Symtrend, Inc.

Individuals with uncontrolled vascular disease are at risk for an insidious progression of brain injury starting in early to midlife and ultimately culminating in a vascular dementia, robbing them of activities of daily living independence. Successful containment of this progression requires rigorous vascular risk factor management - the control of blood pressure, blood sugars, weight, and alcohol consumption; the cessation of smoking, and an increase in aerobic activity. SymTrend's mobile and web system for managing vascular risk factors will help improve adherence to health and lifestyle strategies, will stem cognitive decline, and will preserve independence in the community for older adults.

As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders continues to rise and the shortage of special education resources becomes more dramatic, the need for electronic tools that reduce the time burden of implementing an individual education plan (IEP) with pencil and paper methods becomes more apparent. SymTrend is going to expand its Internet and mobile computer/phone-based system for 1) collecting behavior data, 2) charting progress, 3) creating forms for #1 and #2, and 4) communicating within the IEP team, to include digital pen technology. Although this system will be tested with monitoring lower functioning children with autism, it has immediate relevance to a wide range of special education, mental health, and medical applications. The hypothesis is that this digital pen-based system will save time and money in the education of children on the spectrum and will enhance communication between schools and families.

Abstract: In Phase I, we designed and tested a Portable Visual Guidance System (PVGS), which combines a PDA - for user guidance - and an Internet website - for linking the user to an educational support team. Use of the PVGS 1) significantly improved the in vivo social pragmatics of students diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome/Higher Functioning Autism (AS/HFA); 2) revealed additional ways of improving social pragmatics; and 3) improved activity management in scheduling and vocational tasks.
In Phase II, we will focus on social pragmatics and two closely related skills: feelings management and assignment management. We aim to:
Replicate Phase I success in the most educational setting for AS/HFA high school aged students: mainstream school inclusion classes.
Replicate Phase I findings more efficiently, with a less highly trained, on-site coaching staff and with more distant (non-site) expert supervision of that staff.
Contrast the outcomes of the curriculum with a diagnosis-matched wait-list control group.
Develop and implement software that will enable on-site staff to create and modify individualized guidance and monitoring screens as needs arise.
Design a commercially attractive package of software, video training, video-conferenced support, and manuals.
Complete the translation of the SymTrend website and all the above tools into Spanish.
Significance: Successful completion of Phase II will:
Provide a very effective and comprehensive system for teaching social pragmatics and related management skills to AS/HFA persons in an inclusion context.
Provide a means of evaluating IEP effectiveness, thereby enabling a better use of special education funds and a reduction of litigation over IEP plan appropriateness and utility.
Provide substantial support for our theoretical rationale for curriculum building in Special Education - a rationale that can guide the formulation of IEPs.
Provide a theoretical rationale, an intervention framework, and intervention support technology that can be extended to cognitive behavioral treatment of other neuropsychiatric disorders and can be adapted for other forms of healthcare guidance.
Provide an investigative system, as well as an intervention system, for tracking behavioral change in studies of frontal lobe and limbic neuroplasticity in neuropsychiatric disorders.