Social engagement with parents in 11-month-old siblings at high and low genetic risk for autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a widespread neurodevelopmental condition with a range of potential causes and symptoms. Children with ASD exhibit behavioral and social impairments, giving rise to the possibility of utilizing computational techniques to evaluate a child's social phenotype from home videos. Here, we use a mobile health application to collect over 11 hours of video footage depicting 95 children engaged in gameplay in a natural home environment. We utilize automated dataset annotations to analyze two social indicators that have previously been shown to differ between children with ASD and their neurotypical (NT) peers: (1) gaze fixation patterns and (2) visual scanning methods. We compare the gaze fixation and visual scanning methods utilized by children during a 90-second gameplay video in order to identify statistically-significant differences between the two cohorts; we then train an LSTM neural network in order to determine if gaze indicators could be predictive of ASD. Our work identifies one statistically significant region of fixation and one significant gaze transition pattern that differ between our two cohorts during gameplay. In addition, our deep learning model demonstrates mild predictive power in identifying ASD based on coarse annotations of gaze fixations. Ultimately, our results demonstrate the utility of game-based mobile health platforms in quantifying visual patterns and providing insights into ASD. We also show the importance of automated labeling techniques in generating large-scale datasets while simultaneously preserving the privacy of participants. Our approaches can generalize to other healthcare needs.

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Toward an Automated Measure of Social Engagement for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Personalized Computational Modeling Approach

Frontiers in Robotics and AI ◽

10.3389/frobt.2020.00043 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Hifza Javed ◽

WonHyong Lee ◽

Chung Hyuk Park

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Computational Modeling ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Modeling Approach

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Social engagement of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in imitating a humanoid robot: a case study

SN Applied Sciences ◽

10.1007/s42452-020-2802-4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (6) ◽

Author(s):

Azra Aryania ◽

Hadi S. Aghdasi ◽

Eleonora Aida Beccaluva ◽

Andrea Bonarini

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Humanoid Robot ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder

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Needs for a Healthy Eating Intervention for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Study

Current Developments in Nutrition ◽

10.1093/cdn/nzaa043_015 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽

pp. 164-164

Author(s):

Acadia Buro ◽

Heewon Gray

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Healthy Eating ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Nutrition Intervention ◽

Funding Sources ◽

Balanced Diet ◽

Adolescents With Autism ◽

Adolescents With Asd

Abstract Objectives This study aimed to better understand perceptions of healthy eating and a prospective nutrition intervention in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and parents of adolescents with ASD. Methods Four focus groups (n = 11) were conducted with adolescents with ASD aged 10–17, and nine interviews were conducted with parents of adolescents with ASD aged 10–17. Questions were semi-structured. Thematic and comparative analyses were conducted with ATLAS.ti 8 software. Results Several themes emerged. Adolescents and parents expressed a need for “nutrition guidelines and education” and discussed the importance of having “social engagement,” “visual components,” and “teen-led initiatives” in a nutrition intervention. When defining a healthy diet, both parents and adolescents mentioned the concept of a “balanced diet,” while parents also mentioned “clean foods.” Conclusions Adolescents with ASD represent an appropriate target audience for a healthy eating intervention, and an intervention should include visual and social components and teen-led initiatives. Funding Sources There was no funding source.

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C - 18An Informal Intervention to Promote Social Engagement Using Communication Technologies with an Adult with Level 3 Autism Spectrum Disorder

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology ◽

10.1093/arclin/acy061.171 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 33 (6) ◽

pp. 703-794

Author(s):

K Keller ◽

J O’Grady ◽

B Gordon ◽

K Davis

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Communication Technologies ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Level 3

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Identification of common genetic risk variants for autism spectrum disorder

Nature Genetics ◽

10.1038/s41588-019-0344-8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 431-444 ◽

Cited By ~ 383

Author(s):

Jakob Grove ◽

◽

Stephan Ripke ◽

Thomas D. Als ◽

Manuel Mattheisen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Genetic Risk ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Risk Variants ◽

Genetic Risk Variants

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Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Study Examining Effects on ASD Symptoms, Social Engagement, Pretend Play, and Disruptive Behavior

Handbook of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Children on the Autism Spectrum ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-03213-5_39 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 677-696 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Corey C. Lieneman ◽

Mary M. Ruckle ◽

Cheryl B. McNeil

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Disruptive Behavior ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Pretend Play ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Parent Child Interaction Therapy ◽

Child Interaction ◽

Parent Child Interaction

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Social performance–based interventions promote gains in social knowledge in the absence of explicit training for youth with autism spectrum disorder

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic ◽

10.1521/bumc.2019.83.3.301 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 83 (3) ◽

pp. 301-325 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Bianca M. Marro ◽

Erin Kang ◽

Kathryn M. Hauschild ◽

Karys M. Normansell ◽

Tamara M. Abu-Ramadan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Social Performance ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Social Knowledge ◽

Community Based ◽

Social Skills Interventions ◽

Explicit Training

Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience deficits in social knowledge. It has long been theorized that these youth must learn these skills explicitly, and social skills interventions (SSIs) have followed suit. Recently, performance-based SSIs have emerged, which promote in vivo opportunities for social engagement without explicit instruction. Effects of performance-based SSIs on social knowledge have not been examined. This study employs two discrete samples (one lab-based, one community-based) of youth with ASD to examine the effects of performance-based interventions on social knowledge. Results largely support the efficacy and effectiveness of improving social knowledge by performance-based interventions without explicit teaching. This indicates that youth with ASD may be able to learn these aspects of social cognition implicitly, rather than exclusively explicitly. The results of the current study also suggest that SSI content, dosage, and intensity may relate to these outcomes, which are important considerations in clinical practice and future studies.

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