scholarly journals Augmented reality emotion recognition for autism spectrum disorder children

F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1217
Author(s):  
Han Foon Neo ◽  
Chuan Chin Teo ◽  
Quan Fong Yeo
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Children With Asd

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder that affects brain development. The prevalence of ASD is one in 68 children. Low social motivation is the main cause in developing social communication skills deficiency. As a result, it is becoming difficult for them to express themselves, to be able to manage social interactions, and they lack the ability to comfort others and even share their own feelings. This study aimed to design a mobile application based on augmented reality (AR) focusing on social interactions and communication aspect for children with ASD. The scope is in emotion recognition, which makes use of emotional icons to help them improve their social skills, more specifically on helping them to recognize various emotions. The emotions are represented by emojis inspired by Dr. Paul Ekman who has created the basic six emotions, namely happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and angry. Additional emotions such as confound face, winking with tongue, cold sweat, blowing kiss, flushed, sleepy, disappointed, and winking are included. AR is able to gage the children’s attention when they view the animated emojis. The application enables the children with ASD to be more willing in recognizing different emotional expressions and improve their social skills by expressing their own feelings. The scope of the study is limited to emotion recognition. It is developed based on literature reviews without guidance of any certified ASD specialist. AR is an interactive technology that places digital information in our physical world in real time, providing precise registration in all three dimensions. Existing literature proved that the traditional face-to-face teaching methods have failed to increase the interest and ability of ASD children because the teacher has full control in the classroom. This study adds value to the existing works to incorporate AR as additional intervention in treating ASD children.

CheerBrush: A Novel Interactive Augmented Reality Coaching System for Toothbrushing Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Z. Kevin Zheng ◽  
Nandan Sarkar ◽  
Amy Swanson ◽  
Amy Weitlauf ◽  
Zachary Warren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
The United States ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Fine Motor Skill ◽  
Intelligent Support ◽  
Children With Asd

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts one in every 54 children in the United States. Some children with ASD have learning and fine motor skill challenges that contribute to difficulties completing daily living tasks such as toothbrushing. Lack of toothbrushing skills may cause increased need for dental care and negative social feedback from peers. Technology based intelligent support systems offer the advantages of being accessible, engaging, and cost-effective. In this work, we present a novel interactive augmented reality coaching system, CheerBrush, to improve the toothbrushing skills of children with ASD. CheerBrush allows children to manipulate virtual objects like a toothbrush and toothpaste with their actual hand motions to practice the steps of toothbrushing. The virtual tasks of CheerBrush demonstrate these steps using audio and visual cues, while also showing the brushing process through a virtual avatar. CheerBrush also assesses toothbrushing skills with a custom designed mechatronic toothbrush to evaluate the system's coaching effectiveness. A feasibility study with 12 children (six children with ASD and six typically developing children) was conducted to evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of CheerBrush. The data showed improvements in the toothbrushing motions and reduced stress for the children in the post-test. CheerBrush detects real-time movement of children and interacts with them by augmented reality, feedback and multimodal hints. We believe that CheerBrush has the potential to provide a low-cost, engaging and, beneficial intelligent support system to improve the toothbrushing skills of children with ASD.

Parents’ Perceptions on Social Skills Functioning of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Preliminary Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-37
Author(s):  
Joanna Hie Ping Ting ◽  
Kee Jiar Yeo
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Social Reciprocity ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Social Skills Deficits

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined as a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects social communication, social interaction and sensory sensitivities. Social skills are one of the common deficits displayed by children with ASD. However, the level of impairment exerted by children with ASD relies on the disorder severity. Social skills are critical to successful social-emotional, communication and cognitive development. Specific social skills deficits include difficulties in initiating interactions, maintaining social reciprocity, sharing attention, taking another person’s perspective, and inferring the interests of others. In this study, social skills consist of social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation and autism mannerism. This study aimed to uncover the conceptualization of social skills from the parents’ perspective, thus providing an indication of education on the topic of ASD.

scholarly journals Perceptions of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Etiology among Parents of Children with ASD

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 6774
Author(s):  
Wei-Ju Chen ◽  
Zihan Zhang ◽  
Haocen Wang ◽  
Tung-Sung Tseng ◽  
Ping Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Parental Perceptions ◽  
Repetitive Behaviors ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Religious Factors

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication deficits and restricted or repetitive behaviors. Parental perceptions of the etiology of their child’s ASD can affect provider–client relationships, bonding between parents and their children, and the prognosis, treatment, and management of children with ASD. Thus, this study sought to examine the perceptions of ASD etiology of parents of children with ASD. Methods: Forty-two parents of children diagnosed with ASD were recruited across Texas. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually. All interviews were recorded and later transcribed verbatim for content analysis utilizing NVivo 12.0 (QSR International, Doncaster, Australia). Results: The content analysis identified the following themes regarding parental perceptions of ASD etiology: Genetic factors (40.5%), environmental factors (31.0%), problems that occurred during pregnancy or delivery (23.8%), vaccinations (16.7%), other health problems (7.1%), parental age at the time of pregnancy (4.8%), and spiritual or religious factors (2.4%). Conclusions: The parental perceptions of ASD etiology were diverse, but several views, such as vaccinations and spiritual or religious factors, were not based on scientific evidence. Health professionals and researchers can use these findings to develop and provide targeted education to parents who have children with ASD. Our findings also support policymakers in developing campaigns designed to increase parental ASD awareness and knowledge.

scholarly journals Fostering Emotion Recognition in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Vinícius Silva ◽  
Filomena Soares ◽  
João Sena Esteves ◽  
Cristina P. Santos ◽  
Ana Paula Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Robotic Platform ◽  
Children With Asd

Facial expressions are of utmost importance in social interactions, allowing communicative prompts for a speaking turn and feedback. Nevertheless, not all have the ability to express themselves socially and emotionally in verbal and non-verbal communication. In particular, individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are characterized by impairments in social communication, repetitive patterns of behaviour, and restricted activities or interests. In the literature, the use of robotic tools is reported to promote social interaction with children with ASD. The main goal of this work is to develop a system capable of automatic detecting emotions through facial expressions and interfacing them with a robotic platform (Zeno R50 Robokind® robotic platform, named ZECA) in order to allow social interaction with children with ASD. ZECA was used as a mediator in social communication activities. The experimental setup and methodology for a real-time facial expression (happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and neutral) recognition system was based on the Intel® RealSense™ 3D sensor and on facial features extraction and multiclass Support Vector Machine classifier. The results obtained allowed to infer that the proposed system is adequate in support sessions with children with ASD, giving a strong indication that it may be used in fostering emotion recognition and imitation skills.

scholarly journals A Review of the Efficacy of the Dietary Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (F) ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
Zainab Taha ◽  
Khalid A. Abdalhai
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Dietary Intervention ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Food Additives ◽  
Gastrointestinal Symptoms ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Omega 3 ◽  
Dietary Interventions ◽  
Children With Asd

BACKGROUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an early-onset neurodevelopmental disorder with 1 in 68 children prevalence. The key symptoms of ASD include social deficits, verbal and non-verbal communication deficits, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. For unknown reasons, gastrointestinal symptoms are related to ASD. The aim of the current paper is to review the available literature on dietary interventions in children with ASD and provide up-to-date evidence. METHODS: Searches in online databases, using the search terms’ dietary intervention, “autism spectrum disorders,” and “autism” were conducted. The search targeted publications ranging from 2010 to 2020. RESULTS: Twenty-six studies with different study designs which evaluated the effectiveness of specific dietary interventions in children with ASD were included in our review. Several dietary interventions were of popular practice in the management of children with ASD, including elimination (gluten-/casein-free diet and oligoantigenic diet), modification (modified ketogenic diet), supplementation (minerals, vitamins, omega 3, and omega 6), and exclusion (food additives). Studies showed different results with varying degrees of evidence. Overall, data were inadequate to make accurate conclusions. CONCLUSION: There is little evidence to support the use of dietary interventions for children with ASD. Additional high-quality studies and further research are, therefore, needed.

A Viable Option?

2014 ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
Julie E. N. Irish
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Viable Option ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Single User

This chapter considers whether a computer-aided technology, single-user virtual environments, can provide a viable option to teach social skills to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Viability is discussed in terms of key themes found in the literature: evidence-basis, generalizability, cost effectiveness, appropriateness for children with ASD, user experience, teacher’s contribution, and usefulness for caregivers. A matrix is developed to provide a viability rating for each theme. The chapter concludes that evidence-basis and generalizability for single-user virtual environments as an intervention to teach social skills to children with autism spectrum disorder is weak but that cost effectiveness, appropriateness to teenage children with ASD, positive experience of the user, and potential usefulness for caregivers is strong, whilst the teacher’s contribution is a mixed rating between ease of use for the teacher and the high one-on-one time commitment required.

scholarly journals Computer- and Robot-Assisted Therapies to Aid Social and Intellectual Functioning of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Medicina ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan DiPietro ◽  
Arpad Kelemen ◽  
Yulan Liang ◽  
Cecilia Sik-Lanyi
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Robot Assisted ◽  
The Past ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
The Social

Background and objectives: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with social interactions, a core feature of the disorder. Social skills therapy has been shown to be helpful. Over the past several years, computer-assisted and robot-assisted therapies have been infiltrating the social skills teaching environment. Rapid progress in the field of technology, especially in the robotics area, offers tremendous possibilities for innovation and treatment or even education for individuals with ASD. This paper’s purpose is to drive awareness of these innovative interventions in order to support the social lives of children with ASD. The aims of the paper are identifying (1) the types of Information Technology platforms that are being evaluated in computer and robot-assisted therapies for children with ASD; (2) the various disciplines or professions studying and utilizing these computer and robot-assisted social skill therapies; (3) the outcomes being evaluated in each trial; and (4) if results demonstrate benefits to children with autism. Materials and Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Science Direct, and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials published over the past five years. Search terms incorporated the subject intersection of autism, and computer or robot-assisted therapy. Results were mined for pediatric populations only and study designs establishing controlled comparisons. Results: Eighteen unique international studies were identified that utilize robot interventions (11 studies) and serious computer game interventions (seven studies). Most demonstrated promising results in improving outcomes for children with ASD. Study implications reveal a rapidly evolving assistive technology for ASD social skills therapy. Conclusions: These interventions show considerable promise, but more effectiveness and cost effectiveness research of high quality should be carried out with larger numbers of children. Also, further studies are necessary to evaluate these technologies’ effectiveness amongst adults with ASD and within unique subsets of the higher functioning autism population.

Social Skills Instruments for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca West ◽  
Michael J Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Abstract Identifying and critically analyzing the most frequently used social skills psychometric instruments (SSPI) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can inform future music therapy research and clinical practice. Therefore, the initial purpose of this critical interpretive synthesis was to identify the SSPI most frequently used as dependent measures in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (JADD) for children with ASD from 2012 to 2018. Results indicated that the Social Responsiveness Scale (n = 35), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (n = 19), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (n = 15) were the most frequently used instruments. Congruent with critical interpretive synthesis methodology, we then identified the psychometric properties and advantages and disadvantages of the 9 most commonly used instruments. To compare these results with the existing music therapy literature, we also identified nonmusical SSPI used as dependent measures in music therapy research for children with ASD in studies published between 2012 and 2018. In comparing the data sets, music therapy researchers used 5 of the 9 SSPI we identified from our JADD review. Understanding frequently used SSPI has applications for consultation and communication with other professionals as well as how future music therapy research is conducted. Implications for clinical practice, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are provided.

scholarly journals Technology-Assisted Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder using Augmented Reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2156-2162
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
The Social ◽  
Behavior Skills ◽  
And Behavior

Technology-assisted intervention has potentials in improving the social, communication and behavior impairments in of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Augmented reality (AR) offers multitude of possibilities and opportunities for the intervention of children with ASD. Therefore, this study identifies 13 researches from 2012 to 2018 that documented the efficacy of augmented reality applications in supporting the intervention of children with ASD. This study reviews the applications of augmented reality that nhanced the intervention for children with autism in (i) social skills, (ii) communication skills, and (iii) behavior skills. The conclusion reports the significant roles of augmented reality as technology-assisted intervention for children with ASD.

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