GOLIAH (Gaming Open Library for Intervention in Autism at Home): a 6-month single blind matched controlled exploratory study.
BACKGROUND
To meet the required hours of intensive intervention for treating children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we developed an automated serious gaming platform (11 games) to deliver intervention at home (GOLIAH) by mapping the imitation and joint attention (JA) subset of age-adapted stimuli from the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) intervention. Here, we report the results of a 6-month matched controlled exploratory study.


METHODS
From two specialized clinics, we included 14 children (age range 5-8 years) with ASD and 10 controls matched for gender, age, sites, and treatment as usual (TAU). Participants from the experimental group received in addition to TAU four 30-min sessions with GOLIAH per week at home and one at hospital for 6 months. Statistics were performed using Linear Mixed Models.


RESULTS
Children and parents participated in 40% of the planned sessions. They were able to use the 11 games, and participants trained with GOLIAH improved time to perform the task in most JA games and imitation scores in most imitation games. GOLIAH intervention did not affect Parental Stress Index scores. At end-point, we found in both groups a significant improvement for Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores, Vineland socialization score, Parental Stress Index total score, and Child Behavior Checklist internalizing, externalizing and total problems. However, we found no significant change for by time × group interaction.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite the lack of superiority of TAU + GOLIAH versus TAU, the results are interesting both in terms of changes by using the gaming platform and lack of parental stress increase. A large randomized controlled trial with younger participants (who are the core target of ESDM model) is now discussed. This should be facilitated by computing GOLIAH for a web platform.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT02560415.
Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France.
Anne-Lise
AL
Jouen
Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, Viale del Tirreno, 331, 56018 Calambrone, Pisa, Italy.
Antonio
A
Narzisi
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, APHP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière et University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75013 Paris, France.
Jean
J
Xavier
Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France.|Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, APHP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière et University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75013 Paris, France.
Elodie
E
Tilmont
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, APHP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière et University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75013 Paris, France.
Nicolas
N
Bodeau
School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ UK.
Valentina
V
Bono
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, APHP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière et University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75013 Paris, France.
Nabila
N
Ketem-Premel
Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France.
Salvatore
S
Anzalone
School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ UK.
Koushik
K
Maharatna
Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France.
Mohamed
M
Chetouani
Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, Viale del Tirreno, 331, 56018 Calambrone, Pisa, Italy.
Filippo
F
Muratori
Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France.|Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, APHP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière et University Pierre and Marie Curie, 75013 Paris, France.
David
D
Cohen