Assessing the early characteristics of autistic disorder using video analysis.

The team watched old home videos of babies who were later diagnosed with autism.

They looked for four simple actions: interest in other kids, eye contact, getting ready to be picked up, and showing toys to share.

Videos came from before age two, so the babies had no diagnosis yet.

Babies who later got an autism label showed all four signs less often.

They looked away more, rarely lifted their arms to be held, and almost never held up toys to show.

These tiny moves told the groups apart better than parent memory alone.

Clifford et al. (2009) asked the same families to fill out forms years later. Parent answers matched the video codes, giving you two cheap screens instead of one.

Papageorgopoulou et al. (2024) filmed live play at eight and fourteen months. They also saw waning baby eye contact, but they caught the drop in real time. The 2007 clips prove the drop was already on tape even earlier.

Katz et al. (2003) showed parents can recall odd movements. The new data say home movies catch the same signs before parents feel worried, so you can start watches sooner.

You can teach families to film short living-room clips at birthday parties or play dates. Pause the video and tally the four moves: peer gaze, arms up, show-and-give, and look-aways. If you see few of the first three and many of the last one, flag the child for a fuller screen and share the clip with the diagnosing team. No extra gear, no extra stress.