e-Unstuck: Interactive e-learning software for parents to support executive functioning and behavior regulation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant The current prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder is in children and of these children do not have an intellectual disability ASDwoID Individuals with ASDwoID are at considerable risk for maladaptive adult outcomes e g un or underemployment and executive functioning EF impairments significantly contribute to this risk Unstuck and On Target UOT is the only empirically supported EF intervention specifically targeted to the needs of the ASDwoID population It has improved both EF and social skills in children with ASDwoID in a randomized controlled trial Despite its demonstrated success there are significant geographical scheduling and financial barriers to parental adaptation of the UOT curriculum Goal and Innovation The goal of this project is to develop and test e Unstuck an e learning intervention that provides advanced training to parents of children with ASDwoID on how to implement the evidence based UOT curriculum at home and is built on Candapos s proprietary state of the art Dynamic e Learning Platform an established platform with high ratings of quality value usability and feasibility from end users e Unstuck will make UOT more accessible to parents with geographical scheduling and or financial constraints and will provide parents with key tools e g video modeling virtual simulations personalized reports to increase efficacious adoption of UOT principles above and beyond those provided in the UOT manual e Unstuck will be the first dynamically adaptive personalized interactive software product specifically designed to deploy an evidence based EF intervention to parents of children with ASDwoID Specific Aims We will accomplish five specific aims two in Phase I and three in Phase II develop a prototype of e Unstuck conduct a feasibility test of e Unstuck with parents of children with ASDwoID between the ages of fully develop the e Unstuck software and conduct iterative usability testing with parents of children with ASDwoID conduct a pilot efficacy test in which parents of children with ASDwoID are randomly assigned to the e Unstuck intervention or to a control condition in which they receive in person training on the UOT curriculum and prepare e Unstuck for commercialization Hypotheses As a result of the pilot efficacy test we hypothesize that parents who interact with the e Unstuck software will report greater knowledge and use of UOT principles less parenting stress and greater parenting sense of competence and improved child EF and social skills compared to control parents parents who spend more time engaged with the intervention will show greater improvements in outcome variables and parents who interact with the e Unstuck software will find the software to be of high quality value usability and feasibility Commercialization Plan e Unstuck will be a unique commercial offering within a large underserved niche market Revenue will be generated through direct sales to parents of children with ASDwoID and volume sales to organizations e g schools clinics parent support agencies who work with children with ASDwoID and their parents PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE The current prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD is in children and the lifetime cost of caring for one individual with ASD is estimated at $ million as such the development and implementation of interventions for children with ASD is a critical public health concern The proposed project addresses this critical need by developing and testing e Unstuck an e learning intervention that provides parents of children with ASD without intellectual disability with adaptive personalized and interactive online training on how to implement the evidence based Unstuck and On Target UOT intervention in the home setting Parents who interact with the e Unstuck software are expected to report greater knowledge and use of UOT principles less parenting stress and greater parenting sense of competence and improved child executive functioning and social skills compared to parents who do not interact with the e Unstuck software and find the e Unstuck software to be of high quality value usability and feasibility