Using participatory design to create a user interface for analyzing pivotal response treatment video probes

Abstract

Training caregivers in pivotal response treatment (PRT) has been shown to help improve communication skills in children with autism. PRT training programs are implemented by clinicians that provide instruction, modelling, and assessment. Assessments are based on video recordings of the caregivers interacting with their children. Multimodal processing technologies could alleviate the costs involved in analyzing videos and providing performance-based feedback. Constructing a user interface (UI) for clinicians to view data extracted from PRT videos is an important aspect for creating a feedback system. Including clinicians throughout the design and development process ensures that the application fully meets the user’s needs. Currently, automated data collection and analysis is not undertaken in PRT evaluation. In addition to designing an interface, this project seeks to identify meaningful metrics and visual displays that will aid behavior analysts in their assessments. As part of a participatory design paradigm, clinicians evaluated a wireframe, alpha build, and beta build of a UI prototype. Critiques focused on application features, evaluation of automatically collected data, and usability. The prototype was evaluated as being capable of reducing video review time, and affording more opportunities for providing feedback to caregivers.