NIH-Funded Study to Assess Telehealth Use in Predicting Autism

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has granted California-based researchers a five-year, $3.2 million grant to study whether the likelihood of an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis among infants can be assessed effectively via telehealth.  

Meagan Talbott, PhD, a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a faculty member of the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), will lead a national study supported by the grant.

A news release notes that it is challenging to answer caregivers’ questions about children displaying differences in development.

“Right now, we don’t have very good tools to tell us whether these differences might be related to autism, developmental delays or are likely to resolve on their own,” Talbot said in the news release. “This means that many families are told to ‘wait and see.’”

The study will enroll 120 infants between the ages of 6- and 12-months showing signs of delays or differences in their development. Talbot and her team will conduct four hour-long telehealth sessions with each family over a year. They will perform additional assessments when the child is 3 years old.

The four sessions will involve various activities like playing with toys, peek-a-boo, bubbles, and reading books. Researchers will also ask parents and caregivers questions about the child’s development. The final session will involve activities geared to the toddler’s age and questions about life skills like getting dressed and eating independently.

“We hope that by closely following many infants with these kinds of early concerns or questions we can help identify when early behavioral differences indicate that a child may be more or less likely to have certain outcomes. This will help us develop better supports for families during this early period before they may have received a specific formal diagnosis,” Talbott said.

Families participating in the study will receive a kit of toys and other materials. They can also request iPads if needed.

Talbot and her team will provide written reports summarizing each telehealth visit. The families will receive $50 for each infant visit and $100 for the final toddler visit. After each session, they will ask for feedback to note the kinds of support parents prefer for the telehealth sessions and caregiver satisfaction with the study.

A potential challenge with the study is that parents and caregivers may be unsure if their child is showing signs of developmental delays. Thus, the research team plans to include families with specific questions as well as those who are not sure. Study participants will complete a developmental screening, and families can share that information with their child’s healthcare provider.

“Unfortunately, we still know very little about the outcomes of infants who have early behavioral differences,” Talbot said. “Telehealth offers the opportunity to reach more families with early questions or concerns, so that we can learn more about when these early developmental differences are likely to resolve and when they indicate a child is more likely to be on the autism spectrum.”

About one in 36 children had autism spectrum disorder in 2020, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. This figure is up from one in 44 children in 2018.

Increasingly, virtual care and mHealth strategies are being used to support autism spectrum disorder diagnoses.

In September, researchers from the Marcus Autism Center, a Children's Healthcare of Atlanta subsidiary, announced the development of a biomarker-based, eye-tracking diagnostic tool to help diagnose the disorder.

The tool is a portable tablet that monitors children’s "looking behavior" while they watch videos of social interaction. Clinicians review the data the device collects to provide a diagnosis and measures of the child's abilities.