The use of wearable technology to measure and support abilities, disabilities and functional skills in autistic youth: a scoping review
Abstract
Background:
Wearable technology (WT) to measure and support social and non-social functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been a growing interest of researchers over the past decade. There is however limited understanding of the WTs currently available for autistic individuals, and how they measure functioning in this population.
Objective:
This scoping review explored the use of WTs for measuring and supporting abilities, disabilities and functional skills in autistic youth.
Method:
Four electronic databases were searched to identify literature investigating the use of WT in autistic youth, resulting in a total of 33 studies being reviewed. Descriptive and content analysis was conducted, with studies subsequently mapped to the ASD International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core-sets and the ICF Child and Youth Version (ICF-CY).
Results:
Studies were predominately pilot studies for novel devices. WTs measured a range of physiological and behavioural functions to objectively measure stereotypical motor movements, social function, communication, and emotion regulation in autistic youth in the context of a range of environments and activities.
Conclusions:
While this review raises promising prospects for the use of WTs for autistic youth, the current evidence is limited and requires further investigation.
© 2020 Melissa H. Black, Benjamin Milbourn, Nigel T. M. Chen, Sarah McGarry, Fatema Wali, Armilda S. V. Ho, Mika Lee, Sven Bölte, Torbjorn Falkmer, Sonya Girdler, published by Psychiatric Research Unit
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.