Tablet-Based Cognitive Exercises as an Early Parent-Administered Intervention Tool for Toddlers with Autism - Evidence from a Field Study

Abstract

Background: There is a broad scientific consensus that early and intensive behavioral intervention has the greatest chance of positive impact on an individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the availability, quality, and general funding for early intervention programs is often lacking, leaving newly diagnosed children without adequate and sufficient therapy during the most critical early period of their development. Parent-administered iPad-assisted therapy has the potential to reduce the gap between the amount of therapy recommended for children with ASD and the amount they receive. However it is unclear at what age children with ASD are capable of being fully engaged in the process, and whether parents can administer such therapy. The objective of this study was to determine whether children as young as two who have been diagnosed with ASD could engage on a daily basis and over an extended period of time with a therapeutic application, and whether their parents would be willing to administer such an application.

Imagination exercises improve language in younger but not in older children with autism suggesting a strong critical period

“…The fidelity, validity and reliability of the MITA was discussed in detail in Refs. (R. Dunn, Elgart, Lokshina, Faisman, Khokhlovich, et al, 2017b, 2017aR. Dunn, Elgart, Lokshina, Faisman, Waslick, et al, 2017;Vyshedskiy & Dunn, 2015a).…”

“…We hypothesized that 1) imagination exercises can improve language ability and 2) there exists a strong critical period for voluntary imagination acquisition, which ends shortly after the age of 5. Accordingly, we designed various developmental activities, all of which follow a systematic approach to train voluntary imagination verbally as well as outside of the verbal domain (R. Dunn, Elgart, Lokshina, Faisman, Khokhlovich, et al, 2017b, 2017aR. Dunn, Elgart, Lokshina, Faisman, Waslick, et al, 2017;Vyshedskiy & Dunn, 2015a).…”

Development of the Mental Synthesis Evaluation Checklist (MSEC): A Parent-Report Tool for Mental Synthesis Ability Assessment in Children with Language Delay

“…This interview guide was used to conduct four parent interviews. The invitation to participate in the interview was mailed to 1,217 registered users of Mental Imagery Therapy for Autism (MITA), an online educational platform designed for children with ASD 3,[30][31][32] , who had used it for longer than two years. The ongoing MITA trial was designed to test a tablet-based therapeutic application administered by parents to…”

Comparison of Performance on Verbal and Nonverbal Multiple-Cue Responding Tasks in Children with ASD

“…The Matching Animals activity trains the skill of multiple-cue responding outside of the verbal domain [13]. The exercises are organized into 50 difficulty levels.…”

“…With the aim of finding an additional method for helping children acquire responsivity to multiple cues, we developed a tablet-based therapeutic application for children with ASD called Mental Imagery Therapy for Autism (MITA) [12,13]. MITA includes both verbal and nonverbal conditional discrimination activities that train responsivity to multiple cues.…”