IPAT

Introduction

IPAT’s ultimate goal was to quantify the initial trials that were conducted at Chenxu Elementary School to substantiate our hypothesis that localized vibrations were effective in calming autistic children down. However several roadblocks lay ahead. In China, autism is still not significantly recognized as its own disorder. A very small percentage of the population is aware that autism even exists and an even smaller percentage are actively seeking therapies to help for affected children and adults. Even in the United States of America it has taken foundations almost 50 years to sufficiently spread awareness of the disorder. Thus, still in its nascent years of spreading awareness, China provides very little information on autism to the general public. This means that very few centers are specially designed for this children which limited our ability to work with autistic children. Further more, the few parents that we did find were apprehensive about subjecting their children to a largely untested therapy. With no literature to stand as a testament to its efficacy IPAT was forced to rethink its strategy. In order to show parents the validity of localized vibrations, IPAT needed to produce significantly beneficial results. Advice from Jon,  of Georgia Tech, led the team to first test the effect of localized vibration therapy on neurotypical children.

Beginning Research

IPAT needed to scientifically prove that localized vibrations were effective in calming autistic children down. We recognized the effectiveness of such vibrations from the plethora of vibrating toys that were available to and used by parents of autistic children. However, our literature search yielded no scientific investigation that could conclusively substantiate the hypothesis that localized vibrations were effective. A study conducted by Mandi W. Gibbons at the Utah State University found that whole body vibrations were effective for all autistic children in that all of the children tested stimming/stereotypic behaviours were decreased in varying degrees. With this in mind we felt that similar results could be reproduced with localized vibrations but could not directly assume they would because of one serious limitation: localized vibrations were much smaller and much more acute than the whole body vibrations.

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Data

Shanghai American School Pudong Campus Sample

Shanghai American School Puxi Sample

Statistics

Conclusion

At the end of two separate trials with neurotypical children we came up with definitive results. For the children without the vibrations the following was shown: the children from the Pudong campus of Shanghai American school had an average baseline HR (heart rate) of about 94 BPM (beats per minute) and an elevated heart rate of about 103 BPM. The average time for recovery among those without vibrations were around 123 seconds. Among the children from the Puxi campus the average baseline and elevated HR for those who did not receive vibrations were 94 BPM and 104 BPM respectively with an average recovery time of about 55 seconds. Using the first 2 minutes of the “baseline heart rate” period, the mean and standard deviation of the resting heart rate of each child was calculated (using TI-84 software).  We then used a z-score table to obtain the standard z-score value of 1.96.  Using the z-score formula, the upper and lower bounds of each child’s resting heart rate were determined, with any value above or below those values being considered abnormal. The discrepancy between the average recovery times could be due to a difference in demographics from either school. The large difference means that the two studies cannot be cross compared; a general trend between the studies can be extrapolated, however. The children given vibrations from SAS Pudong and SAS Puxi had baseline and elevated HR of 83,92 and 90,101 respectively. In these children the average recovery times were 89 and 25 seconds. Compared to the ones without vibrations (123 vs. 89 and 55 vs. 25) a general trend that vibrations at the wrist were effective in reducing recovery time can be gleaned and successfully used to substantiate the hypothesis.

Studies With Autistic Children

Once the team proved the effectiveness of its device on neurotypical children, the next step was to reach out to several people with ASD and continue testing. Team IPAT worked closely with an organization called Essential Learning Group (ELG), one of the few organizations in China designed to provide individual care and education to disabled children. Through ELG, IPAT was able to get in contact with two children, ages 5 and 6, with severe cases of ASD. The team faced several challenges as they began testing. After talking with the guardians of both children they realized that the experiment the team had used for the neurotypical children was ill-suited for autistic children. The team had to work closely with ELG staff to develop unique replications of the experiment for each child. For one child the calm task was cutting in straight lines and the stressful activity was cutting in straight lines. Adding to the complications, the heart rate monitor was an external factor that would interfere with the testing as the children were not comfortable with wearing it. The team relied on video monitoring, observational notes and discussion with each child’s guardian to conclude the effect of the localized vibrations. Combined, these sources confirmed what the team members saw: the autistic children were much more focused and calm when the vibrations were applied.
With these results substantiating IPAT’s hypothesis, the team was able to compete as a finalist in the 2015 Intel ISEF.