In this Phase II SBIR application, Experiad Solutions proposes to complete the development of Motivity, a new type of software that has the potential to modernize the practice of behavioral therapy for autism. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an evidence-based autism treatment that is practiced by over 20,000 Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs ) in the US. BCBAs analyze a child?s unique needs, then construct an individualized curriculum of skill acquisition and behavior modification programs consisting of sequences of progressive targets to be achieved. Each BCBA adheres to an intervention model, either formal or informal, which is comprised of the specific teaching instructions in their program library and the accompanying rules that define how targets are introduced, scored, and mastered. The BCBA supervises a Behavioral Technician (BT), who conducts the therapy and collects performance data. The BCBA analyzes the data to determine mastery and adjust programs as needed. This structured, data-driven process is critical to the effectiveness of ABA therapy, but the labor-intensive workflow limits a BCBA to supervising a small number of BTs at a time. The demand for ABA services far-outstrips the availability of qualified providers, many of whom have waiting lists of hundreds of families. Software systems can theoretically help improve provider efficiency and collaboration, but the vast majority of ABA service providers still use paper methods. Existing systems do not offer a compelling enough value-proposition to switch from paper, due to insufficient expressiveness, lack of knowledge management tools, and inadequate mechanisms for communicating instructions and answering questions. Many ABA service providers have spent years developing and fine-tuning their own libraries of paper programs, and they reject the idea of compromising their practice to fit a rigid third party system. Motivity overcomes these limitations by enabling BCBAs to implement their own software intervention delivery system that preserves the rich semantic content of their paper-based model. Motivity achieves this through a unique approach that lets BCBAs author their ABA programs using a concise, high-level markup language. This approach is far more flexible than template-based systems, allowing a wider range of programs to be modeled, and greatly streamlines the process of creating, modifying, and maintaining those programs. The Motivity platform translates the programs into custom data collection apps that allow BCBAs to remotely supervise BTs as data are being collected in the field, viewing the result of each trial instantaneously as it is entered. Motivity will support context-integrated two-way consultation, enabling virtual supervision or assistance, potentially reducing the frequency of BCBA travel to the child?s home where the therapy is being performed. Furthermore, Motivity will allow supervisors to make changes to the curriculum at any time, thereby enabling a much more agile therapy process. The 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 Motivity, a software system that has the potential to modernize the practice of behavioral therapy for autism. Currently, 20,000 behavior analysts supervise behavior technicians in performing data-driven interventions such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), but they commonly rely on paper methods for data collection and analysis. Motivity provides a powerful knowledge management solution for moving from paper to automated methods, resulting in more efficient therapy, more agile program tuning, and improved collaboration and supervision.
