A team of scientists thinks they have struck a new quick and easy tool that could help diagnose autistic children. Using a one -minute video game, their study revealed that it was possible to properly distinguish children from 7 to 13 years old from neurotypical children with a success rate of 80%.
“In my opinion, our current ways to diagnose autism and ADHD are no longer adapted to the objective,” Dr. Bahar Tunçgenç, principal author of Dr. Bahar Tunçgenç, of the University of Nottingham Trent, in Iflscience. “We have too many long tests that are based either on self-assessment or on observations on your adjustment to the company, which are intrinsically subjective.”
“Our health systems desperately need objective, fast and profitable methods that have a solid evidence behind them. We hope that, in the future, Cami can complete existing methods to support clinical assessments. »»
Tunçgenç and the team, which also includes scientists from Kennedy Krieger Institute in Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and Pennsylvania University, hope that their new approach could help fill this gap. In addition to properly identifying autistic children of their non-self-self-self-like peers, they were also able to differentiate the autism from ADHD with a precision of 70%. This is important because there can be a lot of crossing between these two diagnoses.
“Autism and ADHD co-occupied at around 50 to 70%,” said Tunçgenç. “Because the two conditions are diagnosed mainly on the basis of behavioral observations, the diagnosis takes not only a lot of time, but it is also subject to errors. And this is problematic because although autism and ADHD have similarities, the treatment routes can be very varied. »»
It is not often that you were doing a study with children, and they want to “go another”.
Dr Bahar Tunçgenç
The study involved 183 children who were invited to copy dance movements carried out by a video game avatar. Think of Tiktok Dance, and you will be in the right stadium. They only had to imitate the movements for 1 minute, and their performance was recorded by cameras in front and behind them. A previously developed algorithm called CAMP (computerized assessment of the engine imitation) then assigned a score between 0 and 1, 1 being a perfect imitation of the video avatar. Each child has repeated the evaluation twice, and some other standardized diagnostic tests have also been used.
The idea of using motor imitation in diagnoses is what distinguishes this study, according to researchers.
“Autism has generally been marked by communicative social difficulties, such as the difficulty of maintaining visual contact or understanding social norms, either restricted and repetitive behavior, such as swinging or intense interest in a subject,” said Tunçgenç in Iflscience. “But research shows more and more that autistic people have sensory and engines difficulties, certain estimates pointing to 88% of people with autistic people encountering a difficulty linked to the movement.”
But another great advantage of this approach is that the test is really pleasant. If you have Gen Alpha children in your life, you will know the magnetic power of an online dance trend.
“Personally, I was very excited by the pleasure of children with the Cami task. It is not often that you were doing a study with children, and they want to “go”, “said Tunçgenç. “It is really rewarding to see that we could develop something that is not only very precise and useful, but also puts a smile on the faces of children!”
Although we need solutions on overwhelming demand for autism assessments, you cannot cut the corners when it comes to diagnosing autism.
Anoushka Pattenden
The team is enthusiastic about the idea of Cami’s future and plans to carry out other studies in groups of more diverse people. However, it is a complex clinical landscape. Iflscience also spoke to a charitable organization based in the United Kingdom The National Autistic Society, which raised certain concerns concerning the approach used in the study.
“Although we need solutions on overwhelmingly demand for autism assessments, you cannot cut the corners with regard to the diagnosis of autism,” said Anoushka Pandenden, manager of research partnerships and participation. “An assessment should be an in -depth process carried out by qualified professionals, carefully considering the forces, challenges and needs of a person.”
“It is concern that this research suggests that autistic children should imitate others in the context of their development. We know that masking can, in fact, have a devastating impact on mental health, feeling of self and access to diagnosis. »»
Masking is a term that refers to neurodivergenous people removing their natural behavior so that they appear neurotypical; This can be aware or unconscious.
“We do not think that this study has enough weight to have clinical implications,” added Pattenden.
While the authors of the study are planning more research, Tunçgenç told iflscience that they “are already looking forward to starting conversations with clinics that see the usefulness of this approach in their practice”. Researchers also emphasize that Cami could be adapted to work for autistic people with a range of different access needs – it does not require verbal communication, for example.
Tunçgenç explained: “Autism is a notoriously heterogeneous condition. This means that two autistic people can have very different strengths and profiles of difficulty ”- which may also be a sign that we need a variety of different diagnostic tools in our arsenal.
One thing on which Tunçgenç was clear is the importance of giving people the possibility of receiving a precise diagnosis, and the impact that this can have on the trajectory of a child’s life:
“What diagnosis of a child gets enormously, because if you are a neurodiverse person, this diagnostic label is essentially your ticket to access the provisions that will help you navigate in life, whether in school, university , legal systems or workplaces. “
The study is published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
This article has been modified to extend one of the quotes to the speaker’s request.
