Clinic Notes: Using Cartoons To Detect Autism at An Early Age

Everyone agrees that the earlier that you start treatment for children with autism the better. In fact some studies indicate that early ABA can even prevent autism. Yale University researchers may have come up with a novel way to detect autism using stick figures playing pat-a- cake in various orientations. They found that whichever way they oriented the figures--upside down--right side up did not mater. The young children with autism paid no attention to them. However, when the figure started clapping and singing in time with the nursery rhyme the child with autism paid attention. Auditory-visual synchronicity was what caught the child's attention. Normal children paid more attention to the figure's movements and ignored the auditory-visual synchronicity.