New Kit Allows For At-Home Autism Diagnosis

(Updated: September 15, 2009 at 12:48 PM CT)

Want to know if your child has autism? You may not need a doctor anymore. Makers of a new kit say they can screen for autism by monitoring just 16 hours of voice data taken at home.

Here’s how it works: Parents outfit their child in specially designed clothing that includes a slot for an audio recorder. Then, the recorder is placed in the slot and left on for 16 hours so that it can document a full day’s worth of sound. Once complete, parents send the recorder and completed questionnaire back to the kit’s makers for analysis and within a few weeks receive the results.

The kit, called LENABaby, relies on the fact that children with autism make different sounds than their peers.

The results from the screening kit are said to be 91 percent accurate in children as young as 24 months. The system is successful, the makers say, because children are assessed in their natural environment over the course of an entire day, reports Technology Review. To read more click here.

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Comments (1 Response)

bobsuvak says:

September 15, 2009 at 6:59 pm

I am a little sceptical about this announcement of the product from the LENA Foundation. Doing a little research, I found that the LENA Foundation is headed (CEO Terry Paul) by the “creator” of the product. Doing a little research, I could not find the research credentials of Terry Paul, but he is not listed in the LENA website as either a doctor nor a Phd in any field. The 91% accuracy rate seems to be self-reported by LENA and I couldn’t find any published research studies to back it up (except for a slight reference to a study involving 24 people which to me seems to be too small to be significant).

In addition, the LENA Foundation markets the product to clinicians with the following (quoted from LENA website):

“Get a Terrific Report Packet and Drive Business Growth
You pay: $180.00
You bill: $300.00
——————
Your profit: $120.00″

This seems to be a little crass and smacks of another pseudo-science practice aimed at desperate parents … along the line of the junk science pushed by the !DAN (Defeat Autism Now) practitioners.

I urge a lot of caution when reading this article.

– Bob S.