Development and Replication of Objective Measurements of Social Visual Engagement to Aid in Early Diagnosis and Assessment of Autism.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Autism spectrum disorder is a common and early-emerging neurodevelopmental condition. While 80% of parents report having had concerns for their child's development before age 2 years, many children are not diagnosed until ages 4 to 5 years or later.

Objective

To develop an objective performance-based tool to aid in early diagnosis and assessment of autism in children younger than 3 years.

Design, setting, and participants

In 2 prospective, consecutively enrolled, broad-spectrum, double-blind studies, we developed an objective eye-tracking-based index test for children aged 16 to 30 months, compared its performance with best-practice reference standard diagnosis of autism (discovery study), and then replicated findings in an independent sample (replication s

SUBMITTER: Jones W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10481232 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature