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GOLIAH: A gaming platform for home based intervention in Autism - principles and design

GOLIAH: A gaming platform for home based intervention in Autism - principles and design
GOLIAH: A gaming platform for home based intervention in Autism - principles and design
Children with Autism need intensive intervention and this is challenging in terms of manpower, costs, and time. Advances in Information Communication Technology and computer gaming may help in this respect by creating a nomadically deployable closed-loop intervention system involving the child and active participation of parents and therapists. An automated serious gaming platform enabling intensive intervention in nomadic settings has been developed by mapping two pivotal skills in autism spectrum disorder: Imitation and Joint Attention (JA). Eleven games – seven Imitations and four JA – were derived from the Early Start Denver Model. The games involved application of visual and audio stimuli with multiple difficulty levels and a wide variety of tasks and actions pertaining to the Imitation and JA. The platform runs on mobile devices and allows the therapist to (1) characterize the child’s initial difficulties/strengths, ensuring tailored and adapted intervention by choosing appropriate games and (2) investigate and track the temporal evolution of the child’s progress through a set of automatically extracted quantitative performance metrics. The platform allows the therapist to change the game or its difficulty levels during the intervention depending on the child’s progress. Performance of the platform was assessed in a 3-month open trial with 10 children with autism (Trial ID: NCT02560415, Clinicaltrials.gov). The children and the parents participated in 80% of the sessions both at home (77.5%) and at the hospital (90%). All children went through all the games but, given the diversity of the games and the heterogeneity of children profiles and abilities, for a given game the number of sessions dedicated to the game varied and could be tailored through automatic scoring. Parents (N = 10) highlighted enhancement in the child’s concentration, flexibility, and self-esteem in 78, 89, and 44% of the cases, respectively, and 56% observed an enhanced parents–child relationship. This pilot study shows the feasibility of using the developed gaming platform for home-based intensive intervention. However, the overall capability of the platform in delivering intervention needs to be assessed in a bigger open trial.
early start denver model, imitation, joint attention, autism spectrum disorder, intensive intervention, nomadic settings, serious game
1664-0640
1-16
Bono, Valentina
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Narzisi, Antonio
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Jouen, Anne-Lise
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Tilmont, Elodie
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Hommel, Stephane
ff8e328b-9b80-47a9-af34-8bd389d6223e
Jamal, Wasifa
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Xavier, Jean
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Maharatna, Koushik
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Wald, Mike
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Chetouani, Mohamed
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Cohen, David
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Muratori, Filippo
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Bono, Valentina
1cb487d9-7af0-421b-8207-a0e785e0c9dd
Narzisi, Antonio
059c6bc1-6057-4ae1-bf38-f5611b5205d9
Jouen, Anne-Lise
9d7f36ab-1609-412b-8e05-f9980ab00cd6
Tilmont, Elodie
8cbdb650-fc0a-49db-bb9c-bfafe91f359f
Hommel, Stephane
ff8e328b-9b80-47a9-af34-8bd389d6223e
Jamal, Wasifa
3f70176e-843e-46b7-8447-4eefaef104f1
Xavier, Jean
8218ea04-c161-4496-a2e7-2072207fd374
Maharatna, Koushik
93bef0a2-e011-4622-8c56-5447da4cd5dd
Wald, Mike
90577cfd-35ae-4e4a-9422-5acffecd89d5
Chetouani, Mohamed
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Cohen, David
ada227d5-129b-4db3-8a0d-0f72aa6b473b
Muratori, Filippo
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Bono, Valentina, Narzisi, Antonio, Jouen, Anne-Lise, Tilmont, Elodie, Hommel, Stephane, Jamal, Wasifa, Xavier, Jean, Maharatna, Koushik, Wald, Mike, Chetouani, Mohamed, Cohen, David and Muratori, Filippo (2016) GOLIAH: A gaming platform for home based intervention in Autism - principles and design. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 7 (70), 1-16. (doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00070). (PMID:27199777)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Children with Autism need intensive intervention and this is challenging in terms of manpower, costs, and time. Advances in Information Communication Technology and computer gaming may help in this respect by creating a nomadically deployable closed-loop intervention system involving the child and active participation of parents and therapists. An automated serious gaming platform enabling intensive intervention in nomadic settings has been developed by mapping two pivotal skills in autism spectrum disorder: Imitation and Joint Attention (JA). Eleven games – seven Imitations and four JA – were derived from the Early Start Denver Model. The games involved application of visual and audio stimuli with multiple difficulty levels and a wide variety of tasks and actions pertaining to the Imitation and JA. The platform runs on mobile devices and allows the therapist to (1) characterize the child’s initial difficulties/strengths, ensuring tailored and adapted intervention by choosing appropriate games and (2) investigate and track the temporal evolution of the child’s progress through a set of automatically extracted quantitative performance metrics. The platform allows the therapist to change the game or its difficulty levels during the intervention depending on the child’s progress. Performance of the platform was assessed in a 3-month open trial with 10 children with autism (Trial ID: NCT02560415, Clinicaltrials.gov). The children and the parents participated in 80% of the sessions both at home (77.5%) and at the hospital (90%). All children went through all the games but, given the diversity of the games and the heterogeneity of children profiles and abilities, for a given game the number of sessions dedicated to the game varied and could be tailored through automatic scoring. Parents (N = 10) highlighted enhancement in the child’s concentration, flexibility, and self-esteem in 78, 89, and 44% of the cases, respectively, and 56% observed an enhanced parents–child relationship. This pilot study shows the feasibility of using the developed gaming platform for home-based intensive intervention. However, the overall capability of the platform in delivering intervention needs to be assessed in a bigger open trial.

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Accepted/In Press date: 7 April 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 April 2016
Published date: 28 April 2016
Keywords: early start denver model, imitation, joint attention, autism spectrum disorder, intensive intervention, nomadic settings, serious game
Organisations: Electronic & Software Systems

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Local EPrints ID: 392844
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/392844
ISSN: 1664-0640
PURE UUID: fdbd091f-c66c-41ca-b59b-0c6f52e77dac

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Date deposited: 17 Apr 2016 10:58
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 23:51

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Contributors

Author: Valentina Bono
Author: Antonio Narzisi
Author: Anne-Lise Jouen
Author: Elodie Tilmont
Author: Stephane Hommel
Author: Wasifa Jamal
Author: Jean Xavier
Author: Koushik Maharatna
Author: Mike Wald
Author: Mohamed Chetouani
Author: David Cohen
Author: Filippo Muratori

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