A Coding Schema-Based Mobile System for Children With ASD in Mauritania

Abstract

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in many African countries face persistent barriers, including limited diagnostic awareness, scarce specialized resources, and the absence of educational interventions adapted to local contexts. In Mauritania, these challenges are exacerbated by the extreme centralization of autism services, with only two care centers available nationwide. Unlike existing ASD interventions that rely on imported pedagogical models and generic digital tools, this study introduces a context-aware, data-driven educational approach grounded in real classroom practices. We propose a coding schema derived from video annotation of educational sessions conducted with autistic children in Mauritania. This schema serves as the foundation for designing six culturally and linguistically adapted pedagogical scenarios, explicitly targeting cognitive, social, and communicative skills. The scenarios are operationalized through an interactive mobile application, enabling scalable access to structured and personalized learning activities beyond specialized centers. Experimental deployment and qualitative observations indicate improved engagement, task completion, and interaction behaviors among participating children. The proposed framework demonstrates how locally grounded observational data can be transformed into effective digital interventions, offering a replicable model for ASD education in low resource and underrepresented contexts.