Using Eye-Tracking Technology to Advance Early Detection and Treatment of Autism

Transcript

• 00:00[♪♪♪]
• 00:05- Children with autism vary from one another
• 00:08and that's what creates this amazing spectrum
• 00:11that we often are puzzled about and try to understand.
• 00:16- Every family has a different story.
• 00:18Families are coming to us more often than not
• 00:21with a concern about their child's development.
• 00:24Many of them may have concerns specific for autism,
• 00:28but many of them do not, so we really try
• 00:31to meet the families where they are.
• 00:40- One of the big breakthroughs in the past several years
• 00:44has been the fact that now
• 00:46we can diagnose autism very early.
• 00:48We can diagnose autism early in the second year of life.
• 00:51- [Dr. Powell] The concerns that parents are raising
• 00:53at 18 or 24 months are actually skills
• 00:55that we would expect a child to have
• 00:58by their first birthday.
• 01:00- [Dr. Chawarska] At this point, we don't have a biological marker
• 01:02for autism so we cannot run a blood test or a brain screen.
• 01:06So in order to diagnose a child, we need to conduct
• 01:09a behavioral assessment.
• 01:11- A toddler who's presenting in our research program
• 01:14or our clinic, it's almost like being in an environment
• 01:17where you're exposed to almost like a different language
• 01:19and you don't understand what's happening,
• 01:21but you also don't necessarily understand
• 01:23the social norms that are happening.
• 01:25- One of the defining features of autism in toddlers
• 01:30is that they have difficulties monitoring faces
• 01:34of interactive partners.
• 01:36They don't look at people who try to engage them
• 01:39using eye contact or speech.
• 01:41- Learning tends to happen most by children observing
• 01:45what other people are doing.
• 01:47So if a child's not necessarily paying attention
• 01:49to someone's face or what they're doing,
• 01:52they're missing those opportunities
• 01:54to learn about the world.
• 02:06- [Dr. Chawarska] Eye-tracking technology allows us to show,
• 02:08for instance, a video to a child
• 02:11and then through the use of special cameras,
• 02:13record their point of regard with very high accuracy.
• 02:18And by looking at this data, we can determine very closely
• 02:21where the children are looking,
• 02:23what they are paying attention to.
• 02:25- Are they paying attention to the objects?
• 02:27Are they paying attention to the people, the faces?
• 02:30Where on the face are they looking?
• 02:32- [Dr. Chawarska] By using this technology, we were able to show
• 02:35that toddlers with autism have major difficulties
• 02:38in social attention.
• 02:40We were also able to show that infants
• 02:42are also showing the same kind of difficulties
• 02:45way before the behavioral symptoms
• 02:47of autism begin to emerge.
• 02:49By studying how infants tend to the social world,
• 02:53we can also learn about their strengths and weaknesses.
• 03:05- Early intervention is crucial.
• 03:06Early identification is crucial.
• 03:08So we spend a lot of time with the families
• 03:11trying to figure out what would be best for their child
• 03:14to work on language and communication,
• 03:16social engagement, daily living skills.
• 03:20So more often than not, we're recommending a team
• 03:22of professionals come together to work
• 03:24with the child and family.
• 03:26- [Dr. Chawarska] So early in development, the brain is extremely plastic
• 03:30and it develops depending on the kinds of experiences
• 03:34it encounters in the world.
• 03:35So we believe that providing children with autism
• 03:38with more normative experiences is going to
• 03:42maybe not ameliorate symptoms of autism entirely,
• 03:46but at least change their developmental trajectories
• 03:50and optimize their outcome.
• 03:52- We do see children who make remarkable progress
• 03:56and are able to access regular education.
• 03:59They can have good relationships, they can hold jobs,
• 04:02they can go to college.
• 04:03So the outcomes of our young children with autism
• 04:07who have had the experience of early intervention
• 04:10has been kind of mind-blowing in a way
• 04:12about how much progress can be made.
• 04:15- [Dr. Chawarska] If we give this child capacity to communicate
• 04:20using animals, using gestures, eye contact,
• 04:23pictures, or words, the whole new world
• 04:26opens up to this child.