Data Mining Techniques to Study Therapy Success with Autistic Children

Autism spectrum disorder has become one of the most prevalent developmental disorders, characterized by a wide variety of symptoms. Many children need extensive therapy for years to improve their behavior and facilitate integration in society. However, few systematic evaluations are done on a large scale that can provide insights into when, where, and how therapy has an impact. We describe how data mining techniques can be used to provide insights into behavioral therapy as well as its effect on participants. To this end, we are developing a digital library of coded video segments that contains data on appropriate and inappropriate behavior of autistic children in different social settings during different stages of therapy. In general, we found that therapy increased appropriate behavior and decreased inappropriate behavior. Decision trees and association rules provided more detailed insights for high and low levels of appropriate and inappropriate behavior. In particular, we found th...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: DMIN
• Authors: Gondy Leroy, Annika Irmscher, Marjorie H. Charlop-Christy, Sarah Kuriakose, Alefiyah Pishori, Lorryana Wurzman, Aria Ash-Rafzadeh, Michelle Seffrood, Stephanie Buxton
• Keywords: DMIN 2006, DMIN 2007, Inappropriate Behavior, Prevalent Developmental Disorders, Therapy