STAR At Home App

In this project, the team will develop a prototype app to enable multiple communication avenues for families, caregivers, and educators of preschool to primary age children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The app will generate resources and trainings for caregiver-to-educator and educator-to-caregiver interactions to improve alignment about Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and to provide information to improve intervention at home. The app will include a machine learning and natural language processing component that processes spoken language questions and finds the most appropriate resources to address questions. At the end of Phase I, the team will conduct a pilot study with ten special education teachers and 30 caregivers that will test whether the new prototype functions as planned, what components users rate as the most and least useful, and how users rate the potential for the app to improve communication, provide training, obtain data for IEPs, and improve student outcomes.