LONDON: In a potentially major breakthrough for early identification of autism, scientists have found that the disorder could be diagnosed by allowing children to play games on smartphones and tablets.
Jonathan Delafield-Butt from University of Strathclyde in the UK and colleagues used fun iPad games to track players’ hand movements – gathering information that can help identify autism.
The research team found that the technology could offer an accessible and less intrusive way to diagnose the developmental disorder.
“We have shown that children with autism can be identified by their gameplay patterns on an iPad,” said Delafield-Butt.
“This is potentially a major breakthrough for early identification of autism, because no stressful and expensive tests by clinicians are needed. Early detection is important as this can allow parents and children to gain access to a range of services support,” he said.
“This new ‘serious game’ assessment offers a cheaper, faster, fun way of testing for autism. But more work is needed to confirm this finding, and to test for its limitations.
“This study is the first step towards a validated instrument. Interestingly, our study goes further in elucidating the origins of autism, because it turns out that movement is the most important differentiator in the gameplay data,” said Delafield-Butt.
In other words, it is not social, emotional, or cognitive aspects of the gameplay that identify autism.
Rather, the key difference is in the way children with autism move their hands as they touch, swipe and gesture with the iPad during the game.
“This unexpected finding adds new impetus to a growing scientific understanding that movement is fundamentally disrupted in autism, and may underpin the disorder,” said Delafield-Butt.
“Early assessment of autism allows timely therapeutic intervention, but professional diagnosis of the disorder is difficult and time-consuming,” said Anna Anzulewicz, Director of Research at start-up Harimata, that develops mobile technology for improving early assessment of developmental disorders.
“Our aim was to develop a test that would be intuitive, fast, fun and engaging for the children. IPad-based games seemed to be perfect, and they are embedded with powerful sensors, which allow for the precise measurement of the children’s play dynamics,” said Anzulewicz.
In the study, researchers examined movement data gathered from 37 children with autism, aged three to six years. The children were asked to play games on smart tablet computers with touch-sensitive screens and embedded movement sensors.
Autism spectrum disorder is a childhood neurodevelopmental disorder, and its global prevalence is estimated at one in 160 children.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. (AGENCIES)
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