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Using Natural Language Processing for Autism Trigger Extraction

Conference Paper · November 2014

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Gondy Leroy Margaret Kurzius-Spencer

The University of Arizona The University of Arizona
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 Using Natural Language Processing for Autism Trigger Extraction
Gondy Leroy, PhD, Margaret Kurzius-Spencer, PhD, Sydney Pettygrove, PhD
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Abstract:
The Arizona Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Approach
Program collects and abstracts special education and
Lexicon Development Extraction Rules Development
clinical records on 8-year old children with behaviors
suggestive of autism. Natural language processing
(NLP) tools are developed as part of a feasibility study ARCHE MANUAL Records
of information extraction for further text mining of the
information. The NLP algorithms combine standard
components with customized gazetteers and finite Tokenizer
Identify
state automata. The algorithms were evaluated on 36
records from which 19 triggers were extracted with trigger words Sentence Splitter
68% precision.
POS Tagger
Goal: JAPE Rules Gazetteers
• Develop NLP tools to extract relevant information Tagging
automatically and compare information across Gazetteers
study years.
JAPE Rules
• Development using small set of records from
ARCHE DB
Extracted Trigger
Evaluation and Results
Records Table 1. Words in Customized Gazetteers Table 2. Results
• Thirty-six abstracted, de-identified records Gazetteer & JAPE N 2000 2006 2010 All Years
• selected at random N=12 N=12 N=12 N=36
• from two school districts in Arizona
• from study years 2000, 2004 and 2008. Social Connectedness / 33 / 21 Words / Record 589 396 481 488
Nonsocial Connectedness
Results Sentences / 32 23 26 27
Social Object / Nonsocial 41 / 17
• 19 triggers automatically extracted from Object Record
the text Social Gesture / Nonsocial 85 / 27 Trigger Words / 39 28 32 33
• 68% precision Gesture Record
• Example: “lack of social or emotional Inappropriate (manner) 18 Triggers / Record 0.42 0.42 0.75 0.53
reciprocity” Excessive (manner) 26
Trigger Count 5 5 9 19
• Errors were generally due to too general Absent (manner) 65
extractions, e.g., “not play imaginative Precision 80 80 56 0.10
JAPE rules 18
games” is not sufficiently specific to ASD.
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