Building and Testing a Developmental Milestone Tracking App with Parents and Childcare Providers

Faculty: 
Gregory Abowd, Rosa Arriaga
Students: 
David Muñoz

The earlier autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is detected, the earlier children can receive intervention services, resulting in improved social, cognitive, and adaptive skills. Birth to 5 years is an especially critical time for identifying potential signs of delayed or unusual development that may indicate ASD. Tracking children's development can lead to an earlier diagnosis, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides developmental monitoring tools for this through its “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program.

The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate an Android app that makes CDC's developmental monitoring tools more readily accessible to parents of young children, making it easier for parents to identify early signs of ASD or other developmental delays.

Lab: 

We are interested in ubiquitous computing and the research issues involved in building and evaluating ubicomp applications and services that impact our lives. Much of our work is situated in settings of everyday activity, such as the classroom, the office and the home. Our research focuses on several topics including, automated capture and access to live experiences, context-aware computing, applications and services in the home, natural interaction, software architecture, technology policy, security and privacy issues, and technology for individuals with special needs.