Autism Digital Phenotyping in Preschool- and School-Age Children.
Vikram Aikat, Kimberly L H Carpenter, Pradeep Raj Krishnappa Babu and 8 others
PMID 40176346WHAT IT FOUND
On a tablet app, autistic children aged 3 to 8 looked less at social parts of movies, moved their heads more, and faced the screen less than neurotypical children, while the bubble-popping game did not separate groups.
Key findings
01Most camera-based behavior features differed between autistic and neurotypical children, but the bubble-popping touch features did not.
02The app's measured behaviors were stable across repeated administrations.
03Among autistic children, several app features were related to caregiver-reported adaptive behavior and autism-trait scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The groups differed in intellectual ability, and this affected some app features. The study did not include children with other neurodevelopmental conditions, so it cannot show the app separates autism from language delay or ADHD. Only 135 of 149 children had valid app data, and only 67 children had two valid app administrations. The sample was mostly White and had highly educated caregivers. The app features separated groups, not individual children; diagnostic cutoffs were not tested. The bubble-popping task showed a ceiling effect in older children.
Declared interests
The article is labelled as supported by NIH, non-U.S. government, and U.S. government (non-PHS) research support. Geraldine Dawson is on the scientific advisory boards of Tris Pharma, Inc. and the Nonverbal Learning Disability Project.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this app can diagnose autism or replace clinical assessment. The study compared groups and showed relationships, not individual diagnostic accuracy, and it did not test the app against other neurodevelopmental conditions.