An “all-in-one” wearable application for assisting children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Assistive technologies are playing a vital role in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

OBJECTIVE:

The current paper presents the design and assessment of an “all-in-one” wearable solution incorporating location monitoring, scheduling, communication, and physiological parameters monitoring functionalities for children with autism and their families/carers.

METHODS:

Twenty high-functioning children and twenty-five parents participated in the research. The final application was assessed over a period of two months. A highly patient-centred design was followed by a multidisciplinary team of experts (experts in the field of special education, speech therapy, psychology, and informatics) with significant experience in children with autism. The evaluation took place in a real and open environment. All participants were administered the PYTHEIA questionnaire in order to assess the various characteristics of the platform. Pearson’s Chi-squared test was used to examine the independence of the variables, with a statistical significance of 95%.

RESULTS:

The results support that the implemented features can effectively assist everyday life activities and facilitate the independent living of children with autism. The subjective evaluation of the solution revealed important considerations for further developments. Both groups of users (parents and children) were very satisfied with the implemented functionalities. The flexibility given by the PYTHEIA instrument was very important for the subjective assessment of the different functionalities of the solution. All examined axes were found excellent in terms of their adaptability in daily life activities.

CONCLUSIONS:

Real-world applications, able to run in an open and uncontrolled environment are critical for this population. PYTHEIA is a valuable instrument that supports the assessment of the device and application as a whole, as well as the evaluation of individual features and functions.

Keywords

mHealth mobile health wearable mobile application smartphone autism ASD developmental disability ICT information and communication technologies assisted living assistive technology subjective assessment assessment evaluation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

NIMH. Autism Spectrum Disorder [Internet]. Nimh.nih.gov. 2021 [cited 19 January 2021]. Available from: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml.

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Association; 2013.

Baio

Wiggins

Christensen

Maenner

Daniels

Warren

, et al. Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years – autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 sites, United States, 2014. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Surveill Summ. 2018; 67(6): 1–23.

Loomes

Hull

Mandy

WPL

. What is the male-to-female ratio in autism spectrum disorder? A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017; 56(6): 466–74.

Autism spectrum disorder [Internet]. Nih.gov. [cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml.

Mental health [Internet]. Org.uk. [cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: https://www.autism.org.uk/about/health/mental-health.aspx.

Gotham

Unruh

Lord

. Depression and its measurement in verbal adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder. Autism. 2015; 19(4): 491–504.

Mayes

Calhoun

Murray

Zahid

. Variables associated with anxiety and depression in children with autism. J Dev Phys Disabil. 2011; 23(4): 325–37.

Tager-Flusberg

Paul

Lord

. Language and Communication in Autism. In: Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013. pp. 335–64.

10.

Stone

Ousley

Yoder

Hogan

Hepburn

. Nonverbal communication in two- and three-year-old children with autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 1997; 27(6): 677–96.

11.

Strategies and interventions [Internet]. Researchautism.net. [cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: http://www.researchautism.net/autism-interventions/types/alternative-and-augmentative-communication.

12.

Bondy

Frost

. The picture exchange communication system training manual. Semin Speech Lang. 1998; 19(4): 373–88; quiz 389; 424.

13.

Low-tech & high-tech AAC [Internet]. Net.au. [cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: https://liberator.net.au/support/education/aac/low-tech-vs-high-tech.

14.

Ahmed

Hassan

Rashid

. Solar powered smart wearable health monitoring and tracking device based on GPS and GSM technology for children with autism. In: 2017 4th International Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICAEE). IEEE; 2017.

15.

Goel

Kumar

. Design and implementation of Android based wearable smart locator band for people with autism, dementia, and Alzheimer. Adv Electron. 2015; 2015: 1–8.

16.

Helmy

. The alzimio app for dementia, autism & Alzheimer’s: Using novel activity recognition algorithms and geofencing. In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP). IEEE; 2016.

17.

Vukovic

Car

Fertalj

Penezic

Miklausic

Ivsac

, et al. Location-based smartwatch application for people with complex communication needs. In: 2016 International Multidisciplinary Conference on Computer and Energy Science (SpliTech). IEEE; 2016.

18.

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform [Internet]. Sustainabledevelopment.un.org. [cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld.

19.

Assistive Technology Act of 2004. Public Law 108-364. Oct 25, 2004.

20.

Assistive Technology for Children with Disabilities: a discussion paper. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2015.

21.

de Sá

. Improving user satisfaction in VO through systems usability. In: Encyclopedia of Networked and Virtual Organizations. IGI Global; 2010. pp. 694–9.

22.

Suskie

. What are good assessment practices? In: Assessing student learning: a common sense guide. 1st ed. Bolton, Massachusetts: Anker Pub. Co.; 2004.

23.

Koumpouros

Papageorgiou

Karavasili

Koureta

. PYTHEIA: A Scale for Assessing Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics, International Journal of Medical, Health, Biomedical, Bioengineering and Pharmaceutical Engineering. 2016; 10(11): 522–526.

24.

Koumpouros

Papageorgiou

Karavasili

. Development of a new psychometric scale (PYTHEIA) to assess the satisfaction of users with any assistive technology. In: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2017. pp. 343–53.

25.

Koumpouros

Kafazis

. Wearables and mobile technologies in Autism Spectrum Disorder interventions: a systematic literature review. Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2019; 66: 101405.

26.

Koumpouros

Georgoulas

. The rise of mHealth research in Europe: A macroscopic analysis of EC-funded projects of the last decade. In: Mobile Health Applications for Quality Healthcare Delivery. IGI Global; 2019. pp. 1–29.

27.

Koumpouros

Georgoulas

. mHealth R&D Activities in Europe. In: M-Health Innovations for Patient-Centered Care. IGI Global; 2016. pp. 20–51.

28.

Fletcher-Watson

Pain

Hammond

Humphry

McConachie

. Designing for young children with autism spectrum disorder: a case study of an iPad app. Int J Child Comput Interact. 2016; 7: 1–14.

29.

Kamaruzaman

Rani

Nor

Azahari

MHH

. Developing user interface design application for children with autism. Procedia Soc Behav Sci. 2016; 217: 887–94.

30.

Lubas

Mitchell

De Leo

. User-centered design and augmentative and alternative communication apps for children with autism spectrum disorders. SAGE Open. 2014; 4(2): 215824401453750.

31.

Quezada

Juárez-Ramírez

Jiménez

Noriega

Inzunza

Garza

. Usability operations on touch mobile devices for users with autism. J Med Syst. 2017; 41(11): 184.

32.

Stephenson

Limbrick

. A review of the use of touch-screen mobile devices by people with developmental disabilities. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015; 45(12): 3777–91.

33.

Duncan

Tan

. A visual task manager application for individuals with autism. J. Comput. Sci. Coll. 2012; 27(6): 49–57.

34.

Zamfir

Tedesco

Reichow

. Handheld “app” offering visual support to students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 2012. pp. 105–12.

35.

Abdullah

MHL

Brereton

. MyCalendar: Fostering communication for children with autism spectrum disorder through photos and videos. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction. New York, NY, USA: ACM; 2015.