COSMA: Cooperative Self-Management Tool for Adolescents with Autism
Myeonghan Ryu, Eunkyung Jo, Sung-In Kim · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17) · doi:10.1145/3132525.3134825
Summary
This student research competition paper presents COSMA, a mobile application prototype designed to support cooperative self-management of behavior for adolescents with autism during their transition through puberty. Adolescence is particularly challenging for individuals with autism, who struggle to understand rapid physical, emotional, and social changes alongside ever-shifting social expectations. The researchers conducted formative semi-structured interviews with five parents of Korean autistic youths (ages 10-16) and five certified autism specialists to understand day-to-day difficulties and challenging behaviors that increase during puberty, including sexual inappropriateness, aggression, and noncompliance. A key finding was that behavioral goals set solely by parents were ineffective — constant parental prompting did not change behavior, and parent-adolescent conflicts arose when either party had unilateral control over scheduling. However, families that incorporated negotiation into their planning process had more success. The researchers also found that while self-reflection on past behavior was critical for improvement, adolescents with autism often did not want to share their inner feelings directly with parents, forcing caregivers to gather information through indirect channels like teachers, therapists, and peers.
Key findings
COSMA operates through three stages of self-management. First, the Co-Contract stage enables collaborative behavioral goal setting between adolescents and caregivers: a parent proposes a contract specifying target behaviors, rewards, duration, and reminder conditions, which the adolescent can review and provide feedback on before agreeing. This negotiation process addresses the finding that unilateral goal-setting fails. Second, the Self-Monitoring stage prompts adolescents to record their emotions and thoughts in real time using mood icons and free-text responses during or immediately after triggering situations, capturing contextual data that caregivers and therapists otherwise cannot access. Third, the Cooperative Reflection stage allows caregivers and family members to review the collected data and provide written feedback, creating a structured channel for empathetic communication and behavioral suggestions. The paper illustrates these stages through the scenario of "Sam," a teenager who screams when he loses board games, showing how the contract, self-reporting, and family review process helps him understand his brother's perspective and adopt alternative coping strategies.
Relevance
COSMA addresses an underserved population in accessibility technology: adolescents with autism navigating the already-difficult transition to adulthood. Most assistive technologies for autism focus on younger children, leaving a gap during the critical adolescent period when behavioral challenges often intensify and the need for self-management skills becomes urgent for future independence. The cooperative design — involving both the adolescent and their support network — reflects best practices in behavioral intervention while respecting the adolescent's growing autonomy. The negotiation-based contract model is a particularly thoughtful design choice, acknowledging that top-down behavioral management becomes less effective and more conflict-producing as individuals with autism mature. For practitioners working in autism support, COSMA demonstrates how mobile technology can create structured but flexible channels for emotional expression, self-reflection, and family communication that might otherwise be difficult for individuals who struggle with social interaction and emotional processing.
Tags: autism · self-management · adolescents · behavior change · mobile application · caregiving · self-regulation · co-design
Standards referenced: DSM-5