Emotional dysregulation problems seem to affect more than 80% of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may include irritability, aggressive behaviors, self-injury, and anxiety. Even though these types of problems are very common and affect the well-being of individuals with ASD, there are no objective assessment tools developed for this population and there are only a few intervention techniques meant to address these symptoms. This study investigates the feasibility of using off-the-shelf wearable devices to accurately measure heart rate, which has been associated with emotional dysregulation, and to test the effectiveness of functional communication training in reducing the emotional outburst in preschoolers with ASD. We used a single-case experiment design with three preschoolers with ASD to test if the duration of the emotional outburst and the elevated heart rate levels can be reduced by using functional communication training. Our results show that for two of the participants, the intervention was effective in reducing the duration of behaviors associated with emotional outburst, and that there were significant differences between baseline and intervention phase in terms of heart rate levels. However, our results are inconclusive regarding the association between elevated heart rates and the occurrence of the emotional outburst. Nevertheless, more research is needed to investigate the use of off-the-shelf wearable devices in predicting challenging behaviors in children with ASD.
Keywords: autism spectrum disorders; emotional dysregulation; functional communication training; physiological data.