Physiological arousal and observed behaviour in parent–child interactions involving young children with Down syndrome

Abstract

Background Parents of children with Down syndrome (DS) play an important role in their child's development. Physiological measures, such as electrodermal activity (EDA), can shed light on parent-child relations beyond the behavioural level.The goals of the current study were to assess the feasibility of collecting EDA data in preschool age children with DS, examine the association between parent and child EDA during play-based interactions, and investigate the relation between parent and child EDA and observed parent behaviours. Method Two parents in 15 families participated in dyadic free play interactions with their child with DS (i.e., 15 mother-child and 15 father-child interactions). The children with DS (aged 24-61 months) and both of their parents wore multisensory wristbands measuring EDA. Parent behaviours were coded as requests for behavioural complies, requests for verbal complies, or comments.Results Usable EDA data were collected for 13/15 children and 11/15 mothers during the mother-child interactions and 14/15 children and 12/15 fathers during the father-child interactions. Parent and child EDA variability was significantly positively related for father-child but not mother-child dyads. Maternal use of requests for behavioural complies was positively related to child EDA variability. Conclusions The collection of EDA data through wristbands worn by young children with DS during early parent-child interactions was feasible. Preliminary findings indicated that some aspects of parent and child physiology in DS may be related in different ways for mother-child and father-child dyads.

A Wearable Artificial Intelligence Feedback Tool (Wrist Angel) for Treatment and Research of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Protocol for a Nonrandomized Pilot Study

“…To address potential concerns in our participants, we will thoroughly explain what the wristband is and is not capable of and coach the participants in informing others about their new accessory. The E4 wristband has been used to monitor arousal in 15 children as young as 2 years with Down syndrome during 7-minute parent-child interaction sessions [ 15 ]. EDA data from children were deemed useable (90% of interactions tracked) for 27 out of 30 interactions; from parents, EDA data were useable for 23 out of 30 interactions [ 15 ].…”

“…A previous study demonstrated that ML models using 3 minutes of physiological data from a wearable biosensor worn by 20 youths could predict aggressive behaviors in youths with autism spectrum disorders 1 minute prior to their occurrence with relatively high accuracy [ 14 ]. Another study linked behavioral synchrony between 15 fathers and their 2-5–year-old children with Down syndrome to synchrony in the dyads’ electrodermal activity (EDA) measured with wearable biosensors during a play session [ 15 ]. Using speech features as input, ML models have classified the severity of depression [ 16 ] and differentiated between children with and without internalizing disorders [ 17 ].…”

Predicting Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Events in Children and Adolescents in the Wild Using a Wearable Biosensor (Wrist Angel): Protocol for the Analysis Plan of a Nonrandomized Pilot Study

“…Nine participants had an OCD diagnosis (patients) and 9 youths presented without a psychiatric diagnosis (controls). Other studies have predicted aggressive behavior from wearables worn by 20 youths in 87 hours (10 consecutive days) or behavioral synchrony between father and their child with Down syndrome from wearables worn by 12 families in a 7-minute free play [ 22 , 23 ]. Although the number of participants is low, we followed each participant for 8 weeks, and we argue it will be enough for a feasibility study of prediction possibilities (as a minimum within individuals).…”

Missing pieces of the puzzle: Deriving a theory of father involvement and intellectual disability

“…A unique form of data, gathered via electrodermal activity (EDA) from both parents and young children with Down syndrome, was contributed by Lorang et al . (2020) in their paper, Physiological arousal and observed behaviour in parent–child interactions involving young children with Down syndrome . The research was conducted during home visits, during parent–child free‐play sessions, with children who ranged in age from 2 to 5 years.…”