Experiad LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase II: 104

Description

In this Phase II SBIR applicationExperiad Solutions proposes to complete the development of Motivitya new type of software that has the potential to modernize the practice of behavioral therapy for autismApplied Behavior AnalysisABAis an evidence based autism treatment that is practiced by overBoard Certified Behavior AnalystsBCBAsin the USBCBAs analyze a child s unique needsthen construct an individualized curriculum of skill acquisition and behavior modification programs consisting of sequences of progressive targets to be achievedEach BCBA adheres to an intervention modeleither formal or informalwhich is comprised of the specific teaching instructions in their program library and the accompanying rules that define how targets are introducedscoredand masteredThe BCBA supervises a Behavioral TechnicianBTwho conducts the therapy and collects performance dataThe BCBA analyzes the data to determine mastery and adjust programs as neededThis structureddata driven process is critical to the effectiveness of ABA therapybut the labor intensive workflow limits a BCBA to supervising a small number of BTs at a timeThe demand for ABA services far outstrips the availability of qualified providersmany of whom have waiting lists of hundreds of familiesSoftware systems can theoretically help improve provider efficiency and collaborationbut the vast majority of ABA service providers still use paper methodsExisting systems do not offer a compelling enough value proposition to switch from paperdue to insufficient expressivenesslack of knowledge management toolsand inadequate mechanisms for communicating instructions and answering questionsMany ABA service providers have spent years developing and fine tuning their own libraries of paper programsand they reject the idea of compromising their practice to fit a rigid third party systemMotivity overcomes these limitations by enabling BCBAs to implement their own software intervention delivery system that preserves the rich semantic content of their paper based modelMotivity achieves this through a unique approach that lets BCBAs author their ABA programs using a concisehigh level markup languageThis approach is far more flexible than template based systemsallowing a wider range of programs to be modeledand greatly streamlines the process of creatingmodifyingand maintaining those programsThe Motivity platform translates the programs into custom data collection apps that allow BCBAs to remotely supervise BTs as data are being collected in the fieldviewing the result of each trial instantaneously as it is enteredMotivity will support context integrated two way consultationenabling virtual supervision or assistancepotentially reducing the frequency of BCBA travel to the child s home where the therapy is being performedFurthermoreMotivity will allow supervisors to make changes to the curriculum at any timethereby enabling a much more agile therapy processThe Phase II aims are to complete the development of the Motivity cloud based software and test it in an extensive pilot study This Phase II SBIR will result in the creation of Motivitya software system that has the potential to modernize the practice of behavioral therapy for autismCurrentlybehavior analysts supervise behavior technicians in performing data driven interventions such as Applied Behavior AnalysisABAbut they commonly rely on paper methods for data collection and analysisMotivity provides a powerful knowledge management solution for moving from paper to automated methodsresulting in more efficient therapymore agile program tuningand improved collaboration and supervision