Children with autism experience emotional variations and problems to self-regulate their emotions. These challenging behaviors can be exhibited in the form of aggression, disobedience or self-harm. Challenging behaviors are children with autism who, without adequate intervention, can persist in the long term and put their educational and social opportunities at risk. Some strategies to reduce heart rate include the use of drugs, the practice of breathing exercises and biofeedback systems.
In this project, we proposed Ethereal Breathing, an interactive bio-feedback hologram that promotes breathing in children with autism. Ethereal Breathing has a narrative which guides the child through a story by performing breathing exercises. These exercises are crucial to finish the narrative of the hologram. During this test, a study was conducted at the site where 20 children with autism participated. All the children had two sessions, the first was breathing with a paper guide, and the second was breathing with Ethereal Breathing as a guide.
The results indicate that Ethereal Breathing was better to promote breaths 1.74 times longer, compared to the paper guide. There is also evidence that the heart rate decreased 1.05 points in the session with Etheric Breathing. However, a slight increase in the session was detected with the paper guide. In addition to breathing and heart rate, aspects such as the number of verbal, gestural, model aids that were given and the attention of the children during the activity were evaluated. These results imply that Ethereal Breathing is more efficient as a guide, in the development of exercises in children with autism
Project participants: Monica Tentori (CICESE), Arturo Morales (CICESE)