The UOC and the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital promote improvements in the treatment of children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Between 5% and 10% of the population suffers from a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD), a type of disorder that affects the development of the nervous system and appears in childhood. These disorders cause deficiencies in cognition, language, social development, motor function and behavioural control. Some of the most widely known are autism, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and developmental language disorder (DLD). They have a high impact on the child and their family, often leading to academic failings and behavioural problems. In recent years, new technological tools have emerged that improve research and treatment of children with these conditions.

One of the most internationally renowned groups in the application of technology for the improvement of NDDs is GRECIL, a Cognition and Language research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), which is a member of the eHealth Center's Neurodevelop eHealth Lab. This lab, headed by Llorenç Andreu, GRECIL's lead researcher and professor at the UOC's Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, carries out research to improve the detection and treatment of NDDs with the help of tools such as Kinect devices, which record body movements and voice and allow the patient to interact with the computer; and also eye trackers, devices that record the patient's eye movements.

"Our goal is to better describe the characteristics of these children, to find the most appropriate tools to assess them and the most effective strategies, activities and resources to help them improve. We are motivated to improve their quality of life and that of their families. Our dream would be for our research to no longer be necessary because we've reached the point of normalizing their difficulties," explained Llorenç Andreu.

In addition to GRECIL professionals, the Neurodevelop eHealth Lab is made up of neuropsychologists and speech therapists from the Sant Joan de Déu Children's Hospital. This allows for joint work between the UOC and the Hospital's School Learning Disorders Unit (UTAE), where assessment, diagnosis and treatment services are provided for children and teenagers with cognitive and behavioural difficulties that affect their school learning (specific language impairmen (SLI)/DLD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD, etc.). The group also works in conjunction with the Early Stimulation Service of the Hospital's Neurology Unit, the Department of Education and CREDA educational support services.

Recording different aspects of language

There is an increasing number of technological applications that assist in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. The work carried out by the researcher Luz Rello, the first person to apply artificial intelligence to the diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia, has recently appeared in the press. In the research carried out by Llorenç Andreu's team, the Kinect Azure DK, a state-of-the-art device that enables real-time detection of movements of the skeleton, hand gestures, as well as human voice recognition, plays a key role. In addition to recording specific data on language use (sounds, timings and accuracy of pronunciation, movements, etc.), the device allows applications using gamification to be designed for fun and intensive learning for children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

"We already have a solid track record in the study of language and communication difficulties, we have described the characteristics of specific language impairment (SLI), we have analysed their level of understanding in real time using innovative methods such as the recording of eye movements (eye tracking), and we have also studied some of the possible reasons for children having this disorder," explained Llorenç Andreu.

Future projects

GRECIL is a leading research group in the field of NDD worldwide. Over the last five years it has published around 70 articles in specialized journals and it has a number of lines of research open in the form of doctoral theses that deal with issues such as the audiovisual integration of speech in developmental language disorder (SLI/DLD); bilingualism in autism spectrum disorder; the feminist perspective in the detection, assessment and treatment of children with language difficulties; cognitive biases and false beliefs, etc.

Some of the current projects that have received funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation include PREVENIR, which aims to develop a programme for oral language treatment in children to prevent reading difficulties; and PROGESPRAG, which is researching how prosody and body movements contribute to the interpretation of pragmatic meanings and whether they are useful in children with NDD to access linguistic meaning.

One of the main goals in 2022, Andreu said, is to "focus research on an applied approach that generates knowledge and tools for the direct improvement of children with neurodevelopmental disorders."

The eHealth Center, the academic centre for digital health

The eHealth Center is an academic centre open to the world whose goal is to educate and empower citizens and professionals, through the use of technology, to lead the paradigm shift in health. It is people-centred, using research, education and guidance to contribute to social progress and well-being.

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