SBIR-STTR Award

This project will develop a multi-sensory therapy program for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder by improving eye contact. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder do not make eye contact readily and eye contact is a key component in progressing social behavior. Current methodologies to assist these children in maximizing their capabilities are out of reach for many, costing families thousands of dollars a month, requiring 25-40 hours per week and offer measureable improvements at less than 47%. This project has shown positive results in preliminary testing and is expected to result in an affordable, practical solution to the challenges children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families encounter. As their social skills improve, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder will be able to build and maintain friendships, become more fully engaged in society, prepare them to become self-sustaining adults, and increase their employment opportunities. Additionally, this program can also be expanded to children with other disabilities or children without disabilities, resulting in increased ability to also build and maintain friendships, become more fully engaged in society to prepare them to become self-sustaining adults, and increase their employment opportunities. Potential customers will include parents, school districts, and other professional and nonprofessional caregivers. The high need for this program will create market growth, creating new jobs and generating tax revenue. The goal for this project is to develop a multi-sensory program, developed for smart mobile devices, that improves children with Autism Spectrum Disorder?s social skills so they can function as their typical peers who do not have Autism Spectrum Disorder. This goal is accomplished by developing an interactive program that teaches the social skill, making eye contact with individuals the child does and does not know, by improving sensory integration and regulating the overactive amygdala. Funding would allow for the development of the program to test, measure and quantify sensory integration and eye contact improvement for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Analyses will reflect the interpretation requirements of a Pre vs. Post, Intervention versus Control design. All statistical analyses and tests will be conducted using the widely used program Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 17 or higher and will be verified with Statistical Analysis System when appropriate or marginal findings.

This SBIR Phase II project will develop a multi-sensory social skill program to improve the lives of children who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, ASD is the fastest growing developmental disability in the US, with 1 in 59 children being affected. It is well established that children with ASD struggle with their social skills, which negatively affects the child's ability to make friends and integrate into the community and create their best life. Current interventions are expensive, time consuming, and parents, teachers, and therapists are seeking better solutions. This project will address these issues through the development of an affordable, time efficient application. The application will greatly improve social skills while also addressing sensory integration, anxiety, and self-esteem. As research continues and the product is refined, it will be broadened to all ages, targeting the ~5 million individuals with ASD in the US, and the ~74 million worldwide. Additionally, this project can be adapted to help non-ASD children who struggle with social skills or have developmental disabilities. Using the program in both homes and schools, creates a strong commercial impact, leading to a self-sustaining business. The technical innovation of this project is an educational application developed for smart mobile devices, improving social skills for children diagnosed on the autism spectrum. This novel technology incorporates and combines proprietary source code, customizable features, integration of original music, video, facial recognition technology, and tracking tools to create a powerful modeling, learning, and practicing environment. The technology is the only social curriculum designed to allow students to learn and practice the social skill independently, or with other human interaction; including the ability to have multiple devices sync together, allowing practice to take place between participants in real time. The research goal is to develop and test an application, which teaches children with autism spectrum disorder to improve and generalize social skills to familiar and unfamiliar people. This will be accomplished through software development, which will include integration of video and music, testing for program glitches, compatibility with various devices, and technology that can be implemented in a one-to-one or group setting. A pilot study will include an intervention vs. control design to assess the effectiveness and user ability of the program with students in grades K-6 with varying degrees of autism, thus validating the need and effectiveness of the program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.