Detecting and Classifying Self-injurious Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Machine Learning Techniques.

Journal: Journal of autism and developmental disorders
PMID:

Abstract

Traditional self-injurious behavior (SIB) management can place compliance demands on the caregiver and have low ecological validity and accuracy. To support an SIB monitoring system for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we evaluated machine learning methods for detecting and distinguishing diverse SIB types. SIB episodes were captured with body-worn accelerometers from children with ASD and SIB. The highest detection accuracy was found with k-nearest neighbors and support vector machines (up to 99.1% for individuals and 94.6% for grouped participants), and classification efficiency was quite high (offline processing at ~ 0.1 ms/observation). Our results provide an initial step toward creating a continuous and objective smart SIB monitoring system, which could in turn facilitate the future care of a pervasive concern in ASD.

Authors

  • Kristine D Cantin-Garside
    Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24060, USA.
  • Zhenyu Kong
    Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24060, USA.
  • Susan W White
    University of Alabama.
  • Ligia Antezana
    University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • Sunwook Kim
    Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24060, USA.
  • Maury A Nussbaum
    Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24060, USA. nussbaum@vt.edu.