum: Results from a Mixed-Mode Study. Computers Helping People with Special Needs: 16th International Conference, ICCHP 2018, Linz, Austria, 2018. 07. 11-13.
Vargáné Molnár M., Borsos Zs. & MTA-ELTE Autizmus Szakmódszertani Kutatócsoport (2018). Workshop with Prof. Valsamma Eapen (Chair, Infant Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of New South WaleS Head, Academic Unit of Child Psychiatry, South West Sydney (AUCS) Stream Director, Early Life Determinants of Health, Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise (SPHERE) Director, Program 1, Co-operative Research Centre for Autism (CRC). Quality of Life and Educational Services in Autism (Perspectives in Hungary and in Australia). Budapest, 2018.07.12.
Gyori M., Borsos Zs., Stefanik K., Jakab Z., Varga F. & Csákvári J. (2018). Automated vs Human Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions of High-Functioning Children with Autism in a Diagnostic-Technological Context: Explorations via a Bottom-Up Approach. Computers Helping People with Special Needs: 16th International Conference, ICCHP 2018. Linz, Austria, 2018. 07. 11-13.
Győri M. (2018). The ‘Digital Autonomy Support In Autism’ Project: An Overview Of Preliminary Results, Goals, And Means. Quality of Life, Services, and Education in Autism: Researching and Advancing the Interactions, Budapest, 2018.07.05.
Stefanik K. (2018). ‘Starbus’ Project Overview: Developing And Evaluating A Peer Programme For School Inclusion. Quality of Life, Services, and Education in Autism: Researching and Advancing the Interactions, Budapest, 2018.07.05.
Győri M. (2018). Designing A Qualitative Study In Quality-of-life Among Parents Of Persons With Autism: Methodological Considerations And Dilemmas. Quality of Life, Services, and Education in Autism: Researching and Advancing the Interactions, Budapest, 2018.07.05.
V. Molnár M. (2018). First Results From A Large-n Quantitative Quality-of-life Study Among Parents Of Persons With Autism. Quality of Life, Services, and Education in Autism: Researching and Advancing the Interactions, Budapest, 2018.07.05.
Stefanik K. (2018). At The Midway Of The MASZK Project: A Project Overview. Quality of Life, Services, and Education in Autism: Researching and Advancing the Interactions, Budapest, 2018.07.05.
M. V. Molnar, K. Stefanik, M. Gyori, A. Ábrahám, Z. Borsos, Á. Havasi, A. Horhi, E. Horváth, T. Oszi & Á. Szekeres (2018). Quality of Life of Parents of Individuals with ASD and Complacence with Services: A Study on a Large-n Representative Sample from Hungary. INSAR, Rotterdam, 2018. 05. 09-12.
More information about the Conference
Miklos Gy., Borsos Zs., Stefanik K., Csákvári J. & Varga F. (2018). On the Potential of Automated Emotional Facial Expression Recognition for Screening / Diagnosis of ASD: Evidence from Comparing Human vs. Machine Detection of Emotional Expressions of High Functioning Young Children with ASD. Poster. International Society for Autism Research Annual Meeting 2018. Rotterdam, 2018. 05. 09-12.
Gyori M., Csákvári J., Molnár M., Havasi Á., Varga F., Stefanik K. & Virányi A. (2018). Assessing Support Needs for Developing an App-Based Assistive System for Enhancing Independence in the Autism Spectrum: Results from a Mixed-Mode Study. In Miesenberger K. & Kouroupetroglou G. (szerk.), Computers Helping People with Special Needs: 16th International Conference, ICCHP 2018 Linz, Austria, July 11–13, 2018 Proceedings, Part I. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 10896.) (pp. 474-477). Springer. More information here.
Gyori M., Borsos Zs., Stefanik K., Jakab Z., Varga F. & Csákvári J. (2018). Automated vs Human Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions of High-Functioning Children with Autism in a Diagnostic-Technological Context: Explorations via a Bottom-Up Approach. In Miesenberger K. & Kouroupetroglou G (szerk.), Computers Helping People with Special Needs: 16th International Conference, ICCHP 2018 Linz, Austria, July 11–13, 2018 Proceedings, Part I. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 10896.) (pp. 466-473). Springer. More information here.
Borsos Zs. & Győri M. (2017). Can Automated Facial Expression Analysis Show Differences Between Autism and Typical Functioning? In Peter C. & Luc de W. (szerk.), Harnessing the Power of Technology to Improve Lives. (Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 242) (pp. 797-804). Amsterdam: IOS Press. More information here.
Our research has been funded by the Content-Pedagogy Research Programme and the Research Programme for the Development of Public Education of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
We are grateful to all the individuals with autism, their parents and teachers, who have participated in our studies .
We are also grateful to all the individuals and organisations who/which helped us organise the data collecting in our studies, in various ways.
We thank the Hungarian National Autism Society for working closely together with us in many ways, but especially in developing the DATA-system.
We thank the Faculty of Special Education, ELTE University, for supporting our goals and research in various important ways.
