Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul 2:8:48-69.
doi: 10.21307/sjcapp-2020-006. eCollection 2020.

The use of wearable technology to measure and support abilities, disabilities and functional skills in autistic youth: a scoping review

Melissa H Black  1   2 , Benjamin Milbourn  1   2 , Nigel T M Chen  1   2 , Sarah McGarry  1 , Fatema Wali  1 , Armilda S V Ho  1 , Mika Lee  1 , Sven Bölte  1   2   3   4 , Torbjorn Falkmer  1   2   5 , Sonya Girdler  1   2
Affiliations

The use of wearable technology to measure and support abilities, disabilities and functional skills in autistic youth: a scoping review

Melissa H Black et al. Scand J Child Adolesc Psychiatr Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: Wearable technology (WT) to measure and support social and non-social functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been a growing interest of researchers over the past decade. There is however limited understanding of the WTs currently available for autistic individuals, and how they measure functioning in this population.

Objective: This scoping review explored the use of WTs for measuring and supporting abilities, disabilities and functional skills in autistic youth.

Method: Four electronic databases were searched to identify literature investigating the use of WT in autistic youth, resulting in a total of 33 studies being reviewed. Descriptive and content analysis was conducted, with studies subsequently mapped to the ASD International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core-sets and the ICF Child and Youth Version (ICF-CY).

Results: Studies were predominately pilot studies for novel devices. WTs measured a range of physiological and behavioural functions to objectively measure stereotypical motor movements, social function, communication, and emotion regulation in autistic youth in the context of a range of environments and activities.

Conclusions: While this review raises promising prospects for the use of WTs for autistic youth, the current evidence is limited and requires further investigation.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; ICF; physiology; sensors; wearable devices.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest Dr. Bölte reports personal fees from Medice, Roche, Prima Psychiatry, Hogrefe, grants from Swedish Research Council, ALF, Hjärnfonden, Clas Groschinsky, Promobilia, Region Stockholm, FORTE, outside this work. All other authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Study selection process
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Wright R, Keith L. Wearable technology: If the tech fits, wear it. J Electr Resources Med Libr 2014;11(4):204-16.
    1. Iqbal M, Aydin A, Brunckhorst O, Dasgupta P, Ahmed K. A review of wearable technology in medicine. J R Soc Med 2016;109(10):372-80. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bonato P. Advances in wearable technology for rehabilitation. Stud Health Technol Inform 2009;145:145-59. - PubMed
    1. Dias D, Paulo Silva Cunha J. Wearable health devices—Vital sign monitoring, systems and technologies. Sensors (Basel) 2018;18(8):1-28. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fletcher R, Poh M, Eydgahi H. Wearable sensors: Opportunities and challenges for low-cost health care. 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology; Buenos Aires, Argentina IEEE; 2010. p. 1763-6. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources