New app START can help identify autistic children in India: Study

New Delhi: A new app can identify children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders in India, a study conducted in Delhi has found.

Autism -- also referred to as autism spectrum disorder -- constitutes a diverse group of conditions related to development of the brain.

Autism affects about 1 in 100 children globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The results, published on Friday in the journal Autism, could open the door to help millions of children with autism spectrum conditions to get earlier screening quickly and inexpensively, leading to life-changing support.

Researchers from India, the UK and US tested the app, called START (Screening Tools for Autism Risk using Technology), with 131 two- to seven-year-olds living in low-resource neighbourhoods of Delhi.

The team included researchers from the Indian Institute of Public Health – Bengaluru, and Child Development Group, Sangath.

The tests were carried out at the homes of the children, by non-specialist healthcare workers, educated to high school level.

Through a series of simple games, questions, images and activities on a tablet computer -- such as popping bubbles and looking at patterns and images -- the app measured the social preference, sensory interests and motor skills of the children.

The app was 86 per cent accurate in identifying children with any neurodevelopmental disorders, and 78 per cent accurate in specifically identifying autism, the researchers said.

This performance is significantly higher than standard screening assessments for neurodevelopmental disorders used by non-specialists, they said.

"Autism is diagnosed by highly trained professionals, but most autistic people live in parts of the world that harbour few or no such autism specialists, and with little autism awareness," said Professor Bhismadev Chakrabarti, from the University of Reading, UK.

"So many autistic people go undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or misunderstood, so we designed the START app to identify autism and related conditions anywhere," said Chakrabarti, who led the study.

The START app puts a successful screening tool for autism and related conditions into the hands of the people already working in communities for children's health, he added.

The app makes use of a series of tests that measure different domains of behaviour associated with atypicalities in autism.

Children with neurodevelopmental conditions preferred looking at geometric patterns rather than social scenes, were fascinated by predictable, repetitive sensory stimuli, and had more trouble completing precise tasks with their hands.

The app also included questions for parents, combining all the scores to help distinguish autistic from non-autistic children.

The families and healthcare workers using the app said START was easy to use, fun for children to take part in, and could be used in family homes even with background noise and distractions.

"This work gives us hope that we could one day provide timely objective diagnosis of autism, wherever this is needed, regardless of financial or cultural barriers," said Teodora Gliga, associate professor at the University of East Anglia, and co-author of the study.