(Another) New Test to Detect Autism in Infants

Images from stick figure cartoons have been dancing in my head since reading about a new study in Nature by Yale researchers, including Ami Klin, about detecting autism in infants. From the BBC:

In the Yale study, researchers created five versions of animated children's games such as 'peek-a-boo' and 'pat-a-cake' where points of light marked movement, each with sound.

On the other half of the screen, the same animation was presented upside down and in reverse, but with the same audio as the upright version.

Previous studies have shown that, normally, children's attention is drawn to such changes from around eight months old.

Of the children in the study, 21 had autism spectrum disorders, 16 had developmental problems that were not related to ASDs, and 39 were developing normally. While the latter two clearly preferred to look at the upright versions of the animations, the children with ASDs "showed no preference and looked backwards and forwards between the two halves of the screen." But when a cartoon of motion clearly keyed to sound was shown---an animation of "pat-a-cake," with the figure clapping his hands repeatedly---the children on the spectrum showed a preference for the upright animation 66% of the time. As noted in WedMD:

Klin explains that within a few days after birth, typically developing children prefer watching biological motion -- the movement of living beings, such as their parents -- and that preference is an important survival skill and a building block for relationships.

But Klin's group found that autistic children were more interested in "nonsocial contingencies," which are synchronicities that don't have any social meaning -- like two balls colliding and making a sound, or a stone falling when someone drops it.

It would be helpful to know if other animations evoked the same preferences in children on the spectrum in contrast to typically developing children and children with delays not related to ASDs. It does seem to me that Charlie, when an infant and toddler, was much more likely to be attentive to a repetitive sound or motion. The pairing of both of these would have especially increased the likelihood of him attending: I'm thinking particularly of 9 month or so old Charlie sitting in one of those Boppy pillows in a red outfit, on the floor of the room Jim used to write and lay out his research files in a house we were renting in St. Louis, back in 1998. We liked to joke that it was "Boys Only Club" or some such in the room and one night I "snuck" in to find Jim sitting on the floor across from Charlie, eager to show me how Charlie had the biggest grin and bright eyes when Jim tossed a soft ball up to the ceiling. The ball made a soft thunk and then fell to the carpet, and Jim picked up the ball and tossed it up again, all with Charlie watching the whole process and laughing at the sight.

At the sight, but especially the motion, the thunk, the rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall of the ball.

One reason I remember the whole scene so well is, or must be, because (not that we realized this then as we do now, in hindsight) it was not that easy to get Charlie's attention.

On the other hand, Charlie, when very young and throughout his life, has had a limited attention span for any cartoon or animations, so I'm not sure how he would respond to a test in which he was to watch a cartoon. Charlie's never been captivated by Disney cartoons, resulting in me admitting to a group of people on Sunday that I've never seen The Little Mermaid. I do know some of the songs by heart ("Under the sea.....''----ok, that song alone is grounds for a whole other post.....) which attests, somewhat, to Charlie's always being more, if not mostly, attentive to sound, from his babyhood until today.

Some other new methods of identifying autism in babies and very young children, with the idea that, the earlier autism is diagnosed, the earlier a child might start therapy: Strange play---assymetry in infants' movements---eye movements and eye tracking---facial structures and brain abnornalities.