Journal of Medical Diagnostic Methods
Open Access

VIBe: A discrete wearable designed to ease the integration of autistic children into mainstream schools

International Conference on Medical Devices

September 21-22, 2015 Orlando, USA

Min Lu, Siddharth Chandra, Tiger Lu, Anna Serbent, Russell Pecka and Max Wagner

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Med Diagn Meth

Abstract :

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the fastest growing developmental disorder in the world today with 1 in 68 American children diagnosed as of 2014. Mainstreaming has proven to help those with ASD develop crucial social and communicative skills, important for leading independent lives. For autistic children repetitive motions or self stimming behavior are familiar movements that they can use to cope with the overload or to stimulate their nervous system (tactile stimulation serves to calm them). These motions and possible outbursts make mainstreaming impractical for many autistic children as they may compromise the learning environment of the classroom. VIBe, a device created by IPAT, solves this issue via a vibration motor. 40 neurotypical children were tested to determine if localized vibrations had an effect on lowering heart rate, along with a control group in which no vibrations were applied. In the experiment, each student was asked to solve an impossible puzzle to agitate them and the recovery time between the control and experimental group was compared. Two iterations of the experiment were conducted. A statistically significant difference in recovery times was measured in each experiment between the two categories: An average of 23 seconds and 55 seconds recovery time for the experimental and control group, respectively, in the first iteration as well as an average of 89 and 123 seconds recovery time for the second iteration (p<0.007), suggesting that vibrations are an effective way in reducing self-stimming and disruptive behavior.

Biography :

Email: minlu@sjtu.edu.cn