GOLIAH (Gaming Open Library for Intervention in Autism at Home): a 6-month single blind matched controlled exploratory study

BackgroundTo meet the required hours of intensive intervention for treating children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we developed an automated serious gaming platform (11 games) to deliver intervention at home (GOLIAH) by mapping the imitation and joint attention (JA) subset of age-adapted stimuli from the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) intervention. Here, we report the results of a 6-month matched controlled exploratory study.MethodsFrom two specialized clinics, we included 14 children (age range 5–8 years) with ASD and 10 controls matched for gender, age, sites, and treatment as usual (TAU). Participants from the experimental group received in addition to TAU four 30-min sessions with GOLIAH per week at home and one at hospital for 6 months. Statistics were performed using Linear Mixed Models.ResultsChildren and parents participated in 40% of the planned sessions. They were able to use the 11 games, and participants trained with GOLIAH improved time to perform the task in most JA games and imitation scores in most imitation games. GOLIAH intervention did not affect Parental Stress Index scores. At end-point, we found in both groups a significant improvement for Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores, Vineland socialization score, Parental Stress Index total score, and Child Behavior Checklist internalizing, externalizing and total problems. However, we found no significant change for by time × group interaction.ConclusionsDespite the lack of superiority of TAU + GOLIAH versus TAU, the results are interesting both in terms of changes by using the gaming platform and lack of parental stress increase. A large randomized controlled trial with younger participants (who are the core target of ESDM model) is now discussed. This should be facilitated by computing GOLIAH for a web platform.Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT0256041

Learning of Social Signatures Through Imitation Game Between a Robot and a Human Partner

International audienc

INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR AUTISTIC CHILDREN: A REVIEW

Recently, there have been considerable advances in the research on innovative information communication technology (ICT) for the education of people with autism. This review focuses on two aims: (1) to provide an overview of the recent ICT applications used in the treatment of autism and (2) to focus on the early development of imitation and joint attention in the context of children with autism as well as robotics. There have been a variety of recent ICT applications in autism, which include the use of interactive environments implemented in computers and special input devices, virtual environments, avatars and serious games as well as telerehabilitation. Despite exciting preliminary results, the use of ICT remains limited. Many of the existing ICTs have limited capabilities and performance in actual interactive conditions. Clinically, most ICT proposals have not been validated beyond proof of concept studies. Robotics systems, developed as interactive devices for children with autism, have been used to assess the child’s response to robot behaviors; to elicit behaviors that are promoted in the child; to model, teach and practice a skill; and to provide feedback on performance in specific environments (e.g., therapeutic sessions). Based on their importance for both early development and for building autonomous robots that have humanlike abilities, imitation, joint attention and interactive engagement are key issues in the development of assistive robotics for autism and must be the focus of further research

Clinical outcomes of interactive, intensive and individual (3i) play therapy for children with ASD: a two-year follow-up study

Abstract Background The outcomes of psycho-educational interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) comorbid with severe to moderate intellectual disability (ID) are insufficiently documented. In this prospective study, we examined a developmental individual, interactive and intensive approach, called the ‘3i method’, which is based on play therapy. Methods Twenty DSM-IV-TR ASD subjects (mean chronological age 63.8 ± 37.8 months; mean developmental age 19.5 ± 6.6 months) were included and followed the 3i method for 24 months. Developmental and behavioural skills were assessed at baseline and after 24 months using the VABS, PEP-R and Nadel Imitation scale. Autism severity was evaluated using the Child Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R). Results After 2 years of the 3i method, our 3 primary outcome variables significantly increased (VABS developmental age of socialization increased by 83%, age of communication by 34%, and Nadel Imitation score by 53%). Almost all VABS and PEP-R domains significantly improved. Additionally, increases in the VABS socialization score were positively correlated with the total number of treatment hours and CARS score; all ADI-R areas significantly decreased; and diagnoses had changed in 47.5% of the subjects (37% for PDD-NOS and even 10.5% for ID without PDD). Conclusion Children who followed the 3i method for 2 years had significantly improved behavioural and developmental skills and showed a clear decrease in autism severity. These results suggest that the 3i method may be useful for autistic children by improving their daily interactions with their social environment. Trial registration was retrospectively registered on May 20th, 2014 by the French Agency for drug and health (ANSM) under number ID-RCB 2014-A00542–45, reference: B148558–31

How children with autism spectrum disorder behave and explore the 4-dimensional (spatial 3D + time) environment during a joint attention induction task with a robot

We aimed to compare, during a joint attention (JA) elicitation task, how children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) behave and explore their 4dimensional (meaning spatial3D + time) when interacting with a human or with a robotic agent. We built a system that employed a Nao robot and a perception system based on a RGB- D sensor (Kinect) to capture social engagement cues. A JA induction experiment was performed in which children with ASD (N = 16) and matched TD children (N = 16) had a3- min interaction with the robotor with a therapist. Nao induced JA by gazing; by gazing and pointing; and by gazing, pointing and vocalizing at pictures. Both groups of children performed well with the therapist. However, with Nao, both groups had lower JA scores, and the children with ASD had a significantly lower score than the TD children. We found that (i) multimodal JA induction was more efficient in both groups; (ii) the 3D spatial world gaze exploration showed less accuracy; and (iii) the trunk position in ASD showed less stability in the 4dimensions compared to TD controls. We conclude that, in ASD, JA skill depends on the interaction partner, and implies a higher motor and cognitive cost

Additional file 2: of Clinical outcomes of interactive, intensive and individual (3i) play therapy for children with ASD: a two-year follow-up study

Table S1. Individual results of the ADI-R, CARS, VABS, PEP-R and IMITATION (Nadel) tests for all participant of the study. Table S2. Mean ratio of the results between T2 an T0 of the different scores of this study of the 17 children followed at home and the 3 subjects followed in center. Table S3. Mean ratio of the results between T2 an T0 of the different scores of this study of the 16 children under 6 years old and the 4 subjects aged more than 7 years old. (DOCX 45 kb