Look At Me App: Why, How and… Will it work?

A few days ago, we briefly introduced “Look At Me,” an app developed to help train kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to make eye contact and improve their communication skills by using Samsung Smart Devices. It aims to address the lack of hospitals and private institutions for treating autism.

To make an effective app that is highly accessible, Samsung first decided to bring all the experts together. In collaboration with doctors, professors and specialists, Samsung evaluated the traditional training program for autistic children, defined Samsung’s role in improving traditional program and designed the training program.

The “Look At Me” training program consists of seven scientifically derived missions. As the chart below indicates, the first four consists of 18 levels and the last three are single level missions. (we will go over each step in more detail on the next segment)

The main reason “Look At Me” was developed into an app was to ensure that the program was highly accessible to people all over the world who need to be treated and also easy to use.

With the objective of helping children with autism make eye contact and improve their social skills, the “Look At Me” task force embedded app with an intuitive user interface in Samsung smart-phone and tablet (Android-enabled).

The “Look At Me” task force also conducted (and currently conducting) several trial tests to see the effectiveness of the program. The trial tests included two groups: one that completed the 8 weeks training (training group) and one that did not participate in any training. The “Look At Me” taskforce evaluated total of six categories with 11 measurements.

So is this program going to work?

Yes. Overall, “Look At Me” program improved emotion decoding as well as accuracy and intensity of emotional expression at least for some children with ASD. But there are plenty of work to be done here. Although the results suggests that “Look At Me” program may be effective at least for children with ASD who showed abnormal eye-contact during the pre-test, continuous research with large number of diverse type of ASD participants is necessary to generalize the conclusion. However, many experts agreed that the program is heading towards the right direction.

“60% of the children tested showed improvement in making eye contact. They can also identify emotional expressions more easily. This program will help children with autism improve their perception and expression of diverse emotions.”

– Chung, Kyong-Mee, Prof. at Yonsei University

“It sounds quite impressive. The idea is great, and I was surprised when I heard about it over the phone. The choice of a camera for the project is perfect. It supports Baron Cohen’s (a Cambridge professor) theory that teaching autistic children to visualize photos in their heads can help bypass cognitive impairment.”

• Hae Ri Kim, Prof. of Psychology, Chung Buk National University

“This program symbolizes the triangular communication relationship (autistic child – camera – parent). In general, modern devices invite one-way interaction, i.e. between the lifeless device and the user. However, this program helps autistic children to interact with other people. It’s named “Look at Me”, but it’s not only about eye contact but about the beginning of more interaction and communication with others.”

• Hee Jeong Yoo, Prof. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, Seoul National University Hospital

In conclusion, “Look At Me” program aims to improve the communication abilities of children with autism, and to deepen their relationships with their parents. And it also aims to ease problems of high treatment cost and long wait-list for treatment. On the next segment we will go over how go over the training and the app in more details.

 
* All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.