JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often exhibit difficulties in social and communication skills. For more than 30 years, specialists, parents, and caregivers use techniques such as Applied Behaviour Analysis, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and Picture Exchange Communication System to support social and communication skills of people with autism. The existing messaging and social media applications do not cater features that help users with ASD to construct sentences and hence aid their communication and social skills.

Objective:

This paper aims to investigate the effect of adding features such as Text-to-Speech (TTS), Speech-to-Text (SST), and Communication Symbols (CS) to a messaging application. The work hypothesizes that the usage of TTS, STT, and CS can enhance the social and communication skills of adults with ASD. It also hypothesizes that the usage of the application can ease the communication of adults with ASD with others.

Methods:

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 experts working in the fields related to ASD to help design the application. 7 adults with ASD participated in the study for a period of 10 to 16 weeks. Data log of participant interaction with the application was collected. Additionally, 6 participants’ parents and 1 caregiver were asked to complete a short version of Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (SELSA – S) questionnaire for pre-post study results, for comparison. User Mobile Application Rating Scale Questionnaire has been used to evaluate the application’s usability. Following the study, interviews were conducted to discuss the experience with the app.

Results:

The SELSA–S questionnaire results showed no change in the Family subscale; however, the social loneliness subscale showed difference between pre-post study results and the Wilcoxon rank signed test, indicating that post-study SELSA–S results were statistically significantly higher than the pre-study results(z=-2.047,P<.04). The point-biserial correlation indicated that SELSA–S rate of change was strongly related to the usage of TTS feature (r=.708,P<.038) and CS features (r=.-917,P<.002) and moderately related to the usage of STT features (r=.428,P<.169). Lastly, we adopted grounded theory to analyze the interview data, and 5 categories emerged: application support, features relevance, user interface design, overall feedback, and recommendations.

Conclusions:

This study discusses the potential for improving the communication skills of adults with ASD through special features in mobile messaging applications. The developed application aims to support the inclusion and independent life of adults with ASD. The study’s results showed the importance of using the TTS, STT, and CS features to enhance their social and communication skills.