A pilot study on evaluating children with autism spectrum disorder using computer games

Evaluation of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is crucial to clinical diagnosis and educational intervention. The traditional evaluation methods based on questionnaires and scales rely on the experience and expertise of the evaluator, are time-consuming and clinically demanding. Computer games can provide an objective, motiving and safe way for evaluating and reflecting children's development. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate a technology-based method using computer games to evaluate children with ASD. The performance of 40 children with ASD and 51 aged-matched typically developing (TD) children was compared. We found: 1) The completion ratio for children with ASD was lower than TD children for the tasks in most of the games. 2) Significant differences between the ASD and TD groups, but no significant differences within group. 3) The performance of the TD group was better than ASD and the efficiency of TD group was proportional to age. While more research is needed to confirm its reliability and validity, the findings indicate that computer games have great potential in the field of special education as an evaluation tool to clarify difficulties associated with autism.