A groundbreaking movement-tracking video game tool could soon enable medical professionals to diagnose children with autism more effectively. This innovative technology demonstrates an impressive success rate of 80% in distinguishing autistic children from their neurotypical counterparts.

The game also shows promise in differentiating children diagnosed with autism from those suffering from ADHD, achieving an accuracy rate of 70%—a crucial feature since these conditions often overlap.

This tool, named the Computerized Assessment of Motor Imitation (CAMI), involves a 1-minute gameplay session where children mimic the dynamic, dance-like movements of an on-screen character. To evaluate their performance, two cameras—one positioned in front and another behind—capture the child’s movements, allowing the CAMI system to compute an imitation score.

The scores range from zero, indicating no imitation, to one, which represents perfect mimicry as performed by a trained researcher imitating the digital avatar.

Traditional views of autism predominantly highlight difficulties in social communication. However, recent studies indicate that sensory-motor challenges significantly contribute to the condition and might underlie certain communication barriers.

Many autistic children face difficulties in imitating the movements and expressions that are essential components of human communication, particularly conveyed through body language.

According to researcher Bahar Tunçgenç from Nottingham Trent University, “CAMI addresses these sensory-motor challenges, revealing that they are not present in children with ADHD.”

The study involved 183 children aged 7 to 13, including 21 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 35 with ADHD, 63 with both ASD and ADHD, and 65 who were neurotypical, lacking either diagnosis.

Children underwent evaluations for autism and ADHD symptoms using standard diagnostic methods, in addition to their CAMI scores based on gameplay performance.

A strong link was identified among autistic children, indicating that those with lower CAMI scores exhibited more pronounced symptoms, particularly in social affect as well as restricted and repetitive behaviors.

Conversely, their lower CAMI scores did not correlate with ADHD traits or motor skills. In comparison, neurotypical children showed a strong relationship between CAMI scores and levels of inattention and motor skills.

Interestingly, the ADHD group scored higher on CAMI than the children with both ASD and ADHD, although there was no significant difference when compared to the ASD-only group. This suggests that further refinement may be needed for the system before it can be confidently utilized for diagnostic purposes.

“The excitement surrounding CAMI lies in its simplicity,” Tunçgenç explains. “With the popularity of video games, this tool is enjoyable for kids and provides swift results that are straightforward for healthcare professionals to interpret. My aspiration is for CAMI to eventually be incorporated into clinical practice worldwide.”

This research was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.