Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 23 Issue 8

Table 3: Results of the Concept Evaluation Form Sequence No. Concepts Before application After application Know Don’t know Know Don’t know 1 Chameleon - 5 1 4 2 Cheetah - 5 2 3 3 Ostrich - 5 2 3 4 Deer 1 4 2 3 5 Pigeon - 5 1 4 6 Kangaroo 1 4 3 2 7 Tiger - 5 4 1 8 Koala - 5 1 4 9 Penguin 2 3 4 1 10 Zebra 1 4 2 3 Total (f) 5 45 22 28 Total (%) %10 % 90 %44 % 56 Rise (%) %44-%10= %34 While the number of animals children knew before the application was five (10%), the children knew the names of 22 (44%) animals after the application. The rate of increase in the number of animals that children know has been determined as 34%. V. D iscussion and C onclusion According to the results obtained from the evaluation form applied to the mothers, it was determined that the multi-sensory processing skills of the children with autism increased significantly after the education compared to the pre-education. The visuality of coding activities, their attractiveness, the opportunity for children to observe the results of the activities, and the fact that they provide opportunities such as giving instructions during the application can support their sensory development. According to our research, there is no research to determine the effect of coding activities on the sensory processing skills of children with autism. However, since providing more stimuli to children with autism supports their sensory processing skills (Case- Smith, Weaver, & Fristad, 2015), coding activities are likely to support their sensory processing skills. Children with special needs show lower performance in STEM applications than their peers (Basham & Marino, 2013). However, coding activities prepared in line with the developmental characteristics of the disabled and especially the children with autism, who are in the more disadvantaged group in terms of sensory processing skills, can support their development at a higher level. According to the results obtained from the questionnaire form applied to the teachers, it was concluded that coding activities increased the attention, visual perception, interest and ability to act in accordance with the instructions of children with autism. However, after the application, children with autism compared the objects before the application; It was determined that the ability to find the shadow of objects and create patterns increased. According to the results obtained from the open-ended questionnaire applied to the teachers, it was determined that coding activities increased the skills of children with autism such as vocabulary, attention/focus time, motor skills, hand-eye coordination, visual perception, imitation ability, interest, having fun, keeping in mind, and making eye contact. has been done. Coding activities support children's skills as they include interesting and fun applications. It is stated that integrating coding into pedagogical contexts in an intuitive and interesting experience can change children's skills such as logic, critical thinking, problem solving and their attitudes towards computer use (Sáez-López, Román-González, & Vázquez-Cano, 2016). It has been revealed that applications made with robotic coding improve the cooperation (Wainer et al., 2010), communication (Knight et al., 2019), hand-eye coordination (Sullivan & Bers, 2013) and basic collection (Yikmis, 2016) skills of children with autism. According to the concept knowledge form applied to children with autism, it was determined that the concept knowledge after education (44%) increased significantly compared to before education (10%). Since coding activities offer visual stimuli, the concept information of the visual is better memorized and remembered better when asked. Studies to determine the effect of coding activities on the concept knowledge of children with autism are limited. When technology- based studies were examined, activities were applied using multimedia to teach children with autism to verbally describe letters, syllables, words, text, reading comprehension and composition. As a result of the research, improvements were recorded in sentence writing, phonological synthesis skills and writing skills of children with autism (Basil & Reyes, 2003). Similarly, multi-sensory coding strategies applied to hearing- Volume XXIII Issue VIII Version I 68 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 G © 2023 Global Journals Coding Activities for Children with Autism: A Sample Application