Can Autism Be Detected Early?
It’s hard to know if Autism is affecting your child, but is there a way to check in the early stages of infancy?
According to Nature.com, there have been reports that have concluded that brain activity can be scanned by EEGs to determine if a child is having any atypical brain activity.
In the specific study, 99 infants were measured with an EEG, ones that had siblings that have Autism Spectrum Disorder. The information goes on to say the following:
“Prediction of the clinical diagnostic outcome of ASD or not ASD was highly accurate when using EEG measurements from as early as 3 months of age. Specificity, sensitivity and PPV were high, exceeding 95% at some ages. Prediction of ADOS calibrated severity scores for all infants in the study using only EEG data taken as early as 3 months of age was strongly correlated with the actual measured scores. This suggests that useful digital biomarkers might be extracted from EEG measurements.”
Considering that an EEG is a low cost, non-invasive technology, there’s more of a benefit to scanning rather than not.
According to Healthline.com, an early diagnosis can help in the sense of working with the child on how they interact with others and teaching them how to communicate with others as well. Since those are some of the biggest hurdles in a life of Autism, catching it early really has no downside.
To learn more about Autism or to get involved in helping others with Autism, head over to Autism-Society.org.
