r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 30 '25

Neuroscience 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.

https://newatlas.com/adhd-autism/autism-motion-detection-diagnosis/
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u/birdieponderinglife Jan 30 '25

My statistics professor loved to square dance. He also wrote manuals for every single calculator you could possibly use for that specific course. He included step by step guidance for carrying out the calculations for at least 10 different calculators. He was honestly, the best math professor I ever had because he explained things well and worked out problems in a very consistent way. I took him for trig as well. He made manuals for that course too (he did it for allllll of the subjects he taught). I could definitely see him being on the spectrum.

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u/the_mattador Jan 30 '25

He also wrote manuals for every single calculator you could possibly use for that specific course.

I could definitely see him being on the spectrum.

Could you honestly see him not being on the spectrum?

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u/birdieponderinglife Jan 30 '25

At the time there was almost no public discourse about neurodiversity and while I definitely thought his instruction style wasn’t typical I hadn’t reflected on the possibility of ND for him since we didn’t even really have that word for it. The mention of square dancing unlocked it for me though. Definitely his special interest.

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u/Expensive-View-8586 Jan 31 '25

It’s a dance where they yell out what you are supposed to do next. No interpreting or implication. It makes perfect sense to me why people with asd might enjoy it.