Development of a Haptic Performance Diagnostics Device for Children with Developmental Disorder

Abstract

Almost children with developmental disorder have symptoms of hypoesthesia and/or hyperesthesia. Touch sensation disorder is focused on this study. DSM-IV-TR and/or DSM-V are not enough to be able to diagnose them as a case of hypoesthesia and/or hyperesthesia. Furthermore, they refuse to touch other person, e.g. family or friends, and objects, because they dislike the pain-like sense, e.g. tickle, itch or sore. The purpose of this study was to develop a new haptic performance diagnostic device for children with developmental disorder. This device was constructed of the pressure sensor, of the two peltier devices and of the speaker. This device was able to present complex senses, e.g. titillate, itch and sore. Twelve human volunteers (ten men and two women) were instructed to put their three-finger’s tips on the device, and they orally answered the pre-defined haptic cognition senses. The results showed that the device was able to present the tickle, itch or sore by human fingers, and/or wrist, and/or elbow. That is, this device could present their dislike senses by a quantitative way. Furthermore, this study is on going to the therapeutic application in the future.