Confronting Autism in Urban Bangladesh: Unpacking Infrastructural and Cultural Challenges

Ehsan, Upol; Sakib, Nazmus; Haque, Munirul; Soron, Tanjir Rashid; Saxena, Devansh; Ahamed, Sheikh Iqbal; Schwichtenberg, A. J.; Rabbani, Golam; Akter, Shaheen; Alam, Faruq; Begum, Azima; Ahmed, Syed Ishtiaque

doi:10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.155082

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…However, the findings of this study suggest that increasing awareness of ASD by using varying means, including ICT, could help to overcome the stigma against people with ASD that has been associated with social and cultural issues [48]. This is supported by Ehsan et al [49], who found a lack of contextualized studies on ASD in less developed countries while the number of people with ASD continues to increase.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…As a developing country, Rwanda has a lack of digital infrastructure that is a challenge and can lead to reduced support for people with ASD [49]. This supports studies which prove that digital technologies, when used effectively, can deliver foundational educational content to any learner so they can respond to the needs of people with ASD from different geographical contexts [40,50].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

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The Use of Information Communication Technologies Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Descriptive Qualitative Study

Ntalindwa¹,

Soron²,

Nduwingoma³

et al. 2019

JMIR Pediatr Parent

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BackgroundThe prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) appears to be increasing globally due to the complex interaction of multiple biopsychosocial and environmental factors. Mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic gadgets have transformed our means of communication, and have also changed both healthcare and how we learn. These technological enhancements may have a positive impact on the lives of children, but there is currently a global scarcity of information on how information technology influences the education of children with ASD.ObjectiveThis study was conducted in Rwandan schools and communities, and aimed to understand the perceptions of students with ASD, their parents, and their teachers, on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the education of those with ASD.MethodsThis qualitative descriptive study was conducted from December 2017 to July 2018. Researchers conducted four focus group discussions (FGDs) with 54 participants from different backgrounds: teachers, parents, and students with ASD. Each of the FGDs took approximately two and a half hours. A predefined set of open-ended questions were selected to discover people’s perceptions regarding assistive technologies used in ASD, their effectiveness, the scope of using them in their context, and upcoming challenges during implementation. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed.ResultsThe findings of the study revealed seven key themes: (1) the use of ICT for the education of children with ASD; (2) existing augmentative facilities for learning; (3) current patterns of use of ICT in education; (4) preferred areas of learning for ASD students; (5) integration of ICT into educational programs; (6) areas of interest outside the classroom; and (7) future opportunities and challenges in Rwanda. We found most of the study participants assumed that appropriate technology and related innovations might solve the challenges faced by learners with ASD in classrooms. Moreover, they thought that children with ASD more so enjoyed watching television, playing digital games, and drawing objects using gadgets than interacting with people or playing with other children.ConclusionsThe use of various low-cost technical devices can aid with teaching and the education of children with autism in Rwanda. However, this area requires further research to discover the impact ICT can have on the education of children with ASD, so this study may become a starting point for further research in the area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

The Use of Information Communication Technologies Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Descriptive Qualitative Study

Ntalindwa¹,

Soron²,

Nduwingoma³

et al. 2019

JMIR Pediatr Parent

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…These are samples of areas where accessible, affordable, and scalable precision medicine solutions, such as instantiations of the technique described here, can enable access to care to underserved populations globally. In particular, we selected Bangladesh, Kenya, and the Philippines, countries that collectively represent diverse areas containing problematic issues with autism prevalence and limited access to services [ 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precision Telemedicine through Crowdsourced Machine Learning: Testing Variability of Crowd Workers for Video-Based Autism Feature Recognition

Washington

Leblanc

Dunlap

et al. 2020

JPM

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Mobilized telemedicine is becoming a key, and even necessary, facet of both precision health and precision medicine. In this study, we evaluate the capability and potential of a crowd of virtual workers—defined as vetted members of popular crowdsourcing platforms—to aid in the task of diagnosing autism. We evaluate workers when crowdsourcing the task of providing categorical ordinal behavioral ratings to unstructured public YouTube videos of children with autism and neurotypical controls. To evaluate emerging patterns that are consistent across independent crowds, we target workers from distinct geographic loci on two crowdsourcing platforms: an international group of workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (N = 15) and Microworkers from Bangladesh (N = 56), Kenya (N = 23), and the Philippines (N = 25). We feed worker responses as input to a validated diagnostic machine learning classifier trained on clinician-filled electronic health records. We find that regardless of crowd platform or targeted country, workers vary in the average confidence of the correct diagnosis predicted by the classifier. The best worker responses produce a mean probability of the correct class above 80% and over one standard deviation above 50%, accuracy and variability on par with experts according to prior studies. There is a weak correlation between mean time spent on task and mean performance (p= 0.358, p = 0.005). These results demonstrate that while the crowd can produce accurate diagnoses, there are intrinsic differences in crowdworker ability to rate behavioral features. We propose a novel strategy for recruitment of crowdsourced workers to ensure high quality diagnostic evaluations of autism, and potentially many other pediatric behavioral health conditions. Our approach represents a viable step in the direction of crowd-based approaches for more scalable and affordable precision medicine.

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“…Caring for children with ASD is challenging and impacts family life [ 28 , 29 ]. The satisfaction of needs of affected children requires a lot of time, patience, and exertion, and can cause depression, anxiety, and psychological distress among their parents and caregivers [ 30 – 33 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grant Report on mCARE: Mobile-Based Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) for Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

Haque

Rabbani

Dipal

et al. 2021

J Psychiatry Brain Sci

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In low- and middle-income countries, especially in Bangladesh, A utism S pectrum D isorder (ASD) may be considered an anathema, and social-cultural-financial constraints mean that there are few facilities available for treatment for ASD children. The revolution in the use of the mobile phone (~80%) by the majority of people in Bangladesh in recent years has created an opportunity to improve the overall scenario in the treatment or remote monitoring process for children with ASD. In this grant project, we planned and developed a mobile phone-based system to remotely monitor children with ASD and help their treatment process both at the caregiver and care practitioner ends. In developing mCARE, we utilized a R emote E xperience S ampling Method to design, build, deploy, and study the impact of mobile based monitoring and treatment of children with ASD in Bangladesh. We developed a mobile application using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). A caregiver routinely reported the behavioral and milestone parameters of their children with ASD. The care practitioners monitored the longitudinal data that helped them in decision-making in a particular patient’s treatment process. The V alue S ensitive D esign (VSD) was used to make this mobile application more user friendly with consideration of the local economic, social, and cultural values in Bangladesh.

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Confronting Autism in Urban Bangladesh: Unpacking Infrastructural and Cultural Challenges

Cited by 14 publications

References 44 publications

The Use of Information Communication Technologies Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Descriptive Qualitative Study

The Use of Information Communication Technologies Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Descriptive Qualitative Study

Precision Telemedicine through Crowdsourced Machine Learning: Testing Variability of Crowd Workers for Video-Based Autism Feature Recognition

Grant Report on mCARE: Mobile-Based Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) for Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

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