Educating Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China and Finland

Xiaoyi Hu, associate professor of Department of Special Education and the Director of Education Research Center for Children with ASD, Faculty of Education Beijing Normal University. Xiaoyi Hu received her PhD in Special Education for University of Kansas in 2011. She is also the adjunct researcher at the Beach Center on Disabilities, University of Kansas. She has been worked on several national grants and research projects in interventions for children with ASD and family support. Currently, she is leading a national grant in China on Teaching Children with Autism in Special Education Schools in China, a national grant on implementing Lego-therapy to school-aged children with autism in China, an international grant on Supporting the Strengths and Activity of Children with Autism in a Technology-enhanced Learning Environment with Finland and United States, and a state-level grant on developmental Assistive Communication Technology to Children with Autism in Beijing.
Eija Kärnä, Ph.D., professor, has worked as Professor of Special Education as part of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Eastern Finland since 2002. Professor Kärnä received her PhD in Special Education from Syracuse University in New York, USA, in 1993. During her career, Professor Kärnä has worked on several international development and research projects, and she has conducted multidisciplinary research with researchers from several scientific fields (e.g., linguistics, psychology, nursing science, computer science). She has worked as a co-leader (Technologies for Children with Individual Needs project, IISS) or a leader (EvTech, CASCATE) on several research projects that have addressed the interaction between technology and children with special educational needs.