Prof. dr. Anja Volk

Projects
Project
AlgoRhythm: Assessing and ameliorating sensory processing deficits of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder employing a serious rhythmic game
Role
Project Leader
Individual project description

The goal of this interdisciplinary project is to develop and evaluate a serious rhythmic game, which allows to measure the effects of sensory stimuli on real-time behavioral responses of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and to train them in improving their individual sensory processing deficits. Children with ASD have problems with processing stimuli from their environment, which causes problems for their ability to play and communicate with others. Recent pilot studies indicate that therapeutic interventions based on musical rhythms help detecting these sensory processing challenges, and can improve planning and execution strategies of children with ASD. Our rhythmic game will enable to gather tapping data from children while playing along a series of musical rhythms with different complexity on a tablet, and to train children’s rhythmic skills in a playful manner. Gathering data on a large scale with this rhythmic game, will allow us to corroborate previous findings on temporal deficits of children with ASD and to pave the way for tailor-made interventions that emphasize the execution and control of movements at the sensorimotor level, optimized for an individual child. This interdisciplinary project is carried out in collaboration with the UMCU, comprising the areas of serious gaming, music technology, music therapy, and data science. 

 

Funding
Utrecht University Dynamics of Youth Invigoration Grant