RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Performance Of Children With Autism In Parent-Administered Cognitive And Language Exercises
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 146449
DO 10.1101/146449
A1 Rita Dunn
A1 Jonah Elgart
A1 Lisa Lokshina
A1 Alexander Faisman
A1 Edward Khokhlovich
A1 Yuriy Gankin
A1 Andrey Vyshedskiy
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/08/146449.abstract
AB There is a broad scientific consensus that early and intensive therapy 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 how ASD severity and age influence a child’s ability to engage with and learn from computerized cognitive exercises. In this manuscript, we describe data from a tablet-based therapeutic application administered by parents to 1,514 young children with ASD over the course of four to twelve months. We report that older children and children with milder forms of ASD performed better and progressed faster in cognitive and language exercises. However, most children were able to engage with and learn from exercises independent of their age or ASD severity. This data confirm that tablet-based cognitive and language exercises can be successfully administered by parents to children as young as two years of age over the course of many months independent of ASD severity.