Assistive Technology Device for People with Autism

The research project had its development in the Assistive Technology area, which is the use of equipment, resources or strategies aimed at improving the functional skills of people with special needs. The researches were carried out about the behaviors of people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who show signs of social isolation, language problems and repetitive attitudes. These behaviors make the ASD sufferer have learning difficulties. In the psychological procedures carried out in clinics, psycho pedagogical centers and schools, teaching practices for patients with ASD are carried out, professionals carry out interventions and record the results manually to later formulate strategies aimed at the evolution of the patient.In this way, the monitoring of the treatment ends up being compromised, since even with the presence of the professional it is difficult to guide the patient in the activity, report errors, successes and record them manually. In addition, the support of activities ends up being restricted to clinics, since the professional is unable to monitor the activities performed at home with the patient every day, causing a certain discontinuity in the learning process.In this context there has been development of an embedded system containing a mobile application and an interactive panel to assist in the treatment of the people with autism. The methodology chosen for learning was Alternative Communication, where images were used; through the illustrations a tutorial on how to wash your hands in a simple way step by step. In the office with the help of the professional responsible for the treatment, the panel will be used to record the patient's time and errors during the activity, these records will be sent to the google drive and can be accessed later. The ESP32 microcontroller is being used to develop the panel, which has a Real time clock module and a Wi-Fi module embedded. These tools will help in the activity, because the time will be registered and sent to the Google Drive database. The mobile application is developed to complement the activities at home, where the user can exercise their memory by placing the images of the activity in the correct order. At the end, the father, mother or guardian fills in a small report with observations of the user's behavior during the activity which is sent to Google Drive. To develop this application, the React Native framework has been used, which uses the JavaScript language and allows the application to be compatible with android and IOS. The system's registration resources on the Google Drive will play an important role in the treatment of patients with autism, because with the data collected during the activities, it will be possible to assess the patient's condition and formulate new strategies for improving performance. The mobile application is functional and ready for testing with users, but the panel still needs further laboratory tests with the microcontroller. In the flowchart presented, it is possible to follow the principle of operation of the interactive panel.