Doctors may soon have a powerful tool to diagnose autism in children. A new movement-tracking video game has proven to distinguish autistic children from their non-autistic peers with an impressive 80% success rate.
The game doesn’t just diagnose autism. It also helps differentiate children with autism from those with ADHD, a task that often confounds clinicians. With 70% accuracy, it’s a step forward in clarifying these often overlapping diagnoses.
CAMI: THE VIDEO GAME TOOL
The tool, called the Computerized Assessment of Motor Imitation (CAMI), engages children to follow a dance-like character on screen. This activity lasts for one minute. Two cameras—one placed in front and one behind—record the child’s movements, which are then analyzed to calculate a score.
This score ranges from 0 (no imitation) to 1 (perfect imitation). It provides valuable insight into a child’s ability to imitate movements. This ability is a key component of human communication, often affected by autism.
SENSORY-MOTOR CHALLENGES IN AUTISM
Traditional views of autism often emphasize social communication difficulties. However, sensory-motor challenges, which affect movement imitation, play a significant role and may even underlie communication struggles. Autistic children frequently have difficulty imitating body movements and expressions, which are vital for communication.
“CAMI taps into these sensory-motor difficulties, showing that they are not shared with children with ADHD,” says Bahar Tunçgenç, a researcher at Nottingham Trent University.
TESTING CAMI ON CHILDREN
The study tested CAMI on 183 children aged 7 to 13. This included 21 diagnosed solely with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 35 with ADHD, 63 with both ASD and ADHD, and 65 neurotypical children. The children underwent traditional diagnostic assessments, alongside their performance in the video game.
Low CAMI scores among the children with autism were closely linked to increased autism symptoms. These symptoms particularly involved social behavior and repetitive actions. These scores, however, were not associated with ADHD traits or motor abilities, highlighting CAMI’s potential to distinguish between the two conditions.
INSIGHTS INTO ADHD AND NEUROTYPICAL CHILDREN
For children diagnosed with ADHD, CAMI scores were higher than those of children with both ASD and ADHD, but similar to the ASD-only group. This suggests the system may need further refinement to be fully reliable for diagnostic purposes.
In contrast, neurotypical children showed a closer link between their CAMI scores, inattention, and motor abilities, making the system useful in distinguishing typical development from autism.
A SIMPLE, FUN TOOL FOR DIAGNOSIS
“What really makes CAMI so exciting is its simplicity,” Tunçgenç says. “Video games are already popular. It’s fun for kids and provides fast, easy-to-interpret results for clinicians. My hope is that CAMI will eventually be used in clinical practices everywhere to help diagnose autism.”
