An Interactive System for Assessing Visual-Cognitive Abilities in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) currently relies heavily on standardized rating scales and systematic clinical observations. However, these traditional methods are constrained by subjective recall bias and a dependency on specialized medical resources, highlighting an urgent need for objective early assessment tools. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel desktop touch-based interactive system. The system designs multi-stage testing paradigms for color and shape cognition. It extracts internal interaction data via system event logging, and acquires external behavioral data utilizing camera video recordings and algorithmic processing. A controlled experiment involving 20 subjects (10 ASD, 10 typically developing) demonstrated that children with ASD exhibit significant heterogeneity compared to typically developing (TD) children across task completion, accuracy, reaction time, and attentional metrics. These quantitative results effectively capture atypical cognitive mechanisms, such as Weak Central Coherence and Executive Dysfunction, providing rigorous objective behavioral markers for clinical ASD assessment.