Automatic recognition of therapy progress among children with autism

Agata Kołakowska,Agnieszka Landowska,Krzysztof Sobota,Anna Anzulewicz

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14209-y

Agata Kołakowska, Agnieszka Landowska + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14209-y

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Abstract

The article presents a research study on recognizing therapy progress among children with autism spectrum disorder. The progress is recognized on the basis of behavioural data gathered via five specially designed tablet games. Over 180 distinct parameters are calculated on the basis of raw data delivered via the game flow and tablet sensors - i.e. touch screen, accelerometer and gyroscope. The results obtained confirm the possibility of recognizing progress in particular areas of development. The recognition accuracy exceeds 80%. Moreover, the study identifies a subset of parameters which appear to be better predictors of therapy progress than others. The proposed method - consisting of data recording, parameter calculation formulas and prediction models - might be implemented in a tool to support both therapists and parents of autistic children. Such a tool might be used to monitor the course of the therapy, modify it and report its results.

Highlights

Autism is a complex developmental disorder that influences the ability to communicate and learn
These applications focus on particular issues by teaching specific skills–e.g. expressing needs, learning certain behaviours[2], improving verbal communication, answering questions, interacting with other people in typical situations[3], recognizing and expressing emotions[4,5,6]. These solutions take advantage of the fact, that children with autism are usually enthusiastic about tasks supported by computer technology, which offers a predictable framework without causing stress[2]
Designed applications running on these devices may monitor the accuracy of tasks solved by the user, and the way they are solved thanks to the fact that tablets are equipped with a number of sensors–i.e. touch screen, accelerometer, gyroscope - able to record behavioural characteristics continuously

Summary

Introduction

Autism is a complex developmental disorder that influences the ability to communicate and learn. There are numerous applications designed for individuals with autism These applications focus on particular issues by teaching specific skills–e.g. expressing needs, learning certain behaviours[2], improving verbal communication, answering questions, interacting with other people in typical situations[3], recognizing and expressing emotions[4,5,6]. These solutions take advantage of the fact, that children with autism are usually enthusiastic about tasks supported by computer technology, which offers a predictable framework without causing stress[2]. These mobile devices would seem to be appropriate for this particular task

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