Automatic recognition of therapy progress among children with autism

The article presents a research study on recognizing therapy progress among children with autism spectrum disorder. The progress is recognized on the basis of behavioural data gathered via five specially designed tablet games. Over 180 distinct parameters are calculated on the basis of raw data delivered via the game flow and tablet sensors - i.e. touch screen, accelerometer and gyroscope. The results obtained confirm the possibility of recognizing progress in particular areas of development. The recognition accuracy exceeds 80%. Moreover, the study identifies a subset of parameters which appear to be better predictors of therapy progress than others. The proposed method - consisting of data recording, parameter calculation formulas and prediction models - might be implemented in a tool to support both therapists and parents of autistic children. Such a tool might be used to monitor the course of the therapy, modify it and report its results.