In Australia, there has been designed a new smartphone app able to detect signs of autism in babies as young as 12 months. Experts declared that the application will help giving more children with the condition the chance to receive early intervention.
According to ABC Online, fewer than 3 percent of children with autism are diagnosed before the age of two and the average age of autism diagnosis in the country is four years old.
Among the signs of autism at a 18 months old children are included: avoiding eye contacts, not imitating actions of others when inviting, not using gestures like nodding or waving goodbye and not sharing smiles without being touched or tickled first.
Dr. Josephine Barbaro, psychologist and autism expert, declared that children benefiting from early diagnosis have the best chance of successful outcomes. She explained that because, currently, not many people have access to specialists in early detection and diagnosis of autism. The new smartphone app for autism diagnosis will revolutionize the way to identify autism.
The autism detection app was developed by La Trobe University and Salesforce, according to Herald Sun. Anyone can access from the comfort of their homes the cutting edge research integrated in the ASDetect application. Parents are taken through a series of questions and tests that help indentify if their children suffer of symptoms of autism. In case that the application detects autism warning signs, it informs parents via a message and advises them to get a proper assessment and seek professional help.
According to Dr. Barbaro, the ASDetect smartphone application isn't a diagnosis tool for autism but it is designed just as an early assessment of the likelihood of having autism. She added that typically it takes as much as four years to receive a formal diagnosis from the moment a parent believes their child may have autism.
Service provider Autism Spectrum Australia (ASPECT) has favorably received the ASDetect app, but explained that this smartphone application should not be used as a stand-alone tool since it is not a replacement of a formal diagnosis.
