A low-cost tool accurately distinguishes neurotypical children from children with autism just by watching them copy the dance moves of an on-screen avatar for a minute. It can even tell autism from ADHD, conditions that commonly overlap.

[u/mvea]

https://newatlas.com/adhd-autism/autism-motion-detection-diagnosis/

[u/DoctorStarbuck → u/[deleted]]

I don't know how it works in your country, but in mine Psychologists can and do diagnose patients and it's valid nationwide even though most places still ask for a doctor's opinion.

The way I do it is:

1. I never look only for ASD or ADHD, I always look for both, since they commonly overlap in symptoms and there's a high occurrence of comorbidity.

2. I interview the person(or the caretakers) first to check for symptoms.

3. I then start doing the tests (I use 5 of them).

4. I then run a last session to check everything symptom by symptom.

5. If needed I then ask to interview a close relative of their choosing, or the significant other and run a sixth test.

All this process usually takes around 8 sessions(50min~1h each), sometimes 9 or 10 if needed.

1. With children I usually visit(or facetime) a teacher(after talking to the caretakers, the children and the school, so everyone must be ok with it) to interview them and recheck everything, first hearing them and after that, making specific questions about what I need to check.

2. Only then I check/correct(I don't know the word) the exams so that their results won't impact my interviews. It's extremally rare, but if I still am not 100% sure, I can ask for another session.

3. I make the report/paper with the diagnosis, containing every test, every symptom I was able to identify and the ICD-11.

So, in my case, the CAMI score wouldn't impact that much, it would be another tool I use, and since all of the tools must be pointing to the same place(or the result must be explained by other conditions or something that happened during the test), I know it wouldn't define anything.

But yeah, I always see psychiatrists doin the "same" work in a 15~40min session, with no test whatsoever and their signature always worth more.

[u/PsyCurious007 → u/DoctorStarbuck]

Do you find it gets harder to detect in people who present for testing in late life who have built up lots of coping strategies over their lifetime? Especially females?

[u/DoctorStarbuck → u/PsyCurious007]

Yes, most definitely. Sure there are exceptions, but usually adults have created their coping mechanisms which can mask very successfully their symptoms.

I'll copy and paste part of an answer I gave here to another person:

"One of the things I teach my patients is that you should not have to had the necessity to create a system to deal with that. For example, you shouldn't have had the necessity to use Siri/Post-it/Alarm Clock to remember almost every appointment you have, bills to pay and more. You shouldn't have had the necessity to create a system to deal with your lack of interest in small talk(or talk in general), or to look people in the eye.

These systems we create is a sign that we do have a deficit in that area that is so constant or impactful in your life, that you HAD to do something to change your way of dealing with it or your way of act, your way of being yourself, to fit in in the expectations of society, and not because that was unpleasant for you, but because it was unpleasant for others, cos you weren't acting normal, you weren't actin neurotypically."

And that helps me a lot, cos when they understand it, and I ask them to do it, they start telling me things like "Now it doesn't happen anymore, but in the past it used to always happen, but I have created a method...", and that is a huge sign. Cos in the person's understanding, maybe(or for sure) everyone has that difficulty, so they must find a way to make it work "like everyone else", and when they see that it's not everyone else struggling with that, that's their symptoms making things hard, they usually start questioning everything in their way of functioning.

Children didn't have that much time to create systems, therefore It's easier in that sense. But since I, personally, prefer to have teenagers and adult clients, I find children challenging, but that's a personal preference.