Abstract
+me is an experimental interactive soft toy, looking like a panda, developed for young children. When touched on the paws or head (inputs), the toy can emit attractive responses such as colored lights and amusing sounds (outputs). +me is wirelessly connected to a control tablet through which an adult caregiver can modify its input-output contingencies so as to produce different, rewarding response patterns using the same device. Given these features, we propose +me as a potential novel tool to support the therapy of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The allure of the device could be exploited to capture the attention and encourage the social interaction of toddlers during play activities with therapists. In this pilot study, +me was tested on two small groups of children aged 30–48 months, one group diagnosed with ASD and the second with Communication Disorder, a condition that often presents—especially at an early age—overlapping symptoms with ASD. The proposed play activities aimed to foster simple imitative behaviors and stimulate the engagement of the children. The results were compared with those of a previous test run on Typically Developed children. Preliminary observations, based on the analysis of video recordings, suggest that, on average, +me is able to encourage a positive engagement and that different groups tend to manifest some different behaviors.
Highlights
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ND), typically evident from early childhood, mainly characterized by important life-long impairments in the social and communicative areas
Recent reviews on ASD epidemiology show that a significant part of the population in developed countries is diagnosed with this condition: estimates range from 1.5% (≈ 1 in 67, Lyall et al, 2017) to 0.76% (≈ 1 in 132, Baxter et al, 2015)
Visual comparison of the boxplots related to the ASD, Communication Disorder (CD), and Typically Developed (TD) children allows the evaluation of the main differences among the three groups
Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ND), typically evident from early childhood, mainly characterized by important life-long impairments in the social and communicative areas. The onset of symptoms typically occurs by the age of 3 years, they may not fully manifest until school age (Lyall et al, 2017), while the average age of a child receiving a formal ASD diagnosis is around the age of 5 years (Shattuck et al, 2009; Jónsdóttir et al, 2011; Zuckerman et al, 2015; Neimy et al, 2017) This notwithstanding, recent studies suggest that behavioral warning signs, such as atypical orienting to people, reduced eye contact, lack of response to name, and lack of social or emotional reciprocity—all pivotal precursors of the complex cognitive construct of Social Cognition (Happé and Frith, 2014; Pino et al, 2017)—can already emerge within the first 2 years of life (Ozonoff et al, 2010; Zwaigenbaum et al, 2013; Jones et al, 2014)
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