Analysis of early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder children based on three-minute videos

Abstract

Objective To explore the difference in early symptoms between 2-3 years old autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children and healthy children through video analysis, in order to provide evidence for the identification and screening of ASD children. Methods The study involved 25 cases of ASD children who were admitted to Children Development and Behavior Center, the Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, and confirmed with diagnosis standards of Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Medical Disorder 5th edition (DSM-5) and 21 healthy children recruited in community.Three-minute videos of children in standard procedure were collected.After that, all the videos were scored on 5 items by 2 professional evaluators, unaware of diagnostic status.Comparison analysis of video scores between ASD and the healthy controls was made, and the sensitivity and specificity of video analysis were evaluated. Results Response to roll-call score was higher in ASD children [2(2) scores]than that of the healthy children [0(0) scores], response to audible object score was higher in ASD children [0(1) scores] than that of the healthy children [0(0) scores], social smiling score was higher in ASD children [1(1) scores] than that of the healthy children [0(1) scores], and total score was higher in ASD children [4(2) scores] than that of the healthy children [2(0) scores], and the differences were statistically significant(Z=2.272, P=0.000; Z=0.976, P=0.010; Z=1.763, P=0.001; Z=2.355, P=0.000). But, no difference was found in speech and finger pointing (all P>0.05). The consistency between three-minute video analysis and standard diagnosis was 0.652(P=0.000), with 80.0% of sensitivity and 85.7% of specificity. Conclusions The ASD children perform worse than the healthy children in response to roll-call, response to audible object and social smiling.Three-minute standard video analysis can help to detect the early symptoms of ASD children.This result also demonstrates the potential of video-based analysis used as a ASD screening instrument in 2-3 years old children. Key words: Early symptom; Autism spectrum disorder; Video analysis