Computer vision analysis captures atypical attention in toddlers with autism.
Kathleen Campbell, Kimberly Lh Carpenter, Jordan Hashemi and 12 others
PMID 29595333WHAT IT FOUND
The tablet task did not find a difference in whether toddlers oriented to name at least once.
It did find toddlers with autism were slower and less consistent when they did orient, but it is not ready for clinic use.
Key findings
01The tablet task did not find a difference between groups in whether toddlers oriented to name at least once: 49 of 82 comparison toddlers and 10 of 22 toddlers with ASD oriented at least once.
02Among toddlers who oriented to name, 31 of 49 comparison participants oriented multiple times, while 1 of 12 toddlers with ASD oriented multiple times.
03Toddlers with ASD took longer to start turning to their name: mean 2.02 seconds, compared with 1.06 seconds in comparison toddlers; the reported difference was 0.96 seconds (95% CI 0.05-1.89, p=0.04).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The ASD group was small, with 22 toddlers, so group differences need confirmation. The task did not elicit orienting as often as expected: only 60% of comparison toddlers oriented at least once, while past studies report 82-100% orienting within three trials. The groups differed in age, mean 21.91 months for comparison toddlers and 26.19 months for toddlers with ASD, and age was adjusted for. The tablet results did not agree well with parent or clinician ratings at the individual level; agreement was 59% with M-CHAT-R/F and 38% with ADOS-T for ASD participants. The diagnostic accuracy was limited: specificity was 38%, and the high sensitivity was based on a post-hoc 2 second rule. The study included only English-speaking families and excluded vision or hearing deficits, so results may not apply to all children. This was a single observational study of a measurement task, not a treatment study or a validated clinical screening tool.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include an author conflict of interest statement. The publication types list NIH extramural research support and other U.S. and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the tablet task as a diagnostic test. The groups did not differ in whether toddlers oriented at least once, and the task failed to elicit orienting in many comparison children. The timing findings came from a small sample and are not validated for clinic use.