Early Diagnosis of ASD in Children

For several decades, the subject of autism has frequently caused a stir whenever it has appeared in news articles across various newspapers and media sites. These articles tend to spark worries in new parents, or further ignite the anger in parents with children who are already diagnosed with autism. Despite multiple research studies stating otherwise, the conversation surrounding autism often ends up leading to the debate on vaccination, and the possible role it plays in children developing autism. Topics of greater concern, such as finding more concrete evidence for the possible cause of autism or developing methods to diagnosis the disorder earlier, frequently end up going unheard by the general population.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), more commonly referred to as just autism, is a developmental disorder that is characterized by a wide range of abnormalities. According to the organization Autism Speaks, this includes “challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as unique strengths and differences”. Data collected by the United States’ Center for Disease Control in 2016 shows that about 1 in every 68 children in the country has been diagnosed with autism. Compared to data collected from previous years, according to the Autism Science Foundation, shows that this new estimate of prevalence in 2016 was almost 30% higher than that the estimate given in 2012. However, this alarming raise in prevalence could simply be due to doctors and psychologist better understanding the disorder, or due to the various changes the criteria defining ASD goes through over the years. Most children with autism are not diagnosed with the disorder until they reach toddlerhood (12 to 36 months), the period in their life when they should show signs in speaking and socializing. Many would agree that earlier diagnosis of the ASD would be very beneficial in helping to at least minimize the effects associated with the disorder.

One such way of developing methods for early diagnosis is to study the brain development of children while they are still infants. Often the infants studied are those with older siblings that have been diagnosed with autism. Time Magazine’s article “Doctors May Be Able to Predict Autism Risk Much Earlier” for example, sheds like on a brain scan study conducted by psychology Heather Cody Hazlett and colleagues at the University of North Carolina. Using MRI scans, a group of infants had their brains scanned multiple times throughout the study in order to observe any change in the brain. These scans were conducted at 6, 12, and 24 months, and were later matched with scans taken at two years old, the time when most children are diagnosed. Comparisons showed that infants with autism exhibited rapid growth in neurons located in the cortex of the brain sometime between the age of six to 12 months. Using their data they were able to create a “formula” to predict which infants would develop autism by the age of two years old. While their conclusions still need to be tested in more infant groups, this new prediction system could help parents and doctors a lot when it comes to minimizing the effects of autism on their own children.

Other studies focusing on autism have looked at specific regions in the brain, such as Dr. Maggie Guy’s research on face processing. In her study on the “Neural correlates of face processing in etiologically-distinct 12-month-old infants at high-risk of autism spectrum disorder”, she hoped to better understand the difference between high-risk ASD children and low-risk ASD children, as well as the distinctions among the high-risk ASD children alone, using event-related potentials (ERPs). Results showed that children with high-risk for ASD exhibited low activity in the N290 area when looking at faces even though ERPs were more frequent when looking at faces compared to toys.

While Dr. Guy’s study doesn’t offer a prediction system like Hazlett’s, understanding the brain activity in young infants is very beneficial in developing methods for earlier diagnosis. With the growing rate of ASD, whether it’s actually due to rise in the disorder or just more awareness of it, early diagnosis would allow for doctors and parents to better minimize its effect on children, and simply help these children adjust to their environment.

Work Cited

Guy, M. W., Richards, J.E., Tonnsen, B. L., & Roberts, J. E. (2017). Neural correlated of face processing in etiologically-distinct 12-month-old infants at high-risk of autism spectrum disorder. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.03.002

How common is autism? (2017). Retrieved from http://autismsciencefoundation.org/what-is-autism/how-common-is-autism/

Park, A. (2017, February). Doctors may be able to predict autism risk much earlier. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://time.com/4671862/autism-spectrum-disorder-babies/?iid=sr-link4

What is autism? (2017). Time Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism