Autismworld: an Arabic Application for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the most-prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder. ASD is defined by impaired social communication along with unusual restricted and repetitive behaviours. However, each child diagnosed with ASD presents with a unique range of behavioural, communication and social skills problems. As result, the burden on parents who are raising a child with ASD is too high, especially in countries that suffer from a lack or shortages of skilled specialists, supportive services and special centres that deal with such conditions. Extensive research has proven the efficiency of technologies as support tools for ASD children and their families. Since technologies and telehealth services have recently been introduced in KSA, we proposed with this application (app) to provide an innovative opportunity for assisting and supporting children with ASD and their parents in our context. The proposed application aims to extend and enhance care delivery in numerous ways: it will provide parents with a handy tool to help to detect signs of autism in their child and give them updated resources for education and training on how to care for their ASD child. Moreover, this application aims to improve access to specialists for parents and help to establish a space in which to share information and experiences among parents of children with ASD. Moreover, the app employs an innovative feature to simplify ASD data collection through conducting short and simple surveys and conduct interviews via text messaging.