SBIR-STTR Award

Specific Aims: University of North Carolina and SymTrend, Inc. aim to improve the social and executive functioning of Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autistic persons (AS/HFA) through an intervention program that features Portable, Systematic, Visual cue Guidance (PSVG) in situ. AS/FHA persons will use a PSVG prototype to ameliorate social and executive functioning according to four test criteria. The prototype must: 1) show a significant functional benefit, 2) match or exceed conventional procedures, and 3) do so in the three activity domains addressed. 4) The functional benefit may be prosthetic support, task specific knowledge acquisition, or between task generalization. Method: The PSVG is handheld computers that will enable cue facilitated responding and data recording. It will be supported by Internet data set storage and progress chart graphics using a SymTrend software platform. The visual guidance is a set of text graphics cues (foresight cues, critical judgment cues, etc.) formatted for individual use according to TEACCH principles. The target population is AS/HFA persons who, despite normal IQ and language, demonstrate impairments of a) social judgment, b) personal executive management, and c) independent task governance. Consequently, the PSVG prototype will address the complex, varied, trans-situational needs of AS/HFA persons in three activity domains: 1) social activity (e. g., peer-interaction), 2) personal executive activity (e. g., scheduling/completing assignments, housekeeping), and 3) independent school/work project activity (e. g., desktop publishing). The AS/HFA person will be 8 neuropsychological evaluated persons enrolled in programs at TEACCH (North Carolina) and at the League School (Massachusetts). After initializing SymTrend to serve as a PSVG, the research protocol involves: 1) baseline measurement of intensive conventional treatment (daily coaching and distant support), 2) introduction of PSVG with daily coaching, (followed by reduction to weekly coaching), 3) then withdrawal of PSVG to test for learning. In addition, SymTrend is requesting funds for translation of the SymTrend system into Spanish, so that Phase II tests of the PSVG can include a more diverse population. Health Relatedness: The PSVG/SymTrend system will provide an opportunity for countless people with AS/HFA and other disabilities to function more productively/independently and lead more gratifying lives.

Thesaurus Terms:
autism, computer assisted patient care, computer system design /evaluation, cue, executive function, mental health counseling, patient care management, portable biomedical equipment, social behavior disorder, social facilitation, social psychology Asperger syndrome, computer assisted medical decision making, computer program /software, functional ability, judgment, outcomes research, time resolved data behavioral /social science research tag, clinical research, health services research tag, human subject, neuropsychological test, statistics /biometry

SymTrend, Inc. and Division TEACCH at University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill will test a Portable Visual Guidance System (PVGS) that connects a PDA user to the Internet, and via the Internet to a support team. The PVGS will be used by teens with Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism (AS/HFA) to improve their 1) school social pragmatics, 2) feelings management, and 3) assignment management. In this application, the PVGS becomes a portable and distributed curriculum that enables prompting, self- monitoring, feedback, data collection, progress charting, goal settings, problem detection, and remediation, and intervention evaluation. Company Mission. To build guidance and monitoring system software for autism applications in particular and more broadly for neuropsychiatric and other healthcare applications. Objectives: Our clinical/scientific objectives are: 1) to develop our theoretical rationale for a special education curriculum for AS/HFA persons, 2) to provide the first comprehensive and effective system for teaching social pragmatics and self-management skills in an inclusion environment, and 3) to provide an intervention framework and support technology for cognitive behavioral treatment of other neuropsychiatric disorders and for other healthcare guidance and monitoring applications. Our business objectives are: 1) to become the established leader in guidance and monitoring software systems, and 2) to be acquired by a company whose capital and resources can develop SymTrend software for its maximum benefit and profit potential. Healthcare Implications. SymTrend systems address and overcome a major obstacle to effective interventions in special education and community medicine: the lack of information tools for: 1) symptom recording, 2) progress monitoring, 3) intervention evaluation, 4) trigger detection, 5) behavioral guidance, and 6) care coordination. Research Design. Our research design incorporates a guidance and monitoring curriculum that involves handheld computer use by students and teachers/coaches. Data is collected daily by students and teachers via handheld computers in individualized diaries and is HotSync'd to a web site, where it is graphed as progress charts. The curriculum content includes interventions for social pragmatics, feelings awareness and management, and personal activity management appropriate for AS/HFA teens. This curriculum will be tested in schools where these students are in inclusion classrooms. We will contrast outcomes in their intervention classes with generalization classes and with the behavior of wait-list controls. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE SymTrend guidance and monitoring systems can address and overcome a major obstacle to effective interventions in special education and community based medicine. That obstacle is the lack of information tools for: 1) symptom recording, 2) progress monitoring, 3) intervention evaluation, 4) symptom trigger detection, 5) behavioral guidance, and 6) care coordination. To date SymTrend support tools have been used in the education and treatment of individuals with a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders including: Autism, Aspergers Syndrome, Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, Depression with self injurious behavior, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia.

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