I read this article in the newspaper, and have subsequently seen various arguments online as to the positives and negatives of the scan.
Whether or not this will materialize into a useful tool or not to help diagnose autism in the earliest years over the next few years’ remains to be seen, however, it is encouraging to see that there are companies hard at work exploring and developing diagnostic tools.
If you have gone through the “traditional”, testing process for autism, you would know that there are generally wait lists, no conclusive tests for very young children, and rely heavily on observation and interpretation of a clinical examiner. There are many global development disorders which may appear to be autism.
Even once there has been an official diagnosis of autism, there cannot be 100% assurance. In our community because families of children have access to government funded programs for early behavioral intervention, there is always a push (financial benefit) to confirm the diagnosis of autism. Another issue with these programs is that due to long wait lists for testing (due to so few registered testing facilities), the children who need the treatment the most end up losing half or more of the treatment funding due to delayed or late diagnosis.
The causes of autism are still unknown with certainty and you can read some of our previous posts for a few of the popular concepts, but it is inspiring that people are working on diagnostic tests, even if the initial test parameters and cases are configured to provide positive results, without early positive results there would be no funding, and no development.
Daniel
Source: The Vancouver Sun
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