A new artificial intelligence-driven app that can run on a tablet accurately screens for autism in children by measuring and weighing a variety of distinct behavioral indicators.

Called SenseToKnow, the app delivers scores that evaluate the quality of the data analyzed, the confidence of its results, and the probability that the child tested is on the autism spectrum. The results are fully interpretable, meaning that they spell out exactly which of the behavioral indicators led to its conclusions and why.

This ability gives health care providers detailed information on what to look for and consider in children referred for full assessments and intervention. SenseToKnow’s ease of use and lack of hardware limitations, combined with its demonstrated accuracy across sex, ethnicity, and race, could help eliminate known disparities in early autism diagnosis and intervention by allowing autism screening to take place in any setting, even in the child’s own home.

“Autism is characterized by many different behaviors, and not all children on the spectrum display all of them equally, or at all,” says Geraldine Dawson, director of the Center for Autism and Brain Development at Duke University, who is a co-senior author of the study published in Nature Medicine. “This screening tool captures a wide range of behaviors that more accurately reflect the complexity and variability found in autism.”

Read the full article about technology for autism by Ken Kingerly at Futurity.