Diagnosing Autism Earlier In Life

This could be a significant help to people with autism! If they can diagnose someone with autism before age 1 year they will have so much time in their early developmental stage to help them. People with autism not making eye contact with other people is one of the biggest things associated with autism so I can see where that would be a helpful tool in diagnosing it. In the first trial almost half of the test patients that did not make much eye contact developed autism. That is a very large number for the very first trial, it must mean something.

In the first few years of life a person learn the most. It is shown they take up the largest amount of information in their first five years of life. Most children now are diagnosed anywhere from age two to five, taking up almost all of their curtail developmental time in their life. This can be a very good reason children are not developing as well as they could. If they were diagnosed earlier then they could have the proper treatment, or learning catered towards their needs so they can develop to be all that they can be.

People with autism generally do not like to make eye contact. I have found out by reading books from people who have autism that it is over stimulating. Carly said something like her brain takes a lot of “pictures” of people’s faces, especially when they make eye contact. This could definitely be a sign that someone having autism. I see this as more of a first hint to go get them checked for a test and keep an eye out for further signs, rather than a test in itself.

In the trial they did the researchers noticed that about half of the babies and children that avoid eye contact got diagnosed with autism later in life. That is a pretty significant number for such a small sample and first test. I think they are on to something. The study also showed that it probably is not a good idea to base it off genetics. Only one of the siblings developed autism where half of the subjects developed it that were not making eye contact.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/11/06/autism-sign-may-appear-in-first-months-of-life