An innovative iPad App developed in Western Australia could be the key to improved outcomes for kids with autism.
Researchers from The Kids for Child Health Research are leading a new study looking at the effectiveness of the TOBY Playpad iPad App for children with an autism spectrum disorder.
Winthrop Professor Andrew Whitehouse, head of Autism research at The Kids, said the App has the potential to be a powerful early learning tool for families with a child with autism.
"There is now a lot of evidence showing that intense and sustained therapy can provide significant benefits to children with autism," said Professor Whitehouse.
"However, these interventions come at considerable financial cost and are subject to waiting lists so a significant proportion of families are unable to access these therapies."
"Finding scientific evidence for any intervention is crucial to providing advice to parents. Our goal is to determine whether TOBY is effective for helping children with autism, and also for easing the burden on families."
Professor Whitehouse said any therapy that improves the time- and cost-effectiveness of early intervention, and is proven to enhance the longer-term outcomes among people with ASD, will provide enormous benefit to the community.
"The TOBY App may be one such tool that would give parents access to a more cost effective way to provide therapy to their child in their own home in their own time."
This study will be the first in the world to document the effectiveness of an educational App for children with autism. It will also evaluate whether the App empowers parents to feel a sense of control over their child's therapy.
Study Coordinator Jo Granich said the team will be looking at whether the App really makes a difference to the lives of parents and children who find themselves in compromising situations in dealing with autism.
"Often, newly diagnosed families feel a sense of loss, isolation and helplessness of what they can do for their child with autism," Mrs Granich said.
"We hope that this study will tell us that the App is not only teaching their child early learning skills but also helps them to understand how to teach and interact with their child through daily routine and play activities at home and outside. And that's a long-life skill for a parent of a child with autism to have."
100 children with autism would be involved in the study, including 50 from Perth and 50 from Melbourne.
"We're working with researchers at Monash, La Trobe and Deakin Universities to look at the effectiveness of the TOBY App when used alongside their usual therapies," Mrs Granich said.
"We'll be asking the families that are randomly allocated the TOBY app to use it for at least 30 minutes each day for six months, while continuing their usual therapies.
Autism is a developmental condition characterised by difficulties in social communication, and a restricted range of activities and interests. While we understand that autism runs in families, the exact causes of the condition remain unknown.
The study needs children up to four years of age who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in the past six months. All children will continue with their usual therapies, but half will receive a loan iPad with the TOBY app. At the end of the study, all families will receive a free copy of the TOBY Playpad app.
Parents wanting more information or to be part of the study can contact the Institute on 08 9489 7749 or autism@childhealthresearch.org.au or autism.childhealthresearch.org.au
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About TOBY Playpad
TOBY (TOBY stands for Therapy Outcomes By You) Playpad is a unique, early intervention application that flexibly delivers a set curriculum of user-generated and automated lessons based on research about childhood development. The software also has the ability to monitor and analyse the child's progress on a daily basis. The TOBY Playpad app is designed not only for kids with autism, but also for children with intellectual disability, global developmental delay or language disorders. The Toby Playpad app was developed by a team led by Professor Svetha Venkatesh, with Curtin University's Institute for Multi-Sensor Processing and Content Analysis (IMPCA) and Deakin University's Pattern Recognition and Data Analysis (PRaDA) team. It was funded by a 3-Year Australian Research Council Linkage grant and Autism West.