Multimodal Data Analysis of Dyadic Interactions for an Automated Feedback System Supporting Parent Implementation of Pivotal Response Treatment

abstract: Parents fulfill a pivotal role in early childhood development of social and communication skills. In children with autism, the development of these skills can be delayed. Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) techniques have been created to aid in skill acquisition. Among these, pivotal response treatment (PRT) has been empirically shown to foster improvements. Research into PRT implementation has also shown that parents can be trained to be effective interventionists for their children. The current difficulty in PRT training is how to disseminate training to parents who need it, and how to support and motivate practitioners after training. Evaluation of the parents’ fidelity to implementation is often undertaken using video probes that depict the dyadic interaction occurring between the parent and the child during PRT sessions. These videos are time consuming for clinicians to process, and often result in only minimal feedback for the parents. Current trends in technology could be utilized to alleviate the manual cost of extracting data from the videos, affording greater opportunities for providing clinician created feedback as well as automated assessments. The naturalistic context of the video probes along with the dependence on ubiquitous recording devices creates a difficult scenario for classification tasks. The domain of the PRT video probes can be expected to have high levels of both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. Addressing these challenges requires examination of the multimodal data along with implementation and evaluation of classification algorithms. This is explored through the use of a new dataset of PRT videos. The relationship between the parent and the clinician is important. The clinician can provide support and help build self-efficacy in addition to providing knowledge and modeling of treatment procedures. Facilitating this relationship along with automated feedback not only provides the opportunity to present expert feedback to the parent, but also allows the clinician to aid in personalizing the classification models. By utilizing a human-in-the-loop framework, clinicians can aid in addressing the uncertainty in the classification models by providing additional labeled samples. This will allow the system to improve classification and provides a person-centered approach to extracting multimodal data from PRT video probes.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

The effects of applied verbal behaviour approach “AVB” in teaching children with autism

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The idea which has initiated this research came firstly from being a mother of an autistic child and secondly, being an experienced Applied Behaviour Analysis/Applied Verbal Behaviour “ABA/AVB” therapist working with children with autism and related disorders. It has been the researcher ambition for some time to study the effects of implementing an ABA/AVB programme on children with autism, and to report on their performance. The previous and current research has shown the importance of an early intervention in teaching children with autism. However, finding an appropriate intervention for an individual with autism is still debated among parents and professionals. Previous research has highlighted the importance of an ABA programme using the Lovaas model programme in teaching children with autism. No wider research on the AVB model has been conducted. This has led the researcher to investigate this issue further. This research has taken place at “The Autistic Centre” in Beirut. This research is the author’s attempt to study the effects and the impacts of implementing an AVB programme on children with autism. Children’s performance on specific skills will be assessed, evaluated and reported by four parties: 1. The researcher. 2. The independent psychologists. 3. The teachers. 4. The parents. The research used a combination of quantitative and some qualitative methods. The AVB Intervention used for this study was based on multiple baseline design across behaviour, participants and settings. The different use of methods for this research has contributed to the methodology, by using different methods to collect data and involving many parties who can evaluate the children’s performance and report their progress from their own perspectives. The present study demonstrated the efficiency of the AVB programme with ten children with autism. Its effects have been clear on the emergence of speech, collateral gains in social communicative behaviours and decrease of problems behaviours and the decrease of parental level stress. This research also proposed several key suggestions based on the literature review and the research undertaken. It has also contributed to knowledge of the current research regarding the implementation of an AVB Programme as an educational provision and its effects on the child and the parents

A.W.A.R.E. the assessment of autism spectrum disorders: a resource manual for parents with young children (ages 0-3 years)

Autism spectrum disorder is the most common pervasive developmental disorder affecting young children. It results in significant impairments in the acquisition of language, social, and adaptive behaviors. In recent years, participation in intensive early intervention has resulted in significant improvements in communication skills and a more positive prognosis. While the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, such as impaired social reciprocal interactions, can be identified in the first months of a child\u27s life, parents often encounter difficulty in obtaining appropriate diagnostic assessments. Delays in the assessment process result in a later involvement in critical early intervention and a poorer outcome. To date there is a lack of information educating parents on the need for and the nature of the assessment process. This dissertation sought to develop a resource manual to help parents understand and recognize early warning signs of autism spectrum disorder, increase their awareness about the assessment process, and the importance and impact of early identification and early intervention. A review of the research and literature were conducted and graphs, tables, and checklists were developed to create a parent-friendly resource manual. A survey was emailed to 25 experts in the field of autism and their feedback was incorporated into the manual. The goal of the manual was to empower parents to become effective advocates for their child and to follow through on having their child assessed in order to access early intervention. A potential plan for future evaluation, revision, and dissemination of the resource manual was also discussed

Child's play: activity recognition for monitoring children's developmental progress with augmented toys

The way in which infants play with objects can be indicative of their developmental progress and may serve as an early indicator for developmental delays. However, the observation of children interacting with toys for the purpose of quantitative analysis can be a difficult task. To better quantify how play may serve as an early indicator, researchers have conducted retrospective studies examining the differences in object play behaviors among infants. However, such studies require that researchers repeatedly inspect videos of play often at speeds much slower than real-time to indicate points of interest. The research presented in this dissertation examines whether a combination of sensors embedded within toys and automatic pattern recognition of object play behaviors can help expedite this process. For my dissertation, I developed the Child'sPlay system which uses augmented toys and statistical models to automatically provide quantitative measures of object play interactions, as well as, provide the PlayView interface to view annotated play data for later analysis. In this dissertation, I examine the hypothesis that sensors embedded in objects can provide sufficient data for automatic recognition of certain exploratory, relational, and functional object play behaviors in semi-naturalistic environments and that a continuum of recognition accuracy exists which allows automatic indexing to be useful for retrospective review. I designed several augmented toys and used them to collect object play data from more than fifty play sessions. I conducted pattern recognition experiments over this data to produce statistical models that automatically classify children's object play behaviors. In addition, I conducted a user study with twenty participants to determine if annotations automatically generated from these models help improve performance in retrospective review tasks. My results indicate that these statistical models increase user performance and decrease perceived effort when combined with the PlayView interface during retrospective review. The presence of high quality annotations are preferred by users and promotes an increase in the effective retrieval rates of object play behaviors.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Starner, Thad E.; Committee Co-Chair: Abowd, Gregory D.; Committee Member: Arriaga, Rosa; Committee Member: Jackson, Melody Moore; Committee Member: Lukowicz, Paul; Committee Member: Rehg, James M

Behavior Monitoring Using Visual Data and Immersive Environments

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.August 2017. Major: Computer Science. Advisor: Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 99 pages.Mental health disorders are the leading cause of disability in the United States and Canada, accounting for 25 percent of all years of life lost to disability and premature mortality (Disability Adjusted Life Years or DALYs). Furthermore, in the United States alone, spending for mental disorder related care amounted to approximately $201 billion in 2013. Given these costs, significant effort has been spent on researching ways to mitigate the detrimental effects of mental illness. Commonly, observational studies are employed in research on mental disorders. However, observers must watch activities, either live or recorded, and then code the behavior. This process is often long and requires significant effort. Automating these kinds of labor intensive processes can allow these studies to be performed more effectively. This thesis presents efforts to use computer vision and modern interactive technologies to aid in the study of mental disorders. Motor stereotypies are a class of behavior known to co-occur in some patients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Results are presented for activity classification in these behaviors. Behaviors in the context of environment, setup and task were also explored in relation to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Cleaning compulsions are a known symptom of some persons with OCD. Techniques were created to automate coding of handwashing behavior as part of an OCD study to understand the difference between subjects of different diagnosis. Instrumenting the experiment and coding the videos was a limiting factor in this study. Varied and repeatable environments can be enabled through the use of virtual reality. An end-to-end platform was created to investigate this approach. This system allows the creation of immersive environments that are capable of eliciting symptoms. By controlling the stimulus presented and observing the reaction in a simulated system, new ways of assessment are developed. Evaluation was performed to measure the ability to monitor subject behavior and a protocol was established for the system's future use

Best Practices for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Resource Guide for Community Partners

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present a unique challenge, and learning opportunity for professionals. The purpose of this study was to create a comprehensive and accessible handbook to empower those who work with children and youth with ASD in a community setting. The best practices and effective intervention programs for students with ASD were researched and evaluated. Four individuals from various community agencies voluntarily participated in a Needs Assessment Questionnaire and, based on their information, a Handbook on Best Practices for Children with ASD, including a resource section was created. The theoretical framework examined for this project was based on social-cognitive theory, specifically Bandura's (1986) theory of triadic reciprocity and reciprocal determinism. This theory places emphasis on the fact that behaviour must be evaluated in the course of normal development, and that what may be appropriate for an individual at one age or point in time, may not be at another. Once the handbook was complete, an Evaluative Questionnaire was circulated to determine its effectiveness and overall benefits in practice for community partners in the field. The results of this questionnaire contributed to a final copy of the handbook. Implications for future research were considered and the limitations of this study were examined